THE USE OF DMT IN EARLY MASONIC RITUAL

P.D. Newman
Tupelo Lodge No. 318
Q. What qualifies a Man for the Seventh Order [of Masonry]? A. ...the
Composition of the Grand Elixir. (Post Boy Expos, 1723)1
As outlandish as it may sound, allusions to the entheogenic properties of the
acacia are commonplace in Masonic literature and various rituals. For, it
would appear that the psychoactive nature of acacia was fairly widely known
in certain Masonic circles at least up until the late 1700s. However, some
time between the mid to late 18th century and the 19th century occult
revival, the secrets of acacia, like the true word of a Master Mason, appear
to have been lost. It is only now that the true significance of the symbol is
stepping back into the light.
In their daring book Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras, authors Ruck, Hoffman,
and Celdrn made a bold attempt to interpret the founding myth of
Freemasonry in an entheobotanical context, seeing in the allegory of Grand
Master Hiram Abiffs Raising a possible allusion to a ritualized harvest of
acacia root.
"[T]he murdered body of Hiram Abiff, a Master Mason and Master of Works
on Solomons Temple, was 'raised' from his resting place beneath an acacia
sprig which marked the spot to those who would be sent by King Solomon
to search. After the interred corpse of Hiram was found, Solomon himself
went to the site to recover the body. Feeling beneath the ground at the site of
the acacia, the king felt Hirams 'hand.' In the process of recovering his
corpse, he first used the grip of the Entered Apprentice, then that of the
Fellowcraft, but twice felt the skin slipping off Hirams hand. Finally
Solomon used the grip of the Master Mason to raise the corpse. In the
entheobotanical context, we feel that this myth is a description of a ritualized
acacia harvest. We note that the subterranean root bark of acacia and mimosa
species are known to contain high levels of Dimethyltryptamine, an
entheogen which is strongly psychoactive when extracted and inhaled, and
which is easily combined with other sacred entheogenic plants, and
consumed as a potion."2
Such an application of the Hiramic allegory, while indeed startling to many,
actually illuminates perhaps one of the most bizarre references to the acacia

in the history of Freemasonry. In the Apprentice and Companion rituals of

Count Cagliostros Egyptian Rite, the acacia is puzzlingly referred to as
being the first matter in a particular and curious Alchemical operation. When
properly executed, this operation results allegedly in the production of a
cubical ashlar; that is, the result is a purified, crystalline stone or salt that
has been extracted, or, to use Alchemical terminology, produced, from the
acacia tree: a veritable vegetable stone.
"'[T]he acacia is the primal matter and the rough ashlar is the mercurial part.
When this rough ashlar or mercurial part has been purified, it becomes
cubical ...It is thus that you may bring about the consummation of the
marriage of the Sun and the Moon, and that you shall obtain...the perfect
[astral?] projection. Quantum sufficit, et quantum appetite [as much as you
need and as much as you have appetite for].'3
"[T]he candidate...shall drink [the red liqueur placed upon the Masters
altar], raising his spirit in order to understand the following speech which
the Worshipful Master shall address to him at the same time.
"'My child, you are receiving the primal matter, understand the blindness and
the dejection of your first condition. Then you did not know yourself,
everything was darkness within you and without. Now that you have taken a
few steps in the knowledge of yourself, learn that the Great God created
before man this primal matter and that he then created man to possess it and
be immortal. Man abused it and lost it, but it still exists in the hands of the
Elect of God and from a single grain of this precious matter becomes a
projection into infinity. [italics mine]
"The acacia which has been given to you at the degree of Master of ordinary
Masonry is nothing but that precious matter. And [Hirams] assassination is
the loss of the liquid which you have just received ...it is this knowledge
that, assisted by the Great God, shall bring you these riches.'"4
If not for its DMT content, we cannot conceive of any reason why
Cagliostro would have his initiates literally drink an ayahuasca-like
concoction of acacia, especially when considering the fact that the libation
was expected to "raise" the candidate's "spirit" so that he might "understand"
Cagliostro's corresponding lecture. Nor is it conceivable in any other than an
entheogenic context how a "single grain" of Cagliostro's extract of acacia
might become "a projection into infinity." In the author's estimation, this was

clearly no symbolic ritual act.

Granted there is no mention in the Master Mason degree of MAOIs, the
sister ingredient to DMT in the ayahuasca brew. There is, however, a
prominent refernece to Moses' burning bush in the Royal Arch degree, which
some Masons view as the completion to that of the Master.
In the Naqshbandi tradition of Sufism the burning bush is identified as
Peganum harmala5, an MAOI-containing bush with a long history of
sacramental use in the Middle East which, as Benny Shanon speculates in
his paper Biblical Entheogens, could have been combined with the local
DMT-containing species of acacia to produce a libation virtually
indistinguishable from ayahuasca. According to tradition, the prophet
Mohammed was even using the seeds when he received the Quran from the
archangel Gabriel.
The Naqshbandi Sufis identify P. harmala (also known as Syrian Rue) as the
burning bush of Moses for two important reasons. Firstly, the seeds of the
bush are burned on coals in a common Islamic ritual known as Aspand,
which is designed to twart the dreaded Evil Eye. Secondly, when it was
revealed to King Naqshband by Allah's messenger, lighting over the
harmala bush were seven angels in the form of as many flames. As it says in
the Quran, every root, every leaf of harmel, is watched over by an angel
who waits for a person to come in search of healing.6 Not unlike Moses'
experience, for Naqshband the P. harmala bush burned but was not
consumed.
P. harmala is currently employed along with a species of acacia by the
Fatimiya Sufi order, where ayahuasca plays a central role in their techniques
of ecstasy. According to N. Wahid Azal, the founder of the Fatimiya Sufi
order,
"[Syrian] Rue has an old and central role in the Mazdean religion of ancient
Iran and continues to do so to this very day amongst Iranian Shi'ites, be they
Twelver, Isma'ili or Sufi. The Zoroastrians properly consider it to be the
most sacred of their herbs, which they constantly burn in their prayer halls,
and in Persian it is known as Esfand [Aspand]... Esfand is a shortened
version of the Pahlavi form of the name Esfandmorz who is the Avestan
Spendarmat or Spenta Armaiti, (trans. 'Holy' or 'Beneficient Devotion'),
namely, the Zoroastrian Archangel of the Earth who is one of the six Amesha

Spenta (trans. Bounteous Immortals) or archangelic hypostases of the

Godhead Ahura Mazda/Ohrmazd."7
The six "Amesha Spenta" of course play a central role in the degree of
Master of the Royal Secret, the thirty-second degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite.
Attempts to align the origins of Freemasonry with Sufism have been made
by a number Masonic researchers, chief among them being hashish
enthusaist and member of the cannabis club Le Club des Haschischinns,
Grard de Nerval. In his tome Voyage to the Orient, de Nerval offered a
prequel to the story of Masonic hero Hiram Abif, claiming to have overheard
the "folk-tale" while smoking hashish in a coffe house in Constantinople. Sir
Richard Burton, also an enthusaist of hashish, too wrote that Sufi-ism [is]
the Eastern parent of Freemasonry.8
We have shown that Cagliostro was familiar with the entheogenic properties
of the acacia. Let us now turn to the Masonic rite developed by his close
friend and supporter Pyotr Ivanovich Melissino, where the properties of
acacia are treated of much more blatantly. Arturo de Hoyos, the Grand
Historian and Grand Archivist of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite, must be credited with the discovery of the
following excerpt and its true significance:
"The cubical stone is the alkaline Universal-salt, which dissolves all metals
and precious stones, because this salt is the mother, the origin, and the
magnet of all of them. The Master Degree speaks to us of the acacia found
upon Hiram's grave. This is the true matter, from which the philosophers
create their treasures. It is the true light of the world, from which glorious
Hiram shall rise again under the guise of the Redeemer. It is the burning coal
of which Isaiah (in chap. 6:6-7) and Ezekiel (in chap. 10:2) speak, and which
must be prepared in accordance with the secret system of the wise men of
old and the philosophers. ...One of our most mysterious materials is
therefore the burning coal, which the Egyptian Cabbala names clearly and
without fuss."9
What other than DMT could the "treasures" created from acacia have been?
Again, the implication is explicit. The scriptural allusions in the above
excerpt refer to a biblical episode wherein a burning coal of an unspecified
substance is placed upon Isaiah's lips by an angel, assumedly for him to

inhale its fumes; that is, for him to smoke it. "Lo," said the angel, "this
[burning coal] hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and
thy sin is purged."10 It is notable that acacia literally means freedom from
sin. One wonders how far back this tradition actually goes.
It is notable that Melissino, while allegedly a strong supporter and close
friend of Cagliostro, was not only himself a practicing chemist, but his rite
actually preceded that of Cagliostro by over a decade. It is therefore
probable that Melissino is responsible for exposing Cagliostro to the
substance and not the other way around. On the other hand, both Melissino
and Cagliostro were initiates of the Rite of Strict Observance, which
contains its own potential allusions to the psychoactive properties of acacia.
See, for example, the following excerpt from the Oration from the Reception
of a Master Mason:
"As those who sought the [philosopher's?] stone wanted to climb, in order to
retrieve it, one grasped a hold of the green sprig or [Acacia] branch, which
pulled out of the ground, when they observed that it had no roots. This made
them think that this branch must signify something"11 [italics mine]
Note that DMT is found primarily in the roots of the acacia. This branch
must have signified something indeed.
Whatever the case, it is quite apparent that both Cagliostro and Melissino
knew something very special about the acacia. Furthermore, Melissino was
not the only Russian mystic to have preoccupied himself with treasures
extracted from a tree. According to G.I. Gurdjieff's biographer James Webb,
the founder of the Fourth Way once claimed cryptically that "only three
drugs from the whole Western pharmacopeia were useful -- opium, castor oil
and an unidentified substance extracted from a certain tree."12 [italics mine]
As it was claimed by Gurdjieff's successor P.D. Ouspensky that his guru's
teachings were derived in part from Russian Freemasonry, it is not
impossible that Gurdjieff's "unidentified substance" and "certain tree" are
none other than DMT and Acacia confusa or nilotica, respectively, and that
he learned of the secret from a fellow Russian who was knowledgeable not
only of Melissino and his rite but also of chemistry. One can only speculate.
Still, perhaps it is to Mysteries such as this which the following excerpt from
Mackeys Encyclopdia of Freemasonry refers:
"It is admitted that the texts and nomenclature of Medieval materials on

[Hermetism]...were cryptic and queer; but for that there are several
explanations for the need for secrecy, the mixture of languages owing to the
many living and dead languages of the sources used, ...[and] the need to
keep laymen from endangering themselves with drugs they could not
understand..."13 [italics mine]
END NOTES
1. Morris, The Post Boy Exposure Sham
2. p. 225
3. Faulks, p. 214
4. p. 225
5. private communication from practicing Naqshbandi Sufi Amir Soofi
6. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, p. 426
7. http://realitysandwich.com/ (The Fatimiya Sufi Order and Ayahuasca)
8. Bennett, Cannabis: the Philosopher's Stone
9. Collectanea Vol. XXIII pt. 1
10. Isaiah 6:7 (KJV)
11. Collectanea Vol. XXI pt. 1
12. Webb, The Harmonious Circle
13. See the entry under Ordinall of Alchimy
REFERENCES
Bennett, Chris Cannabis: the Philosopher's Stone
De Hoyos, Arturo Collectanea Vol. XXI pt. 1
De Hoyos, Arturo Collectanea Vol. XXIII pt. 1
De Nerval, Grard Voyage to the Orient
Faulks, Philippa The Masonic Magician: the Life and Death of Count
Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite
http://realitysandwich.com/ (The Fatimiya Sufi Order and Ayahuasca)
Mackey, Albert Encyclopdia of Freemasonry
Morris, Brent The Post Boy Exposure Sham
Ratsch, Christian The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants
Ruck, Carl Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras
Shanon, Benny Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative Hypothesis
The Holy Bible, KJV
Webb, James The Harmonious Circle