Odyssey Of The Mind

Named after the song by Enigma, this artwork was featured on the label design of one of my Hopsylvania beers. Inspired by the Eleusinian Mysteries and brimming with symbolism, this artwork blends certain elements from what is considered the most famous of ancient Greece’s secret rites of passage. In particular it taps into the kykeon, an etheogenic drink that mixed wine and barley with other ingredients, possibly including psychoactive mushrooms such as the fly agaric featured here. Shrouded in secrecy and enigma, the experience is said to have produced revelatory mind states with profound and long-lasting spiritual and intellectual ramifications.

This illustration © 2023 by Radu Luchian is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0CCBYNCND

Odyssey Of The Mind