Peyote: The Divine Cactus. - book reviews

Called "the diabolical root" by the early Spanish friars, peyote has been an important part of New World religion for thousands of years. Peyote was also the first of the New World hallucinogens to be investigated botanically and chemically by Western scientists.

Peyote is the best single book on the subject. Edward Anderson traces peyote's late nineteenth century diffusion north from Mexico into the United States, the evolution of the Native American Church, the botany, chemistry, and pharmacology of the Lophophora genus, and even provides a very up-to-date summary of peyote's present legal status. There are other books that go into each of these areas in more detail, but this is the most comprehensive by far, as well as the most readable. Enough said.

"Peyote holds a profound place in the cultures of Native Americans. As Albert Hensley, the great Winnebago peyote leader and missionary, so clearly stated: "Our favorite term [for pevote] is `Medicine,' and to us it is a portion of the body of Christ, even as the communion bread is believed to be a portion of Christ's body by other Christian denominations. It came from God. It is a part of God's body. God's Holy Spirit enveloped it. It was given exclusively to Indians and God never intended that White men should understand it, hence the folly of any such attempt."

COPYRIGHT 1997 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group