Blessing with Wine

The psychoactive effect of alcohol is a collaboration between plants and fungi and our minds. In Terence McKenna’s stoned ape theory of consciousness, he argues for the plausibility that psylocibin-containing mushrooms may have played a role in the evolution of human consciousness, increasing visual acuity and in other ways promoting reproductive success such that we outcompeted other hominid species.

This is also an opportunity to consider the potentially problematic role of alcohol. Jewish tradition warns of the dangers of alcohol, for example, in the stories of Noah and of Lot and his daughters. Both are connected to the birth of tribal enemies of the Israelites. Wine can therefore be a symbol representing mindful moderation – or even abstention, in which case you spill the wine, instead of drinking it.

My blessing with wine combines: big history cosmology, the mysteries of consciousness, and mindfulness and moderation when deliberately altering one’s consciousness.

Raise your glass

With this wine we retell the story of the universe and of consciousness

It is a blessing to know one feels blessed

And a curse to know that others are suffering

We acknowledge the complexity and subtlety

Of radically diverse states of consciousness

And our capability and responsibility to choose our state

In this moment, we choose gratitude, curiosity, awe and wonder

With each sip of wine (or drop that we spill)

We imagine a milestone in the evolution of the universe

Culminating in this moment of consciousness, here and now

Sip or spill a drop with each line

[1] The great inflation and expansion

[2] The evolution of stars

[3] The evolution of new elements

[4] The evolution of the Earth

[5] The evolution of life

[6] The evolution of collective learning

[7] The development of agriculture

[8] The scientific, industrial, and digital revolutions

[9] To here and now