Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| To stand within the pleasure dome Decreed by Kubla Khan To taste anew the fruits of life The last immortal man To find the sacred river Alph To walk the caves of ice Oh, I will dine on honey dew And drink the milk of paradise, oh paradise – Xanadu by Rush (Neil Elwood Peart / Gary Lee Weinrib / Alex Zivojinovich) Chapter 7: Dragon Lords of Atlantis It was the first emperor of China, Emperor Qin Shi-huang (259 BC - 210 BC) who unified all of China and built the great wall to keep the Mongols and marauding tribes out. As we will see in an upcoming chapter, this was the same time Rome was taking over the world, and Alexander the Great had already conquered all of Asia. Since Rome took over from Greece, the control that Greece had taken, I think it is safe to say China has been under Graeco-Roman influence and control from this point onward. In other words, what we see emerging from China at this point on is the reintroduction of mushroom use after a period of a likely purge. There isn’t much information on mushrooms in Asia long before this time period. At least not available to Western culture which I have had the opportunity to review. I have by no means scratched the surface of the ancient artifact world in this book, so there are undoubtedly far more pieces and far older than what I have pictured here. The earliest artifact I have to relate to here is a metal Jue, a ritual wine vessel from Western Zhou, in China, c. 1045 BC- 771 BC (29b). The earliest mushroom figurine pieces I have found so far in Asia are from the Jomon Era, in Aomori Japan, c. 1,200-800 BC, which have the typically distinctive body shape (29d). During the Han Dynasty we see the largest selection, it seems, including a bronze female votive Kohl (ancient eye cosmetics) container, c. 100 BC, with raised up arms and a mushroom shaped head (29h); ceramic style mushroom goddesses casting veils, c. 200BC-200 AD (29i); and in the later Tang Dynasty, c. 618-907, mushroom headed goddesses are being crafted (29c). The Tang Dynasty also created more occulted methods of displaying the mushroom including a wall plaque with two female dancers whose bodies together create the mushroom symbolism in perfectly symmetrical yin yang harmony (29g). |
  R: (29d) Japanese Figurine Jomon Era Aomori Japan c. 1,200 -800 BC L: (29h) Bronze Female Votive Kohl Container c. 100 BC    M: (29i) Han Dynasty Pottery Lady Figure c. 200 BC.-200 AD ; R: (29c) Chinese Tang Dynasty Court Lady c. 618-907 AD  (29g) East Asia, China, Tang Dynasty, c. 618-907 AD |
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