Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| 1973: Marvel Spotlight on Ghost Rider # 9, featured a cover with the words, “The Bride of the Serpent God.” Marvel Comics Creatures on the Loose featuring Thongor, and has a title with “Warrior of Lost Lemuria – Doom of the Serpent Gods.”   |
1974: The Land that Time Forgot was a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, written in 1918, which itself traces back to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912); Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island (1874) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). The Land that Time Forgot was adapted to the big screen in 1974. It was about a crew of a U-boat who end up in Antarctic waters. They hit a fresh water current which guides the boat into a subterranean passage and they reenter into a prehistoric world where ape men and dinosaurs still rule the earth. This plot combines the idea of entrance into the earth through the “top of the world” with a “parallel universe existing alongside us.” The Land of the Lost was a television series based off this same concept. It featured Marshall, Will and Holly who had gotten lost in a waterfall while river rafting, travelled down through a spiral and ended up in the Land of the Lost. That in itself, is very shamanic. The journey through time, instead of the window or the beanstalk or the forest. They are forced to live with dinosaurs all around them, and deal with the complexities of life, living under fear from being eaten, but they make friends with a few plant grazing dinos and meet a little wook friend in the forest named Cha-ka, a Pakuni. He becomes a sort of guide for them. Is Pakuni a play on Puka? They soon learn that the only way to go back to their time from the Stone Age is through a group of lizard men called the Sleestak, who control a time doorway which, when fitted with the proper colored crystals in the proper geometric placements, will allow them to return. The only problem is that the Sleestak like to shoot darts at any intruders and these “darts” put one to sleep so they can take the humans or enemies captive. The sleestak are merely drones for their leader Enik, who is actually more like an intelligent old reptile philosopher who would really like to help the group go home, but he never seems to be able to accomplish it for one reason or another. Enik likes to spend his leisure time in the Library of Skulls. This next bit is from the fan page for the movie, and I liked what it said so I reproduced it here. Pretty cool: “The Library of Skulls is located in the Lost City. It is a foggy cavern containing glowing Altrusian skulls and urns on pedestals and ledges. The urns emit a “sacred smoke” that induces a form of telepathy that allows the user to communicate with the Skulls, however a lengthy exposure to the smoke causes hallucinations.” (9) I would have probably spent a good deal of time there myself. (9) http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Library_of_Skulls |
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