Women in Entheogenic Religious History
Women have globally served as foundational pillars, gatekeepers, and conduits for entheogenic (sacred psychoactive) practices.
Despite systemic marginalization, historical records, anthropology, and archeological evidence confirm that women have profoundly shaped religions through these altered states of consciousness.
The Keepers of the Earth
María Sabina was a Mazatec Sabia and Healer
She mastered the Velada, an all-night spiritual healing ceremony centered around Ndisahit—psilocybin mushrooms she reverently termed the “little saints” or “saint children”.*
Gordon Wasson tried them. His subsequent article in Life magazine introduced sacred mushrooms to Western society, inadvertently sparking the global psychedelic revolution and permanently altering modern transpersonal spiritual movements.
Eleusinian Mysteries
Ancient Greece’s most revered spiritual institution, the Eleusinian Mysteries, was entirely structured around a matriarchal theme.
Key Themes of Female Entheogenic Leadership
The “Set and Setting” Architects: Historically, Women acted as the musical and domestic curators of the experience. Through chanting, drumming, and sacred design, they turned a volatile chemical experience into an organized, safe religious ceremony.
Healing-Centric vs. Ego-Centric Divinity
Unlike modern Western movements which often view psychedelics as a tool for personal ego-death or exploration, indigenous female leaders primarily utilized entheogens for communal healing, diagnostics, and expelling physical/spiritual disease.
Systemic Erasure and Persecution
As patriarchal religious structures rose globally, women’s entheogenic lineages were actively suppressed. European “witches” were burned at the stake, and indigenous sabias suffered biopiracy and cultural erosion from colonial outsiders.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
The Gospel of Mary (often called the Gospel of Mary Magdalene) is a non-canonical text from early Christianity. It was composed in the 2nd century in Greek, though only fragmentary copies survive today. The text was discovered in the late 19th century near Akhmim in upper Egypt and later purchased in Cairo. We have read that there are only two original copies left in the world.
The Gospel of Mary presents Mary Magdalene as a prominent disciple, singled out by Jesus for special teachings. It is considered a Gnostic Gospel, reflecting themes common in Gnostic literature, such as the challenge to traditional apostolic authority and a focus on secret knowledge (gnosis). The text was unknown to the more current church until its modern rediscovery.