Mushrooms And Dung
In a shelter in Tin Abouteka, in Tassili, there is a picture appearing at least twice which associates mushrooms and fish, a unique association of symbols among some cultures. Two mushrooms are depicted opposite each other, in a perpendicular position with regard to the fish motif and near the tail. Not far from here, above, we find other fish which are similar to the aforementioned but without the side-mushrooms. In the same Tin Abouteka scene, yet another remarkable image could be explained in the light of ethno-mycological enquiry. In the middle we find an anthropomorphous figure traced only by an outline. The image is not complete and the body is bending; it probably also has a bow behind this figure, we find two mushrooms which seem to be positioned as though they were coming out from behind the beings. If the mushrooms in question are those which grow in dung, the association between these mushrooms and the rear of the figure may not be purely casual. It is known that many psychotropic mushrooms (above all, Psilocybe and Panaeolus genera) live in dung of certain quadrupeds and in particular cows and horses. This specific ecological phenomenon cannot but have been taken into account with regard to the sacramental use of psychotropic mushrooms, leading to the creation of mystical religious relations between the mushroom and the animal which produces its natural habitat. The dung left by herds of quadrupeds were important clues for prehistoric hunters on the lookout for game, and the deepening of such schatological knowledge probably goes back to the Paleolithic period (the long period of the hunter of large game). Thus we have a further argument in favor of the version of events that would have it that there have been mythical associations, with religious interpretations, on different occasions, between the (sacred) animal and the hallucinogenic mushroom. The sacred deer in the Mesoamerican cultures and the cow in Indian Hindu culture (the dung of which provides a habitat for Psilocybe cubensis, a powerful hallucinogen still used today) could be interpreted in this zooschatological manner (Wasson, 1986:44; Furst, 1974; Samorini, 1988). In a painting at Jabbaren - one of the most richly endowed Tassili sites - there are at least 5 people portrayed in a row kneeling with their arms held up before them in front of three figures two of which are clearly anthropomorphous. It could be a scene of adoration in which the three figures would represent divinities or mythological figures. The two anthropomorphous figures have large horns while the upper portion of the third figure, behind them, is shaped like a large mushroom. If the scene is indeed a scene of adoration, it is an important testimonial as to Round Heads mystico-religious beliefs. This scene would thus be the representation of a Holy Trinity illustrated by a precise iconography. It is worth bearing in mind the fact that the upper part of one of the three figures in the adoration scene is mushroom-shaped. It could be related to the iconographic figure at Aouonrhat and Motaiem-Amazar described above. But the more or less anthropomorphous figures with mushroom.shaped heads are to be found repeatedly in Round Head art, some with hat-heads of unboned or papillate form which on two occasions are of a bluish color while others carry a leaf or a small branch. The occurrence of various data suggests the presence of a very ancient hallucinogenic mushroom cult with a complex differentiation between botanical species and related mythological representations. Indeed it would be remarkable to find out that, as part of the culture of the late Stone Age which 7,000 to 9,000 years ago produced Round Heads rock art, we were in the presence of the oldest human culture yet discovered in which explicit representations of the ritual use of psychotropic mushrooms are to be found. Therefore, as the founders of modern ethno-mycology had already put forward - and this is especially true of Wasson (1986) - this Saharian testimony would demonstrate that the use of hallucinogens originates in the Paleolithic period and is invariably include within mystico-religious contexts and rituals.
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Regarding mushrooms in Mesoamerican art...
ReplyDeleteI have identified widespread mushroom imagery in numerous photographs and drawings of Maya vase paintings at the Justin Kerr Data Base at FAMSI. My research follows up on my late father's study of mushroom stones and the ritual ballgame, archaeologist Stephan F. de Borhegyi better known as "Borhegyi".
Photographed in roll-out form by Justin Kerr Maya vase painting K5857 depicts the true sacredness of the deer and the deer hunt. As we known many psychotropic mushrooms like the Psilocybe live and then sprout from the dung of certain quadrupeds. In Mesoamerica mushrooms are clearly associated with the deer. In the vase painting, which can be seen along with others at mushroomstone.com the deer in the hunt has tiny little mushrooms cleverly encoded above the antlers . Mushrooms found growing in deer dung were considered safe to eat and a gift from the gods. Pre-Columbian mushroom stones carved with the image of a deer have been found in the Guatemala Highlands near or in bottle shaped storage pits (see Borhegyi 1965a). I have suggested that these bottle shaped pits, thought to be used for food storage were used to cultivate the spores of wild mushrooms.
A drawing by Persis Clarkson. Copyright FLAAR 1976, (Justin Kerr Data Base): Late Classic Maya cylindrical vase depicts the killing of a deer and a woman, maybe the Moon Goddess with a backpack behind her full of wild mushrooms. She is being led into the underworld by a man with a hunters hat I identify as Hun Ahau, father of the legendary Hero Twins of the Maya Popol Vuh. They both are depicted on a river spiral heading down a serpent-shaped river leading to the underworld of jaguar transformation. Note the underworld jaguar may represent Hun Ahau's twin brother Yax Balam lurking below. In Maya mythology the deer is closely associated with Hun Ahau ( Hun Hunahpu) the deer hunter who represents the daysign Ahaw. The Ahaw or Lord of the Underworld was the living embodiment of the Underworld who represents the sun from the previous world age.
Another drawing from the Justin Kerr Data Base by Lin Crocker. c FLAAR 1976, depicts mushrooms in a sacred offering plate under the tail of the deer.
According to Gordon Wasson...
" Wherever we studied the story of Early Man, we (have) discovered hallucinogenic mushrooms in use, hedged about with awesome beliefs and trappings of the Holy....The use of mushrooms, if I am right, spread over most of Eurasia and the Americas, and as Stone Age Man has emerged into the light of proto-history these strange fungi may well have been the primary secret of his sacred Mysteries. (prelude, page xvi) .... When we look at the mushroom stones we must always remember that in pre-Conquest times most art, if not all, was religious, as it once was in Europe. And we must remember that the hold on the inner life of the Mesoamerican peoples of the ethnogeny, notably the entheogenic mushrooms, was all-powerful, as it is to this day in remote corners of highland Mexico. Those who have not explored the role of the entheogens in the cultural past of Mesoamerica easily overlook that role or assume that it was of minor importance, solely because for us it is of no importance”. (Wasson 1957. 2 vols, p.189; 1980)
Carl de Borhegyi
(see images at mushroomstone.com)
Lovely posting. I was reading and then saw my botanical potting table.
ReplyDeleteThank you for showing it here. spore syringe