Amanita muscaria and Santa Claus
Excerpted from James Bursenos
with permission at
http://www.solsticestudios.netThe painting entitled "Resurrection of Santa Claus"
(above left) is the result of an exploration into the mysterious relationship
between Santa and the Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric mushroom.
Through the course of making this painting, I discovered that much of
the popular iconography surrounding Santa Claus can be linked to the
fly agaric. His immortality, omniscience, powers of magical flight and
prosperity can all be attributed to this particular mushroom and its
entheogenic powers. (1) Unquestioned holiday symbols such as flying
reindeer, chimney sliding, Christmas trees and magical elves at the
north pole all begin to make sense in the context of Santa's
relationship to the fly agaric.
As I am primarily a painter, this is to be taken as a loose
presentation of some of my research and insight into a deep and murky
subject. The fact that Santa is related to a psychedelic mushroom came
to me spontaneously during a state of heightened awareness. And, after
much research, I have found growing support for this hidden secret of
Christmas. I see Santa Claus primarily as a symbol, an archetype.
Ultimately he represents masculine spiritual power, like Buddha or
Christ, yet we may need to look deep beneath the surface to see his
potency. His current form is twisted and grotesque, a caricature of
his potential self. I believe he got this way due to the abuse of
masculine power over thousands of years. Santa Claus represents magic
which, in western society, has been controlled, abused, ridiculed,
outlawed, repressed and finally forgotten. Santa is often times
mocked, diminished and misunderstood as he is portrayed as a slave to
commerce, infantile, dysfunctional, a joke. On the other hand, as he
is preached to our children, he is wise, benevolent and magically
powerful.
How are we to make sense of this conundrum? The only answer, I submit,
is through facing the bizarre fact that Santa Claus and Christmas have
a hidden secret: namely the powerful entheogenic mushroom, Amanita
muscaria. Though perhaps challenging and difficult to accept, a close
examination of this strange relationship offers deep insight into the
nature of the human soul. This long forgotten key to the hidden
meaning of Christmas helps to explain the very nature of the classic
religious experience. And as we probe deeper into this mystery, it may
even shed light on the widespread religious and political oppression
that still dominates much of the world.
The most obvious connection between Santa and the fly agaric mushroom
is their appearance; both are rather portly, bright and jolly looking.
Moreover, both are red, white and black, three colors that resound
throughout time with symbolic meaning. Santa, as we all know, wears a
bright red suit with white trim and sports a long white beard. He is
all covered in "ashes and soot" from sliding down the chimney to
deliver his gifts on Christmas Eve, hence the black or dark color in
the trio. Likewise, the fly agaric is bright red and white. The famous
polka dots are actually the remainder of what is called the universal
veil, a white shell-like membrane that protects the mushroom as it
breaks through the ground. This fierce and sudden eruption through the
earth also accounts for the additional black color, in this case bits
of soil that cling to the mushroom as it emerges.
By 1823 the poem 'Twas the night before Christmas by Clement Clarke
Moore etched a lasting image of "jolly old St. Nick" firmly in the
hearts and minds of early Americans. (2) Moore describes Santa Claus
as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf," who had "cheeks like
roses" and a "nose like a cherry." (3) He also "had a broad face and a
little round belly/that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of
jelly." (4) Here we already begin to see similarities between Santa
and the fly agaric, both are the color of roses and cherries, both are
chubby and plump. We know from illustrations that the fly agaric can
appear to be quite jolly, and it is the fungus most likely to be
associated with elves. It is "broad faced" when it's cap is fully open
and all who have ever touched a living Amanita mushroom will know that
they do, in fact, shiver and shake like a bowlful of jelly! We can
begin to see that Moore's descriptions of Santa Claus are also quite
easily applicable to our mushroom in question.
Moore was informed about Santa's style and behavior from popular Dutch
and German-American Folklore, no doubt. Yet this still does not
account for the presence of entheogenic mushrooms in our story. To do
this we must go back to an earlier source, past the Christian
prototype for Santa Claus - St. Nicholas - to prehistoric times where
the roots of Santa's appearance are to be found in the practice of
mushroom shamanism. The fly agaric has been used for its entheogenic
powers since archaic times by shamans of the region that is now the
Netherlands and Siberia. (5) Shamanism has recently reemerged in
western culture after it had been all but forgotten for millennia.
Much has been written on its role in indigenous societies, therefore,
I will only state in general terms that shamanic techniques have been
used across the globe since before recorded history to enter states of
non-ordinary or transpersonal awareness in order to promote healing,
balance and well being in the community. (6) Entheogenic mushrooms and
plants have traditionally been included in the shaman's medicine bag
along with many other techniques, such as breathing, chanting,
dancing, fasting or meditating in order to attain heightened states of
awareness.
These shamans of the North typically lived in semi-nomadic communities
that were in close relationship with reindeer. After studying the
behavior of these reindeer for his book Soma, R.G. Wasson concluded
that "Reindeer have a passion for mushrooms and especially for the fly
agaric, on which they inebriate themselves." (7) His claim is
supported by others stating that the reindeer prance around wildly
after eating of the agaric. Not only the shaman, but the reindeer also
eat the mushroom and apparently feel it's magic. Here we have a
situation that very closely resembles that of Santa Claus, the old
wise man who lives at the north pole among a heard of flying reindeer.
The names of Santa's Reindeer that most of us know by heart come to us
from the same poem 'Twas the night before Christmas, yet they too seem
to have associations with mushrooms, both their growth cycle as well
as their role in the classic shamanic experience. For example, Donder
and Blitzen, which come from the Germanic words for thunder and
lightening, may have actually originated in the ancient belief that
mushrooms appeared wherever lightening struck the earth. This was
considered truth until relatively recently, with the advent of the
microscope in modern times, when humans discovered that mushrooms
propagate by releasing spores from their gills. In the case of the fly
agaric, soaking rains are necessary for a mushroom to emerge out of
the ground, hence the association with thunder and lightening.
Furthermore, the fly agaric grows in a mycorrhizal relationship with
certain trees like birch, fir and pine. The mushroom is actually the
fruiting body of an underground network of threadlike fibers called
mycelium which grow among the roots of "Christmas trees".
We have already seen how reindeer have an appetite for the fly agaric,
and their names seem to corroborate this fact. For example, Dasher,
Dancer and Prancer can be seen merely as slick nick names expressing
the athleticism of Santa's showoff reindeer, or these names can be
seen to refer to the effects that the fly agaric has upon not only the
reindeer, but the shaman as well. Claims of running extremely fast or
for very long distances, and trance-dancing for hours on end are not
uncommon in reports made by people who have eaten of the agaric. (8)
The word comet refers to a heavenly body in flight. In my view, the
flying reindeer named Comet becomes a kind of code word for astral
travel under the influence of entheogenic mushrooms. One common
sensation associated with the classic shamanic experience is that of
leaving one's body and taking flight. A comet is also celestial, the
heavens are it's domain, and as we will see time and again,
entheogenic mushrooms like the fly agaric can be seen as keys which
unlock the doors to heaven.
Cupid is the name of another reindeer on Santa's team. How should this
ancient Roman god of love who is normally associated with Valentines
Day (another red and white holiday) come to be the appellation of a
flying Christmas reindeer? Again, I submit that the best way to make
sense of it is through the experience of mushroom entheogens,
particularly the fly agaric. Cupid is the messenger of Eros, god of
love. Entheogenic mushrooms like the fly agaric have the potential to
awaken feelings of love that range from the profoundly spiritual kind
of boundless love, to rapture or ecstasy, to the very earthy sensual
love that includes the erotic, which in this context also becomes
sacred. Clark Heinrich describes the blissful sensuality inherent in
the fly agaric experience, "It is as if every pore of the body were a
sexual organ in orgasm, and I am not overstating things." (9) The
notion of ecstasy is a repeated theme in mushroom shamanism and
Christmas alike.
And finally we come to Vixen, the one distinctly feminine reindeer.
Today the word vixen means a spiteful or quarrelsome woman, but
earlier it meant simply fox-lady. The word sounds a lot like wiccan
which of course is associated with witches and witchcraft. Wiccan
originally means "to bend," referring to a witch as one who bends or
shapes reality and perception. It is not unsafe to speculate on the
meaning of vixen in this context as a shape shifter or witch. The
"fox-lady" represents women's magic in the very same way Santa
represents menŐs magic. Mushrooms like the fly agaric can allow one to
attain shamanic powers such as magical flight and shape shifting.
These reindeer names refer to the transpersonal states of mind
accessed by witches and sorcerers, initiates and shamans throughout
time immemorial.
The names of Santa's reindeer, like many of the symbols of Christmas,
come to us from mushroom shamanism through the filters of ancient
paganism, religion, secret societies, underground cults, and folklore.
For example, the Norse god Thor also flew through the sky in a magical
chariot pulled by horses or reindeer in some versions of the story.
And many people are probably still under the impression that the
Christian St. Nicholas who resembles Santa Claus in his benevolent
wisdom and powers of immortality is in fact the beginning of the
story. But when we dig just a little bit deeper we find an older
blueprint that is actually much more accessible than one could ever
possibly imagine.
The classic shamanic experience is global and timeless. It has
analogues in states of consciousness referred to as mystical,
visionary, numinous, transpersonal or peak. Inherent in the shaman's
journey we find symbols and themes that are similar and relevant to
Santa Claus and Christmas, especially the themes of immortality and
shape shifting. On his journey, the shaman typically undergoes a
transformation that involves the very real experience of his own
death. Subsequently, he has access to transpersonal states of being
and realms beyond the living. For example this Koryak shaman from
northern Siberia speaking about the effects of the fly agaric shows
the inherent theme of death and resurrection in the experience:
".... if the agaric should say to a man 'You will melt away soon' then
the man would see his legs, arms, and body melt away, and he would
say, "Oh! Why have I eaten of the agaric? Now I am gone!" Or should
the agaric say 'Go to The One-on-High,' the man would go to
The-One-on-High. The latter would put him on the palm of his hand, and
twist him like a thread, so that his bones would crack, and the entire
world would twirl around.'Oh I am dead!' that man would say. 'Why have
I eaten the agaric?' But when he came to, he would eat it again,
because sometimes it is pleasant and cheerful. Besides, the agaric
would tell everyman, even if he were not a shaman, what ailed him when
he was sick, or explain a dream to him, or show him the upper world or
the underground world, or foretell what would happen to him." (10)
This candid report tells of the veracity of the death experience under
the influence of the Amanita muscaria and helps to define some of the
contents of a shamanic or mystical experience, particularly death and
rebirth, healing, knowledge and access to the upper and lower worlds.
On his or her journey, the shaman may visit ancestors, deities or
totem animals who either help her to heal herself or somebody else, or
benefit her community in some way. During the experience, the shaman
may even merge with one of these deities or power animals, thus
acquiring their powers of locomotion, perception and cognition. The
experience is one of actually becoming the power animal or deity and
is sometimes referred to as shape shifting. Carlos Castaneda vividly
describes the sensation of becoming a crow after ingesting a powerful
mixture containing entheogenic mushrooms in his book Teachings of Don
Juan. (11)
"I had the perception of growing bird's legs, which were weak and
wobbly at first. I felt a tail coming out of the back of my neck and
wings out of my cheekbones. The wings were folded deeply. I felt them
coming out by degrees. The process was hard but not painful. Then I
winked my head down to the size of a crow. But the most astonishing
effect was accomplished with my eyes. My birdŐs sight!....Don
Juan...'tossed me into the air'....[and} I 'extended my wings and
flew." (12)
The power of shape shifting along with the experience of one's own
death and resurrection are two key aspects of the classic shamanic
experience. These two themes are essential to understanding the
iconography of Christmas and will help to reveal a deep connection
between Santa Claus and mushrooms. The question arises, if in fact
Santa is connected to mushroom shamanism as it appears, then where and
how has this knowledge remained hidden for so long? This is a simple
question with a rather complex answer that involves the demonization
and criminalization of mushroom shamanism over time. The story of how
this practice has become outlawed in the west is ironically
intertwined with how Santa Claus and our entire Christmas tradition
came to be. A closer look at the iconography of this holiday will help
to reveal this connection.
Bears are usually included in images of Christmastime. They are among
the earliest symbols of death and resurrection. Bear skins were worn
by shamans to connote the transformation by man into totem animal.
Bear skulls have been found among early human burial remains,
suggesting a strong belief in the bearŐs power of rebirth, or
immortality. The bear disappears in winter into a subterranean trance
like existence called hibernation until springtime, when he reemerges
from the earth. This perennial custom has a powerful analogue to the
sun in winter who all but disappears by the solstice in the most
northerly latitudes only to return again for another year. The bear
has persisted as a powerful symbol of strength, renewal, protection
and healing all over the world and his relationship to the winter
solstice has secured it a place of prominence in Shamanism as well as
in Christmas lore.
Bears are directly connected to the Amanita muscaria through the
Germanic word Berserk. The term Berserker is commonly known to refer
to a class of Viking warrior who reportedly ate the fly agaric for
added strength, courage and ferocity before going into battle. The
term today still carries connotations of rage or craziness. Berserk
translates literally as Ňbear shirt,Ó however, which would have
originally meant something like wild man or shaman, who was either
literally hairy like a bear, or figuratively donned the skins of a
bear in ceremony. The shaman resembles the bear in ceremony because he
is in communication with the bear in the natural world as well as in
the spirit realm. He looks like the bear because he has become the
bear and attained its powers of rebirth. Here we see two common themes
of shamanism clearly represented; shape shifting on the one hand, and
death and resurrection on the other.
These two themes are played out in the otherworldly dimensions of the
shaman's journey which include the lower and upper worlds. The lower
world is underground and commonly accessed by a tunnel or a hole in
the earth. It is populated by guardian animals who protect and heal.
The upper world is associated with the sky and is accessed by such
means as a sacred tree, or ladder that reaches into heaven. The upper
world is celestial in nature and is associated with knowledge,
ancestral wisdom, immortality and eternity. It is often times
populated by spirit beings who guide and teach and going there is
sometimes accompanied by feelings of ecstasy or religious rapture.
The image of the sacred tree whose roots lead underground, to the
lower world, and whose branches stretch to heaven, is the likely
origin of the tradition of the Christmas tree. For the shaman, the
Sacred Tree forms an axis from the perspective of everyday experience
in the center, surrounded by the four sacred directions, the upper
world above, and the lower world below. As we have seen, entheogenic
mushrooms like the Amanita muscaria - who literally grow under the
"sacred tree" - provide initiation into the otherworldly dimensions of
the shaman.
Throughout ancient times we see the apotheosis of the shaman and a
mythologizing of the shamanic experience in the proliferation of
mystery religions. The two themes of immortality and shape shifting
were central to these religions. Often times we see an immortalized
hero in human form along with a half-animal/half-human deity to
represent these two distinct themes. For example, Osiris was the
Egyptian god-man who was dismembered by his brother, Set, and then
collected, reassembled and made immortal by the goddess Isis. Osiris
is also associated with a jackal-headed deity called Anubus. In
ancient Greece, Dionysus underwent a violent death by dismemberment
and subsequent resurrection to the heavens. Dionysus was usually
attended by the goat-headed earth god, Pan. We can see echoes of the
classic shamanic experience in the symbolism of ancient mystery
schools. Initiates were meant to identify with a particular deity in
order to experience either death and ascension, or shape shifting, or
both. Often times powerful entheogens were used to provide a direct
and personal experience of the divine. (13)
It is clear that both the upper and the lower worlds are realms of
healing for the shaman, an experience of the eternal can be as
valuable as merging with an animal ancestor. Perhaps it is simplistic
to assert that these two realms, the upper and the lower worlds are
responsible for the division of reality into heaven and hell in our
collective mind and later enforced by religion. However it seems that
is basically what happened. As paganism was replaced by monotheistic
religions in the west like Judaism and Christianity, inter-species
communication, shape shifting and psychedelic mushrooms were relegated
to the hell realm, while religious ecstasy, ascension, and eternity
were deemed righteous. The horned gods, like Pan, were demonized and
made into the devil, Satan, while the divine hero whose seed form we
find in Osiris and Dionysus is the kind we in the west chose to
officially worship instead, as in the case of Jesus. Understanding
this split in human consciousness - the division between heaven and
hell - is essential to the story of Santa and the mushroom. This
subtle division also includes the inherent sexism that has plagued
human history as the western conceptualization of nature as Mother
Earth is clearly of the lower world and God or Father Sky (time) is
king of the heavens. We in the west have come to generally favor all
things associated with the upper world which tend to be expressions of
the masculine principle and mistrust, fear and thus demonize the
feminine aspects of our identity. Our great challenge collectively as
well as individually, is to balance these two aspects within
ourselves.
One way to approach an understanding of this duality is through the
very names we bestow to symbols such as the Devil and Santa Claus.
There is an obvious anagram between Satan and Santa, providing a clue
that perhaps they are two aspects of the same being, alter egos,
twins, as it were. When we consider the "nick" names of each
archetype, an even more intimate relationship is revealed. For
example, Satan is often referred to as Old Nick, whereas Santa Claus
is called Saint Nick. Both "Nicks" account for the two extremes of the
archetypal shamanic experience. Over time we have subconsciously
assigned the parts of our hero's journey that we dislike and cannot
accept to the underworld. The wild side of shamanism includes animal
transformations, herbalism and earthy sexuality. These are attributes
we ascribe to the devil and witches. The parts of the story that we
can accept or identify with, such as immortality, religious rapture,
wisdom, and prosperity we associate with heaven, Jesus, saints and
Santa Claus. Old Nick represents the dark side whereas Saint Nick
defines the light. This split in consciousness runs concurrently with
trends toward materialism, colonialism and the rise of dominator style
societies.
In 601 AD, Gregory I issued a papal edict concerning pagan practices.
This law is responsible for converting many of the pagan holy days, or
Sabbaths, into Christian Holidays, as is the case with Samhain,
Hallowmas or Halloween which is celebrated by the church as "All
Saint's Day." It is apparent that a similar thing happened with the
pagan solstice traditions along with the elements of the classic
shamanic experience. In his edict, Pope Gregory attributed Satan with
the physical features of the pagan horned god Pan - cloven hooves and
a goat's head - thus literally creating a scapegoat. A scapegoat is
defined as a person bearing the blame for the sins and shortcomings of
others; which is exactly what we have done to the horned god and the
fly agaric mushroom. We have sacrificed the symbols of the dark side
in favor of the light and glorious immortal hero that exists in human
form. It seems that Jesus bore the suffering for our sins while Satan
continues to take the blame for them.
These pagan elements of death and resurrection, a horned god and an
immortal hero are obviously central to Christianity. Many researchers
of mushrooms and religion have suggested that the early Christians
were an evolved mystery cult that practiced psychedelic initiation
using the fly agaric. John Allegro was on the original team of
scholars that had access to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and his renegade
book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross posited that Jesus was actually
only a metaphor for the fly agaric and the powers it bestowed upon the
initiate. (14) The book was widely rejected early on, but is
continually being read and referenced as a wave of new scholarship
puts this question to the test. A new wave of research from writers
like Jim Arthur provide even more support for a long history of
psychedelic initiation in western religion. (15) Clark Heinrich's
Magic Mushrooms in Alchemy and Religion also carefully argues that the
early Christians were indeed employing the fly agaric to achieve
direct experience with God, and that the tradition was kept alive in
the west through secret societies that formed during the middle ages
around ancient vocations like stone masonry and metallurgy. (16)
According to scholars like Heinrich and Arthur, these groups evolved
the practice of Alchemy to protect the secret of entheogenic mushroom
initiation from the authority of the church and their genocidal
inquisitions.
It appears to me that chimney sweeps may represent one such vocation
that evolved with ancient secrets like mushroom initiation. Gordon
Wasson birthed the field of ethnomycology with his research on the
Amanita muscaria mushroom. His 1968 book Soma attempted to identify
the Vedic god of intoxication as the fly agaric. (17) While Wasson
discusses mushrooms and reindeer extensively, (18) he does not
approach the subject of Santa Claus or Christmas directly, except for
very briefly in the following point about chimney sweeps: "The red
mushroom with white spots appears frequently on greeting cards to
convey good wishes and a seasonal message of happy augury,.... A
noteworthy thing: this attribute of happy augury belonging to the [fly
agaric mushroom] is regarded by chimney-sweeps as peculiarly theirs."
(19) It seems that something much more than a friendly association of
good luck charms is going on here. Santa Claus is a chimney slider,
which is to say, the chimney sweeps know his secrets and vice versa.
Perhaps the chimney sweep profession represents a secret society that
held on to the shaman's ancient secret of the fly agaric mushroom in
fear of persecution from the church.
To make further sense of the connection of chimney sweeps to the fly
agaric I offer this poem by the 17th century visionary, William Blake.
Through it we can get a deeper look into the mystery of the top hat
wearing chimney-sweeps and their hidden knowledge.
William Blake from Songs of Innocence:
"And so he was quiet, and that very night/As Tom was a-sleeping, he
had such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned &
Jack,/Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an Angel who had a bright key,/And he'd open the coffins
and set them all free; Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they
run,/And wash in the river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,/They rise upon
clouds and sport in the wind; And the Angel told Tom, if he'd been a
good boy,/He'd have God for his father, and he'd never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,/And got with our bags and
our brushes to work. Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy and
warm;/So if all do their duty they need not fear harm." (20)
This poem offers another clue to the hidden meaning of mushrooms,
chimney sweeps and Christmas in its underlying theme of death,
resurrection and enlightenment. One can also detect a possible hidden
reference to the fly agaric mushroom as well. Blake begins this poem
with the line "and so he was quiet" which describes a prerequisite
condition for a visionary state - inner silence. Then Tom, as the
chimney-sweep is called, has not a dream but a vision ("such a
sight!") while he was sleeping. Sleeping in this case could actually
refer to a meditative state either naturally or chemically induced,
especially after the initial proclamation that he was quiet first and
foremost. Also, the fly agaric sometimes induces a temporary
unconscious sleep like state in those who ingest it. (21)
In his vision Tom sees "thousands" of chimney-sweeps, himself
included, sealed in black coffins which is clearly symbolic of death.
Then an Angel appears to Tom with a "bright key" to set them free,
clearly an allegory of resurrection. This can also be read, in my
opinion, as a reference to the fly agaric with its bright red color
and its potential for unlocking the doors to eternity. Which is
exactly what happens next in our poem when Tom and the other
chimney-sweeps frolic and play in an Edenic garden before they
miraculously ascend to the heavens, "rise upon clouds and sport in the
wind." Then the angel told Tom, if he was a good boy he'd have God as
a father which sounds strikingly similar to Christ, the son of God.
Finally, when Tom has to get back to the daily grind of his earthly
existence, and although they "arose in the dark" and the "morning was
cold" we are assured that the wisdom of the experience is still with
him as he was "happy and warm" and without fear.
Here we have an allegorical descriptive of a classic psychedelic
journey: first silence, then death followed by a visitation from an
angel, or celestial "other" with the "bright key" to paradise
culminating in an out of body ascension. These are universal
ingredients found in reports of shamanic voyages and psychedelic
experiences throughout time and across the globe. This visionary poem
suggests that the chimney sweep craft is a vital link from the middle
ages to modernity that perhaps carries with it the knowledge of
mushroom shamanism during the dark ages of theocratic rule.
The three ominous colors, red, white and black resonate throughout
time with Santa's magic. And while many writers have noted the
mysterious power these colors have on the Western mind, few have
connected them with the fly agaric. For example, In his book The
Winter Solstice: the Sacred Traditions of Christmas by John Matthew's,
the author suggests that fire and snow account for the power that red
and white hold over us: "...The symbolism of red fire in the white
desert of Winter is a vital image. Is it stretching the point too far
to see an echo of this in the red and white costume and white beard of
[Santa Claus]? Certainly the importance of these colors throughout the
northern world is beyond question." (22) Matthews talks of the
shaman's flying reindeer and his journey through the heavens in search
of the gifts of fire and prophecy, but never attempts to explain how
the shaman might come to accomplish this supernatural feat. The fly
agaric mushroom and it's powerful medicine are not mentioned.
Robert Bly writes about the symbolic significance of the colors red,
white and black in his book about men, Iron John. (23) "The fairy tale
hero or heroine, whether in Russian, German, or Finnish tales, who
chances to see a drop of red blood fall from a black raven into the
white snow, sinks immediately into a yogic trance. That suggests the
vast power red, black, and white have or have had over human
consciousness up through the middle Ages." (24) Bly uses the story
Iron John to explore men's issues and finds a thread of truth and hope
in recovering men's power by getting in touch with the archetypal wild
man through reclaiming male initiation. He offers a vast array of
potential interpretations for the symbolism of red, white and black.
Among them are sexual symbols; white for semen and red for menstrual
blood. Alternatively, birth, maturity and death are offered for the
meaning of white, red and black, respectively. But ultimately Bly
settles on the idea that the three colors represent a developmental
sequence, a spiritual maturation process, phases of initiation. Red
for youth, white for adulthood and black for old age, for example. Yet
the red and white mushroom is never considered. As we have seen,
entheogenic mushrooms have been a vital component in spiritual
initiation for humans throughout time.
It seems that many Santa Claus scholars are either frustratingly
overlooking the fly agaric, for one reason or another, or they are
choosing to omit it. In her book Santa, The Last of the Wild Men,
Phyllis Siefker connects Santa Claus back to a 50,000 year old
tradition of shamanism through the persistence of wild-man plays into
the 20th century in Europe intended to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
The consistent theme found in these plays is the sacrificial death and
resurrection of the village wild-man for the well being of the
community. In the play, the horned wild-man is hunted and killed for
his affiliation with the young maiden of the village, only to be
miraculously reborn again. Siefker notes the similarity in the themes
of these plays and those found in the classic shamanic experience, as
we have seen time and again, "there are similarities too striking to
ignore or chalk up to coincidence. . . We are asking questions to
which no firm answers exist, yet the overwhelming similarities of
these rituals, and the astonishing pervasiveness of their spread
throughout Europe, imply an origin so ancient and so deeply rooted, it
may have predated any Europe an civilization, indigenous or imported."
(25) That this scholar may have missed a vital component in the answer
to her question is evidence of how big of a secret the fly agaric
really is. There is still such a legacy of fear and misunderstanding
about hallucinogenic mushrooms that many of us simply refuse to
consider the role they have played in forming the human mind.
It is clear to me that plant and mushroom entheogens were once the
birth rite of every human being. Gradually, they became controlled and
substituted with cheaper and more addictive substances. Terence
McKenna discusses this process thoroughly in his revolutionary book,
Food of the Gods. He writes, "Hierarchically imposed religion and,
later, hierarchically dispensed scientific knowledge were substituted
for any sort of direct experience of the mind behind nature." (26)
McKenna concedes that the original sacraments in any religion were no
doubt entheogenic in nature whether cannabis, cactus, mushroom or some
other rare flower. Sadly, humans have replaced the nectar of the gods
with cheap substitutes. McKenna names alcohol, tobacco, sugar, coffee,
tea, heroin, cocaine and television all as substitutes for the
psychedelic experience, calling them drugs of a dominator style
society. He reminds us that the slave trade and colonialism were
developed and sustained by these goods which offer only temporary
stimulation and frustrating addictions. Sugar, caffeine, alcohol and
tobacco have been culturally supported whereas the sacramental use of
entheogenic mushrooms are still demonized and outlawed.
I personally see Coca-Cola as a substitute for the Amanita muscaria.
This popular beverage contains sugar, caffeine and at one time
cocaine. What other single brand name drink is celebrated all over the
world and has influenced modern culture more than Coca-Cola? It is
drunk at anytime of any day in any situation by the very young as well
as the very old. It is allowed in our work places and schools. One can
say that Coca-Cola is deified, like the once great Soma, Vedic god of
intoxication. Coke is our present-day, devolved elixir of life, and
yet it stills bears an uncanny resemblance to the very thing it
replaced - one of the world's oldest entheogens - the fly agaric
mushroom. Like Santa Claus, both the fly agaric and this popular soft
drink can be instantly recognized by the ominous color trio red, white
and black. After all, it was Coca-Cola that helped create the
contemporary image of Santa Claus when in 1931 illustrator Haddon
Sundblom turned to Clement Clarke Moore's famous poem for inspiration
and associated the "jolly old elf" forever more with advertising and
commercialism. Even Coca-Cola's current look still relies on its
relationship with Santa Claus. Images of the north pole, polar bears
and seals playing with brightly colored red balls dotted with white
stars can be seen anywhere, any time of the year. Coca-Cola seems to
constantly be reminding us of the fly agaric mushroom. Large red
circles carefully airbrushed in light and shadow with glistening white
drops of water mimic big open mushroom caps with white spots. It can
be seen on the interstates painted brightly on Coca Cola's delivery
trucks and proudly advertised on billboards across America.
Again, this brings up the question of whether Coca-ColaŐs CEO's,
marketing teams, advertisers or illustrators are at all in the know
about the relationship between Santa Claus and the fly agaric. My
personal feeling is that they are not. I do not detect a conspiracy to
deliberately keep the fly agaric hidden. Instead, I feel that we have
allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have overindulged in
materialism and neglected the spirit realm. This is a message from our
own collective higher self communicated to us through our
semiconscious language of archetypes and icons, through the colors
red, white and black and our most popular drinks. If Coca-Cola, the
fly agaric and Santa Claus are trying to tell us something what could
it be? Is it something as simple as 'eat more mushrooms and drink less
soda' ? Probably so. At a time when our holiday rituals seem anything
but sacred, entheogenic mushrooms offer a viable alternative. They are
only effective, however if we can somehow integrate this esoteric
initiation process into a culturally supported framework of values,
laws and customs.
The classic shamanic journey accessed through powerful entheogens like
the fly agaric represents a direct personal relationship with god, a
freedom that we, as humans have not yet fully won. As federally
sanctioned research into the nature of psychedelics resumes in the
United States and the criminalization of powerful plants like cannabis
and mushrooms is being questioned in the worlds courts, I feel moved
to speak my truth on this subject. (27) I would like to see entheogens
accepted as a valid way to experience oneŐs self. I believe they offer
a window into the dying process, an understanding of which is lacking
among humans today. I see the subject of Santa Claus and the Amanita
muscaria as an opportunity to gently provoke thoughts and questions
about these deep and murky subjects. Perhaps, ultimately what will
come out of this awareness is the greatest promise made by Christmas;
peace on earth and good will toward men..... which, from my experience
is the promise of the mushroom, too.
End Notes
(1) In this essay, I use the term entheogen to mean generating, or
awakening the inherently divine. I use the term entheogen along with
psychedelic and hallucinogen to refer to any sacramental mushroom or
fungus, plant, flower, vine, or derivative thereof which leads to an
experience of the inherently divine nature of reality. The Amanita
muscaria is one such psychoactive sacrament which must be dried
completely before ingestion to avoid unsafe levels of toxicity.
(2) Clement Clarke Moore 'Twas the Night Before Christmas The Sentinel
1823 NY Newspaper
(3) ibid.
(4) ibid.
(5) The use of Amanita muscaria by Siberian and Netherlandish shamans
to enter non-ordinary states of awareness was documented extensively
in the19th and 20th centuries by explorers and scientists on
governmental mission, anthropologists and linguists. A lot of this
documentation is included in the book Soma by RG Wasson. Also, Mircea
Elide was a pioneer of research into shamanism, particularly Siberian
and Northern European traditions. While Eliade does acknowledge the
use of the amanita muscaria by these people, he judges it negatively
as a degenerate form of shamanism compared to non-chemically induced
techniques. Mircea Eliade Techniques of Ecstasy.
(6) Mircea Eliade, Michael Harner, Carlos Castaneda, Alberto Villoldo,
Joan Halifax and Terence McKenna have made invaluable contributions to
the study of Shamanism in the 20th century.
(7) R.G. Wasson, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich NY 1968)p.161
(8) In the documentation of the shamanic use of fly agaric provided by
Wasson in Soma, there are several accounts of the mushrooms ability to
give extra strength and endurance in work, travel and dance.
(9) Clark Heinrich, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy (Park
Street Press VT 2002) p.17
(10) ibid. pp. 120-121
(11) In the structural analysis of the book, Castaneda identifies the
hallucinogenic mushroom that allowed him to become a crow as Psilocybe
mexicana. Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of
Knowledge (Simon & Schuster, NY 1968)p161
(12) ibid. pp129, 131
(13) Road to Eleusis by Wasson, Ruck & Hofmann makes a strong case for
the presence of an LSD like ergot based entheogen at the mystery rites
performed each fall outside of Athens Greece during early antiquity.
(14) John Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: a study of the
nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the
ancient near east. (Doubleday NY 1970)
(15) James Arthur, Mushrooms and Mankind, at jamesarthur.net
(17) Clark Heinrich, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy (Park
Street Press VT 2002)
(18) There is still a scholarly debate about the identity of Soma with
possible solutions ranging from the Amanita muscaria, Stropharia
cubensis, and Cannabis sativa.
(19) He uses his extensive documentation to make a point about the
Indian practice of drinking urine, connecting it with that particular
method of ingesting the essence of the fly agaric mushroom, which is
said to be among the most reliable and potent.
(20) R. G. Wasson Soma p.20.
(21) William Blake from Songs of Innocence from The Climbing Boys by
K.H. Strange (Allison and Busby Limited, London 1982)
(22) Clarke Heinrich tells us "This unconscious state can mimic
death.....this dying without dying motif is present throughout the
hidden mythology of the fly agaric.Ó Magic Mushrooms in Religion and
Alchemy p.16.
(23) John Matthews, The Winter Solstice: the Sacred Traditions of
Christmas (Quest Books IL 1998)p.117
(24) Bly, Robert. Iron John: A Book About Men (Reading, Mass: Addison
Wesley 1990)
(25) ibid. p199-200
(27) Phyllis Siefker, Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: the Origins
and Evolution of St. Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years (McFarland, NC
1997)
(28) Terence McKenna, Food of the Gods: the Search for the Original
Tree of Knowledge (Bantam Books 1992) p223
(29) Rick Strassman directed federally funded research on the powerful
entheogen dimethyltryptamine. DMT: the Spirit Molecule (Park Street
Press VT 2001) And Canada is leading the west in decriminalizing the
use and possession of cannabis, especially for medical purposes.
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