| “The spirits of fly-agaric are fond of playing practical jokes on men under their influence. They begin with asking for homage either for themselves or for surrounding objects, - the hills, the river, the moon, etc. Then they show some of the objects under a delusive aspect. When asked why this strange change has occurred, the spirits answer than it portends danger to the man’s life unless he makes obeisance in a particular way. To illustrate. An intoxicated man, while talking to me reasonable enough, suddenly leaped aside, and, dropping on his knees, exclaimed, ‘Hills, how do you do? Be greeted!’ Then he stood up, and, looking at the full moon, asked, ‘O Moon! Why are you waning so fast?’ He told me the spirits answered, ‘Even so will your life wane, unless you show the moon your bare buttocks.’ This he did, and then, suddenly recovering his senses, began to laugh at his foolish actions. “In the third stage the man is unconscious of his surroundings, but he is still active, walking or tumbling about on the ground, sometimes raving, and breaking whatever happens to come into his hands. During this period the agaric spirits take him through various worlds and show him strange sights and peoples. Then a heavy slumber ensues, lasting for several hours, during which it is impossible to rouse the sleeper. How persistent are the spirits commands is shown by the following instance of a man, who, when about to retire, was ordered to lie down in the midst of his dog-team. Although he was attacked by the dogs, we could not keep him away from them. He finally succeeded in staying with the dogs all night.” (40) With regards to human sacrifice this one note of Wasson’s becomes highly important to my particular study of this subject. I’ve previously mentioned my understanding that most, if not all accounts of human sacrifice are unjustified and not substantiated, lack factual data and are prone to hearsay or rumor. Westerners have long heard about the “berserker rage” of the tribal Siberians. I remember reading about this when I was a teenager, learning about the hashishans, or assassins. In the following brief extract from one of Wasson’s accounts in Soma, we read about this “berserker rage” from 1755: “Kamchadals and settled Koryaks also eat mukhomor while planning to kill somebody.” But as Wasson notes, this is never followed up with any more information or evidence of any kind. Wasson, commenting on this, writes: “He gives no examples and as no subsequent writer, not even his own colleague Steller, repeats the statement, much less documents it, we may disbelieve this. Krasheninnikov wrote early and is of historical importance but we possess later informants immeasurably better equipped to tell us about the tribesman. This single sentence, familiar to Odeman may be responsible for the belief that berserk-raging came out of Siberia.” (41) |
When learning earlier about the Rig Veda, the poetry and the formation of language itself, we find some interesting tidbits in the accounts collected by Wasson, with which we can compare these earlier Vedic hymns to. In a book titled The Religion of the Ugrian Folk from 1927, Karjalainen [case 26] writes: “The man who is intoxicated from eating fly-agarics sees the panx ‘dancing before his eyes, invisible to others’; that is to say, they move in the direction of the sun and sing a song, which the intoxicated Ostyak repeats after them word for word, so that the panx act as ‘singing-leaders,’ for the prophesying magician. At the same time the panx tell the magician what he wants to know. “Drum, zither, and panx are the ‘great’ material means by which the Ugrian magician attempts to communicate with the spirits and obtain the information he needs. There are also many other means, both material and mental, used for uncovering mysteries. One such means which is found everywhere and is certainly very ancient is the dream-vision, possibly the natural forerunner of artificially stimulated ecstasy; another is soothsaying based on dreams, and this is what soothsaying with the aid of the panx essentially amounts to.” (42) Santa Clause, the Shaman Many of the details associated with Santa Claus come to us from Siberia, where a red-and-white-clad shaman would carry a sack of mushrooms through town. This was the medicine man who would plow through the snow, delivering the presents for the families. The shaman would carry his mushrooms dried in a sack, after hanging them by a slow burning fire, possibly placing them into stockings of some kind. This is where the imagery comes to us where we hang gifts in stocking by the fireplace. The reindeer love the A. muscaria so we have learned, and will go out of their way to consume it. Therefore, Rudolph has a “red nose.” He is an amanita seeking reindeer and when he eats that amanita mushroom, he probably feels like he is flying, much like we do when we eat them—and as the reindeer probably appear to anyone who has eaten them. The gifts that Santa and his reindeer bring are supposed to be placed in the home, under a “pine tree,” where amanita mushrooms naturally grow. The usual colors are red and green. Red for the amanita mushroom and green for the pine tree. Whether or not there ever was a shaman who went house to house delivering mushrooms through holes in the roof is inconsequential, in all truth. This is the myth that is told to children to keep the fairy tale alive. Most myths as we have seen have no basis in reality in their origins. (40) ibid, p. 274-275; Bogoraz, Vladimir Germanovich. (Bogoras, Waldemar) The Chukchee. Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History. Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Parts 1, 2 and 3. New York. 1904-1909. pp. 205.207 (41) Soma, Wasson, p. 237 (42) ibid, p. 282; Karjalainen, K.F. Die Religion der Jugra-Volker. (Religion of Ugrian Folk) Helsinki. 1927, pp. 278-80 |