Stewart Allen

Stewart Allen is a writer based in NY, NY. His published nonfiction books include The Devil’s Cup and In the Devil’s Garden, both of which deal with international foodways and religious plants. He is currently working on a novel that explores similar topics.

This is a chapter from a book titled “The Land of Nod” which recounts an overland journey from Kamchatka, Russia, to southern India via Iran, Siberia, China, looking at entheogenic manifestation of/related to the Judaic Tree of Knowledge mythos, visiting with Siberian shamans, Zoroastrian priests and religious cannibals of Varanasi. It is non-fiction, but has since formed the basis for the novel I am currently working on titled “The Tree of Light” (it makes for a better self-contained excerpt).

At this point, chapter four, I have arrived on Sakhalin Island after a horseback expedition to visit a shaman (Vetchet) near the Arctic Circle in Kamchatka who uses the mukhomor mushroom in his rituals.