The Brewing of Soma is a poem by Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier written in 1872.
Soma was a sacred ritual drink in Vedic religion, going back to Proto-Indo-Iranian times (ca. 2000 BC), possibly with hallucinogenic properties.
The storyline is of Vedic priests brewing and drinking Soma in an attempt to experience divinity. It describes the whole population getting drunk on Soma. It compares this to Christians’ use of “music, incense, vigils drear, And trance, to bring the skies more near, Or lift men up to heaven!” But all in vain–it is mere intoxication.
Whittier ends by describing the true method for contact with the divine, as practiced by Quakers: Sober lives dedicated to doing God’s will, seeking silence and selflessness in order to hear the “still, small voice” described in I Kings 19:11-13 as the authentic voice of God, rather than wind, earthquake, or fire.
The last few stanzas became the popular hymn “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.”
Read by Jason Goldtrap, author of the online novel “Sarah Conrad of Eagle Creek.”
www.JasonGoldtrap.com
