by Jana Astanov
A Review of Tripping the Trail of Ghosts
by P.D. Newman, published by Inner Traditions
Tripping The Trail of Ghosts. Psychedelics and the Afterlife Journey in Native American Mound Cultures by P.D. Newman, published by Inner Traditions.
Tripping the Trail of Ghosts is a tour de force in astroarchaeology, animism, and the shamanic imagination. P.D. Newman resurrects a world where the skies above were not just observed but embodied—ritually, architecturally, and psychotropically. Focused on the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere (MIIS), this richly researched book offers a multidimensional cosmogram of how ancient mound-building cultures of Southeastern North America communed with celestial forces, psychotropic plants, and the mythic Path of Souls.
Path of Souls as Astral Geographies
At the heart of Newman’s thesis is the stunning assertion that these Indigenous cultures created ceremonial landscapes that mirrored astral geographies. The “Path of Souls”—a journey of the free-soul after death—was ritually enacted through alignment with the Milky Way, Orion, and the lunar standstills known as lunistices. The constellations were not metaphor; they were portals.
Astroarchaeology – stellar mythopoesis
One of the most revelatory elements for lovers of astroarchaeology is the association of Orion with the “Chief’s Hand”—a hand-and-eye motif carved into shell gorgets and interpreted as a stargate. The “eye” is the Orion Nebula, a cosmological entry point into the afterlife. Newman parallels this with Egyptian beliefs about Osiris (Orion) and the Milky Way as the “Street of Stars,” aligning Indigenous American, Egyptian, and Babylonian deathways through their stellar mythopoesis.
Psychedelics Cosmos
Newman’s detailing of entheogenic practices is equally compelling. From Datura and black nightshade to morning glory and hallucinogenic fungi, he traces an animistic pharmacopoeia used to induce visionary states—tools for shamans navigating the liminal zones of life, death, and cosmos. The discovery of psychoactive residues in ceremonial cups and the placement of mushroom effigies at sacred sites underscores how chemical alteration was central to Mississippian ritual technology.
Ritual sites of Lunistices
The book’s astro-archaeological backbone lies in its treatment of lunar observation. Newman documents how sites like Cahokia’s Emerald Acropolis were engineered to align with the maximum northern moonrise—a rare lunistice occurring every 18.6 years. This lunar devotion echoes solstice markers at Stonehenge and Newgrange, revealing a hemispheric resonance of sky-temple architecture.
Monks Mound is the largest earthen structure at Cahokia (Source: Wikipedia)
Esoteric Cosmology
By invoking both terrestrial ruins and celestial maps, Tripping the Trail of Ghosts unearths a worldview where the cosmos was not gazed upon but walked, drunk, danced, and ultimately became. The Path of Souls was not symbolic—it was somatic. The mounds were not mere tombs, but launchpads for divinization, guiding the soul through Orion’s gate, along the Milky Way, and into celestial becoming.
Newman’s work is vital reading for anyone interested in esoteric cosmology, archaeoastronomy, and Indigenous metaphysics. It reminds us that our ancestors knew something we’ve long forgotten: the stars are not above us. They are within the earth, etched in bones, carved into copper, and alive in the sacred plants that speak across worlds.
About the author:
Jana Astanov is a Polish-born interdisciplinary artist, writer, and astrologer based in the U.S., hailing from the mythic landscapes of the Masurian Lake District. Her creative practice weaves together Vedic, Western, and Star-based astrology with performance, poetry, and ritual. She is the author of five poetry collections—Antidivine, Northern Grimoire, Sublunar, The Pillow Book of Burg, and Birds of Equinox—which explore cosmology, ecstasy, and the visionary feminine. Through her work, she maps celestial archetypes across earthbound thresholds, reawakening ancient ways of knowing.
Follow her on IG @Jana_Astanov
