It is the moment when the sacred has entered into the mundane world. Pray earnestly for the good bruggieman to come.Īll parts of the fermentation process were attended to with prayer and reverence in every ancient culture that made use of it, but the moment when the bruggieman enters, when the yeasts begin to work, when your brew bubbles and comes alive, is considered most supremely important. Visualize the life force, that primordial power of life that will be nourishing you with this drink. Place your attention and intention on what you are doing and visualize the unique chemical transformation that is taking place between the water and honey, the vitamins, minerals, natural sugars, yeasts, carbon dioxide, alcohol, and the unseen, immeasurable qualities, that will all be churning and bubbling in that jar.
Stir the two together well, and cover loosely. The addition of pure, unheated honey to warm water does amazing things. The simplest, most ancient, and perhaps most elegant of the fermented drinks I have made or tasted is honey mead. You can safely and easily make your own fermented drinks at home. The ancient ones tell us that a change of human consciousness is linked to the use of magical and intoxicating plants, and the fermentations made from them. They say that fermented drinks were consumed to attain non-ordinary states of consciousness, to communicate with ancestral spirits, as nutrient rich food-stuff, to celebrate seasonal turnings and important community events, enhance creativity, and for healing. Many ancient stories speak of the connection between sacred inebriation and the creation of poetry, music, healing and art. They say that fermented beverages contain a life spark of the sacred realms from which they come, and hold some magical substance, a spirit, that can awaken dormant capacities within us. It was offered by the gods to bring us joy, ease our suffering, and relieve our anxiety over our mortality.Īncient legends from many cultures say that humans were taught the art of fermentation by sacred beings. These beverages were traditionally brewed by women, because the art of fermentation, the ancients say, was given to women to hold for the benefit of all. Stephen Harrod Buhner tells us in his book, Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers, over 200 different plants, 20 different kinds of yeasts, and 15 different sugar sources combined in various ways to make thousands of different fermented drinks. Australia and isolated parts of North America appear to be the only places on earth where fermented drink was unknown. Some of these brews were quite intoxicating, aphrodisiac or psychotropic and most contained medicinal herbs. These fermented beverages were distinctive to each individual culture, place, time, and value system, and were usually consumed as part of communal ceremonies in honor of the sacred. Throughout Old Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas, early people were making and consuming fermented drinks with an amazing variety of plant substances that were indigenous to their area. Since antiquity humans have been fermenting intoxicating beverages as one way of enhancing our ability to enter into the realm of the sacred, to inspire healing. It is an ancient process of preservation and potentiation, and one that has been used by cultures all around the world, throughout time. Herbs and other natural, nourishing substances have many ways of sharing themselves with us, and many different methods of preparation exist, depending on your goal. The grain used to make the fermented gruel contained the soil bacteria streptomyces, which produces tetracycline.Īnd, according to Armelagos “The ancient Egyptians and Jordanians used beer to treat gum disease and other ailments,” and “the complex art of fermenting antibiotics was probably widespread in ancient times, and handed down through generations.” The research, led by Emory anthropologist George Armelagos and medicinal chemist Mark Nelson of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and an article regarding it appeared this morning in Science Daily.Īrmelagos and his fellow researchers tied the source of the antibiotic to the Nubian beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago. For instance, a recent chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming the antibiotic tetracycline, most likely in their beer.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that prehistoric populations were using empirical evidence to develop therapeutic agents much longer than previously thought.
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