The Secret of the Kykeon Peter Webster The Psychedelic Library   The original hypothesis of The Road to Eleusis suggests that the ergot species Claviceps purpurea, collected by the hierophantic priests from its natural and common parasitisation on barley growing in the Rarian plain adjacent to Eleusis, was the probable active ingredient of the kykeon, the psychoactive potion used in the yearly Rite at Eleusis. It was further suggested that the hierophants would have processed the C. purpurea ergot by dissolving off the water-soluble alkaloids since this fraction contained ergonovine, the principal hypothesised psychoactive compound, a lysergic acid amide very similar in structure to, [...]