| Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face Stars fill my dream I'm a traveler of both time and space To be where I have been Sit with elders of the gentle race This world has seldom seen They talk of days for which they sit and wait All will be revealed – Kashmir - (John Bonham / Robert Anthony Plant / James Patrick (Jimmy) Page) Chapter 5: India and the First Priesthood India Creation Myths In the following sections, I have emphasized the important words to recognize, but overall, these myth sections are here to familiarize the reader with all the various qualities that are given to the multiplicity of goddesses and gods. What I have set out to focus on are the qualities they are share in common which relate to the entheogenic mushroom. The main aspects of these myths to be aware of are all the various ways these deities came to represent the mushroom. All mythological deities are the same, for the most part. They are all mushroom goddesses and gods. What we see here is the idea that early mythology went from earth and nature-based folklore to stories of conquering war-like “heroes” and what is important to keep in mind while all this can get very confusing, is that it’s not a strict, rigid system of science. Some deities become intermingled and there are many of them. Sometimes attributes change. Some deities are specifically earth, sky, water related or fire related, but overall, they are aspects of the mushroom itself in one form or another as they are meant to convey nature principles which allow the mushroom to flourish. Traditionally, they are referred to as personalities of the various “healing” deities. Sky deities include all birds, such as eagles, doves, owls and vultures as well as the thunder and lightning. Earth deities include serpents, ox, bulls and cows, as well as sheep and lions, and even toads and salamanders. There are also wind and fire deities as well. The primary areas of mythological focus are the sky and earth deities who represent thunder and lightning, for whom the ancient people believed to engender the mushroom growth at the base of the pine trees where the mushrooms would grow or from the cow dung. The sky brought the rainfall, or the milk of the goddess and this milk was the milk of the mother cow goddess. The mother cow goddess gave her milk and this rainfall caused the mushrooms to grow. While I give credit to John Allegro for all the information he presented which was solid and correct, this fact appears to have been completely overlooked by his male-centric mind. The great deity in the sky was not a big phallus which caused sperm rainfall and caused little phalluses to grow, though he was pretty close, I |
think. The great deity in the sky was the mother cow goddess and she was nourishing with “her milk,” not giving birth by “his semen.” The ancient people did, however, recognize the hermaphroditic nature of the mushroom and therefore, the virgin birth was considered a phallus of the goddess. The mushroom was not a phallus represented to display male vanity, as would be assumed by yesterday’s anthropologists, but a symbol for the male aspect of fertility of the goddess. The sky was home to a “Great Mother,” not a father deity. We call our galaxy the Milky Way for a reason. The galaxy is shaped like a spiral and this is a feminine symbol. In Babylonian myth, the Milky Way was created from the tail of the female dragon Tiamat. Marduk placed it in the sky after slaying her. In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was formed after Hermes suckled the infant Heracles at the breast of Hera while she was sleeping. (1) The ancients obviously felt the galaxy was feminine and these were life birthing qualities being mythologized. The bull, or cow with horns, was simply another aspect of the goddess, having uterus shaped horns and representing fertility in more ways than one. These were the progenitors of the mushroom, for the civilizations that started to travel with cowherds, especially, this would seem significant. Nomads travelling with cows would always have access to their own sacraments. It seems apparent to me that this was the whole reason for tending cattle in the very earliest times. Ideas of eating the cows themselves were probably not “on the menu,” considering their sacred function and status. This was well understood in the pre-Hindu belief systems and still survives to this day, in some places. Holy cow! Holy shit! Most folks say it without even thinking about it. That’s how programmed away from our natural state and our own ancient identities, understandings and beliefs we have become. Examples of cow-goddesses are Neith and Hathor in Egypt, Nin-Khursag in Mesopotamia, and Anat in Syria, Lakshmi and Parvati in India and many more. India has retained her cultural history despite invasion, from the very beginning, therefore, sacred knowledge has remained intact. This gives us a chance to go deep into the mythology and this depth will not be repeated in subsequent chapters until we reach the Judaic and Christian era. All over the world, there are “Creation Myths,” and although many of them are similar, they are often very different in detail. The main theme is always nature, or the characteristics of nature embodied in human or god-like form. (1) Leeming, David Adams (1998). Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero (Third ed). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 44 |