This paper will examine a corpus of ceramic art among coastal Peruvian societies which focuses on the display of sexual themes. These ceramics, numbering in the thousands, have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world. They can be shown to be linked to hallucinogenic plant use by shamans who functioned as psychopomps and political figures in their respective societies. Whereas earlier interpretations of sexual themes in pre-colombian ceramic art have focused on the topic of the " depravity" of ancient peoples, because of their lascivious representations of explicit sexual activity, nudity and/or exhibitionism, this paper has taken another view of the function of such themes in the art of the ancient Mochica and and Nazca. In particular, it has looked at the role of plant hallucinogens used by regional shamanic leaders in order to facilitate their control over natural phenomena such as fecundity of animal species and the fertility of the land and sea. While the so-called " erotic" art of Peru probably represents only a small fraction of the total production of religious art, it gives insight into a major theme in pre-Colombian coastal civilizations; namely, the role of powerful regional political and religious leaders who tried to maintain a balance between the fertility of the land and sea, with the demographic stability necessary for survival.