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Saints, Superheroes & Chimneysweeps
| Yes, There is a Santa Claus | |
Just how deeply ingrained in our culture the Amanita muscaria really is can be appreciated when we start to connect the symbolism used by the "mushroom underground" to the folk lore that has trickled down to us through the ages. Our old friend Santa is a case in point. In the first place he's dressed up in his version of the "Royal Robes", red suit with white fluffy trim. That's the same Amanita suit worn even by the cartoon kings. He leaves his gift under a conifer, which represents the good old "Tree of Life", where the original gift from god was found. He is carried around by reindeer high enough to haul him and a sleigh full of goodies. And sure enough, as Agni, the Vedic god of fire, he enters and leaves through the very hearth itself.
Santa is usually portrayed as a human sized figure, but we all know that he is really just a big elf. In fact, he supposedly has lots of small elves working for him at the North Pole. We know from our art and fairy tales that elves are always hanging around the sacred fungus. I have a little Christmas tree ornament that is a little Santa Claus sitting on a little red spotted toadstool.
The "North Pole", represents the Siberian north country where the worship of this fungus seems to have originated. Add to this the "fact" that "He knows when you are sleeping, He knows when you're awake..." and rewards people for proper behavior, and there can be little doubt as to the origin of this myth.
Green plants don't celebrate Christmas any more than turkeys celebrate Thanksgiving. In spite of what the advertising people would have you believe, with newspapers full of grinning cows and dancing cabbages, there is little joy in being a symbiot to the dominant species of this Planet. The "Christian way of life" has meant the steady destruction of the world's forest lands. Whole ecosystems have been obliterated by Western "civilization". Species after species is wiped out forever. The human race, and especially its mushroom worshippers, pose a real threat to the Mother Earth and Her many growing things. The cycle of exploitation of the environment that climaxes with our yearly Christmas "potlatch", is certainly no favorite with the Bio-sphere that must suffer the damage from our relentless assault.
It's no accident that Santa and Jesus team up to sponsor our number one national holiday. Most of the symbols that we, in this culture, have attached to our most important events, gods, folk heroes and villains can be traced to beginnings related to the ritual use of hallucinogenic fungi. Our whole concept of power, dominance for profit, dominion over the land, our "holier than thou" attitude, in short, our entire right-handed way of thinking is rooted in our relationship with these plants.
Related links
The
Resurrection of Santa Claus
Terminal Denial and the The Benevolent Lie
Let's take a look at another one of our modern folk heroes and see what we can find. Superman seems like a unique sort of hero that fights for "Truth, Justice and the American Way". He is said to have powers "far beyond those of mortal men." He is portrayed as a mountain of muscle, but his powers go beyond superhuman strength. His most obvious asset is his ability to fly, "faster than a speeding bullet". He can move through time and space with such speed that he can appear to be in two places at once. He can "leap tall buildings in a single bound". He cannot be killed by bullets or knives. His superhuman sight gives him the ability to see through objects and observe scenes taking place many miles away. That is an impressive list of attributes for any super-hero, but he was not the first to claim such powers. In fact, there is a long tradition of practitioners who have used these very same supernatural abilities to solve problems in their own neighborhoods. These are precisely the same powers traditionally belonging to the shaman. Flying, being in two places at once, superhuman strength, remote viewing and the ability to see inside of things are standard in the traditional shaman's arsenal of magic. Mind reading is one power that Superman doesn't use, but that the shaman was noted for. Superman and the shaman also spend most of their time disguised as normal humans and only use their powers for special occasions. To activate these powers simply requires that there be a crisis and a place to change into a costume.
In our modern day, we don't really believe in our Super-heroes, they are just entertainment, but in ancient times, the shaman was the protector of the people and was viewed with both fear and awe by his tribe. His position was one of respect and his powers were hardly doubted by those of lesser talent. In the myth of Superman, he brought his powers with him from Krypton, a planet far in outer space. In fact, we all know that Superman is an alien being. The shaman claimed his powers came from an alien being who also resided far off in the heavens. He claimed to contact this being by using a secret ceremony and a sacred herb. Research has shown us that the herb used by the shaman to achieve his superhuman state was an hallucinogen. The evidence shows that in ancient times the most powerful and popular of these hallucinogens was the Amanita muscaria mushroom.
The shamanistic tradition survives today in many parts of the world. In most cases the inebriant used is not the mushroom of the ancients, but a less potent substitute. Although modern practitioners claim many of the same super powers they tend to agree that the ancient shamans possessed far greater abilities.
To some folks this is nothing more than a marvelous coincidence. "These are just the super-powers that everyone would desire," they would say. To those who study the mind with intensity, these powers symbolize archetypical concepts locked in our sub-conscious. This is our genetic memory in action. We human beings tend to look to an archetypical hero to save us from the evils of life. This is the other side of the Savior Syndrome. This is the need within the average human to be saved from pain and death, by the intervention of someone more powerful. There are people waiting to fill that vacuum.
It is not surprising that when the creators of our Super-heroes dig into the well of the sub-conscious for their art, that the symbols of their culture would come through. It is also no surprise that these same symbols strike a cord with the children who ultimately popularize the hero. It is no accident that our fantasies revolve around common themes. It is no accident that Captain Marvel, another super shaman, is transformed into his super-self by a magic word, Shazzam, and a bolt of lightning. It is not just co-incidence that his costume is the color of the Sun and fire. Superman, the man of steel, the modern symbol of industrial power wears the blue of the aristocracy, covered by the red cape, symbol of the ancient warrior kings. And where is his "Fortress of Solitude"? At the North pole, of course.
Today, we have been won over by the gods of technology. We have seen men fly. Technology has put men on the Moon and brought them back. Technocrats can see through almost anything and spy on the remotest regions of the Earth. Our machines can do anything. Our science promises nearly eternal life. We believe in the feats of our science, but no more strongly than the ancient people once believed in their shaman.
In Europe, chimneysweeps have long been associated with amanita muscaria. Their connection with the hearth and fire must have something to do with it. The magic of Mary Poppins and her chimneysweep sidekick, as well her use of an umbrella to fly are symbolic of her station as a mushroom practitioner. So, the gods of the ancients are reduced to entertainment for children. It works because, deep down inside, the children recognize the symbols and they ring true. Meanwhile, adults just don't have the time to take magic seriously.
The very mention of "drugs" causes some folks to breathe fire. As a culture we have both an intense fear of, and an insatiable appetite for, all kinds of drugs. As individuals, groups and whole cultures, we are constantly trying to find just the right "cure-all". The wonder drug to cure our diseases and the potion that will give us ecstasy or the confidence or the muscles or the alertness or the relaxation that we so desperately need. At the same time, we shudder at the sight of intoxication in our streets. We fear the madness that drives the drunk driver or the addict, but we have to have just a little sample of it for ourselves. Why is this so? Why do these compounds hold so much sway in our lives? The answer lies in our natural drive to seek symbiotic relationships with plants around us. The intoxicating molecule is one of the baits used by plants to attract symbiotic partners. The mind altering plant is sought eagerly by man and beast alike. Humankind has sought benefits from plants beyond simple sustenance from the beginning. There are many animals in the wild that inebriate themselves on a wide variety of natural plant drugs.
There are some who would say that we should be able to transcend our animal needs and not give in to drugs, while that person smokes a cigarette and drinks a cup of coffee and is going into the hospital for an operation next week and will be shot full of all kinds of drugs that are for the most part, derived or copied from plant drugs. The refining of the original compound found in the plant into a fine white powder and calling it a new name, does not affect the fact that a symbiotic relationship is in effect. It makes no difference that these practitioners are fully licensed and trained in their art, in fact it may increase our "dependence" on the drug as a culture. We are hooked on Tylenol 3 (Opiate based) to the tune of millions of dollars a year.
The point is that drugs are here to stay, and so is our paranoia regarding their use by the "other guys". Our history shows us that people have been living in fear of drug-crazed killers for thousands of years. The use of drugs has been a central part of the history of every age and every continent of the world. The harvesting, manufacture distribution and administration of drugs, both legal and illegal, is one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world. At the same time, we fear the Mr. Hyde that might be released by one of these potions. And rightly so, for some of the most bloodthirsty pages in the history of our species have been written in a drug induced frenzy.
Here we have a group of plants that imitate our sex organs, produce copies of our own information carrying molecules, offer superior intoxication, have been intimately involved in our religion, warfare, science and magic throughout history and just happen to have symbiotic ties into our major food source, and yet we know practically nothing about them! The symbols and word roots that bear evidence of our fungus encounters, litter our historical landscape, giving proof that these plants were once held in the greatest esteem by some, while feared, even loathed by others. There has been a cover-up of massive proportions.
The evidence is strong that these lowly fungi have figured in the formation of EVERY organized religion on the face of the Earth. Terrence McKenna says, "1;The mushroom religion is actually the generic religion of human beings..." At the same time the evidence is just as strong that the Fly-agaric was the number one drug for groups like the Berserkers, the Zealots, the Assassins and many lesser known warrior cults that have raped and pillaged all over the world. It certainly can be confusing.
There is a fresco painted on a church wall in France, dated 1291, that shows the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", to be none other than our fungus friend in a slightly stylized form.2 Adam and Eve are there, covering themselves with fig leaves and the snake is entwined in the "branches" of a cluster of giant Amanita. No one this side of the Garden of Eden wants to admit that one. Opinions are clearly split, just as Mr. and Mrs. Wasson discovered.
See the fresco and more mushroom lore at freedomdomain.com
So far, we are getting our information third and fourth hand. In Part Three we get some first and second hand reports.
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Sources
Click on Author to return to quoted text.
1 McKenna, Terrence, Hallucinogenic Mushrooms and Evolution. ReVISION, Spring, 1988, p 57
2 Wasson, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, Harcourt
Brace and Jovanovich, New York, 1967, p 180
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