Soma ritual

“ Thus the sacrifice was even then the centre of a developed ceremonial, and was tended by a priestly class. Many terms of the Vedic ritual already existed then, especially soma, which was pressed, purified through a sieve, mixed with milk, and offered as the main libation. Investiture with a sacred cord was, as we have seen, also known, and was in its turn based on the still older ceremony of the initiation of youths on entering manhood. The offering of gifts to the gods in fire is Indo-European, as is shown by the agreement of the Greeks, Romans, and Indians. ”

“ The personification of the soma juice is an instance of the same exercise of fancy on a much grander scale. All the hymns in the ninth book of the Rig- Veda, and many others in other places, are addressed to the milk-like juice of this plant, which, when personified, holds a place almost as high as that of Indra in the Indo-Aryan Olympus. The sacred plant was brought to men from the sky or from a mountain by a hawk, or by Indra in guise of a hawk, just as fire was brought to other races by a benevolent bird, a raven or a cow. ”

“ What stands out most clearly in soma-laudations is that the soma-hymns are not only quite mechanical, but that they presuppose a very complete and elaborate ritual, with the employment of a number of priests, of whom the hotars (one of the various sets of priests) alone number five in the early and seven in the late books; with a complicated service; with certain divinities honored at certain hours; and other paraphernalia of sacerdotal ceremony ”

“ An ingenious effort is that made to adduce ethnological parallels to prove that the hymn x. 119, which is a straightforward monologue, placed in the mouth of Indra, celebrating the effect of drinking the Soma, must be regarded as part of a ritual in which at the close of the drinking of the Soma in the rite, a priest comes forward, assuming the rôle of Indra, and celebrates in monologue the strength of the juice of the holy plant. Among the Cora Indians, after a wine festival, a god is introduced showing the effects of the drink, while a singer celebrates its potent merits. ”

“ Its poetry is consequently marred by frequent references to the sacrifice, especially when the two great ritual deities, Agni and Soma, are the objects of praise. At the same time it is on the whole much more natural than might under these conditions be expected. For the gods who are invoked are nearly all personifications of the phenomena of Nature, and thus give occasion for the employment of much beautiful and even noble imagery. The diction of the hymns is, generally speaking, simple and unaffected. ”

“ He is sometimes addressed as a kind of Atlas, who keeps heaven and earth asunder.** He is prayed to forgive the violations of his law.*** Soma, in short, as a personified power, wants little of the attributes of a supreme deity.****
Another, and to modern ideas much more poetical personified power, often mentioned in the Vedas, is Ushas, or the dawn. As among the Australians, the dawn is a woman, but a very different being from the immodest girl dressed in red kangaroo-skins of the Murri myth. She is an active maiden, who (v) "advances, cherishing all things ”

“ The simple prayers to Soma's grace,
That Vedic verse embalms.
As in that child-world's early year,
Each after age has striven
By music, incense, vigils drear,
And trance, to bring the skies more near,
Or lift men up to heaven! ”

“ Soma is also rich in healing and lord of the plants. When quaffed, he stimulates speech and is the lord of speech. He is a maker of seers, a protector of prayer, and his wisdom is extolled. He gazes with wisdom on men and so has a thousand eyes. The fathers, no less than men and gods, love him, and through him they found the light and the cows. The great deeds of the gods owe their success to their drinking the soma, with three lakes of which Indra fills himself for the slaying of Vṛtra. When drunk by Indra, Soma made the sun to rise in the sky, and hence Soma is declared to perform the feat ”

“ Soma was the chief deity among the ancient Hindus—the author of life, the giver of health, the protector of the weak, and the guide to immortality. Once he took upon himself the form of man, but was slain by men and braised in a mortar. The similarity with the Christian legend is remarkable, and the method of death should be borne in mind. ”

“ Led by the men, with invocations of the Gods, through the fleece, thou hast given us strength to win the spoil. 8. Songs resonant with praise have celebrated him. Soma, Friend, springing forth with his fair company. Even him who rich in meath, with undulating stream, Winnner of Wealth, Immortal, sends his voice from heaven, 9. He sends it into all the region forth from heaven. Soma, while he is filtered, settles in the jars. With milk and waters is he decked when pressed with stones: Indu, when purified, shall find sweet rest and room. ”

“ It is, indeed, extremely difficult, owing to the superstruction of sectarian belief, to get down to the foundation-religion of the epic. The best one can do is to see in what way the old gods differ, as represented in the poem, from their older selves of the Rig Veda. From this point of view alone, and entirely irrespective of the sects, manifold changes will be seen to have taken place. Great Soma is no more. Soma is there, the moon, but the glory of the Vedic Soma has departed. His lunar representative is of little importance. Agni, too, is changed. ”

“ Make me shine bright like fire produced by friction: give us a clearer sight and make us better. For in carouse I think of thee, O Soma, Shall I, as a rich man, attain to comfort? 7. May we enjoy with an enlivened spirit the juice thou givest, like ancestral riches. O Soma, King, prolong thou our existence as Surya makes the shining days grow longer. 8. King Soma, favour us and make us prosper: we are thy devotees; of this be mindful. Spirit and power are fresh in us, O Indu give us not up unto our foeman's pleasure. ”

“ For, while the Rig Vedic _soma-_cult is Indo-Iranian, the original Atharvan (fire) cult is even more primitive, and the basis of the work, from this point of view, may have preceded the composition of Rik hymns. This Atharvan religion—if it may be called so—is, therefore, of exceeding importance. It opens wide the door which the Rik puts ajar, and shows a world of religious and mystical ideas which without it could scarcely have been suspected. Here magic eclipses Soma and reigns supreme. The wizard is greater than the gods ”

“ As the Soma, the world-tree becomes in Indian mysticism a tree of Paradise, at once the king of all trees and vegetation, and the god Soma to be adored. It furnishes the divine ambrosia or essence of immortality, concealed sometimes in the clouds, sometimes in the billows of the soft and silvery light that proceeds from the great-Soma, the great Indu, the moon. Hence this mystic tree, from the foliage of which drops the life-giving Soma, is sometimes characterised as the Hindu Moon-Tree. Out of this cosmogonic tree the immortals shaped the heaven and the earth. ”

“ All these are or were originally deified powers of nature: the people, though their imagination created them, have never felt any deep interest in them, and the priests who have taken them into their charge, though they treat them very courteously and sing to them elegant hymns full of figures of speech, have not been able to cover them with the flesh and blood of living personality. Then we have Agni the Fire-god, and Sōma the spirit of the intoxicating juice of the sōma-plant, which is used to inspire the pious to drunken raptures in certain ceremonies ”

“ Let not those other sacrificers stay thee, Indra: these juices shed for thee are ready. 2. Thine is the juice effused, thine are the juices yet to be pressed: our resonant songs invite thee. O Indra, pleased to-day with this libation, come, thou who knowest all and drink the Soma. 3. Whoso, devoted to the God, effuses Soma for him with yearning heart and spirit,- Never doth Indra give away his cattle: for him he makes the lovely Soma famous. 4. He looks with loving favour on the mortal who, like a rich man, pours for him the Soma. ”

“ He is also the guest and household friend of man, a kindly and familiar being. But he pervades all nature, and all growth and energy are due to him. Soma, also inseparably connected with all sacrifice, who strengthens the gods and makes them immortal, is likewise a universal principle; he too came at first from heaven, and he too is at work all through the world. There are stories of his first production among the gods, and of the first effects of his appearance; he is the nourisher of plants, he gives inspiration to the poet and fervour to prayer. ”

“ For in the greater number of passages which may be cited for and against this theory the objector may argue that the generally extravagant praise bestowed upon Soma through the Veda is in any one case merely particularized, and that it is not incongruous to say of the divine soma-plant, "he lights the dark nights," when one reads in general that he creates all things, including the gods. ”

“ Soma hath risen in us, exceeding mighty, and we are come where men prolong existence. 12, Fathers, that Indu which our hearts have drunken, Immortal in himself, hath entered mortals. So let us serve this Soma with oblation, and rest securely in his grace and favour. 13. Associate with the Fathers thou, O Soma, hast spread thyself abroad through earth and heaven. So with oblation let us serve thee, Indu, and so let us become the lords of riches, 14. Give us your blessing, O ye Gods' preservers. Never may sleep or idle talk control us. ”

“ Mounting thy firm and easy car, O Indra, wise and all-knowing come thou to the Soma. 5. No other worshippers must stay beside them thy Bays, thy vigorous and smooth-backed Coursers. Pass by them all and hasten onward hither: with Soma pressed we will prepare to feast thee. 6. Thine is this Sorna: hasten to approach it. Drink thou thereof, benevolent, and cease not. Sit on the sacred grass at this our worship, and take these drops into thy belly, Indra. 7. The grass is strewn for thee, pressed is the Soma; the grain is ready for thy Bays to feed on. ”

“ Immortal god! we soar.” The Soma sap is used as the Soma drink for the initiation of the Djoga; it is said to produce the magical condition in which, raised above the universe to the great centre, and united with Brahma, the seer beholds everything.——In the Hindu worship, libations to the gods were of three kinds—butter, honey, and the fermented juice of the Soma-plant. ”

“ Fulfil our vows in battle, fight for us! None can resist thee; give us superiority! O Soma immortal! May we drink to thee and be immortal like thee!' Mr. Baring-Gould says that the whole legend of Soma is but the allegorical history of the plant Sarcostemma viminalis, which is associated with passionate love 'because of the intoxicating liquor which is derived from its juice. ”

“ That man who having fasted for fifteen days takes one meal on the sixteenth day and bears himself in this way for one whole year, acquires the merits attaching to the Soma sacrifice. Proceeding to Heaven he lives in the company of Soma's daughters. His body fragrant with unguents whose perfumes are as sweet as those of Soma himself, he acquires the power of transporting himself immediately to any place he likes. Seated on his car he is waited upon by damsels of the most beautiful features and agreeable manners, and commands all articles of enjoyment. ”

“ They who with flowing Soma pray to thee, O Sage, to pour on them thy gifts of opulence and wealth, May they come forward, through their spirit, on the path of bliss, in the wild joy of Soma juice effused. ”

“ Soma was the most sacred sacrifice to the gods, as a juice; it had the intoxicating effect of wine; and the lunar being, Soma, was believed to be still alive, though invisible, and is the chief of the sacerdotal tribe to this day. In the Vishnu Purana, Soma is called “the monarch of Brahmans.” He was the Hindu Bacchus, and is regarded as the guardian of healing plants and constellations. Melchizedek, offering wine to, and as priest of God Most High receiving tribute from, the “High Father” (Abram) , thus bears some resemblance to Soma, the sacerdotal moon-god ”

“ The names of the gods underwent much change as time advanced, and the race was scattered. Bel became the luminous deity of some of the settlers in Britain; Soma became a higher deity in importance than Indra or Agni, and absorbed their attributes. In the Zend version the drink soma is spelled haoma. The hymns addressed to Soma, in a later age, are styled Sama Vedas. Hence it may easily be inferred the Belisama of Ptolemy is a Latinised form of the British words which indicated that the Ribble water was the "liquor of the gods" furnished by Bel and Sama for the fertilisation of the earth. ”

“ The sun as a female is a remarkable idea, and therefore Sūryā has often been taken as the dawn, but the name presents difficulties, since it does not contain any patronymic element; and, moreover, the conception contained in the wedding-hymn of the union of Soma (no doubt the moon) and the dawn would be wholly unusual.
The constant grouping of gods in the Ṛgveda comes to formal expression in the practice of joint invocation, which finds its natural starting-point in the concept of heaven and earth, who are far oftener worshipped as joint than as separate deities. ”