In 8th grade , two New Jersey kids became Gene and Dean Ween , the bandmates and fictitious sib that make up the band Ween . They did so at the management of The Boognish , the Supreme Being that created Dean and Gene to make rascality on his behalf ( and who the duad create ) . In return for their service , The Boognish consecrate Gene and Dean wealthiness and power and made stone deity out of them [ sources : Musician Guide , Bruss ] .
Although The Boognish is a relatively recent creation as far as deities go – he appeared in the mid-1980s – he is n’t the only god to instruct his followers to company in his ( or her ) name . The combinedpantheonof gods that figure in cultures across space and time include immortal who commune with their followers throughhallucinogens , sexand alcohol . In some cases , the god themselves enjoy share .
What follows are 10 deities who encourage their followers to worship them under the influence – or at least have followers who ’ve managed to marry their god with their habit .
10: Maximon, Mayan God
Maximon is what learner call asyncretized divinity ; he ’s an autochthonic Mayan god blend with a Catholic paragon . In the typesetter’s case of Maximon , or the Man at the Crossroads ( often considered Satan in other tradition and the same being who allegedly dedicate blues guitarist Robert Johnson his talent ) was reflected by the Catholic saint Simon .
Maximon spends his time in the habitation of a extremity of the Brotherhood of the Cross , who venerates the deity . He is passed from one home to another per annum , and on March 21 , he is venerate with his own 24-hour interval during the Holy Week in Guatemala [ author : Mendoza ] .
Maximon is consider a deity of vice ; he ease his followers ' vices by accepting them as his own . Pilgrims see the deity ’s icon – a three - foot ( 0.91 - metre ) wooden simulacrum of a military personnel dressed in bright scarf and clothing , a hat and a cigar – bring him offerings ofcigarettes , alcoholand symbols of other vices , which are given to him , poured into his mouth and smoked by him . As a solution , the congregation ’s vices shrivel up and are lost .
9: Egyptian Goddess Bast
Bast , the felid - headed computerized tomography goddess , is a major figure in the ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods . Like many other deities in other religions , she was dichotomous in nature . In one role , Bast served as a protector for her followers ; in another , she destroyed psyche that failed any test command to fall through the underworld after death .
The goddess was allegedly the recipient of the Morning Ritual , a observance that required the burning ofmarijuanaor hashish , along with other herb and incense like myrrh . With the incense burning , her followers , mostly woman , meshed insex , the premise being that distaff flood tide produced dear wellness [ rootage : This Side of saneness ] . While this caption remain , it remains controversial and disputed , and may actually be free-base on more recent lore [ source : Cass ] .
That said , Bast ’s followers were known to party . The Grecian historian Herodotus write of pilgrims on their way to the annual celebration for the goddess hold up at her synagogue at Bubastis . Drunken followers assembled by the one C of thousands during the solemnisation , drinking wine-colored and dancing [ reservoir : Seawright ] .
8: Soma, Hindu God of Poets
Soma , an ancient Hindu god , is many thing . He is the afterworld , themoon , inspiration and the god of poet and a bull . Not only does he bask drugs , he is a particular drug : the build plant life , known more commonly as ephedra vulgaris . For millennia , Hindu warriors have drunk a concoction derived from the form works . This crapulence was said to give them a sense of euphory and ecstasy and help warrior get over the fear oranxietyof an upcoming battle . As a drug , the god Soma symbolize a link between the public of the gods and this world [ source : Naylor ] .
It is the wasting disease and refilling of this confection that account for the waxing and waning of the moon in ancient Hindu tradition . As the crapulence is drunk by other gods , the Sun Myung Moon wanes ; it is refilled once more and thus waxes .
In 1887 , a chemist advert Sedalano became the first to isolate the combat-ready factor in the soma plant , amphetamine [ reservoir : Freye and Levy ] .
7: Mok Chi, Mayan Death God
Mok Chi is an ancient Mayan god who accepts blood forfeit from his living worshippers . He is generally picture in the Mayan affectation for death , recline on his back , with his abdomen grossly distended . scholar of Mayan culture consider that this distended stomach be the accumulation of natural gas that are generate within a die person or a decomposing corpse . It is also – contrary to the breather of life – have sex as the " flowery exhalation " [ source : Fitzsimmons ] .
During ritual sacrifice to Mok Chi , Mayan priest were very drunk . The conception behind drunkenness during these rites was that such a state open a groove of perception between the gods and the non-Christian priest . Such a channel allowed for the non-Christian priest to better carry out the gods ' homicidal wishes . Balché , a type of George Herbert Mead made from beloved and tree barque , served as the mainalcoholicspirit used by the Maya .
Mayan non-Christian priest were also under the influence of hallucinogens like peyote , idle tobacco , toad toxin , datura and a number of other psychedelic plants during these ritual . These drugs were ingested , fume or in many cases , administered anally through an clyster [ source : Authentic Maya ] .
6: Bheruji, Indian Folk Deity
Bheruji is what you might call a local immortal . He is a protector of remote Village located in the Indian state of Rajasthan , which shares a moulding with Pakistan . When a new year dawns , stone statues of Bheruji are carried around the villages he protect in Nox procession designed to maintain his lookout man over them for the next year .
In some villages where Bheruji serve as a protector god , a day-after-day ritual is contain in his pureness . villager will make their way to thethanak(shrine ) each afternoon to attend the rite perform by thebhopa , a group that formerly serve as majestic court entertainment , but has been drive toward the fringe of modern fellowship and who service as poet-singer priests of sort .
During the casual ritual to Bheruji , the bhopa embark the trancelike land ofbhav , essentially possession by a spirit or force , by ingesting opium . The opium may either be eat crude or intoxicated in a water solution calledkasumba . The bhopa may also pass out opium for following to take during the ceremony as well [ source : Kumar ] . Once the opium takes effect and bhav has been achieved , the bhopa allot divine prophecies and assurance from Bheruji about the following ' future .
5: Dionysus, Greek God of Pleasure
The Grecian god Dionysus , or Bacchus , was a boy of Zeus and the god of the vine . He drop a good deal of time tramp around the Middle East and the Mediterranean battling with some person , teach others to crop and worship the gods . In all caseful , however , he go with a political party entourage of woman , satyrs(half gentleman , half laughingstock ) and his supporter Pan , the god of shepherd and tidy sum , as they held fete ofwineand revel .
The party that Dionysus throw wherever he traveled ( and which his worshippers continued long after his last ) , never run out to pull in women live nearby . feast and eternal wine-colored lead to bacchanalia and unrestrained partying .
The idea was that Dionysus was capable of bringing human into a state of ecstasy , and subsequently his adoration provided the same . While it appear unmated , or at the very least fun , compared to worship of other gods across the pantheons , the revelers ' drunken and orgiastic worship of Dionysus followed the same structure that other adoration does . By partaking in the god ’s gifts to his followers , the Dionysiancultsreceived a snatch of his immortality by proxy [ source : Willoughby ] .
4: Ninkasi, Sumerian Goddess of Beer
Anthropologists consider that humans stumbled uponalcoholic beveragesby accident ; perhaps a piece of fruit had ferment when it was eat or a flake of grain had develop soggy and begun farm alcohol-dependent cabbage . By some unbelievable stroke , we slip up upon hard drink and even more astonishing , we figure out how to make our own .
As far as the Sumerian civilisation was pertain , they had assist in the form of divine guidance from Ninkasi , the goddess ofbeer . The Sumerians were n’t necessarily the first to make beer – 9,000 - class - erstwhile fragment of pottery from China show traces of it – but the Sumerians were among the Mesopotamian groups to formulate a system of writing and one of the thing they write was a anthem to Ninkasi . This 3,800 - year - quondam anthem , an ode to the goddess ' gift , includes a recipe for arrive at beer woven in its prose [ source : Civil ] .
Ninkasi also used her talents for the other gods , serving as top dog brewer to the Sumerian pantheon .
3: Shiva, the Many-armed Hindu Destroyer God
Although having blue skin , more than one pair of arms and a bent for dancing on corpses while surround by fire , Shiva as a conception is n’t necessarily all that terrible . In much of Hindu tradition , he fancy as the sovereign being in the pantheon of idol , the guided missile destroyer who takes us from this aliveness to the next – and all the ace that espouse .
Shiva is also associated with themarijuanaplant . In fact , he is considered to be a rooter of the inebriant . As a result , his devotees like to fume a mickle of heap and hash on Shiva ’s holy days . In Nepal , Shiva is honored in such a elbow room on Mahashivaratri , Shiva ’s large festival . At the large temple in the majuscule city of Kathmandu , pilgrims assemble to respect Shiva that night and there ’s plenty of masses selling marijuana and hashish on manus to accommodate the followers . Although westerner reckon it a drug , the Nepalese consider spate a sacrament , or Prasad ( holyfood ) . On that one day , one can possess and comsume the drug legally [ source : Karki ] . potful sales are prohibited outside of the temple , although its utilization delight security by law within the temple [ source : Asia News ] .
2: Haile Selassie I, African Savior
While his dominion is approached with ambivalence by zillion of Ethiopians , Emperor Haile Selassie I , who ruled the country from 1930 to 1974 , is study by some followers as the second coming of the Messiah . His given name , Ras Tafari , may ring a campana .
The religion was more pronounced in Jamaica , which following think their capture temporary land . Although his spirit was frequently channel by his followers through their use ofmarijuana , it ’s not unmortgaged that Selassie ever used the drug and he was known to abstain from drinking throughout his lifespan [ author : Cardillo ] .
1: The Deer-Person, Huichol Creator God
The Huichol multitude of Northern Mexico may have given rise to the use of the hallucinogenicpeyote cactusas a sacrament . Caves where the hoi polloi lived as long ago as 5000 B.C. have been found to contain peyote button from that era .
The Huichol believe that their creator god , the Deer - Person , sacrificed himself and became earthbound in the contour of mezcal . By ingesting the cactus , which is thought to be the gist , someone and memory of the creator , they can come to know his wisdom . The tradition of eat the heart of the Deer - Person creator comes after a hunt hostile expedition is mounted and the mezcal is shot with arrows and think felled .
After the Spanish came to the Americas and come across Lophophora williamsii use , the practice was outlawed and practitioners were tortured and obliterate . It was n’t until 1918 that peyotists descend from the Huichol and other tribes formed the officially recognized Native American Church and came to enjoy trade protection of their spiritual feeling [ source : Fikes ] .
