culture and antedating by two millennia the murals of Teoti- 

 huacan, yet accompanied also by a 'disembodied eye'. We now 

 know that the Greek culture practiced religious rites based on 

 ingestion of entheogenic potions (5-7), and it is not unreason- 

 able to assume that earlier cultures, such as the Minoans and 

 Mycenaeans, had similar rituals. Does not the Minoan ring from 

 Crete depict an entheogenic vision of the goddess and her 

 devotees in their mythological forms, as human/ bee chimeras? It 

 is significant that the goddess on the ring is surrounded by 

 plants, presumably the source of the entheogenic potion. 



The carvings of 'disembodied eyes' in the Palace of Quetzal- 

 papalotl echo a motif common in murals found throughout the 

 ruins of Teotihuacan. What can the 'disembodied eyes' repre- 

 sent, other than the visionary eye of the seer under the influence 

 of one or other of the well-known pre-Columbian entheogens? 

 Indeed, the image of the 'disembodied eye' suggested itself to one 

 of us (R.G.W.) as a natural metaphor for the state produced by 

 ingestion of entheogenic mushrooms. Written more than 25 

 years ago, in 1957 (8), long before the appearance of Miller's 

 book and without his having seen the 'disembodied eyes' of the 

 murals or columns, R.G.W.'s words are apposite: 



There I was, poised in space, a disembodied eye, 

 invisible, incorporeal, seeing but not seen. 



REFERENCES 



1. Miller, A. G. The Mural Painting of Teotihuacan. Dumbarton Oaks, 

 Washington, D.C., 1973. 



2. Wasson, R. G. 77?^^ Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica. 



McGraw-Hill, New York, 1980. 



3. Gimbutas, M. The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe. University of 

 California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974. 



4. Ransome, H. M. The Sacred Bee. Houghton Mifflin, Boston and New 

 York, 1937. 



5. Wasson, R. G., A. Hofmann and C. A. P. Ruck. Tlie Road to Eleusis: 

 Unveihng the Secret of the Mysteries. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New 



York, 1978. 



6. Ruck, C. A. P. Mushrooms and Philosophers. Journal of Ethno- 



pharmacology. 4: 179 205, 1981. 

 7. The Wild and the Cultivated: Wine in Euripides' Bacchae. 



Journal of Ethnopharniacology 5: 231-270, 1982. 

 8. Wasson, R. G. Seeking the Magic Mushroom. Life Magazine 19 May 



1957, p. 109. 



392 



