SACRED PEYOTE

Purple #36 F/W 2021 (The Mexico Issue) Photography and essay by Aleph Molinari Rooted in millennia of Indigenous use across the sacred landscape of Wirikuta, the text traces peyote's botanical, cultural, and spiritual history, from its role in Huichol and Tarahumara ritual to its influence on Surrealism, the Beat poets, and contemporary psychedelic culture. Against the backdrop of its rapid decimation by commercial exploitation, it closes with an urgent question: whether personal enlightenment can justify the eradication of a species.