Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| Bird and Serpent Goddess Symbolism According to the definitions of iconography in Egypt, the serpent was called “life of the earth,” the “son of the earth,” “full of years,” the “life of the gods,” and the “life of forms and of nutritious substances.” (47) The serpent has also been associated with enlightenment throughout the ages. Some ancient Greek coins have the serpent and the Phoenix crowned with the diadem or halo of enlightenment (54h; 98b). The crown is associated with wisdom and wealth and sometimes the serpent wears the crown. Legends say the person who struggles with a huge white snake acquires a crown that enables one to know all there is, to see hidden treasures and the ability to understand the language of animals. European folklore mentions the individual who eats or tastes the flesh of the white snake with be endowed with knowledge. (49)  (54h) Roman Marcianopolis. Serpent, Halo c. 198 AD  (98b) Constantine, Rome, Phoenix, c. 348-350 AD In Egypt and Mesopotamia, seals and scaraboids reveal the serpent to be an emblem of “life.” (50) Serpent symbolism is common to many cultures and what is usually the case is that cultures borrow from each other. It should not be assumed that the symbolism developed worldwide at the same time, because that would be impossible. That would insinuate that the serpent being important to foundations of mythology was due to an appropriation within the collective consciousness, and I would argue against that point in this book. Ideas spread through cultures like viral memes do today. I will demonstrate throughout this book how ancient cultures traveled by sea thousands of years ago and how early Turks first settled the Americas at least 1000 BC. Travel by sea certainly did not start with Columbus. (47) |
In the town of Gournia, in eastern Crete, in an excavation, was found the Late Minoan I shrine. The shrine was four by three meters. In it were found some tables, tube shaped vessels with snakes wrapped around them, a bell-shaped female idol with raised hands and a snake wrapped around her body, a couple of heads of (snake) goddesses, a couple of snake heads, and small birds as well as several clay fragments. (51) In the mythology of the goddess, both the bird and snake play a prominent role, as well as the egg. We see over and over the goddess with either a bird head or body, a serpent’s head or body and both of these creatures are hatched from eggs, giving them a common characteristic. In the early Dynastic period, Egypt was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, and Nekhebt, whose symbol was the vulture, ruled Upper Egypt while Ua Zit (Au Set in Greek=Isis), a serpent goddess, ruled Lower Egypt. Here we have the symbolism of the bird in the sky and the serpent in the underworld, directly represented in the Egyptian pantheon even down to geographic localities. (52) If we ask ourselves “how does the reptile or avian represent a goddess,” we might be inclined to answer as many so called “experts” would and say, “These are animals that represent nature and the goddess represented nature.” We also have the goddess with horns like the deer or bull and even a toad. What we should probably be asking ourselves is “what does the bird, the snake, the egg, the bull and toad all have in common? The answer to that would be the mushroom. So, the next question might be, “how many confirmed mushroom goddess figurines do we know of that exist? There are many of those being discovered and even more undiscovered, I’m certain. I’m certainly not discounting the role of fertility here, I’m only adding to it the possibility that there is one more symbolic meaning to consider, the most esoteric and possibly the most important meaning of all, the “occulted” one. One has to wonder about the fact that none of these authors other than Marija Gimbutas and Robert Graves paid any consideration to the mushroom mythology of the ancient people and now we are finding its importance to religion cannot be discounted. If the author never mentioned it, it’s likely because they overlooked it entirely, which leaves a lot of room for mistakes in the works they have contributed. That’s a huge “error by omission.” (53) (47) The Serpent and the Goddess, p. 8; (Joines, Serpent Symbolism, p. 111) (48) The Language of the Goddess, p. 134 (49) (K. Joines, Serpent Symbolism in the Old Testament (Haddonfielkd, NJ: Haddonfield House, 1974), p. 20) (50) The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, p. 75 (51) When God was a Woman, p. 35-7 (52) Mythology and Symbols of the Mother Goddess, p. 78 (53) When God was a Woman, p. 199 |
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