Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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 (47e) Lekythos - Warrior, Female, Winged Eros Greek South Italic, Apulia c. 370 to 360 BC The Torch Origin & Feast of Lights The “Feast of Lights,” referred to as Imbolc or St. Brigid’s Day, is a Gaelic festival held on Feb. 1, honoring the rites of spring. Fires were lit and torches were left burning all night while a bed of corn and hay was left surrounded by candles, as a rite welcoming the goddess back to earth and inviting her to bring fertility to the lands again. (99) As to the origin of the goddess as the “light-bearer,” we can look to a quote by E.O. James, in Cult of the Mother Goddess, where he points out: “…as the sacred light became a symbol of the Holy Child who was declared to be the ‘light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel,’ so as Mary came into greater prominence as the ‘light-bearer,’ the Mystery significance of the festival was complete.” (99) This led to the idea of the torch being held by the goddess represented as the Statue of Liberty. I believe this descended to us from the cornucopia iconography since the goddess used to hold a mushroom (56b, c, d), and now she holds a torch. The “torch of enlightenment,” no less (56f). The concept of the “vestal virgins” appears to have emerged from the tradition of keeping these sacred fires lit. In Rome, the Vestal Virgins played a major religious role. The virgins were so respected in Rome, that not even Juvenal, the Roman satirist would dare to criticize them. If, however, the fires were to be extinguished a heavy price would have to be paid. There was great responsibility in this role. (100) At the same time, these women enjoyed a high degree of privilege in Roman society and were afforded luxuries few women were given. (101) The whole purpose of the Vestal Virgins was to keep the fires alight, but this seems to me to be symbolic of the fire of the mushroom veneration. This fire was considered a revolutionary fire as well. In 1980, James Billington wrote his book on the Founding Father revolutionaries titled Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith. It was a very anti-authoritarian fire, if I might add. The dangerous kind. The kind that has the potential to get under a butt and make someone write a book on the roots of religion. |
Vulcan in Rome In the Roman pantheon, Vulcan was a god of destructive fires whose Greek predecessor was Hephaestus, whom we have already covered. His festival in Rome was called the Volcanalia and held on August 23. (102) Like Thor and Odin, he is a metalsmith and a forger, making tools in the hot smelting pot or oven or cauldron, in this case, inside the volcano. (103) Vulcan has a son named Cacus who was killed by Hercules for stealing some of the giant Geryon’s cattle as Virgil relates in Book VIII of the Aeneid. Cacus, being the son of Vulcan was a fire deity as well. He is interestingly described as a monstrous fire-breathing brigand who terrorized the countryside. The various versions of this story all relate to Hercules famous original place of worship, the Ara Maxima, in the Forum Boarium (Cattle Market). (104) Again, what is with deities stealing cattle? This is a frequent occurrence, we keep reading over and over about. The winter solstice festivals have always been celebrated around the world in one form or another. Epiphanius identified the Roman Saturnalia as the solstice event and in the Panarion, he describes a nightlong vigil with singing flute playing to an idol which they then carry in a procession seven times around the inner temple then bring it back to an underground location. Quoting Panarion: “…If you ask them the meaning of this mystery they reply: ‘At this hour today Kore (that is the Virgin) bore Aeon’.” (105) Saturn was a god of generation, wealth, agriculture and took on the role of “Father of Time” who was most closely associated with the Greek Kronos. The Temple of Saturn housed the state treasury. Saturnus and his descendants were healers and seers. There is evidence that his temple on the Capitoline was built on top of a previously demolished temple. (106) His festival, the Saturnalia which began on December 17, was so popular with the public that it led Seneca to say: “It is the month of December, and yet the city is at this very moment in a sweat. License is given to the general merrymaking. Everything resounds with mighty preparations, – as if the Saturnalia differed at all from the usual business day! So true it is that the difference is nil, that I regard as correct the remark of the man who said: ‘Once December was a month; now it is a year’.” (107) (99) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 219; Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. i, p. 50; J. Ramsay, Scotland and Scotsmen of the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, Edinburgh, 1888, p. 447 (100) Serpent and the Goddess; Sarah Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves (New York: Shocken, 1975), pp. 210-11 (101) ibid, p. 69; Pomeroy, Goddesses, Slaves, p. 213 (102) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulcan (103) Language of the Goddess, p. 69 (104) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cacus-and-Caca (105) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 221; Panarion, li, 22 (106) Fowler, W.W., Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, London, 1899, p. 269 (107) Healing Gods, p. 438-39; Moral letters to Lucilius by Seneca, Letter xviii, 1) (Fowler, W.W., Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, London, 1899, p. 268-273 |
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