Kukeon at Eleusis  

For nearly two millennia, the foundations of Western civilization in Greece were baptized in and inspired by an entheogenic elixir called the Kukeon. And yet now hardly anyone knows about it.  

Aristotle once said initiates came to the temple at Eleusis, north of Athens, not to learn something but to experience something. From about 1500 BC until AD 392, when the annual festivities were abruptly outlawed by the Roman Emperor Theodosius, a die-hard Christian. Plato described it as the "blessed sight and vision" he witnessed "in a state of perfection" -- the climax of his initiation into "the holiest of Mysteries." 

The elixir was called the kukeon and each pilgrim earned the honorary title epoptes, which means something like "the one who has seen it all." Without doubt, they claimed death was not the end of our human journey. Marcus Aurelius rebuilt the temple in second century AD after the barbarian Kostovoks nearly destroyed it in AD 170. The rebuilt temple has forty-two columns that once supported a 52 x 52 square meter sanctuary.

What exactly happened to initiates upon drinking the Kukeon? Are there substances still on the Earth that provide the same experience as the one hallowed at Eleusis? The holiest of Mysteries is still available to those who know the way and are humble and grateful enough to approach the experience as the sacred portal it is.