Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| The Cosmic Egg The story of the Cosmic Egg started in the second century AD, when Athenagoras recorded the myth of the primordial waters from which the serpent with the head of both a lion and a bull and a third face of a giant, emerged from the deep. The giant, Kronos, created an Egg and the egg split in two and from the upper part came the sky and the lower part became the earth. Considering that this was a Greek myth, Marija Gimbutas suggests the myth would have been simplified in earlier times to just be a horned serpent emerging and then laying the egg which split in two and became the world. (5) The World Egg The creation of the world, as in the “World Egg” occurred when the “Great Goddess,” Eurynome coupled with the “World Snake,” Ophion. This is the symbol of the Caduceus, recognized by everyone today as the symbol for medicine, two snakes twirled around a staff. The Goddess then laid the “World Egg,” which was later split open by the Demiurge, and hatched into the Earth and World Tree. This “egg” was sometimes identified as the “Red Egg of the Sea Serpent” in the Druidic mysteries. The concept of the World Tree goes back into Norse mythology as well. The Cock or rooster was the Ophic “Bird of Resurrection,” sacred to Apollo’s son Asclepius, the healer. This is when hen’s eggs took the place of snake’s eggs as a symbol for the mushroom and were used in the festival of Easter when they were colored scarlet for the Easter celebrations. (6) In ancient Chinese mythology, the Yin Yang symbol is the very first picture drawing occurrence of the fertilized and divided egg. (7) Cosmic Eggs and the World Eggs may both be considered as a potential mushroom spore or prime surfacing of the egg from the ground. The A. muscaria is the “red egg” (8e). The fertility/life-cycle of the mushroom is what we celebrate on Easter. If one examines early Americana Easter greeting postcards, one can find both mushrooms, along with baby chicks, and women dancing around a giant egg, the same as the fairies dance around the mushroom (91).  (91) Easter Greeting Cards Early 1900s |
The Tree of Life The Tree of Life or the imagery and concept of it goes back at least to Sumer and Mesopotamia. Clay seals show the goddess in the garden with someone else, possibly a priest (24, e, g). The tree is also depicted on Aramean steles (16 l), as well as those of King Sargon from the period of 716-713 BC (23b, h). The Tree of Life is slowly replaced by grass, according to M. Eliade: “After the time of King Gudea, the tree of Life slowly begins to fade out of the Sumer-Akkad culture, and is replaced by the “Grass of Life” growing in vases” (24f). (8)  (24e) Tree of Life in Middle Flanked by Worshippers and Apkalllu (Seven Sages) Shamash Above  (24g) Dagon Flanking Tree of Life with Shamash Above L: (23b) Relief from the Palace of King Sargon II at Dur Sharrukin in Assyria c. 716-713 BC   R: (23h) Carchemish Tree of Life (5)The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, p. 102 (6) The White Goddess, p. 248 (7) Mythology and Symbols of the Mother Goddess, p. 179; M. Soymie, "La Lune dans les Religions Chinoises" Paris. 1962. pp. 299-30 (8) Mythology and Symbols of the Mother Goddess, p. 155 footnote; (M. Eliade “Traite d’Histoire des Religions” Paris, 1949, pp. 248-49.) |
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