Legend has it that in 415 BC., Alcibiades, an Athenian military and politician, held a party for some friends of his, during which he gave them a strange, dark liquid to drink.A few moments later, his guests began to feel strange sensations: fear, trembling and a type of stupor and lethargy along with strange mystical visions.The next morning, when the effects had worn off, his rivals learned what had happened and he was forced to leave Athens.
Alcibiades was tried in absentia for a crime punishable by death: he had stolen the “kykeon”, a sacred elixir that was only used during a special event: the Eleusinian Mysteries.During this initiation ritual, participants drank kykeon, a liquid that induced an altered state of consciousness and led to a type of “divine inspiration”.
This is only a legendary tale but it brings to light a mechanism that habitually repeats itself as far back as we can trace.At the centre of this story we have Prometheus, the first rebel who stole the fire of the Gods to give it to man, and he was punished by Zeus for all eternity.
The story that repeats is this: a rebel learns a divine secret and shares it with the world.This leads to a profound change, the situation quickly gets out of hand, and the “keepers of law and order” shut down the festivities.Until the next cycle. This book tells the story of the latest round in this cycle, perhaps the first in history where we have the potential to change the ending.
