The Mushroom in Christian Art_ - John A. Rush.pdf

The Mushroom in Christian Art_ - John A. Rush.pdf

1. THE MUSHROOM IN
CHRISTIAN ART

The Identity of Jesus in the Development of Christianity

JOHN A. RUSH

author of Spiritual Tattoo and Failed God

4. The Mushroom in Christian Art

5. Other books by John A. Rush
Witchcraft and Sorcery: An Anthropological Perspective of the Occult
The Way We Communicate

Clinical Anthropology: An Application of Anthropological Concepts
within Clinical Settings

Stress and Emotional Health: Applications of Clinical Anthropology

Spiritual Tattoo: A Cultural History of Tattooing, Piercing,
Scarification, Branding, and Implants

The Twelve Gates: A Spiritual Passage through the Egyptian Book of
the Dead

Failed God: Fractured Myth in a Fragile World

6. The Mushroom in Christian Art

The Identity of Jesus in the Development of Christianity

John A. Rush

Foreword by Martin W. Ball, PhD

9

North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California

7. Copyright © 2011 by John A, Rush. All rights reserved. No portion of this book,
except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher, For
information contact North Atlantic Books,

Published by
North Atlantic Books.
Berkeley, Califomia

Cover design by Suzanne Albertson
and 4:49: art © Solrunn Nes. Used by permission

The Mushroom in Christian Art: The Identity of Jesus in the Development of
Christianity is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts
and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in
Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural
perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing,
and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the
relationship of body, spirt, and nature.

North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For
further information, visit our Web site at or call 800-
733-3000,

ISBN (e-book): 978-1-62317-400-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rush, John A.

The mushroom in Christian art; the identity of Jesus in the development of
Christianity / John A. Rush ; foreword by Martin W. Ball

P. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index

‘Summary: "The Mushroom in Christian Art analyzes the prevalence of certain
themes—particularly the mushroom—in Christian art and explains how these
images led to the construction of Christianity and the Catholic Church’—Provided
by publisher

ISBN 978-1-55643-960-5

1. Christian art and symbolism. 2. Mushrooms—Religious aspects—Chvistianity
3. Jesus Christ—Person and offices. |. Title. I. Title: Identity of Jesus in the
development of Christianity

8. N8180.R87 2011
704,9'482—de22 2010030470

9. Table of Contents

All images can be viewed at

10. When Dr. John Rush published his book Failed God, he mentioned
in a personal conversation that he had asked several Christian art
historians about the curious presence of mushrooms in Christian art
The response he was given by all he asked was the same: there
were no mushrooms in Christian art. Dr. Rush's latest book, The
Mushroom in Christian Art: The Identity of Jesus in the Development
of Christianity, proves this statement to be profoundly mistaken.
While some of the mushrooms presented here are open to
interpretation, there are more than enough unambiguous examples
to demand an explanation. For many, the explanation will be
shocking, but as with any theory, it is its ability to account for the
data that matters most, not whether it fits one’s preconceived notions
or long-held beliefs.

The explanation that Dr. Rush provides is not necessarily new, as
it has been with us since at least the time of John Marco Allegro's
work, but it gains tremendous support due to his original research
and his meticulous analysis of Christian art. The explanation for the
preponderance of mushrooms in Christian art hinges on the very
identity of Christianity's central figure: Jesus Christ. In The
‘Mushroom in Christian Art, Dr. Rush provides a compelling argument
that Jesus was never an actual, historical person, but rather was
understood by early Christians to literally be the mystical experience
occasioned by the ingestion of entheogenic and psychedelic plants
and fungi. Quite simply, Jesus is the mushroom experience, and this
fact is depicted in several stylized, and sometimes literal, ways in
Christian art.

Such an interpretation does not come from the analysis of a few,
anomalous pieces of Christian art. Rather, Dr. Rush documents
consistent iconographic and stylistic features of Christian art that are
unique to the religious art of their time periods (and that do not
appear in secular art), which both openly and covertly represent
mushrooms and entheogenic experiences. Along with analysis of the
art, Dr. Rush carefully reads Christian documents and texts in

11. combination with shifting dogmas and political realities to see how
the myth of Jesus as a person became a reality for Christians while
the truth of the “real” Jesus and the genuine sacrament of
entheogenic substances was secreted away into esoteric rituals for
elite initiates.

As enthnobotanical research progresses, and the body of
scholarship on the “foods of the Gods" grows, it is becoming ever
more apparent that entheogenic substances have played a far more
central role in most religious traditions than most modern believers
are ready to accept. The more we leam about religion in the ancient
world, the more connections we find to ingestion of special
substances that help bring initiates into direct contact with “the
sacred,” however that is conceived or characterized. With so much
demonization of “drugs” in the modern world, many find the
connection between psychedelics and religion to be bordering on
blasphemy, if not worse. Yet these are moder attitudes and should
not be projected onto humanity's past, where psychedelic
substances played a central role in virtually all major religions, and

continue to do so today in countless indigenous traditions and
cultures.

Dr. Rush's analysis of Christianity as being entheogen-based
actually serves to bring greater relevance and meaning to the
Christian religion. On the one hand, we have a clearly irrational faith-
based system of mythological thinking, one based on archaic
projections of a divine judge and savior, that has little relevance to
the modern world. On the other hand, we have a tradition of direct
experience of union with the divine where the mythology and
imagery are not to be taken literally, but personally and spiritually.
One is a dogmatic belief system that engenders violence, fear,
competition, and a life-denying wish for the apocalyptic “End Times,”
and the other is an experiential practice of coming to know the
genuine nature of God through embracing the infinite power of life
that exists within each individual and can be accessed through
entheogenic sacraments. The contrast is stark and compelling. What

, at the heart of Christianity, there is a very different message for
humanity?

12. Part of Dr. Rush's critique of Christianity as it is commonly
practiced today is that it has opted for an irrational belief in
mythology over actual spiritual experience. In his words, it has been
constructed as a political, as opposed to spiritual, system. This shift,
Dr. Rush claims, can be seen in the art. The earliest Christian art
never depicted Jesus, and it wasn't until Jesus was declared fully
God and fully Human by decree that we start to see actual images of

jesus Christ’ in the art. Yet even then, the mushrooms and iconic
representations of the mushroom experience remain concealed
within the art, right up to the present time. The Hand of God reaches
down from the sky, bringing mushrooms. Adam and Eve eat of the
forbidden fruit, clearly in the form of mushrooms. Red disks with
white spots, curiously reminiscent of the distinctive cap of the
Amanita muscaria mushroom, abound throughout the art. Even the
folds of clothing show curious mushroom shapes contained within
them. This is not accidental, for the iconic style remains consistent
over centuries.

Anyone who would want to disagree with Dr. Rush’s analysis of
the true identity of Jesus will have to account for all of these
mushrooms. With Rush, the theory is clear and unambiguous: the
mushrooms are in the art because the mushroom experience was
the central mystery of Christianity. When this theory is kept in mind,
the art clearly makes a great deal of sense and allows for a
provocative reading of the images. Because the evidence is clearly
there, the raw data, any theory of Christian art must take account of
these iconographic motifs. To put it bluntly, if mushrooms and the
mystical experiences they help one to access are not a part of
Christianity, then why are they clearly a part of the art?

In debunking the mythology of Christianity, Dr. Rush is not simply
attempting to render Christianity irrelevant. Rather, he is calling our
attention to the very real experience of the “Energy that Informs All,”
as he tends to describe God, that can occur with the use of
entheogenic sacraments. Dr. Rush recognizes the value and
significance of direct spiritual experience and the role that it can play
in helping individuals live more peaceful and personally fulfilling
lives. This is what he sees as the central teaching and message of
Christianity: just be a decent person. Accomplishing that takes work,

13. but if he is correct in his analysis, then Christian artwork can
meaningfully be seen as symbolic representations of this personal
process of self-discovery and connection to the Energy that Informs
All. In our modern world of physics and astronomy and our wealth of
knowledge about the universe, an ancient myth of a righteous judge

the sky no longer serves us. But connection to the Energy that
Informs All does, and it is this, as experienced through the use of
entheogens, that just might save Christianity from complete
degeneration into an irrelevant mythical dogma.

Martin W. Ball, PhD, author of Being Human: An Entheological
Guide to God, Evolution, and the Fractal Energetic Nature of
Reality

14. In any murder case, detectives, in line with other specialists driven
by scientific methodology, gather evidence and offer opinions
regarding the identity of the corpse, the cause of death, the motive,
and the person or persons responsible for the crime. Speculation is
often welcome, especially in difficult cases, but is never considered
truth until evidence presents itself. This is called forensics.
Examination often involves bank accounts, political connections,
botanical materials, and artifacts, for example art in its many forms,
often useful in determining motive or the course of events leading to
the crime.

A crime has been committed: a prophet has been murdered. This
work represents an analysis of the crime in order to determine the
identity of the corpse and the circumstances surrounding his murder.
We know for sure that this was not the act of a single person but
was, instead, a conspiracy resulting in arrest, confirmation,

condemnation, torture, and humiliation ending in the prophet's ritual
Killing through crucifixion. The evidence presented in the pages and
images to follow (view all images at )
reveals the identity of the prophet, Jesus, but it also instructs as to
the construction of the Catholic cult and the motives behind Jesus's
betrayal and eventual murder.

In , | define the nature of Christian art, establish the

lentity of Jesus, and expose the motive and those responsible for
his death. Cult development is also considered, as well as diversity
and opposing philosophies, and why these different Christianities
were often antagonist toward one another. | also consider which
groups came under persecution and how this was minimized through
connections to the politic after 312 CE; this link resulted in special
privileges (tax exemption) and eventual landholdings and wealth for
the Catholic Church, a strong motive for murder. It is only after 325
CE that the story line for Jesus (and a face) was constructed, agreed
upon, and made historical fact through papal decree. This homogeny
extended past written word and Church ritual, resulting in standard

15. visual representations generally called icons expressed in mosaics,
illuminated manuscripts, wall paintings, and stained glass. The art
historians have carefully examined this art and point to the various
motifs, styles, colors, and interpretations, yet one motif is lacking in
the texts. That motif is the mushroom, and because it has been
overlooked or ignored, | present a mushroom typology, give
examples, apply alternative interpretations, and reveal the ritual
nature of the original Christian cults, rites, and rituals considered
bizarre by liberal pagan standards of the time.

is a close look at the different Christian art forms
from c. 200 CE to 1000 CE. The mushroom is very much apparent
but is disguised in many ways. We will also notice how the art
becomes more and more sophisticated with the addition of new
elements and players, layering the original storyline yet keeping the
ground-floor symbols (bread, fish, lamb, Good Shepherd, vine,
anchor/cross) intact. These are the original determinatives for Jesus,
a botanical personification; to remove or change the symbols would
abort their power.

covers the time period from 1000 CE to 1550 CE.
This art expressed in stained glass, mosaics, and illuminated
manuscripts is much more sophisticated; there is also an elaboration
of the storyline. With a more open attitude in the court—with
romantic love, knightly honor, and individualism—the mushroom and
its analogues are quite evident. From 1350 to 1500 CE we encounter
global cooling, plague, and witch hunts, while at the same time the
art maintains its consistency.

takes us from 1550 CE to the present. This art
maintains the style developed from 1000 to 1550 CE, complete with
mushrooms and mushroom motifs, but moves away from the once-
popular apocalyptic themes.

offers a review of motifs and interpretations. The
identity of Jesus is established; his method of teaching human
decency is revealed. His murder was a conspiracy, the motives
traceable to political connections and wealth. Jesus's murder also
served to smother his original meanings and methods, his path to
human decency, self-responsibility, and a spiritual life, and replace

16. them, through mythic layering proffered as historical fact, with an
oppressive political system.

| also reflect on what inspired these artists to create these
masterpieces, and we learn they are inspired by God. This
inspiration allows them to go beyond space and time and on return
to code the celestial world in their art. Some of my conclusions and
interpretations may not be correct, but the mushroom needs to be
satisfactorily explained and factored into the spiritual meaning to
which the Christian art points. All images can be viewed online at

I have many people to thank for the content of this work. These
include Martin Ball, Wolfgang Bauer, Chris Bennett, Jan Irvin, Carl
Ruck, and many, many others who offered their time and comments;
all have contributed to solving this murder case. | would also like to
thank the staff at North Atlantic Books—Emily Boyd (project
director), Suzanne Albertson (cover design), Paula Morrison (art
director), Minda Armstrong (production manager), Paul McCurdy
(copyeditor), and Richard Grossinger (publisher) for his interest and
support in this project. | would also like to thank Debora Norton
Streadwick for editing, Aaron Welton for formatting, Jan Irvin for
editing and technical comments, and my wife, Katie, for her help and
encouragement during the research and writing of this work.

John A. Rush

December 20, 2010

17. The Quest for Jesus

Mero» are found in all Christian art, including that which

references the other side, the geography of the damned. The
negative mushroom variously called Satan, the devil, Beelzebub,
and so on is the antithesis of Jesus (life) often displayed as a small
skull (death) beneath the cross on Golgotha, the Hill of Skulls, or as
a fly crawling up the leg of Jesus. In another sense, the devil
represents a demonizing of the older traditions (called pagan) and
their rites and rituals surrounding communion with their gods and
goddesses. In the Christian condition Christ requires Satan, or he
has nothing to do. In the field of time, with God's manifestation, the
universe splits into paired opposites, and without Satan there can be
no Jesus, for without evilideath there can be no references for
goodllife. Jesus, for example, descends into hell and returns, a story
elaborated in later Christian writings not included in the Bible. What
is the meaning of such a mythical act—that is, descent into hell and
return—and how is this act, or any Christian act depicted in the art,
connected to mushrooms? This is the mystery unveiled in this book.
The meanings and rituals | describe are my opinions, and although
shared by many, some of the details and conclusions are debatable.
After all, we are dealing with mystery societies and cults, and they all
have secrets. But this does not mean we should withhold these
opinions and the evidence to support them.

The Celts, Greeks, and Romans loved their gods, imagined their
existence through powers of nature (lightning, earthquakes), the
stars and planets in the heavens, or perhaps misinterpretations of
fossil animal bones (Mayor 2001), and personified them. As
discussed elsewhere (Rush 2008), what helped to make this realm
tangible included mind-altering substances and the experiences
reported by poets, soothsayers, sages, rabbis, and priests, whose
myths and messages wrapped around prophecy, politics, or both
Soothsayers, prophets, oracles, and priests are always connected to
courts—for political reasons—as third-party conduits to the

18. netherworld to help kings make decisions, for which, of course, they
didn't have to take responsibility. Their portal to the gods was
likewise coded in their art forms and referenced as the Golden
Fleece, Avalon (Golden Apple), and other metaphors of the
mushroom experience (see Ruck et al. 2001, 2007; Ruck 2006). But
Christian art has a special character to it. As Yazykova and Luka
(2007, 13) comment,

Whereas a picture can be called a window into the world around
us, an icon is a window into the invisible world. It does not show
things that people are familiar with in their everyday lives, but
reveals the Kingdom to come. Icons began to be painted in
order to show this other world, the new heaven and the new
earth, where Christ's victory is complete, the victory of good
over evil, where life conquers death. So the realistic or, rather,
naturalistic method of depicting is not suitable for the icon. It
requires symbols and signs in which the image of the Kingdom
to come can be divined. Representations were originally
conceived of as symbolical.

The authors go on to say,

Icons are images of eternity, so everything in them is different,
including space and time. The logic of the earthly world does not
extend to icons, a fact stressed by reverse perspective. A great
deal has been written about reverse perspective, the structure of
the icon's space in which there is no single point on the horizon
where all lines meet, and in which objects get larger, rather than
smaller, as they recede into the distance. The name for this
device, reverse perspective, arose by analogy with direct
perspective, the basis of the realistic picture. (Yazykova and
Luka 2007, 14; emphasis added)

As we will see, in some cases reverse perspective may not be
reverse perspective at all. Temple (2001, 3-4; emphasis added),
speaking of icons and Christian origins, states,

19. The ideas offered in this book are founded on the understanding
that the deepest meaning of the Christian story lies in a spiritual
rather than an historical interpretation and that the ultimate
encounter with the mysteries of the Gospels is not to be sought
in historical time but at the present moment.

Doctrinal theology places a different emphasis, stressing that
Christianity is an “historical religion” and that the “faith” of
Christians is founded on the “facts” of the life of Christ. But since
the earliest times there had been an understanding that the
literal events of scripture concealed deeply mysterious, hidden
meanings that could reveal spiritual realities of a higher level
than were perceived in the ordinary world. A tradition of
interpretation grew up around this understanding that often
appeared to contradict the literal sense of the Gospels. Actually,
the meanings are complementary but on different levels...

Our psyches have many levels varying from what goes on just
below the surface through to deeper and deeper levels.
Generally we know very little about these deeper parts of
ourselves which we call the subconscious. This term is exactly
the right one since most of what passes deep down in us takes
place below the horizon of our consciousness. In our day
science has recognized the importance of these unknown areas
of psychology but makes no investigation of them unless we are
il. But, according to some traditional schools of thought, there is
a further and infinitely more important aspect of the unknown in
us which can be called higher mind or super-consciousness.
Modern science does not accept this concept though in
medieval theology it was recognized under such terms as
“divine love” or the “Holy Ghost” and, even in antiquity, it was
understood that such a higher possibility for man could only be
reached through a voyage of discovery into the unknown parts
of himself which normally are hidden from the threshold of
consciousness; hence the Socratic “Know thyself.”

‘What is being said is that icons stand for something not seen but
alluded to in the art; their design is to touch that hidden part of us,

20. that higher mind. In this sense a tree is not a tree, a rock is not a
rock, a mushroom is not a mushroom, a halo is not a halo, a cross is
not a cross, and all church vestments, as well as paraphernalia (e.g.,
thuribles, or incense burners), are rendered in their spiritual form,
just as hell is likewise metaphorical. These are divine
representations of the code to which they point and should not be
taken literally. As Temple states, orthodox Christianity would have us
read these images as lessons in history; as we will see, however, the
true, original meaning of Christian art had little to do with secular
history except, perhaps, as psychological protection against current
political events—these were tough times.

Icons, and the motifs within, are symbolic of the divine (God,
Christ, Jesus, higher mind, energy); the rocks, dove, cross, blood,
nimbus, and so on represent this other world. A graphic depiction
@ ) of this is Castiglione's Christ on the Cross Embraces St.
Bernard (c. 1642 CE), in which Christ, who obviously cannot give
breast milk (secular life) as can Mother Mary, gives Bernard his
blood instead (spiritual life). This is birth or life through the Father,
the second birth, and life everlasting. Thus blood is not blood, and
maintaining this reasoning, Jesus is not Jesus (Christ is not Christ).
The total picture has an entirely different meaning than a crazed
vampiric saint drinking blood to sustain his physical life. This picture
speaks to life, death, and eternal life (resurrection) in some spiritual
geography; this is accomplished through Christ, through his blood,
sweat, tears, or the holes in his hands, feet, and side. Most clergy,
however, have encouraged parishioners to see icons on one level
the level presented as historical fact rather than the mystery or
deeper meaning lying in back of the images, hidden from view. Only
a foolish magician reveals his tricks to the audience, and the trick in
Christianity is uncovering that which is hidden from view, the
“mystery.”

The Mushroom Is the Message

Mushrooms, however, are somewhat different from other motifs,
such as Mother Mary breast-feeding Jesus, Jesus in the presence of

21. John the Baptist, or Jesus on the cross at Golgotha. Mushrooms,
instead, fit into another category of divine, one closest to the code
(God); and because they are usually hidden in the art, they represent
the secret, the mystery of Christianity, and, in another sense, the
mystery that unlocks the subconscious mind. The value of this motif

its visible invisibility, in the same manner as we sense God's
presence, but that energy is unseen, lying in back of our
experiences. The deity hides in the bushes, the hems and sleeves of
alb, cape, dalmatic, or at the end of a stole often popping out at us
(gestalt) as we focus on these innocent features. He is there in the
clouds, fire, blood, dove, book, vase, and angel. The mushroom is
God's signature, for it is God who inspires, working through the artist
to create these images of the other side, that mystical hidden world.

Mushrooms are often alluded to as manna although manna can
represent a multitude of things, but never something secular. Manna
appears to relate to some power or energy attributed to objects,
people, or ingested substances that brought illumination to an
individual or group usually in the sense of knowledge (prophecy),
enlightenment (insight), or rules and regulations. In the vast majority
of the cases where this reference is used, it is most likely that manna
is a noncaloric, mind-altering substance, a gateway to God's place
(see Merkur 2000). Manna is a generic term in the same way that
the mushroom image, in my opinion, is generic for a wide variety of
both plants and fungi hidden between the lines in the Bible, the
Zohar, and other apocrypha, as well as in more contemporary
legends (also see Ruck et al. 2007; Bennett and McQueen 2001). If
this is the case, and | believe it is, then a closer study of the art might
reveal combinations of ingredients, preparations, and warnings
hidden within

As the reader will gradually see, it is all about the mushroom and
the original rituals that centered on locating, preparing, and
consuming the Eucharist, rituals that morphed from agricultural and
plant veneration rites that predate Christianity by at least eight
thousand years. Plant veneration through mythic themes and ritual
performance emerged among early agricultural people along the
Tigris-Euphrates and Nile Rivers around ten thousand years ago,
and instead of giving up their old hunting and gathering myths, they

22. simply transformed them to fit the major food source—plants. Some
plants and fungi (ritual plants) would be connected to certain rituals
while those used as a food source for humans and animals would be
associated with others. There is a vocabulary used in the Old and
New Testaments, Pistis Sophia, the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, and
other Apocrypha, the Dead Sea scrolls, the Zohar, the Talmud, and
other sources that alerts the reader to these original rituals and
experiences wrapped around story lines; snapshots of this story line
are rendered visually as icons. There are words or phrases (e.g.,
“spirit” and “hand of God’) that perhaps signal the initial effects of the
substance or the experience in some way. These are visually
rendered as a hand emerging from a cloud or a dove or rays of light
descending. The halo or nimbus, on the other hand, indicates that
the individual is experiencing the divine. In other words, the halo
means that this saint, angel, and so on is with God eternally through
the mushroom path.

The mushroom's meaning is its mind-altering effect and the
potential insights and knowledge it brings. It, Jesus, takes you to
God's place, and because it can take you there it must be God as
well; the mushroom is a manifestation of God, his first-level
terrestrial manifestation, as we will see in While the
experience is represented by the halo, and certainly by the presence
of angels who amplify the message as they are always connected to
ecstasy, they all speak to the experience of the divine. This is the
Trinity, with Father (God), Son (God as messenger or guide
referenced as a hand and/or ray of light, dove, lamb, fish, or Jesus),
and Holy Ghost or the experience of the Divine, or that which
connects the spiritual and fleshly realms. This is the generic trinity,
out of which the Catholic Church emerged after 325 CE; this is the
bottom line, the ground floor upon which Christianity was built. We
can argue about the details, of how many groups existed initially,
what they were called, the names of the cult leaders and where they
came from, but Christianity could not work and take hold unless it
was able to attach itself to the politic and accommodate a variety of
viewpoints as to the nature of God. Unity demands a metaphor all
can live by. The elegant mental gymnastics, the Trinity, allowed
diverse groups to unite but still hold to their reported experiences

23. with the mushroom—at least until the Church was stable and
powerful enough to do serious housecleaning, for there can only be
one celestial truth.

Time in a Bottle

One might wonder, then, how far back in time the personification or
coding for the mushroom extends. Can it be found in Paleolithic art,
for example? As Smith (2006, 7) comments,

To this | need only add every religion—and indeed every
civilization, for civilizations flow like tidal waves from implosions
that set them in motion. These implosions are Revelations. The
word Revelation derives etymologically from re-velum, the
drawing back of a veil as in the morning we draw back the
curtains to let in the light of day. And that is precisely what
entheogenic alterations of brain chemistry do—they let in the

light of the Infinite, Perfect Reality.
However, despite the importance of Revelation, they are also
limited, for like the tidal waves they set in motion, the power of
tidal waves diminishes as they proceed. This is where sacred
plants become important. To switch metaphors, they are like
telephone poles that restore wires to their original heights.

The point is that inspiration, coming from dreams prompted by
illness or psychotic breaks, prompts cultures to action. But these
sources are sometimes unavailable when beliefs need reinforcement
or in times of crisis, which direction to turn at the fork in the road, or
when injury, illness, or death confronts the group's survival. This is
where mind-altering plants and fungi offer a continual connection to
that other side. It seems, as Smith suggests, that these sacred
plants and fungi have been part of humankind’s survival for a long,
long time and probably extend back to the earliest fantasies of a
supernatural world, an imagined otherworldly geography, that can be
visited or contacted, perhaps manipulated, or even put on “equal

24. terms" through what we today call “science.” It would seem
reasonable that these beliefs and behaviors manifest at a point
where natural phenomena (lightning, rain, etc), dreams
(spontaneous or from fever and illness), or experiences with mind-
altering plants can be articulated (advent of language or a
protolanguage—perhaps two million years ago), shared,
categorized, and modified through storytelling and myth,
accompanied by ritual support or expression. The caves in France
and Spain take us back at least to thirty-three thousand years ago
and provide a glimpse of shaman artists’ efforts to capture and
naturalistically render the animals in their world over a course of
thousands of years. The major images are mammoths, big cats,
bears, red deer, elk, and so on—anything but plants and fungi. There
are suggestions they used some method of reaching ecstasy at
Lascaux, France (a shaman, rendered spiritually in trance, lying next
to a wounded buffalo— ), dated to approximately
nineteen KYA (thousand years ago) and at Les Trios Fréres (

—The Sorcerer of Trios Frères, France, a composite image of a
shaman in an animal suit, fifteen KYA). If mushrooms have been so
important over the millennia, why is it that only animals, and some
abstract designs, were rendered? The answer has to do with the
practicality of sustaining life (hunter-gatherer) and a philosophy
directed toward the main animal of subsistence and appeasing or
looking after ancestors, our original gods and goddesses. Their
experience with mind-altering substances would reflect their world as
they understood it. They believed that powerful forces controlled
nature, but they, through experience, developed their own sense of
control through rites, rituals, and technology. Mind-altering
substances were more like tools or conduits to the other side, or the
realm of the ancestors and gods. That is to say, they provided a
means to get there. In the iconography connected to the Fairy World
in the West we have imps and other forest spirits sitting on
mushrooms. Perhaps these hunter-gatherers did the same, but such
images, mushrooms with elves casually sitting on top, are not to be
found thus far in the caves in France and Spain. Images of plants
and fungi do show up in African rock art and date to later time
periods. On either continent they may, indeed, have been

25. personified; they certainly would have been categorized and named
and provided a mythic history of origin. At the very least certain
plants and fungi were conduits. Temperature fluctuations over
periods of time would also suggest that certain species came and
went as well, but they abound in nature.

In any case, one interpretation of the bear cults in Europe is the
bear as the original shaman, the animal master. Those ancient
humans, those brave people, went down in those dangerous caves
in the winter and probably talked to the hibernating bears, asking
them to deliver messages of reverence to the animals on the other
side so they would come back for another meal. Women must have
played an important role in these dangerous rituals because they
most directly represent fertility and life. Women represent the
mystery of life and death, and the so-called Venus figures, those
pudgy figurines emphasizing the female hips and breasts, dating to
that same time period, may have been intimately connected to those
rites. As Ruck (2006, 23) observes regarding the Willendorf figurine
0 ), dated to twenty-five KYA,

The figurine depicts a grossly pregnant female, with rounded
head devoid of facial features, but covered on its upper surface
with knobby excrescences, seven mystical concentric circles of
plaited hair, making the over-size head into the mushroom's cap
with its characteristic scabs. The figurine's steatopygia
personifies the bulbous base. The strangely segmented and
handless slender arms, extraordinary in a figure so corpulent,
suggest the mushroom's dentate annulus ring, the remnant of
the ruptured membrane that covered the gills on the bottom side
of the cap, hanging down upon its stipe. The figurine is tinted
with red ochre to match the characteristic color of the fly-agaric.
Such a figurine merely translates into a solid object the same
theme of anthropomorphized mushrooms amply preserved in
prehistoric petroglyphs.

| like Ruck’s interpretation, and he may be correct. A more
cautious interpretation is that the artist could not see her own face

26. when she carved this—this isn't about the artist; this is about fertility.
Moreover, it appears the head is looking downward at that which
brings forth life; her pendulant breasts and corpulent body represent
life (she is pregnant), and having extra adipose tissue perhaps
represents survival over the winter. This full figure, common in
Europe and North America, most likely derives from numerous
selective pressures, one being sexual selection for a body designed
for food/survival over the winter months. Not mentioned by Ruck,
she does not have feet (the artist would not be able to see her feet in
a standing position). Moreover, | don't think these people had
reached the philosophical complexity as suggested in his analysis,
for these people were into practical matters, not complex philosophy.
It would also seem reasonable that such symbolic complexity would
show up in the cave paintings but, for the most part, what is
rendered is naturalistic. Such abstractions, in my opinion, show up
after 15,000 BCE with the Sorcerer of Trios Fréres (see

) mentioned earlier, many thousands of years after the carving of
this figurine. Here we see the shaman, the animal master becoming
the animals (rather than simple reverence), traveling to the other

ide to ensure the animals’ return, ask for guidance, and so on. This
movement” from one side (social) to the other (supernatural), an
abstraction, implies transformation perhaps through an entheogenic
experience, images we don't encounter prior to nineteen to
seventeen KYA. In any case, Rusk has opened an interesting
possibility when decoding those Venus figures.

Thousands of years pass (30,000 BCE to 3500 BCE), complete
with crises after crises prompting different technologies and social
developments, as well as different worldviews. The myths change
from struggle with nature (Killing monsters), to mastery or control
over it (agriculture, animal husbandry, metallurgy, and science, all
manipulating nature), complete with different cosmological (origins)
and theistic (nature of the gods) mythic themes, which are likewise
supported by and reinforced through experiences with mind-altering
substances. There can be no doubt about this. Mythic themes
become more elaborate, reflecting the governing body, and along
with sanctifying animals they personified and sanctified the god or
goddess who stood behind the agricultural crops and seasonal

27. variations, for example Demeter for grain or Dionysus for grapes, or
Re as the sun god bringing life during his daily journey through the
sky.

From a practical sense, for our Paleolithic hunters, mind-altering
plants and fungi would be a means to an end, that is, communing
with the other side to obtain food, cure, and so on. In contrast, in
Christianity the mushroom (knowledge) is an end in itself: that is to
say, the mushroom is the deity, and when you consume it you are
with the deity: “I and the father are one.” In my opinion, the
Paleolithic hunters’ experience with the mushroom and other mind-
altering substances would match their needs and observations of the
world. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, mushrooms and other
mind-altering plants didn't cause lightning, produce the cold winters,
or control ferocious predators eating one's friends and relatives
Cause was mysterious, and these plants offered a portal to that
mystery; they were not the mystery. In Christianity the mushroom
personified and is the mystery, and this personification, the mystery,
is coded in all Christian art.

In our time and place magic mushrooms aren't people or gods, at
least for reasonable, logical people, although they may aid in
accessing our subconscious mind, the motherboard standing in back
of our experiences. Simply put, mushrooms alter brain chemistry and
thus our experiences or interpretations of events unfolding around us
or our reinterpretations of past stored memories, which often leads to
unexpected connections between ideas. Perhaps they even open us
to shared memories of others. We can understand, however, how
ancient Egyptians, Hindus, Hebrews, and Christians came to
interpret the mushroom as a god or portal to the godhead. We read
of the Exodus in the Old Testament and of resurrection in a “new
heaven,” indicating a preoccupation of getting from one place to
another, of change from one state of being to one more joyous and
permanent. That place is God's place, the “land of milk and honey,"
the “promised land.” These ancient people did not understand
neurochemistry, nor did they understand the chemicals in cannabis,
Amanita muscaria, henbane, or psilocybin and how alterations in
brain chemistry can lead to alterations in perception and experiences
considered to have actually happened or to have come from

28. heavenly agencies. For some classic discussions about such
experiences see Masters and Houston (1966). How then do we get
from mushrooms to Jesus?

Mushrooms and Politics

There is absolutely no historical visibility for Jesus outside the
constructed stories as rendered in the Bible, Gnostic texts, and other
Apocrypha, as well as the metamyths or stories written to explain or
spin earlier stories. Some have argued that there are a number of
historical figures who likewise have no visibility—for example
Socrates, known only through the accounts of Plato and other of his
students—but this is a very poor analogy. Socrates never claimed to
be God; Plato never claimed Socrates was a god; nor did any of his
friends make such claims. He is not involved in physical healing,
saving sinners, or dying and resurrecting. Whether Socrates, or
Jesus for that matter, ever existed is immaterial, for it is what they
said and did that counts. One is to have faith in the existence of a
corporeal form called Jesus and faith that the story of his dying and
resurrecting is historical fact. For fundamentalists, what Jesus said is
in many respects less important than his existence in history as a
living human being who died to save us from sin

From a psychological point of view | understand why many people
want to push mind-altering substances to the side in favor of
believing that our neurons—our brains alone, without chemical
stimulation—came up with the story lines and symbols in Judaism
and Christianity and perhaps a great deal of our scientific
knowledge. Somehow admitting the importance of plants and fungi
lessens our humanity. Remember that you cannot solve a problem
using the mental set that caused it. A problem can only be solved
when considered from different perspectives, but oftentimes repair
requires fresh information not available “locally" (this is the basic
message in all hero myths; see Campbell 1973). One path (certainly
not the only way) for generating new ideas is with mind-altering
substances or leaving one's bounded mental space, journeying to
another, and returning with the boon. With these plants and fungi a

29. person did not have to wait for fever, near-death experiences, or
dreams with important revelations to spontaneously occur. Mind-
altering substances would offer a predictable and calculated method
of reaching the other side. This is a common shamanic enterprise
and a very dangerous enterprise, making it all the more powerful and
potentially rewarding. Many times, however, the insights obtained
during this perilous adventure, this death and rebirth, outweigh the
negative. As an example, the Kamsa Indians of the Colombian
Andes use lochroma fuchsioides, a datura-type plant, only when
they are having difficulty diagnosing a patient. Apparently the
shaman is sick for several days after ingesting its roots, leaves, or
fruits. Anything that aids our problem-solving abilities is a valuable
resource. It is closely guarded, however, and used only by a few.
Many of the drug laws in the West are patterned on these
restrictions, and although antiquated, they do imply that plants and
potions not authorized are dangerous to the power structure. To
more fully appreciate Christian art, and to help explain the history
surrounding the style and development of icons, magic mushrooms
and other substances should be included in the analysis.

The Visible, Invisible Mushroom

Our first step, then, will be to analyze Christian art for its content and
accompanying interpretations by priests and scholars. Our second
step will be to access whether or not the mushroom was, indeed, an
important feature in Christian art. It has many disguises, and thus we
need to build a mushroom typology.

A third step is to offer another interpretation of the art as well as
the original nature of what we know today as Christianity and how,
by the mid-fourth century, it returned to a type of reformed Judaism
solidifying and refining story lines, rites, rituals, and art, and then
maturing in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Everything in Christian art is a reflection of God, and the closest
worldly condition is the mushroom. The mushroom stands just
outside the deity, the singularity, with one foot half in and half out,

30. half in this world and half in the other. We read in the Zohar the
“secret of secrets”

Out of the scorching noon of Isaac, out of the dregs of wine, a
fungus emerged, a cluster, male and female together, red as a
rose, expanding in many directions and paths. The male is
called Sama'el, his female always included with him. Just as it is
on the side of holiness, so it is on the other side: male and
female embracing one another. The male of Sama'el is called
Serpent, woman of Whoredom, end of all Flesh, End of Days.
Two evil spirits joined together: the spirit of the male is subtle;
the spirit of the female is diffused in many ways and paths but
joined to the spirit of the male. (Matt 1983, 77; emphasis added;
| thank Chris Bennett for this reference and others regarding the
Zohar)

This brief passage is an addition to Genesis 28:10, or Jacob's
journey, and is a description of Amanita muscaria, both male and
female, half and half, both in and out, or in another sense positive
and negative depending on the deity being contacted. In the
Christian condition | call this halfin-and-half-out state the
hokeypokey motif. Sometimes the hokeypokey is displayed as
Christ's backside sitting in heaven on a bench, while his toes rest on
the border of the surrounding areola. In other cases there is one foot
in and one foot out (see and 2b). Christ sits or stands in
the doorway separating this world and the other. The negative
reference to Sama'el and Serpent is a reflection of similar
substances for contacting pagan deities or those discarded by the
Jews between 586 and 500 BCE. Sama'el likewise becomes Gabriel
in Islam, and in Surah 2:247 (also see Hughes 1994, 564) he is
referred to as “the prophet,” perhaps connecting him to the Teacher
of Righteousness (Amanita muscaria) of the Jewish and Christian
traditions. This is highly suggestive of a direct connection between
Muhammad and Amanita

Pointing is an important clue in Christian art. In Father
and Son, with the Holy Ghost (dove) above, are joined in the

31. hokeypokey. God on the right is resting his right arm against the
globe-cross while pointing to the mushroom motif created by Jesus's
cape and knee/leg. (You may not immediately accept this as a
mushroom, but look at this image again once you finish

) Also notice the seraphs in the border, all of which have wings
folded in such a way as to resemble an Amanita mushroom cap with
their faces representing the stalk. (Again withhold judgment until you
finish )

In John 20:24-27 we read,

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with
them when Jesus came.

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the
Lord. But he said unto them, Except | shall see in his hands the
print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, | will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and
stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my
hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be
not faithless, but believing

What Thomas “touches,” or experiences, is the resurrected God,
the mushroom, bread, or manna with Jesus's face on it, with the
stalk removed and the exposed hole, or indentation in the
mushroom’s base (the way or path), revealed. Thomas putting his
hand in Jesus's side means entering into Jesus, and the only way
you can do that is through communion or consumption of Jesus, the
mushroom. Within the Doubting Thomas story, graphically illustrated
at St. Marks in Venice (see ), are three layers of the
Christian myth. The first is the exoteric layer; that is to say, one is to
interpret this as historical fact, that Thomas doubts the resurrection,
puts his hand into Jesus's side, and becomes a believer, more or
less like a pathologist examining a corpse—in this case the corpse
(Jesus) has resurrected

32. The next layer is more spiritual; one cannot experience Jesus until
you accept, surrender (don't fight against the experience), or go into
him. The third layer is the botanical, experiential layer where you
enter through consumption of Christ, the Eucharist, manna, or bread.

In we see Doubting Thomas again, but this time with
the Virgin Mary. We see the Virgin handing her belt to St. Thomas
(Dormition of the Virgin, Balamand Monastery, Lebanon, c. 1750
CE). There is an interesting story behind this icon. To prove her
Assumption, Mary throws down her chastity belt as proof of both
assumption and virginity but also the tie to her carnal nature.
Because people don't have sex in heaven (there is no flesh), she
has no need to protect herself from carnal desires. This isn't about
carnal things but instead is a reference to the spiritual world; casting
aside the belt is a statement of release from her fleshly body. Here
we see Mary doing the hokeypokey in its full meaning, one foot in
this world, and one foot out. To tell a story like this is like watching a
play, where someone comes in doubting the fantastic and
outrageous story line, but proof is made available—in the icon. The

areola in which Mary is half in and half out, | am informed, is the
underside of a mushroom cap and/or a vagina.

Not all portrayals of Christ in Majesty clearly show the hokeypokey
and instead present a simple front view, but because the areola is
open, at least half of what we see is out (revealed) while the other
half is in. This is the primary condition, before the singularity splits—
existing and not existing, or its visible invisibility. Part of thi
metaphor of invisibility comes with hiding the mushroom within the
icon. As the reader will see, it is all about the mushroom, and the first
rituals connected to this tradition were probably botanical metaphors
that over time evolved into the elaborate story line, as is the case
with all myths as social circumstances alter and decay. These layers
move farther and farther away from the original reference points
regarding the nature and use of the mushroom—how to find,
prepare, and consume. As an example, there are several depictions
after 1100 CE of Mary nursing Jesus (| ), and this certainly
has its appeal. It is rather earthy and natural, although very few
people ever saw these images because they were part, in most
cases, of very expensive cathedral or palace paintings or

33. ‘manuscripts. This, taken literally, is a woman nursing a child, but it is
also Mary nursing Jesus, the central player in the story. So now this
is a story about Jesus and not about a woman nursing a child. But its
original reference, in my opinion, was a botanical recognition that
Mary is the root of a pine tree (St. Anne) and Jesus, the mushroom
(Amanita muscaria), is nourished from the roots (Mary). The tree and
roots, then, are equally revered (see Rush 2008). In we
see one image of breastfeeding that is somewhat anatomically
correct (Nursing Madonna, Ambrogio Lorenzetti—image on left),
while there are other images that show the breast in an anatomically
impossible position ( , image on right), as well as being
capped by the Amanita muscaria. Just as Isis in the Egyptian
tradition is the throne upon which the pharaoh sits (Horus, the god of
light, the Holy Spirit), so Mary (the root) is the throne upon which
Jesus sits. This, | believe, is a possible esoteric, third-level
(botanical) meaning connected to rites and rituals honoring Mother
Mary and Infant Jesus in the Church.

From another perspective, Mary is the model for female energy,
and she comes in many shapes and sizes. Mary Magdalene
represents the sensual (sexual) Mary or Hathor in the Egyptian
tradition (see ), while the Virgin Mary is the asexual,
nurturing Mary ( ) or Isis, and the Madonna is the all-giving,
all-accepting martyr who knows it's going to happen, and weeps and
mourns forevermore because it is all about her; martyrs think this
way. Also note the mushrooms as curls in Jesus's hair. Mary
Magdalene, | might add, is possibly the first disciple and apostle, for
if she was a real person, she was said to be closest to Jesus (or
John the Baptist). What is the meaning standing behind the image?
Certainly we are told to see this as historical, that Jesus and Mother
Mary were real people, “and to prove it, here is a picture of Mary
nursing Jesus.” The art represents proof of story, and just as the
ancient Egyptians believed images they carved and painted in their
tombs would come alive after proper rituals were spoken, so too the
Christian clerics and artists. The artists and priests believed, just as
they do today, that the visual and literary art was inspired by God
and therefore it must be historically true.

34. On another level is the philosophy of nurturing others, knowing
thyself and loving thy enemy because you are your own worst
enemy, and so on. This, in my opinion, is the most important level for
it brings out our humanity. More recent philosophical abandonment
suggests that the breast is the Church nursing humankind. This is
how myth is layered over time and then converted into historical fact
by papal decree, with the original meaning blurred under centuries of
rhetoric and debate as to the nature of God.

The primary level, in my opinion, is the life cycle of the mushroom,
from conception, to consumption, and then return. The Christian
story line and rituals it supports pay homage to this life cycle
because the mushroom was that which the Jews and early
Christians considered a manifestation of God and/or the conduit to
God. The Stations of the Cross may be a layered rendition of those
early rituals just as the Catholic Mass is a reflection of the original
content where the priest offers ritual purification, praises the deity,
engages communion, and then opens the ritual to the congregation
These ancient people living a long, long time ago believed their god

resided in mushrooms and plants—this is called animism, and the
Stations may represent part of the life cycle of the mushroom, which
became an initiation ritual for the new disciple and then the
priesthood. As the Church developed more and more economic
power and influence, they were able—by controlling the media, so to
speak—to proffer their layered story line as historical fact. Political
parties do the same thing in our own time

The secret in the Christian tradition is to look beyond any
suggested history, and it is here at the esoteric levels that we will
discover the keepers of the keys and the true mystery. In time these
secret rituals were known to only a few, but never forgotten nor
abandoned as reflected in the Catholic Mass. Many of these artists,
unknown to us by name, were priests or devote people who
understood the symbols and the rituals to which they pointed. |
believe the earliest rituals connected to what is now called
Christianity and coded in the art involve locating, sacrificing, drying,
and consuming the sacred flesh, the flesh of God. This may seem
absurd by today's standards, so absurd that the reader may wish to
dismiss the idea straight away, but, as we will see, other scholars

35. report that pagan groups thought the early Christians quite bizarre,
with absurd rituals. For the pagans, Christians were strange people,
and it could not have been simply because they thought there was
only one god; this was a very old idea. No, it would have been how
they expressed their beliefs and devotion to the deity. The pagans
had standard ways of devotion including sacrifices, dances, orgies,
meditation, begging the deities, and so on, so whatever the
Christians were doing did not fit pagan expectations, and that
strangeness is possibly coded for us in the Stations of the Cross.

There are many combinations and resulting interpretations of the
symbols in Christian art. The reader will agree, however, that no
matter what the symbol, it points to Jesus or Christ, the anointed
one. From images of the Virgin Mary, to St. Paul, and even the
Whore of Babylon in Revelation, the central figure in the story is
Jesus. All Christian stories radiate toward or away from him.

Results of Research

Our analysis quickly reveals that Jesus was a mushroom usually of
the Amanita species, most commonly muscaria, and the experts can
argue the details. Psilocybin species abound as well, and cannabis
has been used as a medicinal in the Middle East and many areas of
the world for thousands of years. Keep in mind that for thousands of
years, medicine and curing have been intertwined with spiritual
beliefs and practices, and mind-altering substances played a
significant role as they still do today. When illness is mythologized as
caused and cured by supernatural agencies, then magical rituals are
applied. At most hospitals today you can see a psychiatrist, obtain a
prescription for Prozac or another mind-altering drug, and then say
hello to the Catholic priest next door who is chanting to a cancer
patient numbed by morphine or Demerol coursing through his veins.
Do not be surprised, then, if a tradition (early Christianity) based on
healing self and society through human decency includes mind-
altering substances in its healing rites and rituals.

36. Closely connected to Jesus are apostles, twelve in number, who
may also represent mind-altering substances, combinations,
processing recipes, and certainly astrological and astronomical
calculations mixed into the story line. Again, once it is admitted that
mushrooms are part of this art, if not its center, the meanings of
these images and early Christian development are open to
reinterpretation. Certainly twelve suggests that our mythic hero
Jesus is a sun god, as is Horus in the Egyptian tradition, with twelve
representing the cycle of the sun on its yearly round through the
constellations or zodiac. The months or seasons of the year also
played a part in locating and harvesting the food of God.

In some of the art the mushroom is quite evident, while in others it
is represented by analogues and adjectives, for example, halos,
crosses, bread, books, wounds, and blood—all of which come in
different configurations and inform about a condition, emotional
state, or specific characteristic. At other times it is hidden in a busy
border or the folds of a bishop's robe, and sometimes the
mushrooms are upside down. The different analogues (i.e., bread,
book, fish, cloak, throne, bench, blood, tree, book, or foot stool) are
no different from adjectives or determinatives connected to specific
gods, goddesses, scribes, doctors, and priests in ancient Egypt
Every one of these Christian symbols is likewise a determinative, in
the generic sense, because it points to Jesus. For example, Isis, the
model for the Madonna figure in the Catholic tradition, is represented
with a throne on her head. She is the throne upon which the pharaoh
sits, just as Mary is the throne upon which Jesus sits. There are
some scholars who would like to believe that Mother Mary is pristine,
unblemished by a pantheistic past, and, instead, historical fact, but
this can't possibly be the case. This duality, this Mary-Jesus icon,
has its deepest roots, | believe, in ancient Egypt with Isis and Horus,
the Holy Ghost (see Murdock 2009), although there are other
possibilities,

Pagan and Christian Images

37. The original meeting places of John the Baptist (used herein as a
generic for some cult leader) were probably the desert or designated
sacred groves, and this makes sense if the original rituals involved
locating, collecting, and consuming the sacred flesh. John the
Baptist comes out of the wilderness with a message for humankind
(Matthew 3:1-3)

And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the
wilderness of Judaea, saying,

Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet,
saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye
ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

The meanings are diverse; many cry in the wilderness seeking
direction, answers, or both. The Baptist had his revelation in the
wilderness, and this is where he would have taken his original
disciples. Taking initiates to unfamiliar surroundings creates
disorientation and dependence for direction and is ground zero for
instilling doctrine and communion with God. Going into those caves
or a more recent cathedral has a similar effect. Although meeting
somewhat in secrecy, the rites and rituals must have been seen by
individuals accidently or out of curiosity, and, of course, there are
always dropouts (apostates) who inform of cult activities. In this
geography art is in the landscape, the rocks, trees, plants, and fungi,
as we will see when we encounter St. Apollinaris in
Eventually these early groups were forced to engage their rituals
inside where the geography can be more adequately guarded. | am
told that the origins of Christian art most probably represent a
borrowing of images found in homes or meeting places originally
connected to polytheistic traditions or art as decoration, for example,
vines and grapes, fish, anchor, lamb, and so on. Only much later did
they take on the layered meaning that passes as Christianity today
(see Finney 1999).

Unlike today, the original Christians of c. 50 CE did not have
designated churches, and usually met in secret, we are told, and that

38. does seem to be a reasonable conclusion. Why? From studies of
modern cults we can suggest the makeup of the early cult members
and the antagonistic position in which they find themselves once
they become apostates (defectors) from an established cult.
Apostasy in Islam, for example, is seen as so divisive and offensive
to il-Liah (Allah) that it requires a death sentence. Apostates are
outsiders, and in order to remain outsiders they have to believe and
behave in some contrary way from the abandoned group
Membership, in some manner, has to be displayed even with
ritualized covert signals—for example, a specific handshake or
phrase, or even drawing half of a fish in the sand. The structural
process of cults (and all groups) also informs why, in a short period
of time, groups fracture and split. Catholicism, as we know it today,
was the answer to some of the splitting and fracturing. By gathering
allies through philosophical compromise and guaranteed access to
the politic, they united their story line and invented their origins and
history.

Many of the very earliest Christians, those following John the
Baptist or someone like him (or even a small group of Essenes
perhaps including Mary Magdalene), were apostate Jews
marginalized by their families, rejected, and sick, broken physically
and emotionally. Some certainly were pagan. A charismatic leader
shows up with a message that fits some psychological need, and
people willingly join and become loyal followers. These people
function as important reference points because they have close
contact with the leader; they are the first-level initiates and are
accorded an important status. Some of the original Christian cult
leaders most assuredly were Jews who had broken away from the
strict teaching of the various Jewish sects; perhaps they didn't like
paying the temple tax or all the rules that separate people. Some cult
leaders were likely Egyptian priests plying their trade far from their
native land. No matter, John the Baptist, as was the case in many of
these cults, offered something, a baptism with fire, a cleansing that
made tangible that which was excluded from the masses in the
Jewish tradition sometime after 560 BCE. He didn't offer “thou shalt
nots,” but stories encouraging people to think. Most of the original
Christians obviously knew the mystery that connected the individual

39. to the godhead and were undercutting the authority of the rabbis,
their first political move; they were getting rid of the middleman and
going straight to God's house. These experiences were still available
through the pagan cults, but the pagans had different reference
points, which many of the early Christians strongly opposed. They
obviously had very different rituals, and it is likely that the early
Christian reference point, the mushroom, the center of worship,
would have seemed as ridiculous as pagans worshipping a grape
For those early Christians, God and the mushroom were one and the
same. Thus, this system began, as all cults begin, more or less
secretly, for only committed and deserving applicants get to
experience the godhead. The “mystery” is the bait, as referenced in
the parables, and understanding the mystery leads to communion
with the deity through God's flesh, the Holy Mushroom.

Communion with the mushroom is emotionally charged; the
experiences provided would validate the other side, that place of
God. In Catholicism today, First Communion occurs around age 12,
but instead of the original mushroom, the initiate is cheated with a
counterfeit Eucharist, a wheat wafer and ritual, and often walks away
wondering, “ls that all there is?” This would not have been the case
in those original groups many centuries ago. Remember that the
Eucharist is at the center of Roman Catholicism, and identifying the
Eucharist is to uncover the mystery.

Much has been written about the earliest Christian art, or what
survives of it, and it is possible that it goes back to the time of John
the Baptist or the base camp(s) from which Catholicism eventually
arose. All is impermanent, all is illusion; walls fall down, buildings are
destroyed or vandalized, paint fades, and so on, so we cannot with
much assuredness talk about the earliest Christian renderings, but
we can speculate that what does survive is probably indicative of a
time period with certain common secular images (fish, vine, anchor,
lamb, bread, Good Shepherd). Remember, when cults emerge they
have to significantly alter the referential symbols of the old group or
abandon them for others. One would be hard-pressed to find a
mushroom per se in the earliest Christian art for several reasons,
one of which was persecution and the desecration of images. Also
remember that a number of substances were used perhaps by

40. different groups, sort of proprietary potions, so which one would you
render? You need a generalization that at first is coded within
common images (fish, vine, anchor, etc.) and in time is more openly
displayed but hidden at the same time.

We are told that the Christians up until the time of Constantine and
Theodosius were persecuted and at times thereafter. There are
scenes and poetic images of Christians thrown to lions, picked on by
the pagans or Jews, and martyred—powerful images representing
the reenactment of Christ's crucifixion. And, yes, Christians were
persecuted, but that persecution is more than likely an exaggeration
to make a political point; martyrdom appeals to the hero in us all.

One also gets the picture of the good Christian willingly dragged
away, praying to God, with a smile on his face and a song in his
heart, knowing the cause is great and Jesus is more important than
life because he is life. Then there is the image of people about to be
devoured by lions; they start singing and the heavens open up,
swallow the bodies, and the lions go hungry. The Christians were not
persecuted any more or less than anyone else. In fact the term
Christian (follower of the anointed one, perhaps crazed one?) might
have been, in many cases, a generic term, applied to anyone acting
outside of social norms. | have more to say about this issue shortly.
This is the appeal to pity, and the early Church fathers, certainly after
the Council of Trullo (692 CE) and the Seventh Ecumenical Council
(787 CE), very well understood how to portray the story line of Jesus

standard iconography. Not only did they have to standardize the
rites and rituals, but they also had to standardize the icons (and
other forms of religious art) and the elements contained within. There
were rules and regulations; this was serious business not much
different from the hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt. But the rules would
change over time with some image elements left out or substituted,
where one element can have a more prominent meaning for the
clergy commissioning the work. But make no mistake: there is
wonderful consistency in Christian art even as it alters to fit the
sociopolitical mood.

41. Persecution and Group Dynamics

People are usually persecuted when they are seen as a threat to the
power structure or when they present themselves in a manner
culturally defined as deviant. What were the early Christians doing
that brought them to the public eye? Were they not paying proper
respect to Mercury, Diana, or one of the other deities at
celebrations? Were the pagans oppressive in their approach to the
gods of other traditions? There is no evidence for this and, instead,
pagan traditions tend to be inclusive in the sense of allowing worship
or meditation on a wide variety of deities. There are household,
patron, temple, and state deities; no one would judge a person's
particular dedication (as long as there was respect for the ruler or
authority); no one would think it peculiar. Some scholars feel the
persecution occurred because Christians wouldn't worship the state
god or the ruler, but the more | ponder this, the more | think it
propaganda. In our own time, when you are stopped for a traffic
violation, it is best to bow before authority and cooperate; if you
don't, you can get thrown to the metaphorical lions.

One gets the impression that there are all these dumb country
bumpkins running around willing to go to their deaths in the name of
Christ or Christianity. Perhaps this is true. In our own day we see
homicide bombers who believe they will be reassembled and sitting
next to the very large knee of Allah in heaven, with seventy-two
virgins taking care of their every need, and, of course, a cooler full of
beer close by. It is more than likely that many of those murdered
were overnight Christian converts, those being destructive
(proselytizing, destroying idols), or simply ratted on by rival groups.

Christianity, by its very nature, is divisive, and the statement
attributed to Jesus (Matthew 10:34), “Think not that | came to send
peace on the earth: | came not to send peace, but a sword,” clearly
points to this clash between philosophies. It may have been only the
initial followers of John the Baptist, after he was murdered, who
tended to become a nuisance, telling people they had the true god,
getting disruptive, and so on. They are stereotyped as disruptive or
insane, even thought possessed by evil spirits, and then perhaps
targets of ridicule and worse. How did this persecution come about?

42. Here is my best guess. | believe that there were numerous cults and
cult leaders, going around healing the sick and performing other
miracles. To me it seems reasonable that a primary group came from
the Essenes, but if not, their writings were certainly given a great
deal of attention. | speculate that there was John the Baptist (or
whoever), who touched off this peculiar form of Judaism, and he
knew the ritual procedures and how to direct the experience; he was
a priest physician, a shaman. | am sure by the time of the Baptists
murder he had trained—and this is important—some of his loyal
followers in proper ritual procedure as any shaman would do. It is
imperative to train others, or the tradition goes extinct with the death
of the leader. My position is that the Baptist was running encounter-
type groups using very powerful mind-altering substances. As a
priest of the Essenes he would have been trained in this, but of
course unlike the Essenes, all are part of the communion; all are
invited into the mystery. He cast out demons and promised hope in a
better place, here and now and in the hereafter. But then he leaves
the scene, or people learn the mystery and leave the group (Acts
8:18, perhaps Simon the Sorcerer would be a reflection of this?). In

either case you then have novices leading the groups, and when a
person has a “breakthrough” or comes to illumination, a great deal of
emotion, body movement, babbling, and crying can and usually
occurs. If this is not rapidly restrained, redirected, retranslated, or
given new meaning defined by the goals of the ritual, individuals can
become emotionally distraught and act in peculiar ways.

Participants also become very dependent on group leaders for
direction, and after John the Baptist left the scene, some left that
original group to begin anew. If the leaders of new groups were
untrained or incompetent, losing control of a group could draw a
great deal of attention. People withering on the road releasing
demons could be quite disconcerting to some, or clearing demons
from pagan temples could be seen as going too far. To avoid trouble
some of the leaders realized that exacting, repeatable rituals were
required, but by this time the damage had already occurred; that is,
fear of these “strange people and rituals,” leading to gossip and
rumor, spread far and wide, finally resulting in persecution. The
original rituals most probably had to do with gathering, drying, and

43. ‘consuming the mushrooms (see below), for the mushroom is God
and needs proper respect and preparation. As time went on, rituals
became more and more complex and layered, including relationship
parables, participation in God's house, going to hell and returning,
and so on. Hell, by the way, is metaphoric of a place of
transformation, of morphing from one mental state to another, from
ignorance to illumination, or from flesh to spirit

Let's also consider the economic side of this, for these cult leaders
wanted converts because it is the converts who provide, in one form
or another, the lifestyle of the leader. These are the sideshow
barkers and stage evangelists who, for two bits, take you inside the
tent to another fantastic world of miraculous healing, demons,
deities, and other oddities. But they also redistribute food and
services, helping people in need, and with the gift of food comes
obligation to the group and group leader. We see this in modern
political groups where gifts are given to senators and representatives
with an expectation of votes for a particular agenda.

Borrowing from Jewish and certainly Egyptian rituals (see Roberts
2008; Murdock 2009), early Christians realized that there had to be
several key elements or stages through which the initiate would pass
(also see Rush 1999):

Ritual Initiation —> Ritual Small Talk/Warm-Up/Parables
>

Ritual Proper (i.e., noncaloric communal meal) —>

Ritual Moves toward Completion —> Signal of Ritual
Termination —>

Social Reintegration (i.e., debriefing, caloric meal)

This is standard ritual process found in Eastern, Western, and
shamanic traditions; what differs is the content (variations in ritual
performance and symbolic meaning). Without considering group
dynamics, especially in such emotionally charged settings, it would
be easy to devalue the fact that people had powerful experiences
under the influence of potent mind-altering plants and fungi. This is
how the “Doubting Thomas types” were turned from skeptics to
believers (see ), but only if they were worthy of the

44. experience determined through the test of the parable. They
released their “demons” (anger, frustrations, “disease") and, let's say,
more enthusiastically shared their “good news,” their salvation, with
others. I'm sure this took many forms, including destroying pagan
idols and actively proselytizing (in some cases) to feed the cult
leader's coffers. Proselytizing (getting converts) can be socially
disruptive and likewise leads to persecution.

Perhaps it was the Jews, the Essenes, who stirred up trouble
because the Baptist had defected. Perhaps they started the gossip
and rumor. Then again, which groups were getting into the most
trouble? Certainly not all Christian groups (Jesus Cults, Christ Cults,
Gnostics, etc.) came to public notice. There are many facets to the
very early construction of this system known as Christianity, but
mind-altering substances undoubtedly played a major part in the
beginning and then in the esoteric rites of the developing priesthood
as they slowly excluded most and ordained few as “frequent flyers”
to do God's work.

A common idea about Christianity is that it began as a small group

that grew and grew, maintaining homogeneity until the split with
Greek Orthodoxy and then again with the Reformation, and so on,
but it is much more complicated. The Catholic Church has fought
such splits and splintering (heresies) since its conception. In any
case, the loaves and fishes story is an example, where Jesus starts
out with a “few good men” and finds himself, in a comparatively short
period of time, having to feed the ever growing crowd of men,
women, and children, sort of the anointed Pied Piper. The picture is
painted of Jesus in a boat or on a hilltop speaking to the multitudes;
this is certainly a theatrical image. Group dynamics, however, might
help to explain how these groups were organized and why there was
such diversity.

In the early stages of Christianity, especially after the death of
John the Baptist, one could prophesize an adaptive radiation, to use
a term from genetics, or the spawning of numerous groups in the
name of the Baptist in some areas, Esau or Jesus in others, with
Christ and Gnostic cults in still others. There were certainly groups in
existence before those that eventually merged with the Christian

45. cults stemming from the Zoroastrians and possibly apostate priests
from Egypt. But all these groups—if the members stayed together
long enough and new members were added—would eventually
encounter an unexpected problem. The group leader can only pay
attention (devote time, train, reinforce goals and rules) to a small
number of people, and when those numbers get upwards of fifty to
sixty members, a great deal of tension is generated—people start to
feel left out because their personal relationship with the leader is
watered down by the needs of others. Most of those early followers,
keep in mind, were very needy people. With larger numbers,
individuals get lost and out of touch, and cells generate independent
ideas and/or deviant behavior; stress increases. When this happens
you either change the way those sixty or so individuals are
organized, or the group will fracture. We keep track of people with
computers, phones, and written lists, but that wasn't available in
those days, and it is difficult to keep track of sixty people; it is also
difficult to keep track of rights and obligations, and people feel
slighted or cheated.

Early Christianity was emotionally driven, and it centered on
acceptance of the individual if he or she showed merit, with initiation
accomplished through the communal, noncaloric meal. Not everyone
was eligible; there are always tests. Some of the early examples of
these tests are the parables, and there seems to be a prejudice here

in that stupid people are not open to enlightenment, which is
adequately expressed in Pistis Sophia. Many of these early cults
appealed to the elite. These were small group events and certainly
not tent evangelism, with very personal and moving experiences with
the sacrament, the mushroom, opening the door to knowledge
(gnosis) and the individual's connectedness to God, the universe,
and how he or she lived life. These first groups might be seen as
early encounter groups where people came and asked questions of
a teacher, rabbi, or priest and the answers, told in riddles or
parables, were the sermon before the communal meal. This would
have a calming, inward-directed effect, thus establishing a proper
mind-set for an experience hitched to a parable. This is why the
Gospel of Thomas and the theorized Gospel of Q are without story
line; Christianity, initially at least, was a spiritual experience one

46. person had with God, and the original spiritual guide was John the
Baptist (or surely someone like him). The mushroom experience was
directed by parable, a story with many levels of meaning just as
encountered in Christian art; a story line about life, living as a decent
human being, and dying with the promise of resurrection in some
positive spiritual geography. That's what it was all about; all the rest
is filler and, in my opinion, perversion. Why was that a threat to the
authorities? Those in power could see early on that a universal cry
for human decency would call for a collapse of the power structure. If
you remember the 1960s in America, you can understand this all too
well: “Make love, not war!” Our government saw this as a real threat,
that is, people dictating to the government, which, of course, is how it
should be. That cry for human decency is getting louder and louder
in our own time. Human decency cannot, however, be forced on
people; nor is it the product of some sociopolitical type (Marxist,
socialist, capitalist, fascist, Christian, Islamic, etc.). Human decency
begins with the individual and matures with emotional responsibility
and self-responsible behavior. The step after that is the right to
question the motives and actions of those in authority—in other

words, free speech. Without free speech and the right to question
everything, respectfully of course, we end up with systems like
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other forms of fascism or "bullyism

Not everyone took in the body of Christ (in most groups) during
every meeting, and those others, those “designated drivers,” acted
as guards to avoid interruption of cult process. Some provided food,
acted as witnesses or assistants, and with the guidance of the
teacher, those seeking the experience were introduced to their
demons (rebuked), cleansed or purified, and then introduced to God
What was lacking in many groups were goals, organization, and
defined ritual (see the Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Philip),
although these can manifest in groups rapidly through a combination
of implied and explicit rules (see Rush 1996, 1999). Implied rules are
those where someone does something, and if the behavior is
allowed or useful, it could become part of an individual's or group's
ritual repertoire. Again, the "original" Christian group (or groups) was
probably made up of no more than sixty individuals or perhaps even
half that. When the group leader dies, the group fractures, and if the

47. original or splinter groups are to survive, they have to become
internally political, with one category of people (religious clerics)
telling another category of people (disciples or novices) what to do
and when. There has to be a story line justifying this division of labor,
and it must include a story line about a third person, the grandmaster
(John, God, Jesus) who brought us to light. Once the story line is in
place, a philosophy can evolve explaining this, that, and other things,
but this philosophy allows one group to discuss its beliefs with
another, which can lead to clarification, compromise, and uniting of
groups; it also lead to hostilities. All one has to do is look at the
behavior of the Church for most of its existence; it has been a
continual fight against heresy, for there can be only one truth, and
with political power the Church could enforce its truth and stamp out
the competition. In any case, this brings us the hierarchy and the
more formal initiation of the priesthood. There could be no
priesthood while John the Baptist was alive, only trained assistants,
and these are the ones who became the “twelve” apostles, although
there might have been only two or three properly trained. Why no
priesthood? Priests are a political statement, and originally it was up

to each person to be his or her own priest and church. We read in
Matthew 6:1-6

Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be
seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in
heaven.

When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men. Verily | say unto you, They
have received their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth:

that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father who seeth in
secret shall recompense thee.

And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they
love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the comers of

48. the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily | say unto you,
They have received their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and
having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy
Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.

Jesus says it plainly; you don't need a church, and by virtue of
that, you don't need a priest. This was a personal experience as it
only can be. You are the priest and the church—and this, in my
Opinion, was the original intent. It had nothing to do with money or
the bureaucratic theocracy emerging between 200 and 600 CE
What Jesus had to offer was a personal experience with God, which
was suppressed, yet handed over to ordained individuals. The
ancient Egyptians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Hebrews did the same
exact thing, although some scholars believe they abandoned these
substances and the secrets were forgotten. Secrets and mysteries
do not vanish; they are always coded in myth in its various
presentations (oral, written, visual). These are the secret secrets,
known only to a few, but those few are enough to carry this tradition
through the ages. Altering one's consciousness appears to be a
universal need, and outlawing mind-altering substances forces them
underground, and, at the same time, imbues them with power
because they are forbidden and therefore dangerous. What
traditions do is change their preferences for mind-altering
substances over time, pethaps because of the particular experience
provided, perhaps availability, or celestial decree. Sometimes they
change the name and further obscure its true nature, as in the Hindu
tradition; sometimes harsh and irrational laws are instituted because
a government fears losing control, and the substances are
demonized. But even those scholars who believe these plants, fungi,
and potions were abandoned do admit they were there initially, and
for the early Christians these plants and potions were God, the
Mystery.

Christianity begins with the ordaining of priests who represent a
clear division between rulers and ruled. This also signals the end of
the communal meal for all and the beginning of the counterfeit,

49. substitute wheat wafer, while the esoteric rites of the priesthood
retained the true body of Christ. Without changing how members are
organized and establishing ritual procedure, groups fracture and
form other groups, and in a short time these new groups likewise
fracture, and so on, and in many instances these groups would be
antagonistic toward one another. Within a relatively short period of
time, say a hundred years, there were probably fifty or sixty separate
groups (or more) with limited membership within a limited geography
calling themselves a variety of names designed to separate
themselves from others. Today there are approximately 1,500
different groups on the planet calling themselves Christians, or
groups connected in some way to that original group led by someone
between 10 BCE and 40 CE, in a different culture, at a different time,
in a place far, far away.

Bullies and Group Formation

Bullies abound in this world; they bring people to action (if only to
remove the bully from the landscape), and they tell us about the
worst side of our humanity. Bullies undoubtedly took over many of
these groups, as evidenced by the likes of Brigham Young, and
certainly the leaders at the compounds at Waco (Seventh-Day
Adventists) and Eldorado, Texas (Mormon). The Catholic Church,
with the help of Constantine (322 CE) and then Theodosius (378
CE), emerged through the thoughts and actions of ruthless bullies,
who were able to put aside philosophical differences in order to
obtain political power. Catholicism did not evolve out of love,
kindness, respectfulness, or integrity and a view to a just society:
these stories are the Church embracing itself. Bullies are at the base
of the Christian family tree, a tree that evolved, perhaps unwittingly,
as a challenge to the politic. This is Jesse with a tree growing from
his side, and on its first branches is a thug, a voyeur, King David
(Isaiah 11:1-4)

And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and
a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.

50. And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah

And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not
judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing
of his ears;

but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with
equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he
slay the wicked.

This mythic tree expressed in the visual arts varies in character
complexity but always includes David and Mary and/or Jesus (or a
mushroom, as we will see) at the top. This is the tree of life, where
we go from self-centered terrestrial bullyism (David) to knowledge
and the celestial world (Jesus)

We can only speculate about some of these early groups, many of
which went underground surfacing as other things. Many went
extinct, as cults usually don't survive past the death of the leader,
especially if the group is in its early stages of development. One
could expect, then, that the death of John the Baptist, Jesus, or
whoever signals the end of that stage and a movement backward, in
some groups, toward Reform Judaism. Why? To stay intact, groups
require explicit rules and roles, and it is much easier to reinstitute
celestial rules and roles of the past than to invent new ones. Any
group that does not establish appropriate story line, rules, roles,
rituals, and methods of financing cult activities that outlive the leader
will splinter or fracture shortly after the leader's death. The reason for
this is simple: the followers have become dependent, and they may
not desire to pass on this dependency to another disciple unless that
person has proven him- or herself worthy through recognized
appointment, dedication, or perhaps a charismatic presence. Recall
how David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel
in Waco, Texas, alienated many group members when he joined and
was rapidly given access to the pulpit (probably because he was
having celestial sex with Lois Roden, who was then running the

51. show). Koresh labeled himself “prophet,” a claim many did not
accept; nor did they acknowledge his new revelation. If you look at
the history of this Seventh-Day Adventist splinter group, you can
appreciate all the elements of cult formation, fracture, and
reemergence. People join these systems in waves and often defer to
the “elders,” but usually not to fellow disciples; this is our small-group
nature in action. So, you have two, perhaps three trained assistants,
the Baptist dies, these two or three vie for power, and the group
fractures. Each offshoot develops more or less different
interpretations of the mushroom experience as they drift farther and
farther apart in their theology. Until a dogma takes hold, there can
only be individual truth, not group consensus. The baptism of Jesus
is the beginning of the New Christianity and signals the death of the
original group's leader (mythic or otherwise) and the beginning of a
standard story line and associated rituals. | question the dates
assigned to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (50-70
CE), for surely additions, much of the story line for Jesus, for
example, crept in between 312 and 325 CE and after the Council of
Nicaea. Other portions of the New Testament, First and Second
Corinthians, and the Acts of the Apostles, were, in my opinion,
likewise constructed, reconstructed, or reworked around this time
(325 CE) and attributed to Paul, the “lesser apostle,” another likely
mythic biblical personality perhaps based in part on Saul in the Old
Testament. Paul is the vicious counterpart of Doubting Thomas, with
the former persecuting Christians but then having his revelation on
the Road to Damascus, while Thomas has spiritual doubt yet
submits to the experience. Both are dissuaded from disbelief by
magical events, with Paul's contact spontaneous, while Thomas
seeks the experience. The message | get from this is don't judge
(Paul), and doubt is okay, but check things out, seek and ye shall
find (Thomas). The other more contemporary message is you can't
escape the truth; you seek it or it slaps you in the face and blinds
you for three days on your Road to Damascus.

Christian Images and Idolatry

52. The issue of idolatry stems from the Second Commandment of the
Old Testament, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” By 800 CE
the Jews had worked around this by defining an idol as having three
dimensions, thus allowing two-dimensional images and opening
another modality for instructing in God's word. This led to the
production of hand-copied manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, all or in
part, called Tanakh. This art is interesting in that it unites Islamic
design with Christian art style

The earliest Christian images predating Tanakh by many hundreds
of years did not, for the most part, represent a problem of idolatry
because the art was simply part of meeting places, or so we are told,
and this assumption seems reasonable. The art or images were
already in existence, and not originally created as symbolic of Jesus
or for purpose of worship, and this also seems reasonable. Over
time, however, these images were reinterpreted and added onto,
possibly for purposes of idol worship as some have suggested, but
also as images for teaching (see Tyrwhitt 2004). Remember that you
have to teach people to worship—how to lower your head, what to
say—and what better way to do this than with some of the greatest
artwork ever created. When the story line of the priest comes with
visuals, as any good teacher knows (and the Jews discovered),
another sense modality is evoked, leading to a more uniform
interpretation and thus belief in the associated magical events. When
everyone around you has the same beliefs and images, they must
be true, or at least they are less likely to be questioned. The art
made the life and times of Jesus real and uniform, and it certainly
created images for meditation and/or worship. Religious art
(iconography) is a specialty, and just as only a priest can give
communion, not just anyone is allowed to place these Christian
images in a church, basilica, or cathedral or to repair older works.
This is all proprietary, magical, secretive stuff, and the artist must
show up with specific credentials. As Pickstone (2005, 65-66)
comments,

For 1,000 years of European and colonial history, the Christian
churches were the major patrons (at times, the only patrons) of
the arts, defining their subject matter and style to such an extent

53. that during this period the two might have appeared
coterminous. It is only relatively recently that the arts have
regained their autonomy and separate identity.

Other groups considered any image idolatry, in the Old Testament
sense, and still others avoided images realizing that one's
relationship to God is personal and cannot be rendered in rainbow
colors. Jesus was an experience and not a specific image of
anything or any single individual. In fact, Jesus might have been
experienced as a voice or even “a presence,” and not as a visual
image at all. In the beginning stages, all these cults used various
substances to commune with the other side, as per the original
group(s). Those groups that established ritual and procedure, and
restricted the real sacrament to the clergy, survived to gain political
acceptance and then the right to practice openly. The mushroom
experience had to be guided or directed to avoid contrary messages
sent from God. Restricting the real communion to the clergy required
at least two interpretations of the art, exoteric (common) and esoteric
(priesthood). The art likewise justified or sanctified the existence of
the Church and priests. They needed images and story lines about
miraculous people, worthy of God's blessing, the martyrs—the
priests, cardinals, bishops, popes, and eventually the image of
Jesus. With a fictitious history (see The Golden Legend) and
beautiful art, they could point back to the precedents of their
existence, a celestial history portrayed as historical fact.

The iconoclasts could not totally avoid the visual image, for as
they told their stories, a personal god was imagined no different from
that generated by reading pornographic novels so popular over the
past few hundred years. This is what has been called verbal idolatry
coded in the image-evoking biblical stories. Those rejecting images
(iconoclasts) were probably the most secretive and closer to the
Jewish tradition in terms of rules and regulations. The iconoclasts
may represent the earlier tradition from which the iconophiles later
departed, again indicating that there were many very different
Christianities existing at the same time (just as there are today), all
of which, in my opinion, radiate out from a cult movement (or several
such movements) that appealed to the down and out and offered,

54. within a ritual context, an experience with God (see Rush 2008). We
saw a mirror of this in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, in the
various types of encounter groups that, according to some, evolved
out of military think-tank exercises of the late 1940s and 1950s, but
such groups date back to prehistoric times. Many techniques were
adopted by Erhard Seminars Training and Scientology (a cult in the
pejorative sense) and other therapies introduced from the East, and
still more were homegrown combinations, like Transactional
Analysis, Gestalt, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Parent
Effectiveness Training, and so on. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s,
group members often fell out of favor with their leader and moved on
to other programs (or formed their own) that promised to give what
the old program couldn't provide. People went from one group to
another searching and searching and assuming that some new
philosophy would bring them to a place of mental peace.

The original images, as some scholars suggest, were of common
things or sentiments found decorating the homes in which people
gathered to partake of the communal meal. Food sharing is the
perfect metaphor for humanity; sharing means to be in sympathy
with the other or his or her group. This communal meal was different
because it was noncaloric—the Food of God, and God was sharing
his food with special people. Set and setting are important because
you did not want the mind-altered experience interrupted; you had a
safe house (or tomb) where the doors were guarded. Paintings on
the walls were often referred to as the experience progressed,
perhaps as simply points of focus during ritual performance at first
and then through convention. These images (e.g.. vine, bread, and
fish) are those that first became determinatives for Jesus (Teacher of
Righteousness) or adjectives for the mushroom experience. They
would be familiar images, but the new meaning grafted on to the
secular would remain incomprehensible to outsiders.

Those opposing images perhaps had a better reason for the
prohibition: there was a realization by some that the images could
reveal the mystery, and they were correct. More people have been
exposed to the coded mystery through visual images than would
ever have been exposed through writing alone. | do not believe that
the problem resided with the image itself. That is to say, idolatry was

55. not the problem so much as was exposing the mystery by giving
people too much information. But there is another side to this. Those
who shunned images may have done so because Jesus was not a
person whose image would be recognized by all; Jesus was an
experience with the mushroom.

Imagining Jesus

Jesus wears many faces, and each speaks to one or more of his
characteristics. Some of the images relate back to earlier times and
can be connected to specific symbols or metaphors from other
traditions. As an example, the halo has at least part of its origins in
the Aten (Adon in Hebrew) sun disk ( ). This, in my opinion,
may be the god-plant of Moses, Yahweh or YHWH (see van der
Toorn et al. 1999, 910-919, for an extended discussion of origins).
One name for the plant-god in ancient Egypt is Ukhikh (u-he-keh),
which is related to the verb ukeb, meaning “to shine.” If you
exchange Egyptian for Hebrew phonemes, you get very close to

YHWH. I think it only reasonable to assume that the God of the Jews
came out of Egypt, and the relationship to El of Mesopotamia (the
Good Shepherd image) is a combining of elements rather than an
issue of origin. All gods and goddesses are combinations borrowed
and modified to fit some sociopsychological need; they are mirrors of
our selves.

The halo is the experience of God or Jesus. This experience, or
initiation of the experience with the god in the Egyptian tradition, is
represented by the rays that emanate from the sun disk and end with
a hand, holding an ankh (in my opinion representing the mushroom
in this context) seen at the level of Akhenaten's nose and genitals
(see ). Again, | believe this is the plant-god, the fiery bush
Moses experienced on Mount Horeb; this is the hand of God and
portal to the godhead, a common motif for Christians as can be seen
in the twentieth-century rendition (lower right, ). Notice the
ankh right beneath the uraeus, or cobra with a human head referred
to as the “exalted enchantress," implying transformation of state or
transmutation. Also note Akhenaten's androgynous shape, and the

56. shape within the offering table. Akhenaten closed down all the
temples, preventing people from worshipping their respective gods,
for economic reasons, so we are told. The priesthood was very, very
wealthy, and one way to circumvent their power would be to close
their doors and permit only the worship of the Aten; this is the same
story that Moses brings to his followers. In the Bible, God restricts
worship to himself only; “Thou shalt not have idols before me.” It
seems to me that any intelligent pharaoh, especially one born into
the household of Amenhotep Ill, probably the model for Solomon in
the Bible, would be wise. Moreover, it is likely that Akhenaten was
inspired by his father in exclusive worship of the Aten, for the idea of
a single god, neteru, was well established. The problem was you
couldn't talk about this energy, so it had to be personified. Thus all
the gods and goddess that pour from that single energy source are
players in the Egyptian story line of creation, life as it is, and how life
will be in the Underworld and Field of Reeds.

Akhenaten had to be in another world if he didn't foresee the
consequences of his act, closing the temples as he did, for the
priests drove him out of Thebes, and he was in fear of his life
thereafter. And even threats didn't deter his goal of a city, Amarna,
the Garden of Eden, devoted to the Aten (see Rush 2008). We have
at Amarna the tomb painting ( ) of Panehesy, “Chief
Servitor of the Aten in Akhetaten,” being served some beverage
made from the strange looking “fruits” on the tree. The central tree
(which has an interesting shape) and jar the goddess is holding have
their own secret meanings, which | will reveal in So,
here we have Akhenaten, who antagonizes the rich and powerful in
order to undercut their power and redistribute the wealth in his favor.
What event could have been so powerful to compel him to take that
risk? | suspect that it was influence from the priests closest to the
pharaoh, apostates all, and the potion the goddess is delivering to
Panehesy. After he had his experience or experiences with the
celestial world he was convinced of his destiny, closed the temples,
packed his chariot, and built a city, Amara

In we see the hand of God coming down from a “cloud.”
Notice the interesting looking plant to the right of Moses, with his
stole in an erect position (celestial erection motif) in the direction of

57. the deity. Also note that the hem of Moses's alb (ankle-length
garment) is likewise full of mushroom shapes. Brother Aaron looks
on, explaining that Moses is with God and accepting the
Commandments. It is interesting that Moses's followers do not have
the same mushroom shapes in their albs as in his, although Aaron
(closest to Moses) has a possible mushroom sash and mushroom
cape pin. After all, Aaron is the magician priest, but he is not
currently in the experience of the mushroom because he doesn't
have a nimbus or halo. He, instead, is explaining Moses's behavior
to the followers, for they do not see God; only Moses in trance
(under the influence of the mushroom god), looking up to the
heavens, is in touch with the deity.

Notice the deity, in the top frame, emerging from the burning bush
What do you suppose is in his left hand? It certainly isn't a gum ball
We will see this same object held by Eve, Mary, and Jesus (art
historians say this is an apple, quince, pomegranate, or fig); it is a
reference to the burning bush, again, symbolic of God. This oil on
canvas by Domenico Fetti, Vienna, Austria, 1613 CE, illustrates

many techniques for hiding the mushroom. Also notice the two
mushroom caps that make up the central border around the image.
This is no longer simply a story of the burning bush that Moses
bumped into one fine afternoon. | will remind the reader that these
are celestial images, and what you see is not what you get; you have
to look “behind” the image.

A practice of early Christians in Rome was burial in catacombs.
But this was an older practice borrowed from the Jews who
borrowed this, most likely, from the Egyptians and their burial of the
dead in tombs built at Amarna or cut into cliffs in the Valley of the
Kings, across from Thebes in Upper Egypt, or in underground tombs
in Lower Egypt. The art and symbols found in the Roman catacombs
most probably represent the earliest Christian art. These catacombs
remind me of the caves in France and Spain and of those ancient
paintings of animals hidden from view and used, most likely, as
geographies for rites of passage, hunting magic, and other rituals of
which we know nothing. These images are the counterparts that
eventually became icons in the cathedrals and basilicas—caves and
tombs of a latter time—as all speak to life, death, and return.

58. The original images in the catacombs included the vine, lamb,
bread, fish, and the Good Shepherd, an adjective also attached to El
of ancient Mesopotamia; El was likewise connected to manna (see
Rush 2008). This early art is of a different quality than encountered a
few hundred years later, when, as has been suggested, there was
probably greater access to the most renowned craftsmen and
women. We see, then, the Egyptian sun and plant-god combining
with characteristics of El perhaps originally to go unnoticed by non-
Christians—but keep in mind that | am using Christian as a generic
term encompassing diverse groups with diverse truths of the
mushroom experience. The image of El, the Good Shepherd,
combines with the Aten (Hebrew, Adon) to produce the figure of the
saint with a halo, the experience of the mushroom or dwelling in
divine light ( ). This is the most probable reason there are
no images of Jesus in early Christianity—he was an experience of
the mushroom path, an experience reported by those ordained or
otherwise recognized as conduits between this world and the next. It
was the priest, bishop, and pope depicted as that special, magical
person, with magical powers. This is why we first see saints, martyrs
all, and only later, Jesus, who represents all the saints (a move
toward unity), the greatest of the Good Shepherds. Why did they do
this? First, as others have pointed out, the Good Shepherd was a
reference to a leader who told people what to do. We think of sheep
as simply followers, but in those days the Good Shepherd guided the
minds and bodies of people, you know, hands around the farm. If
you get enough people following your orders, you can create
opposition to the politic—appreciate how dangerous some of these
cults were to the status quo

Second, | believe that each of these original Good Shepherds,
these early saints, was giving different guidance and interpretation
as to the nature of Jesus or God, and different types of Christianity
were emerging in geographically disparate areas. There were surely
differences in opinion as to how many demons could occupy a
person's soul, or the length of time it takes a priest to ascend to
heaven after death, but these could be negotiated. The nature of
Jesus, precisely because he was a personal experience, was not,
however, easily negotiable. The experience of Jesus is also revealed

59. in the various trinities in Catholicism. There is the exoteric trinity—
that is, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus—rendering Jesus human or at least
part human. This is closely aligned with another trinity: God, Mary,
and Jesus, which is an attempt to splice the divine into the human
genome. We don't exactly know if God or Joseph impregnated Mary
—! guess it depends on the Sunday school you attend. Then there is
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and also Anne, Mary, and Jesus.

Other groups were perhaps less interested in whether or not Jesus
was god or spirit but focused instead on a method of life. This is
revealed in the Gospel of Thomas and some of the parables in the
New Testament. There is suffering, yes, but if you are a decent
person, God will accept you into his house; there is hope of a better
day perhaps in some celestial place.

There are security and power in numbers, and the reader can
appreciate the necessity of developing a story line, a myth that all
could, at least for the moment, live by. It was absolutely necessary to
accommodate the three divergent views: one view that Jesus was all
spirit and not the least bit human (Father), the camp that believed
Jesus was all human (Son), and then those who integrated the two
through the Holy Spirit, the energy, or that which brings one to God
or God's house.

Outside the Trinity Jesus wears the face of the lamb in waiting, the
sacrifice or offering to clear humankind's sins. In the story of
Abraham and Isaac, the substitution of the lamb, after God stayed
Abraham's hand, represents the substitute sacrifice. Poor Abraham
is in a bind where he is supposed to follow God's directives without
reservation, and when he does, he is told not to do it. Scholars often
interpret this as blind obedience to God, the ideal, while others say it
is metaphorical of movement away from human sacrifice and toward
substituting the scapegoat. Maybe, just maybe, the story is a
warning about which mushroom to gather or when to harvest.

For Christians the prevailing story is that Christ died for your sins,
he is the scapegoat, he is the bargain struck with God. Through his
sacrifice God forgives all sins, but only, of course, if you accept
Jesus as your savior—thats the catch. Although a replay of the
Abraham and Isaac sacrifice (the Great Nonevent), there is a major

60. difference: Jesus is sacrificed. The exoteric meaning of this is clear;
Jesus died for the sins of all who accept him as their savior. This
cannot possibly be read literally; read literally, it makes no sense at
all. The individual cannot be responsible for the sins of others but is
responsible for his or her own behavior; sin belongs to the individual
Jesus's dying for your sins is great sentiment, but it has no spiritual
worth. If sin, however, stands for our animal nature coded on our
genes, this perhaps makes a little more sense. That is to say, Jesus
is sacrificed to atone for our animal nature, which is corrupt and
needs correction. If a person cannot control and redirect his or her
animal nature toward some useful social purpose, it would be best to
move back to the animal world. We know these geographies as jails,
prisons, and terrorist camps around the world. These are the dumb
and stupid people for whom Jesus feels great sorrow, but you can't
illuminate until the individual is ready for the experience. However
genetically inspired or culturally conditioned, you are still responsible
for your animal nature.

The nonevent with Isaac was simply a test, by the deity, of one

individual (Abraham); this is not a grandstand event with lots of
people looking on. The fact that Abraham blindly follows the directive
of the deity is most likely a reverse play on Eve's refusal or inability
to follow instructions. Because Abraham does place God before
humanity, he gets the boon, the promise that the generations to
come will return to the Promised Land, the Land of Milk and Honey.

Jesus, however, isn't sacrificed in an anonymous, quiet ceremony
with the deity on a hilltop set away from the ears and eyes of the rest
of the community. Oh no. This has to be a public execution. There is
a long, politically staged, gruesome story line surrounding this,
represented by the fourteen Stations of the Cross in Catholic dogma,
all of which is designed to instill guilt and maintain an image of self-
contempt and loathing, an image of a wretched, sinful, unrepentant
human being—at least on the exoteric level. As the story goes,
pilgrims to Jerusalem many, many years after the alleged crucifixion
of Jesus would learn about the route taken by Jesus through tour
guides, storytellers every one, from his arrest at Gethsemane
(meaning olive press, a probable metaphor for a bad trip; see Rush
2008), his journey to a hill (Golgotha) overlooking the city, where he

61. is nailed to a cross, is speared by the soldier, dies, and then is
entombed. Because this is myth from a secular/historical
perspective, the Stations are iconic (geographic icons), and they
represent something else. So let's explore this “something else."

Stations of the Cross and O. al Chris:
Rituals

Pilgrims are defined as religious devotees who venture to foreign,
sacred geographies in search of an experience of suffering to gain
merit, acquire a connection to or magical influence from some divine
energy, receive personal physical or mental healing, and so on
Pilgrims can also be defined as tourists. Tourists need guides, and
guides get paid—to make up and tell stories. The tourist trade in and
around Jerusalem had been good business even after the followers
of Muhammad (Muhammadens—Islam doesn't show up until after
750 CE) conquered the area in 637 CE. Caliph Omar and his council
of elders, we are told, showed tolerance by simply requiring an
entrance fee to the Holy Land. You see, this was not especially a
holy place for the Muhammadens at that time; the Islamic priest
poets came up with that story line once they made the connection to
Ishmael and Abraham of Genesis fame. Then they started to
construct their mythic charter. One has to wonder why they wanted
to hook up with the Jews in the first place. Perhaps they liked the
chanting or the priestly uniforms; maybe it was the mushroom and
the unusual incense, or perhaps they lacked the creativity to invent
their own, unique mythic charter. No matter, for in Genesis 16:11-12
we read what Ishmael will become:

And the angel of Jehovah said unto her [Hagar], Behold, thou
art with child, and shalt bear a son. And thou shalt call his name
Ishmael, because Jehovah hath heard thy affliction.

And he shall be as a wild ass among men. His hand shall be
against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he
shall dwell over against all his brethren. (Emphasis added)

62. It would appear that God has created negative spawn through the
union of Abraham and Hagar, and it is this attitude of anger and
similar lack of humor that reside at the base of the Islamic family
tree. There was no Koran and no teaching about an all-powerful god
in 637 CE; that was years in the future. We are told by modern
scholars that Muhammad was a real person who spread the
teaching of the Koran far and wide and even went to Jerusalem,
although our mythic hero Muhammad died, according to the story, in
632 CE. The true teachings of the Koran come into this area with the
Ottoman Turks in 1076, sword in one hand, Koran in the other. The
Muslims, or followers of Islam, were not necessarily the followers of
Muhammad, and they treated the Christians and all infidels very
badly. Pope Urban II rallied the populace with a guaranteed license
to kill, maim, spindle, staple, and mutilate all who stood in their path
of doing God's work. This first Crusade, composed mainly of
peasants, was led by Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless,
names that don't evoke great confidence. They were destroyed by
the Turkish army at Constantinople. Another army, assembled by the
nobility with people trained to fight (knights), was more successful,

taking Jerusalem in 1099 CE. Once again pilgrims were welcome in
Jerusalem, and again there has to be something to see and stories
to tell, sort of a spiritual Disneyland. This is a time to spiffy things up
in preparation for the crowds, and I'm sure the Church had a hand in
this in many ways. The Stations of the Cross may be one of the first
enacted rituals in the earliest Christian cults, possibly emerging from
apostates of the Essenes at the beginning of the Current Era

The Stations, as a devotional activity, were apparently permitted
(actually promoted) by Pope Innocent XI around 1686 CE. By
enacting the ritual, the individual is further bound to the group (cult)
and its code (God) through public display. Hitler did the exact same
thing. This is especially the case when the ritual is given sanction by
the Church. Because not all had the ability to travel to the Holy Land,
the Pope permitted the creation and enactment of the Stations in all
churches. In short, why not spend money at home? He also set the
Stations at fourteen (according to Bowden 2005, 341, it was Pope
Clement XII in 1731), probably a reflection of the midphase of the
moon, but the point is a pope set the number of Stations, and this

63. could not be a random or arbitrary number. This papal decree makes
these fourteen Stations real and thus truth, validating the historicity
of Jesus. This is what is referred to as layering myth, wherein we
end up analyzing the metamyths, the additions assuming they were
right there among the symbols of that early cult. The Stations of the
Cross, in all probability, have their origins in something | think more
interesting, the original story line, a reverence and ritual process
relating to the mushroom. In the beginning we don't know exactly
how many stations there were outside the New Testament's
(Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 22-23; John 19) renderings of events,
not numbered stops along the way. Originally, according to Church
authorities, there were anywhere from five to thirty stations (Bowden
2005, 341). The reader should keep in mind that I'm storytelling as
well, unlayering the myth perhaps, and | don't know for sure if the
Stations represent a primitive aspect of the original church or cult. |
think they do because the mushroom would have been the focus of
the cult; it is God, and its life and death must be ritualized with a
supporting story line. The Gospel of Thomas and Pistis Sophia, for
example, can be read as manuals for indentifying, preparing,

consuming, and directing ritual process, and there are many possible
parallels with the Stations. The Thomas Gospel is very disjointed;
many sayings or parables are probably part of specific ritual
contexts. Moreover, there are statements in the Gospel of Thomas
suggesting that Jesus is an ethereal presence and not a living being.
For example, we read (Robinson 1990, 130), “His disciples said,

"When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you.
This is highly suggestive that the disciple is experiencing Jesus, his
voice or presence perhaps, through the mushroom and is asking
when Jesus will show up in his corporeal form so he might give him
a hug, wash his feet, or have his alb dry-cleaned

Another player in this, according to the Catholic Education
Resource Center, was St. Leonard Casanova (1676-1751) of Porto
Maurizio, Italy, who reportedly erected over six hundred sets of
Stations throughout Italy, but | find it difficult to trust the history
generated within the Church for public consumption; history doesn't
happen—it is created in all cases, sometimes with integrity and
sometimes with other agendas. Here are the Stations and their

64. “historical,” philosophical, and, in my opinion, botanical correlates
(Matthew 27:27-50; Luke 23:23-46; Mark 15:35; John 19:15-30):

Station One. There is a search for Jesus, and he is betrayed, knows
the authorities are coming, is found, and is condemned to death
(exoteric, conventional rendering to be accepted as historical truth)
The esoteric, on the other hand, is closer to the philosophy of "know
thyself,” and finding Jesus really means finding yourself. Further, we
are all condemned to death, but death comes in many forms,
physical, social, and emotional. Death means transformation. We die
to the old and are born to the new. In short, once born, you find
yourself on a road to death. This is a personalizing of the mushroom
(Jesus), and you, like him, will surely die in order to bring forth
illumination in your rebirth or resurrection now or in some spiritual
geography,

From a botanical perspective this is locating, acknowledging, and
condemning the mushroom to death, for the mushroom is God. In

the Gospel of Thomas we read,

And he said, “The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net
into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among
them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the
small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without
difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Robinson
1990, 127)

This isn't about proselytizing or finding converts, and it isn't about
fishing for calories. If it were about proselytizing, you would keep all
the fish, big and small—especially the little ones because they are
easier to train. Here the big fish has two meanings. First, don't
illuminate people until they are ready for the experience. Most
people, the little fish, are not ready for illumination, so don't bother
with them.

The second possibility is that the fish equals life and the
mushroom, and, in selecting the best for the ceremonial purpose at

65. hand (while allowing the others to mature), you choose the largest,
most mature specimen.

Station Two. Jesus receives his cross (exoteric). We are all handed
the cross of life's burden (esoteric), and through it we experience
pleasure and pain, beauty and horror. We asked for it, as the story
goes, because Eve couldn't follow instructions and stay within the
bounds of the myth. The problem of life could not be solved in the
Garden of Eden. We had to change our thinking and challenge
nature. The esoteric ritual is a preparation for transmutation, or the
transformation away from one way of thinking and entrance into
another. Eve, | might add, is the Judaic-Christian culture hero for she
said no to God and yes to humanity, in a similar fashion to
Prometheus, and in contrast to Job and Abraham.

Botanically, the mushroom is removed from Mother Earth and
taken to a special spot where ithe is hung on a cross or placed in
the branches of a tree to dry. Remember that Jesus is connected to

that cross shortly after his conviction for introducing those with merit
to God and being a decent human being.

Station Three. Jesus falls the first time (exoteric). There is a more
complex meaning on the esoteric side. Because Jesus falls three
times, one would assume that each fall represents a different type of
“fall” However, there is no suggestion of Jesus falling in the
Gospels, so these were added for dramatic purposes and/or in order
to come up with the magic number fourteen (half the phase of the
moon). As a modern translation, however, we might say that the first
fall represents Eve and her fall from grace (original sin) because she
couldn't follow instructions; Jesus perhaps relives that with this first
fall. From another direction, we all fall; we all make mistakes. This is
symbolic of Jesus's humanity, his human side

Botanically, “Jesus” is “picked” (falls) and is offered (harvested,
chosen for transmutation) by the Father. There are special
characteristics to look for when making the choice—the mushroom

66. must be in a particular condition, or stage—a more mature stage
than the birth of Jesus. This is where you pick out the “large fish”
from all the rest “without difficulty.” You have to remember that many
pagans saw the Christians as a peculiar bunch of people, not that
they ran around naked, walked backwards, stood on their heads,
and ate feces. No, it would have been their strange rituals—their
releasing of demons, pilgrimages to the Holy Mushroom and return,
and enactment of the birth and sacrifice of their god, all of which, if
not seen as real strange stuff, was not part of the average pagan's
ritual performance. Protestants see Catholic rituals as strange;
Masonic rituals are certainly bizarre until understood. Baptists
consider Mormons unusual, and of course there are the Pentecostal
snake handlers; most see them as strange or insane.

Station Four. Jesus meets his mother (exoteric). It is through Mary
that Jesus is born to save us from sin, or to atone for Original Sin,
through his sacrifice. Jesus, through Mary, represents redemption

from the fall of Eve. From another perspective, this meeting reflects
where we came from and how we reached this point in life—we
reflect on a life lived, sometimes with regrets or unfinished business
(esoteric)

Botanical: It is possible that part of the root (Mary) or branch (St.
Anne) of the tree was used symbolically to reenact the mushroom’s
life. Here we see a connection to palm leaves (Palm Sunday) and
Ash Wednesday, when ashes from the palm fronds of the previous
year are burned and then dabbed on the forehead as a sign of
Tepentance. This has its connection to Job, who poured ashes on his
head and thus betrayed humanity by submitting to God's wrath.
Interestingly, there is anointing oil likewise connected to “palm”
leaves called the Oil of Catechumens with one of its ingredients
“palm ashes.” Catechumen refers to the initiate or one who has not
yet been baptized, but is in the initial stages or in preparation for
transmutation from one stage, state, or status to another.
Catechumen is suspiciously similar to calamus, which is mentioned
as a major ingredient in the Hebrew anointing oils (see Exodus

67. 330:23-30). Bennett and McQueen (2001) strongly suggest that
calamus is Kannobos (Cannabis sativa), and | have suggested
Hyoscyamus (henbane; see Rush 2008). Whether these oils were
part of the original rituals will probably never be known, but when
they began to ordain priests, and develop an elaborate hierarchy and
story line, such mind-altering oils were no doubt part of the ritual set
The rite performed is prefaced with the following (Dudley and Rowell
1993, 125);

God manifests his grace through the sacramental signs he has
entrusted to his Church. By the anointing oil, the sick are
strengthened and healed, the catechumens are empowered to
resist Satan and to reject sin and evil, the baptized are sealed
with gifts of the Spirit, and the ministers of the Church are
sanctified in God's service. Through the use of these holy oils
may God's grace be poured forth always upon the Church.

Although the magical ingredients, through which one would
receive God's grace, were removed from the oils (at least for today’s
initiate into the Church), evidence of their original presence remains
This substitution is of the same order as the Eucharist, with the
wheat wafer exchanged for Amanita muscaria. | have more to say
about anointing oils in

Station Five. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross (exoteric). Sin is a
terrible burden, and just as we help others carry their burdens, they
help us carry ours, but all of us will sin because we are human, not
God, and it is through others that we develop community and
support (esoteric)

Botanically, there would have been someone responsible for
carrying the “cross,” the mushroom, and this is Simon of Cyrene.
Who is Simon of Cyrene? The name Simon means “to hear,” thus
making him a witness. He is also a stranger and therefore a neutral,
participating witness. The cross is a device used metaphorically for
transforming our hero from human to divine; you cannot be reborn

68. unless you die. This would be the same as boiling children in a
cauldron or cooking them in an oven in Germanic tales.

Station Six. Veronica wipes Jesus's face with her veil (exoteric)
Veronica means something like “bringer of victory.” As the story
goes, Veronica met Jesus on the Via Lolo Rose and wiped his face
and his face (portrait) was transferred to her veil—a story originating
in the Middle Ages, | might add, but perhaps an adaptation from
another ritual. The veil covers the hidden (the face, the mystery),
which is now exposed (esoteric).

Botanically, this is a reference to the veil of the mushroom that
breaks away as the cap emerges, folds up, and exposes the gills,
which contain the spores. Pieces of the veil can break away and
stick to one's hands, cloth, or clothing. The veil is also the top portion
of the cap, for this is what contains the mystery, the most
psychoactive chemicals in the fungus.

Station Seven. Jesus falls a second time (exoteric). There are many
interpretations for this, one being that we fall because we get tired in
our pursuit of the mystery or God. This is an addition probably to
evenly space out the stations symbolically or geographically.

Station Eight. Jesus meets the Daughters of Jerusalem (exoteric),
and Jesus says, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but
weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 23:27). Certainly
this is to be taken as historical fact, but esoterically this means we
need to think about what we are doing to each other. In other words,
if Jesus was murdered because he preached human decency, just
think what those in power can do to you and your children.
Reference to the Daughters comes from the Talmud and Old
Testament

N

69. Daughters of Jerusalem

There were no greater festivals for Israel than the 15th of Av
and Yom Kippur. On these days the daughters of Jerusalem
would go out ... and dance in the vineyards. And what would
they say? “Young man, raise your eyes and see whom you
select for yourself...”

And so it is written, "Go out, daughters of Zion, and see King
Solomon, in the crown with which his mother crowned him on
his wedding day and on the day of his hearts rejoicing.” “His
wedding day’—this is the Giving of the Torah; “the day of his
hearts rejoicing’—this is the building of the Holy Temple, which
shall be rebuilt speedily in our days. (Talmud, Taanit 26b)

Itis no coincidence that Yom Kippur and the 15th of Av served
as occasions for matchmaking for the young men and women of
Jerusalem: these two days are the respective betrothal and
marriage dates of G-d and Israel. Yom Kippur—the day on
which the Second Tablets were given to Moses, marking the
completion of the covenant at Mount Sinai—is the day of Israel's

betrothal to G-d. The 15th of Av—the day that represents the
rebirth which follows the great fall of Holy Temple's destruction
on the 9th of Av—celebrates the ultimate consummation of our

marriage with the final Redemption of Moshiach

After relating how "the daughters of Jerusalem would go
out ... and dance in the vineyards,” and that ‘whoever did not
have a wife would go there” to find himself a bride, the Talmud
goes on to describe three different categories of “daughters" and
how each would call out to her prospective bridegroom:

What would the beautiful ones among them say? “Look for
beauty, for a woman is for beauty.”

What would those of prestigious lineage say? “Look for family,
for a woman is for children.”

What would the ugly ones say? “Make your acquisition for the
sake of Heaven, as long as you decorate us with jewels.”

The martiage of G-d and Israel also includes these three
categories of “brides.” Amongst the souls of Israel are “beautiful”

70. souls, souls “of prestigious lineage,” and “ugly” souls, and each

type contributes its unique dimension to our relationship with G-
d

From the Song of Solomon (1:5-17) we read,

| am black, but comely, Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the
tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.

Look not upon me, because | am swarthy, Because the sun hath
scorched me. My mother’s sons were incensed against me;
They made me keeper of the vineyards; But mine own vineyard
have | not kept.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy
flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon: For why should | be
as one that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions?

If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, Go thy way forth
by the footsteps of the flock, And feed thy kids beside the
shepherds’ tents.

| have compared thee, O my love, To a steed in Pharaoh's
chariots.

Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair, Thy neck with strings
of jewels.
We will make thee plaits of gold with studs of silver.
While the king sat at his table, my spikenard sent forth its
fragrance.
My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh, that lieth betwixt
my breasts.
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna-flowers in the
vineyards of En-gedi
Behold, thou art fair, my love; Behold thou art fair; Thine eyes
are as doves.
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch
is green.

The beams of our house are cedars, And our rafters are firs.

71. Also from the Song of Solomon (3:10-11)

He made the pillars thereof of silver, The bottom thereof of gold,
the seat of it of purple, The midst thereof being paved with love,
from the daughters of Jerusalem.

Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon,
with the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the
day of his espousals, And in the day of the gladness of his
heart

So what is this all about? Certainly the meaning in the Old
Testament is different from that of the New Testament. The
Daughters were added, most likely, to form a bridge between the old
and new relationship with God. But as | show below, there may be
another meaning. Jesus is saying, “Beware of the future; this isn't
about me.” This is an esoteric meaning, a potentially dangerous
interpretation. Why? Well, maybe you don't want your kids and
grandkids to live in such a wretched state. When people are living
moment to moment, there isn't much time to think about the future,
and when you contemplate the future, you think of those in power,
and perhaps we need a change.

Botanically, regardless of what they look like (women or
mushrooms), if they are mature, they are appropriate for bringing
forth “life” or illumination.

Station Nine. Jesus falls a third time, just as we all do (exoteric)
From an esoteric perspective perhaps this relates to an admission of
something, perhaps one’s last cleansing before purification (death)
and illumination, or perhaps it is included because three is a magic
number and nine is a multiple of three.

Station Ten. Jesus is stripped of his garment (exoteric), just as we
are transparent to our sins (esoteric).

72. Botanically, as the mushroom cap opens, the veil tears, revealing
an upper and lower. This is referenced as the “veil of the temple rent
in two” (Matthew 27:51; Mark 13:58; Luke 23:45), but there are other
references to the “veil” (Hebrews 6:19; 9:3; 10:20) that point to the
mystery, God, Jesus, the mushroom (see ).

Station Eleven. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross (exoteric)
with the esoteric message that we bare our souls for all to see, and
we do penance; there is purification before illumination.

Botanically, the mushrooms are placed in baskets, on sticks,
and/or on tree limbs and left to dry (die)

Station Twelve. Jesus dies on the cross (exoteric) just as we alll die
to that old self (esoteric) and prepare for resurrection
Botanically, the mushroom goes from a moist (live) state to a dried
‘dead”) condition

Station Thirteen. Jesus's body is removed from the cross
(Deposition or Lamentation), just as the old is left in the past
(esoteric)

Botanically, the mushroom is taken to a sacred place, to some
symbolic tomb, box, or basket.

Station Fourteen. Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense
(exoteric), just as we burry the old in anticipation of the new
beginning (esoteric)

Botanically, the mushroom is kept in a sacred place until
resurrected. Covering with incense might refer to covering in honey
as a means of preserving the mushroom or making it more palatable.

73. What are the meanings behind the Stations? From a fundamentalist
point of view this is to be accepted as historical fact, even though
this was an elaboration assigned in the Middle Ages. But there is, of
course, a more spiritual rendering. For example, this is the search for
God or that which brings you to the godhead, dying to the old, and
putting to rest that which came before in preparation for rebirth. If
read spiritually, this is your life, death, and resurrection; this is your
hero's journey.

Can these stations be found in other traditions? Yes. This, 1
believe, is a reenactment, in part, of the Opet festival in Ancient
Egypt, where the god Amun (Aman, chanted at the end of Christian
prayer services) would be removed from the temple and carried on a
barque, ark, or boat, through the streets, pausing at rest stops along
the way. This ritual action, as well as its analogues in the Book of the
Dead, is the template for the Ark of the Covenant in which the
Hebrews carried their god, the Teacher of Righteousness. In any
case, along the way, individuals who normally did not have access to
the god would jump in front of the procession and ask “yes” or “no”

questions: “Will my child be born without incident?" “Will my husband
return safely from his trip?" “Will the fields yield as they did last
year?” A step backward by the priests carrying the barque signaled

no" while a step forward signed “yes.” These questions from
spectators to the god Amun became, | believe, the Daughters of
Jerusalem in Christianity. But the Stations of the Cross are certainly
a composite tradition, for itis likewise reminiscent of the Sed festival
also celebrated by the ancient Egyptians as an enactment of the
King's right to rule and, perhaps more importantly, as renewal of his
kingship. But it goes way beyond that:

A major part of the festival consisted in the king visiting the
shrines of the assembled gods of Egypt. These gods, made
present in their statues, were brought ceremonially to the
festival site from all over Egypt. The underlying purpose of this
was to reach across to the more subtle spirit world that upholds
and vitalizes the physical world, in order to ensure a beneficent
connection with it and an unhampered flow of energies from it
into the physical world. (Naydler 2005, 85)

74. Honoring the gods would be important so as not to offend in this
life or the next, and because there were so many it makes sense to
transport them to a central location. The gods are brought to
Pharaoh, so it is a pilgrimage for the gods and the priests. Naydler
(2005, 85-86) goes on to say,

the central rite involved the king crossing the threshold between
worlds in order to stand in direct relationship to the normally
hidden spiritual powers. In the mystical tradition ... , for which
we have rich documentation from the Greek and Hellenistic
period, we know that it was deemed necessary for the human
being fo come to the very brink of death in order for these
spiritual powers to be revealed in an ecstatic visionary
experience. It would seem that it was just such an experience
that was induced in the king during the most secret of rites of
the Sed festival. The Sed festival had at its core a mystical ritual
that served the purpose of bringing the king into a conscious
relationship with the spirit world. As such, it could be regarded
as an Egyptian precursor of the later Greek and Hellenistic
practices. But it differed from these in certain fundamental
respects. (Emphasis added)

The previous paragraph points to a near-death experience and
ecstasy, both occurring, not through pretend (this was very serious
business), meditation or chanting, pain, or sex, but probably through
some dependable and predictable mind-altering substance, and not
something that would physically harm Pharaoh. Perhaps Amanita
muscaria was traded in from Lebanon; perhaps it was Psilocybin or
henbane. Anointing oils were very much a major feature of these
rites, and although the ingredients cannot be positively identified at
this time, these were “fiery” oils, nine in total, used in anointing the
king during the Memphite Heliopolitan New Year rite (Opet festival).
As Roberts (2008, 32) comments,

Then comes the anointing of the Horus king's flesh with nine
oils. The incantation for the first oil both praises its healing

75. power and invokes the dangerous uraeus serpent rearing up on
the solar king's brow, summoning her protection lest she harm
him during their reunion

See the oil comes which exalts the skin, See the protection
comes

Which belongs to the son of Isis, The unguent which is given
to the pharaoh,

Life, health and prosperity for his body, When he is crowned
as Re, Sekhmet is on his head, Wosret (the uraeus) is on his
brow, Shielding him with her terrible fury, Preserving him with
her mysterious powers, The Eye of Horus protects the pharaoh,
Life prosperity and health

Manifestly, this anointing with the protective first oil aims to
channel the “mysterious power” and “terrible fury” of the serpent
Eye goddess into life-giving health for the king.

This first oil was preparatory and possibly contained a small
amount of henbane extract (scopolamine), which would be absorbed

through the skin. The next eight oils added to the effect as the
scopolamine gradually built up in the blood, with the experience
directed by a guide, perhaps the Priest of Resurrection, with specific
incantations. These anointing oils obviously contained something
that would alter the pharaoh's consciousness, and this first rite was
designed to still the waters for the fury to come, much the same as
parables did in the Christian tradition. The pharaoh was to have an
experience, not through meditation or pretend, but through
something that he could accept as coming from outside of him; mind-
altering substances would be the first choice for bringing about the
experience. Why? Because they are predictable and made tangible
a world beyond, thus validating Pharaoh's right to rule—Amun had
spoken, and the priests acted as witnesses, as depicted in

Returning to the Sed festival,

76. Having successfully undergone the “secret rites,” the king went
on to perform the famous Sed “dance,” so often portrayed in
reliefs. Known as the “dedication of the field,” it is usually
assumed that the purpose of the dance was to prove the aging
king's vitality. But this is to overlook a more profound level of its
meaning. Through this dance, the performance of which
involved the king crossing a large courtyard that symbolically
represented the country of Egypt, he magically linked the
heavenly with the earthly world. Often in reliefs depicting the
king performing the Sed dance, three sets of hoops or cairns are
depicted, between which the king runs. These are territoi
markers representing the boundaries of his kingdom...

Driving home the fact that the Sed festival was concerned
with establishing the king's power over both the physical world
and the spirit world, the coronation ceremonies undoubtedly had
cosmic associations. The coronation dais on which the throne
was placed is always portrayed as stepped, and symbolized
both the primordial hill that emerged from the ocean of Nun at

the beginning of creation and a stairway linking earth and
heaven. (Naydler 2005, 86-88; emphasis added)

The Stations, with Jesus on a cross at the peak of Golgotha (the
ben-ben stone, the primordial hill), represent this same idea of death
and renewal, with the cross, the “fire,” that transmutes flesh into
spirit. This is “a stairway linking earth and heaven." In ancient Egypt
the festival represented communion with the gods and renewal. The
“three sets of hoops,” as with the three falls of Jesus, are boundaries
or markers in the ritual as it moves through its linear phases, like
acts in a play. Act One: Jesus is arrested, sentenced, and handed
his device of transmutation, the cross. Act Two: He meets cast
members who act as witnesses, ask questions, and provide comfort
Act Three: His flesh is converted to spirit, which then floods the
universe, and the host, the body, is removed and taken to a special
place with the promise, “I'l be back.” The Stations might also be the
Christian counterpart to the Twelve Gates of the Underworld found in
the Books of the Dead, or the god's underworld journey through the
gates to emerge, resurrected, as the morning sun (see Rush 2007).

77. From a botanical standpoint, Station One could represent the
search for the mushroom and “arresting” it, or preventing it from
disappearing back into itself; you extract the whole mushroom from
the ground. This is Pilate pronouncing the death sentence, the
sactifice to be. As another example, Station Two represents placing
the mushrooms on or in wood baskets (a transmuting container) and
then ceremoniously bringing them to a special place. The Daughters
of Jerusalem and others weep and moan, and perhaps ask
questions, while wiping the dust from the manna and tearing the
veils, taking pity on the poor fate of the one uncloaked and naked to
the world.

The mushrooms are perhaps ceremoniously mocked (rebuked) to
drive away any evil spirits lingering in that place. That is really what
the rebuking in Gethsemane was all about, that is, to make sure the
demons have been purged before communing with God, to create a
mental set for the communion, and to warn of the consequences if
proper rituals are not performed.

The mushrooms are placed in baskets, on standards (the standard
pierces the stalk and enters the cap—this is the fleur-de-lis), or on
branches of trees and allowed to dry for three days or more
Baskets, standards, and tree limbs are synonymous with
transmutation (moist to dry), with the tree limbs symbolic of the arms
of Mary (rightly St. Anne, but this is myth), holding her bloody,
martyred child, Jesus, the mystery. They are guarded day and night,
usually by three wise men who chant, "Where is the god? Has he
resurrected? When will you become revealed to us and when shall
we see you?" (Gospel of Thomas). And the god answers, “I am
yesterday, today, and tomorrow; | will live again forever.” During the
night hours they guard the host(s) from pests, chant to keep away
evil demons, and make note of heavenly movements. The esoteric
rites of resurrection connected to these early cults can be surmised
by examining similar beliefs and practices found among the Greeks,
Romans, and Celts. These postmortem rites involved, more than
likely, a purification ritual where one or more of the participants
consumed the mushroom cap or veil and had the negative effects,
While others in the group consumed the urine, referred to as the
Eucharist, eternal life, or life everlasting (the muscimol can go from

78. one person to another unchanged), thus avoiding most of the
unpleasant effects. This may sound absurd, but drinking urine to
obtain the spiritual effects of muscimol, while avoiding much of the
negative, is more common than one would think (see Bourke 1920,
2007 regarding urine drinking in diverse cultures around the world)

is a visual depiction of metamorphosis likely inspired by
the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphosis (c. 8 CE). A putto is
characterized as a chubby little child often with wings. Some
scholars say these are not cherubs or the second order of angels
assigned to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, whose writings
appear in the sixth century CE. Biblical scholars would like to believe
that the writings date back to around 50 CE, but this, | am told, is
most unlikely. Dionysius, as the story goes, was a member of the
high Greek court, making him an Areopagite, and he is said to have
befriended Peter or Paul. No matter. It is the characteristics of his
depictions of cherubs that are of special importance. They are the
next-highest order of angels; the seraphs (fire makers") come first
Seraphs are depicted as six-winged fireballs, usually red (but
sometimes blue), and to me they represent a characteristic of the
mushroom, and that is the “fire” (fire of Hathor) with which Jesus
baptizes. Cherubs, however, exist strictly to worship God. This is
certainly not the same as Cupid (Amor in Roman mythology and
Eros in Greek). Cherubs represent the voice of divine wisdom; they
possess deep insights into God's secrets, they enlighten the lower
level of angels, and they radiate order and ensure the universal
truths. Cherubs, and I believe putti as well, represent knowledge, or
the deep secrets of God, and they bring wisdom. Cherubs bring
wisdom through thought, word, book, or mushroom cap, and the
putto serves it up in his urine. Continuing this analogy, seraphs
represent the mushroom and its effects, and the cherubs represent
the message of the mushroom, as well as a delivery system. As
deliverers, cherubs are also said to function as charioteers to God
and stand beside his throne. They personify the winds and likewise
act as guardians keeping bad out and good in. Putti and cherubs
have some interesting similarities but only if you factor in mind-
altering substances, especially Amanita muscaria.

79. This image of a putto (I ) comes from the Macclesfield
Psalter (Psalms) dating to around 1350 CE. In fact, most of the
images in this psalter speak to metamorphosis or the morphing from
one being to another. This is a clear reference to mind-altering
substances. We read this in the Gospel of Thomas (Robinson 1990,
137): Jesus said, “He who will drink from my mouth will become like
me. | myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be
revealed to him.” Remember that the Gospels presented in the New
Testament are elaborations on much earlier writings, some of which
can be found in the Old Testament, Gnostic texts, Dead Sea Scrolls,
and so on. The Scrolls also reference the Teacher of Righteousness
(also see Allegro 1970, 1992). In the Damascus Document (see
Vermes 1997, 127) we read,

And God observed their deed, and they sought Him with a
whole heart, and He raised for them a Teacher of
Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart. (Emphasis
added)

In Commentary on Habakkuk (1QpHab; see Vermes 1997, 481)
we read,

VII and God told Habakkuk to write down that which would
happen to the final generation, but He did not make known to
him when time would come to an end. And as for that which He
said, That he who reads may read it speedily: interpreted this
concerns the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom God made
known all the mysteries of the words of His servants the
Prophets. (Emphasis added)

The Teacher of Righteousness, Jesus, and the mushroom are
interchangeable, and morphing, in this case, might just be
symbolized in urine drinking—! realize that this must seem grotesque
at best. The mushroom is the conduit or way to everlasting life, and
this is proven by the fact that this “life,” this energy, can be
transmitted from person to person, with the consumption of the urine

80. uniting the producer and the consumer, “I and the father are one."
Notice the strange looking plants (red with dots) in and the
objects in the lower right corner that seem to be skull-mushrooms,
another mushroom motif.

The earliest Christian traditions might have utilized the initiates,
the scapegoats, the chosen ones, at least once during novice
initiation rites, as the sacrifice. They were “put on the cross”
(consumed the Amanita cap) to suffer—so that others could partake
of their urine, which would contain little or any of the chemicals that
lead to the negative effects, and bring them right to God. You could
also rehydrate the dried mushroom and then drink the liquid
squeezed into a drinking vessel. This is probably the baptism of
Jesus by John the Baptist. In the ritual enactment (Stations of the
Cross), each person was a player and had a special name like Mary
or Simon of Cyrene with special ritual duties assigned to prophet,
stranger, Daughter, and so on. In secular terms, we call such
reenactments theater, or play.

Anyone who regularly uses pharmaceuticals, alcohol, cannabis,
and other drugs eventually realizes they involve themselves in
elaborate rituals of acquiring, using, and concealing or stashing
drugs. Sacred rituals, however, are usually more elaborate and
controlled, but they spring from the same need to organize and
compartmentalize the world. Acquiring mushrooms, for example,
was not simply a matter of ripping them from the ground, or buying
them from a street merchant and passing them out. Mushrooms
were collected at specific times, harvested with the rising or setting
sun, and wrapped in elaborate ritual. The stalk with cap was placed
in a basket, on a stick, or in a tree to keep them off the ground while
drying (slugs love Amanita). The cap was ceremoniously removed
from the stalk (often before drying) and processed in some way for
consumption (cap soaked in honey, urine laced with honey, etc.)
Someone would have guarded or kept vigil to keep away flies (they
lay their eggs in the gills—purity would be important), and after the
three days or so that it takes to dry the mushroom, Jesus (the
mushroom) arises from his death, and will assist the devotee to the
other side. The sacrificial lamb may have originally been analogous
to the dried woollike cap of Amanita muscaria, which, indeed, can

81. appear as blood on wool (| ). In order to have an experience
with god, the initiate must sacrifice (consume) the mushroom
(Jesus), thus the sacrificial lamb, a play on Abraham and Isaac, an
acceptable image, but disguised within is the mushroom, the secret,
the mystery. The story, then, goes from an attempt to bribe or
manipulate the god (Old Testament) to being with God and the
wisdom within (New Testament)

By the mid to late third century, if the dating is correct, we see
pictures of fish and bread ( ) and then saints (|
and 2: 2), with halo and book. is from the catacombs of St.
Callixtus, Papal Crypt; the bread and fish both represent life, as does
the ankh in the Egyptian tradition (see ). My
interpretation of the book is that it represents knowledge, not the
gospel or “good news" (God's spell, see ) of any saint,
but the knowledge of the mushroom as God or the portal to the
godhead, the mystery. So, before we have an image of Jesus, we
are entertained with his attributes, in this case, knowledge and
dedication, with the saint acting as a stand-in for Jesus. According to
the early philosophy, the saint was a representation of the
experience ofiwith Jesus, an experience available to only a special
few in some groups or some individuals with special calling. They
may have had a near-death experience or a psychotic split, and in
either case they had been to the other side and could return. In any
event, they learn the secrets and are ordained. | think what we are
seeing in these early Christian paintings is the experience with
Jesus, the Teacher of Righteousness. This is probably what the
iconoclasts were saying as well—Jesus was not a person; he was an
experience that cannot be rendered in art, and to create and
promote the image leads to misunderstanding and idolatry. The
iconophiles, on the other side, claim that the images are to be used
for educational purposes. Of course, the iconophiles won the debate,
and many Christians use these images for the purpose of idol
worship and meditation, thus placing them into the category of
fetishes, or objects or images that contain the spirit or spiritual
essence of a spirit; they hold power. Again, there are different levels
of meaning in the paintings and mosaics: one level for the common
folk, peasant, or flock, and one used for instructing priests or

82. different levels of religious clerics. A recent discovery of an image of
St. Paul (June 19, 2009) in the catacombs of Rome, dated to the late
fourth century, hints of Paul's importance at that time and not
hundreds of years prior, as is popularly believed. This also, in my
opinion, brings to point the writings (First Corinthians, Second
Corinthians, Act, etc.) attributed to him in the form that comes down
to us today. When were they really written and by whom?

The face of Jesus does not show up until the late third or early
fourth century CE, and before this time we have saints, or those
special people who communed with Jesus and were martyred as he
was. The saint becomes the stand-in for Jesus. Saints healed the
sick, exorcised demons, brought back the dead, and offered
prophecy. In my opinion there could be no images of Jesus because
he was not conceptualized as anything above and beyond an
experience and not human flesh and blood. There are no images of
the Buddha until several hundred years after his death. The
appearance of his image indicates that there is a new form of
Buddhism or Buddhism for the masses (Mahayana Buddhism). The

advent of the face of Jesus, | believe, signals another type of
Christianity, one less personal and more political—Christianity for the
masses.

Images of Jesus prior to the fourth century CE must be
exceedingly rare, if they exist at all. Again, not all in the early
evolution of what today is called Christianity believed Jesus to be a
real person. These early sects were different indeed from the Jewish
sects and somewhat like the polytheists in that people were having
different experiences with their designated god or gods; each person
came into the rituals with different needs or mental sets. This, of
course, had to be standardized by limiting and directing the
experience in the form of ordination of special individuals and
outlawing the experience for the masses. When images of Jesus do
appear, they signal that Jesus has morphed from spiritual essence,
as experienced through the mushroom, to a living, breathing human
being, thus presenting a powerful image to parallel the stories and
direct the senses. Here is where | think most of the early seekers of
the “real” Jesus went wrong. If you begin your research thinking
Jesus existed in history and you cannot find evidence, this lack of

83. evidence does not prove he didn't exist. So out of political
correctness you assume he did. If you enter this research not
knowing if he existed in history, evidence, in the form of forgeries
and political pay-for-play, quickly reveals that Jesus was a mythical
character. Early on, contemporary scholars were looking for a flesh-
and-blood human being who has no historical visibility outside of
stories written long after his alleged death. Add to this the forgeries,
quite unnecessary if Jesus was a real person who performed
miracles far and wide and was known to the multitudes, and
interpretations that further layer the myth in order to explain
discrepancies and add detail. So, should historians give Jesus's
historical existence the benefit of the doubt without evidence to
support it? I've been searching for Rumpelstiltskin; | can’t find him,
but III give his tangible (flesh-and-blood) existence the benefit of
doubt. Absence of evidence, like in the case of Jesus, doesn't mean
Rumpelstiltskin doesn't hang out somewhere, in a hay bam perhaps,
spinning straw into gold. You can see where this type of thinking
leads. Rumpelstiliskin and Jesus, by the way, have at least two
things in common: they both have a secret about them, and both are
connected to the mushroom. In any case, using the Christian system
of faith as a benchmark, any belief you have, even though it cannot
be proven or held in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
is true as long as you have faith in your belief. This type of reasoning
splits a person's reference for reality and opens a clear path to
schizophrenia, It amounts to denying reality in today’s world. | also
understand the need for psychological protection, but | think, as
Joseph Campbelll said years ago, “We can do better than this.” This
interpretation—that is, Jesus as a real, living, breathing human being
—has been used as a basis for interpreting Christian art (as well as
Christianity and Western Civilization in general), and this, in my
opinion, has held up our understanding of other levels of meaning
contained within the art—probably the central meaning

The stories and early images of the saints ( ), however,
and the accompanying adjectives, clearly suggest that a story line of
Jesus had evolved by the mid to late third century, but there were
many variations, and these in some manner had to be
accommodated or deleted. The saint was a stand-in or

84. personification of an experience restricted to the clergy, a restriction
that occurred early in the groups that managed to survive. As the
story line became more sophisticated, new (but common) images
were added (Mary, Peter, Paul, and so on), again serving
educational purposes and not, at first we are told, as graven images
or idolatry, although there is a fine line easily crossed in this mental
adventure. Again, the saint is the temporal stand-in for Jesus who is
the personification of the mushroom, originally an experience and
not flesh and blood. Once Jesus became a living, breathing human
being, it was much easier to develop a story line of his life and death
and, in time, to justify the clergy's right to act on their own behalf
(mythical charter) at the expense of the common peasant.

From those early storybooks painted on the walls, in stained glass,
and mosaics, right to the present, one can detect periods of change,
crisis, and stress within the Church. Early on, for example, idol
worship was condemned (Second Commandment) but rationalized;
the picture was not the reference, as was the statue of Zeus, but,
instead, symbolic of something else that words fail to describe, and
this is exactly the nature of iconic art. This rationalization, however,
did not stop the iconoclasts from destroying priceless images.
Christian icons are images of meditation for both understanding and
then teaching the mystery to the priesthood; on the other side they
were to be taken literally. The period from about 150 CE to 325 CE is
one of development when saints (real and fictitious), through their
contact with God, were revered and honored as they may be able to
help secure a place for you in heaven. Many scholars agree that
these saints were worshipped as patron deities for improving one’s
condition in this life and on the other side. A patron saint resides in
most villages in Europe to this day and is generalized in St. Benedict
or Nursia as the Patron Saint of Europe. Medals are worn for
protective and other purposes, such as for St. Christopher and
others. My personal favorite is St. Gertrude, the patron saint of cats
Saints often hold a book in their unseen left hand, out of respect we
are told. The hidden hand, however, may have a different meaning
(see ). The book is part of the code, representing
knowledge and understanding the mystery. The book is likewise
connected to bread, and bread represents life, manna. The book is

85. an adjective representing wisdom while the “bread,” the body of the
mushroom (Jesus's body), allows access to that wisdom.

During the third through the sixth centuries there was a merging of
art forms (Byzantium) and experimentation with form and
juxtaposition of symbols, and the mushroom, as a mushroom, is
more visible. This appears to coincide with the removal of the Good
Shepherd image from the saints and replacing it with the face of
Jesus. This would, in time, cut back on saint cult worship and
replace it with a standard image. Jesus becomes the Good
Shepherd as a generalization, but over time his image moves from
that of mama's boy, to philosopher/healer (shaman), and then martyr.
This occurs during the sixth through late tenth centuries and seems
to coincide with both hard times and a Church struggling for its
existence. But this is also a renaissance of art form, suggesting that
stress and conflict might have fostered many of these creative
components, magical works or displays to God, works representing
loyalty and dedication. These works are prayers to God, an
attention-getting signal for special favors, to defeat their enemies
and quell all heresies. The iconoclasts are on the move as well and
destroy many images (see Popova 2005), and the mushroom takes
on many disguises. These images hold power, and those churches
that had such images probably had more patrons.

An interesting example for that period is the Book of Kells (c. 800
CE), an early representation, in my opinion, of psychedelic art. The
faces of Jesus and the saints are stern, in contemplation, or at least
emotionless (in trance, ecstasy?), with the mushroom hidden within
a complex chaotic order. There is one folio from the Book of Kells
€ ; see ) that perhaps shows the hand of God
holding a mushroom, but it appears that someone has attempted to
erase it, or perhaps the color rubbed off as individuals thumbed
through the manuscript. Perhaps it was a cross.

From the eleventh to the mid-fifteenth centuries, mushrooms
abound; we see the face of the Madonna in as one of
sorrow, in a similar fashion as the face on baby Jesus. The
mushroom is very evident and exists in quite obvious forms as well

86. as cleverly hidden, often found in some obscure part of the painting
(in a drape, robe, or other garment) or stained glass.

As mentioned, toward the end of the eleventh and lasting through
the mid-fifteenth century, the mushroom is very apparent. This was
the time of the Knights Templars, courtly love, individualism, a
divergence from Catholic dogma (a carryover from the time of
Charlemagne), and reemergence of the mystery in which many
could partake if they could solve the puzzle often referred to in
literature as Avalon and the Golden Chalice or Grail. Use of mind-
altering substances spilled into the court, and the meaning of
Christianity was being questioned. This most certainly comes out in
Parzival, by Wolfram von Eschenbach (1980), who lived circa 1195
to 1225 CE. The Church fought back because it was losing its
position of control, first wiping out the Cathers in Southern France
(1209 CE), an offshoot of the Manicheans, who were heavily

wolved in the use of mind-altering substances. The word Cather
related to our word catharsis, which tells you what they were about
Templars were arrested (c. 1307) and murdered because they were
in a financial and perhaps ideological position to challenge the
Church, for it seems that the Templars were more interested in John
the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, or Mother Mary rather than Jesus. If
you look closely at the cathedrals designed by the Templars (Notre
Dame, Chartres, etc.), you see the mother goddess with her head in
the ground and her legs pointed toward the heavens awaiting
impregnation by the deity, through the rose window, the vaginal
opening. Why such interest in the mother goddess? Perhaps it had
to do with not finding tangible evidence for Jesus in the Holy Land,
but they apparently found something, some say the Holy Grail, an
invention of the Middle Ages, and other more earthly treasures.
Eventually, as the Templar myth goes, they transported these
treasures to Northern Europe or the New World and morphed into
the Freemasons along the way. Well, maybe, but any reference, for
example, to the Grail as a tangible cup used at the “Last Supper,”
must be approached with skepticism. This is myth; this is the same
as searching for the golden harp stolen by Willie the Giant in Mickey
and the Beanstalk.

87. ‘And then the Black Plague shows up in the mid-fourteenth century,
justifying the Church's position that Satan was afoot, there was devil
worship going on, and more housecleaning was necessary—the
infamous witch hunts began in the fifteenth century. The mushroom
itself is hidden from view but is expressed artistically in many ways. |
have the impression that hiding the mushroom became an art form in
itself, spanning a period from 550 CE right to the present, with its
most common expression in clothing, the stoles and hems of albs of
angels, saints, and patriarchs (Eastern Orthodox), and in the figure
of the dove, fish, book, and cross for Catholic, Anglican, and some
protestant denominations. It is there but not there, everything and
nothing at the same instant. The early artists had a great
appreciation for the hidden world around us.

The Mushroom with a Thousand Faces

Spiritual mushroom anatomy and physiology are not all that complex
and consist of general symbols and their many analogues, but keep
in mind that there were a variety of plants and fungi used in different
rituals and in different combinations with perhaps availability during
the course of the year an issue in choice. The Canterbury (Anglo
Catalan) Psalter graphically displays several different fungi (

) in form and color as well as the poppy plant (last on the left).

The life cycle of the mushroom was personified in a story wrapped
around prevailing social and political conditions, which in the case of
mythic hero Jesus included poverty, sickness, general misery, and
an oppressive government. There is a will to life, and a protective
imagination takes hold; a new heaven, new earth is spoken into
existence. This is an age-old tradition, and one should not be
surprised. Contemporary curanderos (Peruvian shamans), for
example, maintain a story line closely resembling the early Christ
cults, and often use San Pedro (Trichocereus pachano), a cactus
rich is mescaline and other chemicals, in healing ceremonies that
imitate the cactus blooming cycle correlated with the full moon (I

). This isn't a simple case of a shaman sitting down with a
patient and nasally imbibing mescaline. This is only one part of a

88. total ritual process that begins with divination procedures often using
a guinea pig. It is first rubbed over the patient, then sacrificed, and its
entrails examined for illness, presence of hexes, or perhaps loss of
soul. Once the cause of the complaint is known, a curing ceremony
is arranged that includes many patients. Some of these ceremonies
are held at night on the ocean's edge and others at frigid lakes far
away in the mountains. In either case the time and location represent
isolation and fixation on the experience. All take part in the
communion with the cactus, which is accompanied by rituals directed
by the shaman. These rituals are specific to physical and mental
healing with each person having his or her unique experience with
the cactus god. Similar practices, using different substances or
species, are to be found in Mexico and in many areas of the world
past and present,

The botanical cycle of these plants and fungi would be understood
and coded in rituals and art. Pine trees, which grow in diverse areas
of the world, often support various species of Amanita, some very
poisonous while others are hallucinogenic. Amanita muscaria is
frequently referenced in Christian art, but the mushroom is often
depicted in a generic form, for example as the Eucharist or bread.
Amanita muscaria cannot, as far as I'm aware, be grown or
harvested like wheat or barley but requires a special relationship with
various pine trees and sometimes birch or oak. Although
cosmopolitan, the place to find Amanita is in the “sacred grove” or
around pine and oak trees obtaining a certain amount of moisture
and soils at a specific temperature, often seasonal. Psilocybin
species, on the other hand, are found in pastures and moist wooded
areas around the world, and especially in fields where cows and
other herd animals graze and defecate. In any event, the Amanita
mushroom has forged an agreement with the pine tree that it will
give the tree protection from insects or even other animals that chew
on the bark or leaves in exchange for nutrients filtered through the
roots of the tree. The mushroom might also help detoxify the tree.
The Amanita sacrifices itself to flies, slugs, deer, and so on.

was produced in Ferrarese, Italy, by an unknown artist, and
dates to 1450-1500 CE. Entitled Madonna and Child, notice the fly
on Jesus's right leg. Mother Mary is pointing to it, while Jesus holds

89. a transparent globe in his hand and appears to be looking up and
past Mother Mary. According to St, Melito, bishop of Sardis in the
late half of the second century, the fly was a symbol of the Devil or
Beelzebub. The fly is sometimes characterized as temptation, but at
the very least is evil. But there may be another meaning, for it could
be seen as a botanical evil—flies crawl up the stalk of the mushroom
(Jesus's leg) and lay their eggs in the gills. When the maggots hatch,
they consume the mushroom and its life force. In we
see a similar motif. Mary is looking at the fly while Baby Jesus
clutches a bird (see below). He is also wearing the cruciform nimbus
with dots, another analogue of the mushroom. His right eye appears
to be looking at the fly and his left at Mary's left hand while she pulls
him away from evil. Turned upside down, the pillow becomes the
mushroom cap while the stalk is formed by his buttocks and right
thigh. Amanita muscaria is also known as fly agaric or fly mushroom.
This relationship of fly to Amanita must be millions and millions of
years old, The mushroom begins as a tiny little spore, perhaps
beyond the awareness of those ancient people. The spore attaches
itself to the roots of the tree via its own roots (mycelia), which reach

the surface and produce a fruiting body. The first stage looks like an
egg (the Easter egg hunt?; see Irvin and Rutajit 2009), which then
opens (this can take three days or more), and the cap, as it dries,
can bend up in the form of a cup (chalice— )

So, there is the pine tree, the roots, and the fruit of the womb of
the earth, the mushroom. The mushroom is the mystery and is
central to the mystery rites that gave meaning to these early cults
The groups that survived were those who could control their
members but with a different story, one that obscured the mystery by
personifying the main player and presenting as historical fact the life
cycle of Jesus, the savior of the world who brings knowledge and
everlasting life. This was a move away from the more direct
reference to the tree, roots, and fungus

In order to personify the cycle, more than faces were required,
Faces need attributes, attitudes, and conditions in order to build a
complex story line with ritual observance. This is all basic stuff of
mythic development. These rituals functioned to mark periods large
and small through which they controlled the individual's weekly, dail

90. and yearly behavior. The move, then, is away from a personal
experience with the deity (religion) to one of slavery to God and
Church (politics). We progress from identity with, communication
with, or becoming the god, to worship and bondage.

Levels of Meaning in Christian Art

It is quite understandable that Christian art would contain several
levels of meaning. Originally this probably functioned to obscure the
new associations connected to the pagan art or others hostile to their
beliefs and practices. Moreover, if there were only one level, then we
would know what the priest knows, and he would become
superfluous. However, beside the exoteric and esoteric levels in the
art, or levels designed for the parishioner and the priest, there are
other levels of meaning most probably reserved for the senior
priesthood originally regarding collection, preparation, and
consumption rituals. There is also a level reserved for the artist, and
this is readily seen in the Book of Kells and the Macclesfield Psalter.
That is to say, the artists add their own inspired talent to the art,
which is often difficult to interpret even with modern, living artists.
Joseph Campbell, however, made it very clear that it was the artists,
the shamans, who keep these traditions alive. The icon artist, in
other words, is a silent shaman who maintains the tradition through
visual expression, for to alter the symbols would diminish their
power.

This brings up another point—you cannot necessary use the older
(pagan) symbolic values of the major images, that is, fish, bread,
anchor, Good Shepherd, vine, and so on, when interpreting the
meanings ascribed by those early Christian groups. Recall that these
pagan images were tweaked to fit the Christian agenda. The story
line and images relate then to the unfolding of the mystery or the
progression from images of the known world (fish, bread, and
anchor) to the celestial world (everlasting life). Let's consider in more
detail the different esoteric levels of meaning in Christian art.

91. First Level

The first level, of course, is God, the primary reference, the code,
which cannot be talked about and thus requires a second-level
representation or symbol that can radiate in many directions at the
same time, as is the nature of an all encompassing god. This is the
same for the Egyptian Amun and Aten, and the Hindu Atman
(Brahman). This energy represents everything and nothing at the
same instant; time cannot exist under these conditions. This is
termed a singularity. Because this level has no image or name, it
cannot be referenced, revered, worshipped, or manipulated.
However, we are symbol-manipulating, order-creating animals, and
not being able to talk about something creates a strange dilemma
We experience God through the stars in the sky, the grass on the
front lawn, our children, and so on, but that isn't God, only a
reflection. So we pull this energy out of its singularity, place a name
on it, construct an image, personalize it (personification), and
develop a story line. This amounts to psychological protection and
pretense to control and manipulation.

Second Level

That which represents God or the portal to God (Jesus)—recalling
that Jesus said he was the way to the Father—is the mushroom. At
this secondary level, then, the mushroom in those early Christian
groups was the tangible reference to Jesus, God, or Christ as the
portal to the godhead and/or as God himself. Notice in

the mushroom caps in the deity's left hand and under his arm and
elbow. Remember, they don't bake bread in heaven, nor do God and
the angels defecate, urinate, sleep, or watch American Idol. What
they do eat is food of the gods, manna, and it is noncaloric; this isn't
bread, but they will share it with you if deserving. As we will see,
finding the mushroom (as a mushroom) occurs during every time
period. At this second level, mushrooms exist as mushrooms, but
more often as mushroom-trees, tree-mushrooms, mushroom-rocks,
mushroom-flowers, blood-mushrooms, and sole mushrooms, as well
as mushrooms cleverly hidden in the folds of a robe, scarf, or sleeve
(see the Fourth Level below).

92. Hiding mushrooms within clothing is the most common
representation over a period of 1,500 years. But different artists and
patrons had specific ways of rendering the mushroom. For example,
in The Bedford Hours (see ) the favored method is in
the form of seraphs, those six-winged angels, usually red in color but
sometimes blue, whose name translates as “fire maker” (fiery bush,
fiery Hathor), a probable reference to the initial effects of Amanita
muscaria. The mushroom also exists in the form of pillows, shoes,
and footstools, but this isn't apparent until it is conceded that this is a
possibility knowing the frequency with which mushrooms in other
conditions or renditions show up in the art. In other words, you have
to know what to look for, where to look in the art, and move past the
exoteric meaning of the motif.

This second level can also be displayed as a hand or even God
coming down from the heavens through a cloud (| ), and in
some images the hand and the cloud compose the mushroom (see
also ). The hand of God issues from the mushroom and
thus is part of the mushroom, the stalk that connects the upper and
lower worlds, both in and out, the hokeypokey.

The rays and hand issuing from the sun disk in the Egyptian
tradition (I ) transform into the Christian dove with
mushroom-nimbus. Notice that Akhenaten has a peculiar shape,
thought by some to portray him as the Aten in human form, half man
and half woman, and this seems reasonable, for, in the Egyptian
tradition, he was a god on earth. Also note the offering table to the
right with Aten hands all over it. It would also seem reasonable to
speculate that whatever Queen Nefertiti, Pharaoh, and his genitals
are being offered is noncaloric and mushroom in shape. This seems
to be likewise rendered on the table, either being delivered or
blessed by the multitude of hands. Akhenaten and Nefertiti are
obviously receiving the food of the gods, this being their image in
“death” or preparation for transmutation. The offering table is
likewise in the shape of a mushroom enclosed within a mushroom.

The ankh, in my opinion, is symbolic, in this context, of the
mushroom, while the hand is synonymous with God and dove in
Christian symbology; they have the same symbolic value, that is, the

93. spirit, the Holy Ghost, the messenger who brings life everlasting, that
which comes from one world into another. The dove also indicates
initiation of the worthy individual with the experience of the spirit. Not
everyone is worthy or ready for illumination; Jesus knew this very
well

Third Level

The third level is a Jesus who is no longer a reference to something;
he is the reference. Moreover, all images of saints, Mary, and so on
are a reference to Jesus and represent adjectives describing who he
and his behavior. At this level we have the body of Christ, hi
humanity, his personification. The purpose of this personification is
that it allows the development of a story line for directing the mind of
the listener or observer (the Good Shepherd and his sheep); you
can't say much about a mushroom. A mushroom won't be visited by
Magi and cannot be tempted by Satan, and certainly riding into
Jerusalem on a donkey and harassing the money changers are out
of the question. Of course, in our own time we have personalities like
SpongeBob, but this is appropriate for a culture that applauds
creativity and social whimsy; few above the age of five or six believe
SpongeBob exists as a living, breathing hominid sponge who wears
square pants. In the Old Testament, the mushroom is sometimes
personified as an old man, with a beard, and a terrible disposition—
these were warrior rites, referenced as a cloud of smoke, or a
burning bush (see ). The experience with the mushroom
will reflect the mind-set at the time. A mind-set involving warrior rites,
or one full of oppression and fear will condition that experience. A
mind-set full of joy and hope will condition another. Yahweh is the
reflection of the former mind-set, a world filled with fear, oppressive
rule, and warrior rites. This god is a savior who the believers create
in an attempt to defeat the oppressive ruler with a story, of a jealous
god, a wrathful god who will protect special people and dole out
special privileges and land if he is worshipped exclusively and
correctly. Jesus represents a different character of God, or rather a
different god than is encountered in the Old Testament. The
character of Jesus, in my opinion, represents a different experience

94. with the mushroom. He represents, at the basic level, hope and
salvation from oppression simply by being a decent human being,
not by proselytizing or defeating your enemies. This is exactly what
comes through in Christian art once read as a spiritual adventure
rather than history. This is the mind-set going into the Jesus initiation
rites; these were not warrior rites as they were in the Old Testament,
This is an important point. Ritual is designed to induce a
transformation of emotional state and condition a specific reality of
the world (cognition). The content of the rituals will affect the mind-
set as well as direct individual and group behavior. Cults do not
usually catch on rapidly unless they have a popular message, not
something off-centered, but one appealing to unity, not division. The
original Esau or Christ cults presented their philosophy of unity
though story, thought, and knowledge, not threat if individuals did not
comply. This philosophy leads to a different experience of one's
social circumstances and with the mushroom.

Fourth Level

At the fourth level we encounter the fish, bread, cross, book, halo,
breast, foot, blood, shoe, dove, and so on mentioned at Level Two:
these are mushrooms rendered in their spiritual form. They are all
adjectives or attributes, conditions, or behaviors of Jesus in a fashion
similar to the one hundred attributes of Allah (iI-Liah), the Moon-god
of war. These attributes will be analyzed in terms of meaning as
offered by scholars and then reinterpreted, offering something very
different. The fish, book, dove, and bread are, in a sense, delivery
systems, while the cross, surprisingly, is a bit ambiguous and can
point in so many directions. This may be why it is the most common
Christian fetish (object that contains spirit power). In its generic
condition, however, it is a transmuter, or that which transforms flesh
into spirit or ignorance into illumination, and so on.

These manifestations of the energy that informs all, in my opinion,
are purposeful, artistic methods of accentuating and directing the
eye of the enlightened beholder. Much of the detail presented in this
work would not have been available to commoners of a time past
because they are far away in the ceilings, arches, and stained glass,

95. in most case. Manuscripts, on the other hand, were privileged and
restricted from public view; the secret could be controlled just as the
state media controls information in our own time. The art was
commissioned, and the artist's job was to make the symbols speak.
There had to be a fit between Church needs and artistic rendition,
keeping in mind that many of the artists were religious clerics
including the aesthetics, the monks. In most cases we do not know
for sure the names of the genius artists who created these images,
but the mushroom, in my opinion, is the signature of God who
inspired and directed the commissioned symbols rendered in the art.
So much can be read into the art, but there has to be a point from
which the other images radiate, and in my opinion this is the sacred
mushroom. As Panayotova (2008, 13) comments,

The medieval makers and owners of the Macclesfield Psalter
could have perceived its texts and images in a variety of ways,
depending on their social background, political allegiances,
ideological stance, intellectual capacity, devotional habits,
aesthetic tastes and particular circumstances at the time of the
manuscript's production. They would have found the pictures
helpful as signposts to guide them in the text, useful as
mnemonic aids, enjoyable as embellishments of their treasured
book, and gratifying as symbols of their piety, status and wealth.
Some of the images, instructive in their moral message and
visual interpretations of Scripture, probably functioned as focal
points for prayer and as incentives to examine the text closely.
Others may have unleashed the imagination, exhilarating in their
power to create chains of associations, titilating in their secular,
frivolous or obscene connotations, and perhaps disquieting in
their ability to implicate the viewer. All these possibilities
converge in the Macclesfield Psalter's amalgam of verbal and
pictorial meanings. Polyvalent by nature, its images and texts
may once have conveyed messages lost on us today, but they
also tend to attract modern readings that may yield rare insights
as long as one avoids anachronistic views. Bearing in mind that
any given interpretation rarely accounts for the intricate web of
meanings woven into the manuscript, we may start by picking

96. up the threads exposed on the surface and hope that they will
lead us to the center of the dense fabric.

That center of the fabric, | believe, is the sacred mushroom. The
belief that gods inhabited trees and plants is certainly an old idea
stemming from the experiences with these plants (and fungi),
experiences that most probably begin with our ancient Homo erectus
ancestors (1.8 million years ago). They foraged far and wide and
were not fussy about what they ate, one of their secrets to survival.
In fact, herbology may have been one of humankind's first sciences.
Eventually Homo erectus moved out of Africa and came in contact
with other mushroom species and mind-altering plants. This would
have been no different for modern humans moving out of Africa in
their food quest beginning around 130,000 years ago. Evidence for
the use of mind-altering substances reaches back many thousands
of years into prehistory. As suggested in earlier publications (Rush
1996, 2008), first contact with these plant substances must have
been disconcerting to the group, with people experiencing altered
states or, in the case of Amanita muscaria, “dying” and coming back
to life. Eventually these plants and fungi became associated with (or
perhaps touched off) cultural beliefs and behaviors, especially those
surrounding shamanism, which carried on over the course of
thousands of years into modern times (McKenna 1992; Rush 2008)
Itis the use of these plants and fungi that helped make tangible a
world beyond and was a major factor in the development of
Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroasterism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
and, consequently, a major component of Western Civilization

Looking and Pointing

Another characteristic of Christian art is pointing, as mentioned
earlier, to direct the eye of the viewer to a specific object or person
To the unsuspecting, these directional clues could go unnoticed as
merely quaint hand gestures lending motion to stationary images.
This motif, however, allows for instant understanding of the central
point or player in the scene (see Yazykova and Luka 2005, 15). In

97. we see on the left, Our Lady Psychosostria (Saver of
Souls), Icon Gallery, Ochrid, Republic of Macedonia, c. 1320 CE. In
the center is Our Lady Periblepto, Museum-Preserve of History and
Art, Sergiev-Posad, District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, c. 1360 CE
And on the right, St. Irene, St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai,
Egypt, c. 835 CE. Notice the shoulder mushroom (stalk and cap) on
St. Irene (far right). This shoulder mushroom will be encountered
again, but notice where Baby Jesus is pointing in the other two
paintings (center and far left). He is pointing to that very same
mushroom configured on the right shoulder. We have been told that
the hand gesture means “Hand of God,” but in my opinion this hand
posture also points and informs as to who or what God is. Notice in
that Baby Jesus is pointing to the red “circle” with dots
on the post of the throne; this is the Amanita muscaria mushroom
cap. Also note the mushroom right above his hand and cape to the
right.
In some cases there are several people pointing in different
directions to different people or objects, again revealing the central

message. Pointing is usually specific to an object or person, but in
some cases the pointing is directional. So, rather than “look at that
(Jesus, angel, bush, book, etc),” you are instructed to "look over
here or over there

Always take note of eyes and where people are looking—in some
cases the eyes look at things and people, sometimes exhibiting a
dreamlike stare (see ). In other cases people look at the
viewer as if he or she is part of a play and this is an aside for the
benefit of the audience ( ). Viewing Christian art is like
watching or even being in a play, which brings up an interesting and
very possible connection between these icons and “mystery plays.”
There is a type of temple structure found in Egypt dating from the
late dynasties through the Roman Period (747 BCE to 395 CE)
called a mammisi (birth-place or house) by Egyptologists, although
there are earlier counterparts. As Shaw and Nicholson (1995, 169)
comment,

98. The Ptolemaic mammisi usually consisted of a small temple,
surrounded by a colonnade with intercolumnar screen walls, in
which the rituals of the marriage of the goddess (Isis or Hathor)
and the birth of the child-god were celebrated ... The temple
complex at Dendera includes two mammisi in front of the main
temple. One of these dates to the Roman period, while the other
is a much earlier construction of Nectanebo | (380-362 BC) in
which “mystery plays” concerning the births of both the god Ihy
(Hathor) and the pharaoh are said to have been enacted,
comprising thirteen acts and two intervals. It is highly likely that
similar dramas and rituals took place in other birth-houses, with
the intention of ensuring agricultural success and the
continuation of the royal line.

The major feast icons in Christian art include the Annunciation,
Nativity of Christ, Presentation in the Temple, Baptism of Christ,
Raising of Lazarus, Transfiguration, Entry into Jerusalem,
Crucifixion, Descent into Hell, Ascension, Pentecost, and Dormition
of the Mother of God. The Egyptian rituals, more than likely, were
known to the Christian poets or through the Egyptian priests, and the
“mystery plays" may have become the major feast (life and death)
and resurrection icons. A play is a ritual performance with a
beginning, middle, and end, which can become a standard enacted
once a year, such as the Shakespeare festivals held in various cities
in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The Nativity, as another
example, is still acted out with live players and is a scene that has
connections to the Opet, or New Year festival of ancient Egypt.

Color

Colors chosen for rendering these works were limited by convention
(there were four), which is clearly noted when comparing Eastern
and Western styles, although there are many possible color
combinations. Nes (2005, 10) lists the following colors used in her
icon copies

99. Titanium White

Light Cadmium Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Chrome Oxide Green
Burnt Sienna

Cobalt Green

Light Cadmium Red
Ultramarine Blue
Dark Cadmium Red
Cobalt Blue

Indian Red

Raw Umbra

Ivory Black

Burnt Umbra

These colors are commercial products, but the original pigments
came from plants, trees, minerals, and animal sources (milk, blood,
egg yolk, etc.) as bonding agents and would be procured by the
artist and mixed according to some proprietary recipe. These artists,

then, were cross-trained as botanists and chemists, psychologists,
symbolists, and kinesiologists. These were also pious people with an
intense personal connection to the art. Let's explore these colors and
their associated meanings.

White

The major colors portrayed in Egyptian texts are white, black, green
blue, red, and brown with many different shades. In comparison with
icons, the color scheme has not changed a great deal. In ancient
Egypt white is usually connected to purity and sacredness.

White (hedj or shesep) is usually reserved for mummy
wrappings, clothing ... temple floors, and fur on animals. In most
cases white is a statement of purity and cleanliness indicating
the sacred nature of the god, person, or object. In the Book of
the Dead of Ani, Ani is wearing white with gold, projecting an
image of purity and sacredness. (Rush 2007, 116)

100. We are informed (Gaskill 2003, 103) that “white is the most
common scriptural color, finding a prominent place in scripture and
liturgy both inside and outside of the Church.” When it comes to the
icons, however, white is reserved for clothing, certain animals like
sheep, and clouds. In terms of clothing this makes sense because
the clothing of priests was a mirror of the deity. However, the deity is
often caped in red, blue, and gold, which is not necessarily a
reference to purity but is more a reference, in my opinion, to a type
of mushroom. White is also analogous to white light, a characteristic
of heaven, which shines down on earth, into a well perhaps, bringing
life.

Black

Black in Christianity is usually the antithesis of white and represents
evil, grief, or mourning. Sometimes black is simply used to contrast
other colors; but when connected to a central theme or character, the
color can take on negative connotations. In ancient Egypt, however,
black does not have an exclusively negative reference.

Black (km), unlike white, is connected to fertility and associated
with Egypt or the “black land.” The yearly inundating floods
blacken the land with regenerative soil. Thus Osiris, in his role of
regenerator, is often portrayed as having a black face, for, not
only does he fructify the land, he is a conduit to the resurrection
of the dead pharaoh. Black, then, is not a doom and gloom color
but one representing resurrection of the land, crops, and the
blessed dead. (Rush 2007, 116)

It would seem, just from white and black, that the meaning of color
is connected to one’s experience with nature, but the value of colors
is determined by cultural consensus. In other words, when the priest-
poets were constructing the stories in the Bible, they had to use
symbols and color schemes that would match the reader's
associated meanings, if not exoterically, then esoterically. Birds, for
example, are usually depicted as white because they fly into the sky
and roost among the angels. When they are red or brown, take a

101. closer look, for they may represent mushrooms; take another look at
Baby Jesus is clutching and looking at the “dove”; the
dove is the delivery system for God's mystery, the mushroom, and if
the mushroom is consumed by maggots, then life goes to
Beelzebub, the other side (death). This suggests that Jesus is the
medium and the message. You can't tell a story unless the audience
shares similar symbols and associated interpretation; the fly is
explained away as simply symbolic of evil or temptation. But there
are levels of meaning, that, to be understood, require a broad
knowledge base. For example, in we see Putto urinating
into a vessel. Without knowledge of botany and plant color, the
symbolic value of Putto, the connection between cherubs, Amanita
muscaria, and urine, you simply have an image of a naughty boy
urinating into his friend’s porridge bowl, with his foot braced against
a rock.
Colors and their meanings in Christianity were drafted from stories
in the Hebrew Bible, the authors of which shared the limited color
scheme of the Egyptians. But the Hebrew meanings were more likely

related to spiritual events or emotional states, while the Egyptians
were more connected to personality or roles and the natural
condition of the land, although there are certainly exceptions to this.
In Christian art colors reflect one's interaction with the forces of good
and evil in a more philosophical, dreamlike, or otherworldly manner.

Green

Green in Christian art is similar to the Egyptian mimicking life as
experienced in nature.

Green (wzd) incorporates many shades including blue. The
color green, like black, was used to denote resurrection, as
Osiris is often portrayed with a green face: green and black can
be seen as analogous colors. Green represents regeneration in
the form of vegetation and the renewing of life. Frequently the
deceased's face, as depicted in the Coffin Texts, was colored
green to insure resurrection, again, an identity with Osiris. (Rush
2007, 116)

102. Blue

Blue in the Christian condition includes a statement of status or
godliness, whereas white generally stands for purity. Blue (irtiu) is
rare in the earliest Egyptian art because it was fashioned from
turquoise and lapis lazuli, very rare minerals eventually traded in
from the Sinai. Because of its rarity, this may be where the social
status and royalty connotations came from. In ancient Egypt blue
was also connected to the primal abyss and the night sky, which can
be seen as analogues.

Oftentimes in Christian art the central person is wearing a blue
cape over a white alb, symbolizing a priest or saint. But the color
blue has another meaning associated with a characteristic of
Psilocybin mushrooms; that is, when you squeeze the stalk, it turns
blue.

Another difference between Christian and Egyptian art is where
the color is used. In Egypt, for example, Re is often portrayed with
blue skin or Osiris with a green or black face as a means of
emphasizing their roles as generators or transmuters of life into
death and death into life. Skin color in Christian art is given a more
naturalistic tone

Red

Red is a somewhat ambiguous color

understood in context. Blood, for example, represents life, while the
fires of hell represent torment or death. In either case, however, red
is the color of transmutation or perhaps the device of transmutation,
as when a fiery torch is thrust into a martyred saint's side (

). Seraphs are often colored red most likely because of the initial
effects of the Amanita mushroom.

Red with gold, white, black, or brown dots is almost always
associated with Amanita muscaria. This configuration is seen with
book, shoe, angel's wings, cape, and so on. As in the Egyptian
tradition, red shares characteristics with yellow and orange.

Purple

103. Red and purple lie at different ends of the light spectrum, but the
drafters of the Bible most likely didn't see color on a sliding scale but
perhaps on a wheel where red, blue, and purple share similar
characteristics. Light, the ultimate morphing “agent” represents

lumination, of going from one mental state to another, or purity. Blue

a signifier of high rank, while purple represents royalty. The most
sought-after purple was derived from a type of sea creature (mollusk
or snail), a secret that was closely guarded. From trade restrictions
perhaps, and certainly availability, we assign wealth and status to the
color purple. We certainly understand this proprietary mixture
business with other plants in modern time. For example, Rubia
tinctorum, also known as madder, was a very important dye plant,
the roots producing shades of red, pink, lilac, purple, brown, orange,
and black. The main pigment, alizarin (Turkey red), was synthesized
in 1868, thus reducing the plant's commercial value. Before that time
Rubia tinctorum was a sought-after plant. There are stories of theft
and intrigue, as well as murder. Also of interest, the roots of this
plant were used as a liver stimulant and antiseptic, and for kidney
and bladder stones. This shows the close association between

artists, their pigments, and the medicinal value of these plants. S
we have another connection to the power of the art; the inks,
many cases, are made from healing substances. Certainly Christian
art (in all its forms) is used for emotional healing, and this spills into
physical healing as well. The art contained the power to heal and the
power to direct our beliefs and behaviors.

We find maroon used in the Tibetan tradition to signal status. The
Tibetans use a Rubia species (cordifolia) called Indian madder,
which is the source of the maroon robe dye used by Tibetan monks.
But this use likely originated in China, which has a longer history with
this plant, called Quin Cao, the roots of which are used to stimulate
uterine contractions and shorten blood clotting time, and as an
antibacterial. The leaves can also be used to stop hemorrhaging, as
can woad (Isaitis tinctoria), a plant used by the various Celtic tribes
to produce the blue dye used for various purposes, one of which was
to spiritualize (paint) the body before battle. The major color
constituents are indigotin and indigo. The Celts tended to go berserk
when in battle, and | have wondered if these chemicals are mind-

104. altering, although | find no evidence for this (see Ott 1993, 390, for a
discussion of indigo as a coloring agent in absinthe).

Brown, Brass, and Gold

In ancient Egypt, yellow, orange, and brown can blend into one
another with brown, almost red in some cases, and a lighter brown,
normally used for skin color. It has been suggested that these
designated outside (men) and inside (women) work habits, but
certainly women spent a great deal of time in the sun as well.

In Christian art, brown is assigned to clothing, house structures,
and skin color. But, like brass, brown represents judgment. Borrowed
from the observation that plant life is green when alive, brown
represents death, or that which has moved from one state to
another. Gold seems to be universally connected to beauty and
‘wealth, but it can also relate to a person's condition, such as the gold
nimbus representing an experience with God. In ancient Egypt gold
was connected to the gods, and during the embalming of Pharaoh
and important others, gold leaf would be applied to the skin. Other

characteristics of gold are that it does not tarnish, is very malleable,
and is certainly rare.

Silver

The ancient Egyptians didn't noticeably use the color silver in their
hieroglyphs to any degree and instead preferred other, brighter
colors. The metal, however, was very rare in the Old Kingdom (c.
2686-2181 BCE) and seems to have been more valuable than gold,
probably because of availability. Silver bracelets and such were thin
walled and seem to have come into Egypt from Crete and other
Mediterranean areas. It wasn't until the New Kingdom that silver
became readily available and was worth about one-half the value of
gold. The ancient Egyptians also believed that gods had silver bones
to go along with their gold flesh.

In biblical times silver was connected to redemption and purity,
perhaps because silver tarnishes, but the luster can be renewed
Perhaps it had to do with the process of extracting silver from lead in

105. ancient times and redeeming the silver, so to say. Unlike white, silver
shines with a more ethereal luster and is ultimately connected to the
heavenly ethereal realm. Silver also symbolized knowledge of right
from wrong and thus justice, depicted by silver scales or a sword as
seen next to the face of Christ at the End of Days.

Are Those Really Tree-Mushrooms?

One of the first questions | asked when compiling the art to follow
was, “Are there trees and rocks in Italy, Germany, France, England,
and Sinai (Egypt) that resemble mushrooms?" Yes, and this could
complicate the analysis. However, no one doubts that the Christian
cross is a symbol for Jesus, and the reason for this is the long
association between the two. The cross, then, is not a cross, or two
or more sticks nailed together, but represents something else. It
represents the device of transmutation of Jesus's human flesh into
spirit. In Italy there are at least two species of pine that more or less
have the shape of a mushroom. And, yes, rocks can resemble
mushrooms. But there are two factors that help distinguish the
mushroom-tree from the tree, and the mushroom-rock from the rock.
The first is that images of mushrooms or mushroom shapes are very
rare in secular art. There are some examples of mushroom shapes
clothing, but most can be ruled out as mushrooms. The reader can
go online and examine secular art and come to his or her own
conclusion. Here, however, are a number of examples of secular art,
most of which are portraits (| and ). A useful
comparison between secular and religious art of the same artist will
be encountered in (see and 4: 19).
Second, trees and rocks in sacred art are rendered in their
spiritual form, in which case a tree, for example, can never be a tree;
thus the spiritual nature of this art. One has to look beyond any
naturalistic interpretation. Either feature alone, that is, rarity in
secular art and the nature of icons (they point to spiritual matters), is
enough to sway one's interpretation. But together, in my opinion,
they offer visual evidence that these objects (i.e., pine trees and
rocks) represent determinatives and/or adjectives for the mushroom,

106. the signature of God. Recall also that, early on, the common images
representing Jesus were fish, bread, and the anchor or cross. Trees
and rocks do not show up until sometime in the mid-sixth century,
and they offer important symbolic connections; they add detail and
help broaden the story.

By the mid-ninth century there seems to be a greater interest in
Mother Mary, which would be an adjective for female energy in the
mix (see below). It is conceivable that this was a ploy by the Church
to include more women in devotional observance who in turn would
then entice men to join. This is a rough time in Church history, and
the major religious art is in the form of illustrated manuscripts, many
of which were produced by monks in monasteries or art factories in
Italy and perhaps the Sinai. Monks brewed beer and used other
potions, and they knew many secrets, some of which are coded in
their art, So, there are several art forms in play with messages coded
for differing purposes, including both exoteric and esoteric rites. The
monks were commissioned to do the work, paid for by patrons, both
nobility and the Church. The Church, however, seems to have a
larger say in the content simply because standardization was
necessary. The artists, | suspect, were sworn to secrecy with respect
to some motifs, in particular the mushroom; these images were
commissioned and well thought out before execution. Can you
imagine what would have happened to an artisan who went outside
the accepted boundaries? This is not whimsy, but it might point to
some sort of hide-the-mushroom style connected to specific guilds,
as apparently there are very few people qualified, licensed, or
otherwise “anointed” to do such work. Understand that these
mosaics, stained glass, manuscripts, wall paintings, and the rest
were magical, perhaps not originally, but they gained power as time
went on. As generation after generation is exposed to their reflected
“truth,” the images become fact and objects of worship. Created in or
for sacred spaces, these images take on a life of their own in a
similar fashion as is found in ancient Egypt. Everything in a scene or
mosaic panel was relevant, be this flower, pine tree, angel, dove, or
mushroom; there is no filler. All are adjectives describing aspects of
Jesus, from his conception and birth from the pine tree and roots, to
his spiritual characteristics as determined by the dove, and so on.

107. Mushrooms in Hems, Sleeves, and Stoles

As with trees and rocks we encounter a similar issue with clothing
Doesn't hanging cloth naturally form mushroom or trumpet shapes?
Yes, it can, but when this is rare in the secular art, and rarely
displayed on “commoners” included in the religious art, this is highly
suggestive of the mushroom's significance. We see in a
Russian icon representing the Old Testament Trinity (1671 CE) with
several ways of depicting the mushroom. Notice the mushroom folds
in the garments, which are very rare in secular art. Some of these
are problematic; look at them again after finishing

In (850-890 CE) we notice that Moses, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and the angel have mushroom shapes in their hems
similar to those that appear eight hundred years later. The soldiers in
the miniature do not display such shapes to the same degree. | will
return to this image in

On the contrary, there is folding of hems in the religious art that is
somewhat mushroom-like but not quite enough to convince me that it
necessarily meant that to the artist. For example, as demonstrated in

‚it is the presence of a clear mushroom cap and stalk, in
most cases, that determines its worth, although there are many
exceptions. Many times the mushroom shapes come in a series of
caps ending in a mushroom at the end of a stole. The reader can
see that in some cases there is a clear outline, while for others it is
problematic. | think that part of the art form was to render the
mushroom identifiable as a mushroom but still hidden within the
other symbols, and this helps to exclude most of the problematic
cases. We also have to keep in mind the gestalt phenomenon, but
these shapes are numerous enough to suggest this is more than
simply the mind wanting to see a specific outline. These ancient
artists knew how to use color and outline to both conceal and render
many symbols to which the written Gospels refer. Actually, there are
so many mushrooms to be found in the art that excluding some
makes little difference. The mushroom is there and not by accident;
its purpose or what it means, that's the mystery.

As another example ( and b), the following icons
represent Anastasis or Christ's descent into Hell spanning the twelfth

108. through fifteenth centuries, and you can see the many
manifestations of the mushroom in the stoles. We find in the sash of
Adam (top left) a mushroom shape, which is more clearly defined in
the scene from St. Mark's (bottom center). Both date to the twelfth
century. In the thirteenth century (top center) there are several
mushroom shapes in the sash or stole, while in the fourteenth
century (top right) we see the stole splayed out in the shape of a
large mushroom cap in a similar condition as Jesus's stole in the
‘twelfth century (bottom center). This is also the case in the image on
the left in . This is the celestial erection motif, which has
several variations. The point is that there are many variations that
seem to exist in a stylistic typology, from cloth tightly displayed in an
obvious mushroom to variations where the cloth is more relaxed
Again, these variations are not as evident in secular art of the same
time periods. We can see, then, that the shape of the mushroom in
stoles, albs, and capes goes from being loose (no visible stalk) to
tight and usually with a stalk, and this could have several meanings
On the same stole, for example, the mushroom shapes that precede
the mushroom with a noticeable stalk may suggest gradual entrance
into the experience, or perhaps this represents the needs of the
artist, or an indicator of the time period, that is, the mystery being
more open or closed. The trumpet shapes are most likely
mushrooms as well and not simply natural folding and hanging of
cloth, as | have been told. We do see the trumpet shape in

(Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of Horatii, 1785 CE), but the
shape is not as clearly defined (e.g., the color difference between
cap and stalk) as is found in most Christian art. Again, these shapes
do exist in the secular art, but they are rare and not typical motifs.

Foot/Sole Mushrooms

There is another motif, although not as common as some others,
where the sole of Jesus's foot represents the stalk and his garment
acts as the mushroom cap. The foot can mean several things, from
humility and poverty to power over someone—to have them “under
your foot.” The esoteric meaning has to do with the footprint left by

109. the sole of the foot. This instructs that you were there, and, in a
sense, still are, But there is another possible meaning. The foot is a
means of transportation, of movement from one place to another,
and it has its analogue in the Amanita shoe as found in
The shoe is on the foot, again making the mushroom a
transportation device. This is the visible, invisible mushroom. In
we see the sole of the foot used as an analogue for the
stalk of the mushroom, for it is the foot, like the stalk, that touches
the ground. Like so many of the Christian symbols, the foot takes on
new meaning and significance once mind-altering substances are
drawn into the analysis.

Guilds and Associations

We can see several traditions evolving over time, and these are
found in the cathedrals and basilicas in the form of stained glass and
mosaics, as well as in wall paintings and manuscripts. Artisans
connected to the individual art forms, stained glass for example,

were linked to guilds with apprentices and Church overseers. For
example, Florence supported seven guilds during the late Middle
Ages and Renaissance. These were important in regulating
commerce and educating future artists taken in at the apprentice
level, usually paid for by the parents or patrons. The guilds acted
more or less like unions today and would have been highly territorial
and guarded. The major guilds in Florence were

+ Arte di Calimala (guild of workers in wool)

+ Arte della Lana (guild of wool merchants)

+ Arte dei Giudici e Notai (guild of judges and notaries)

+ Arte del Cambio (guild of bankers)

+ Arte della Seta (guild of silk weavers)

+ Arte dei Medici e Speziali (guild of physicians and
pharmacists)

+ Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai (guild of furriers)

110. The guild, interestingly enough, to which the artists belonged was
Arte dei Medici e Speziali, or the Guild of Physicians and
Pharmacists with St. Luke as their patron. This was the time of the
powerful Medici family (fourteenth through eighteenth centuries),
who controlled the guilds and spawned three popes (Leo X, Clement
VII, and Leo XI), many rulers, Catherine de Medici, and many artists
(Leonardo da Vinci, for example, although he was adopted into the
family). It is of interest that the Arte dei Medici e Speziali shares the
same name as the family (I thank Jan Irvin for this connection)
There can be little doubt that many members of this family knew the
mystery. Notice the clothing and headgear of the three popes (Leo X,
Clement VII, and Leo XI) in Pope Leo X (1513-1534
CE) is best known for selling indulgences (celestial merit for
entrance into heaven) to refit St. Peter's Basilica; he is also known
for defending this practice when challenged by Martin Luther. Note
that Leo X is wearing red skullcap and cape just as is Clement VII,
both surely representing the mushroom. And this makes sense; they
are the stand-in for Jesus, the mushroom god.

On the right we see Leo XI, who only ruled for a few months, not
enough time to sew together his mushroom garb. Instead we see a
statue of Leo sporting a mushroom skullcap or crown

Many of the guilds died out by the late sixteenth century, and
students were absorbed into institutions called academies. The
artists responsible for this fabulous artwork were processing the
same herbs to make pigments as the physicians and pharmacists
were using. Thus they would acquire an extensive botanical
knowledge including finding and processing. Many of these
ingredients, especially henbane, datura, or belladonna, can be
absorbed through skin and mucus membrane. One is to be cautious
with datura, henbane, or belladonna, especially if handling and
processing are done over a period of three or four days. Not only are
the plant alkaloids absorbed through contact with your skin, but small
amounts build up in the blood stream as well. This gradual buildup or
toxicity of plant alkaloids was surely known to those ancient
physician priests a long time ago, far, far away. With this knowledge
they more than likely could time when an initiate would enter ecstasy

111. during ceremonies, especially if using anointing oils, the “Oils of
Gladness.

Medicine was a bit different in those days, although modern in
many ways as well (see Arano 1976), with lots of interesting theories
of disease causation. Keep in mind that such causation would
parallel closely the views held by the church; independent thinkers
kept their mouths shut. Different specialties within the art guild, at
least for a specific time period (1375-1590 CE), intermingled;
perhaps they had conventions, but the impetus for the symbolic
content would come from above in the form of a priest, bishop, or
pope. There are manuals of icons appropriate for each special
scene, collected by artists over the centuries, to be found in
museums and libraries perhaps connected to the basilica or
cathedral in question. The mushroom motif covers a time span of
over 1,500 years, and the images must have been held constant
through Church decree and not artist or guild whimsy. | don't think it
was as casual as the pope whispering into the artists ear, “By the
way, Michel, include a shroom in the hand under Adam; make it look
a little like a quince.” The ancient Egyptians had a very similar
standardization. This art was magical and powerful, and to change
the symbols would cancel the power in the image. This is why you
can always recognize Egyptian art over a period of three thousand
years.

The monasteries and monks were responsible for many of the
illustrations (jlluminations) connected to the manuscripts, which were
accomplished with pen and ink. It was the monks who copied many
of the books existing at the time and before the development of
movable type and book printing. There even appear to be religious
art factories (icon mills) producing art for cathedrals across Europe
But even as the different art forms are accomplished by many
different groups over a very long period of time in different
geographies, there is a consistency of symbols, and the mushroom

one of them. There is a consistency of motifs; they cut across the
media over a period of 1,500 years.

112. Standard Interpretations of Common Christian
Symbols

There are very few symbols in Christianity but many variations and
combinations. There are symbols rarely encountered, for example
the symbols connected to certain saints who became obsolete in the
past two hundred years. This is a wonderful example of how celestial
personnel come and go. Actually all the saints became somewhat
obsolete once we had a face for Jesus, but they are often used to tell
magical stories and absorb the saints and sinners of other traditions.
Many of the early saints cannot be found in history.

113. As an example of symbols rarely encountered, the determinative
for St. Dunstan is the blacksmith’s tongs. As the story goes, Dunstan
(909-989 CE), who became Archbishop of Canterbury, had a run
with the devil during his blacksmithing days (being a smithy connects
him to magical abilities; see Eliade 1962). It seems that the devil
wanted new shoes put on his cloven hooves, and Dunstan was
happy to oblige. As the blacksmith pounded the nails in deeply, the
devil winced in pain and vowed never to enter a house with a
horseshoe above the threshold.

Fish

Fish, or even the porpoise, seem to reference the ideas or
characteristics of fertility and life, popping out of the murky depths as
they do. Both are intimately connected to water, the incubator of life
It is sometimes associated with mythic St. Andrew, the first follower
of Christ and the first martyr after Jesus, as the story goes. One of
the symbols found in pagan homes, it represented, to the Christians
at least, life or new life through baptism—the fish/water connection. It

could have several meanings in the pagan traditions as well as that
of a fish, which pagans ate on a regular basis, just as they
consumed caloric bread. In Christianity, however, the fish is never a
fish except in the exoteric rendering. The “loaves and fishes” story,
for example, is not about caloric food as we read in Matthew 14:16
20 (see )

But Jesus said unto them, They have no need to go away; give
ye them to eat.

And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two
fishes

And he said, Bring them hither to me.

And he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and
he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to
heaven, he blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the
disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes

114. And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which
remained over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

Fish also referred, in a rather condescending way in today’s
interpretation, to the faithful and in a large sense to the behavior of
proselytizing or attracting converts. But the original association had
to do with water and the deep subconscious—most likely the
symbolism used when leading the initiate through ritual process. This
is a common attribute of fish, porpoises, and whales. But fish never
stood for a plain fish or seafood consumed for calories and
sustaining the physical life. The fish offered spiritual food; it is a
messenger and transmuter through the message. | think it also
reasonable to assume that different cults popping up after the death
of our mythic hero Jesus (or John the Baptist) might have their own
interpretation of the fish, and some of these are surely lost to us
They might not have referenced the fish at all.

Water, deep subconscious, and life are the meanings many
scholars associate with the fish. But the fish, once we admit mind-
altering substances, is a messenger that connects two worlds, the
conscious and subconscious. The fish can be the message and the
messenger. In the ancient Egyptian tradition, when the fish
swallowed Osiris's penis (life), the fish became the messenger of life,
the penis, and you have to eat the fish to obtain “life,” and thus the
fish meal on Friday in the Catholic tradition (see Rush 2007, 2008)
The fish represents going into the experience (water, subconscious)
and coming out in a different form or mental condition. This is Noah's
Ark, Joseph and the well, Jonah and the whale, and Muhammad and
the cave; all represent going in one way and coming out
transformed. The fish could be thought of as a transmuter, of
physical to spiritual, just as we find with the cross. Of all the symbols,
the fish appears to have maintained much of the original meaning as
found in the pagan cults. The fish in the Christian tradition, at least
early on, was a messenger in the same sense as the dove. Manna
in the Christian tradition, emerges with the fish in the early art and
descends as the dove in later renditions. In either case it is the Food
of God and is noncaloric.

115. Bread

Bread—associated with the loaves and fishes story; with Philip for
feeding the five thousand (John 6:5); with St. Mary of Egypt, who
went into the desert with three loaves of bread; with Elijah, who was
fed by angels or ravens (1 Kings 17:1-24); and with St. Dominic,
who secured bread for his monastery through God—represents the
staff of life and the body of Christ (Eucharist). The true meaning of
the symbol, however, is obscured when the poets converted Jesus
as experience to Jesus as a flesh-and-blood human being. Bread,
however, is ultimately connected to manna, that mysterious stuff sent
from the gods, and is intimately connected to the brewing of beer, a
very old intoxicant.

The connection between bread and breast is also of interest
because, as we will see, there are several cases of breast-
mushrooms in Christian art. Both represent life, and in several
images we will see the connection between Mary as the root of the
pine tree and Jesus sucking nutrients from the roots. These ancient
people had knowledge or understanding of plant behavior, in this
case Amanita muscaria, except perhaps the purpose of the spore,
and this should not come as a surprise since the ancients were
agriculturalists. The mushroom’s “conception” would have been seen
as magical and immaculate, otherworldly, a mystery around which
Christianity was constructed. The manna seemed to come down
from heaven and attach itself to the root of a pine tree (or oak). Or,
perhaps the manna was sent to the top of the pine (birch or oak) tree
—the axis mundi—and then traveled from there to the roots. The
juxtaposition of symbols in Christian art not only reflects spiritual
anatomy and physiology, it also indicates an extensive knowledge of
the life cycle and synergy of trees, plants, and fungi. Recall that the
artists collected plant substances for their coloring agents and were
connected, since Egyptian times (see below), to medicine and those
specialists who also collected plant substances for medicinal
purposes. The underlying processes of conception, growth, and so
on, however, would remain hidden until the seventeenth century CE,
when people were allowed, under protest, to ask, “Why?” and "How
come?" Technology, the telescope and microscope, allowed us to

116. look into the macro world (the heavens) and the micro world to
discover not only the spore but “germs,” the invisible demons and
witches of a time past.

Cross

| discussed Stations of the Cross earlier, and my conclusion was that
they might represent one of the earliest rituals surrounding the
pilgrimage to find the mushroom, its sacrifice, and its resurrection
The fish and cross both represent mega-icons, but they point in two
different directions, life (fish) and death (cross), although both
represent transmutation, with the fish representing knowledge,
illumination, and preparation for the spiritual world. The cross, on the
other side, transmutes flesh into spirit. These symbols, | believe, are
at the base of the original rituals, out of which developed a
multilayered story driven into the bone through ritual reenactment,
The cross and fish are certainly the most recognizable of all the
Christian symbols. For Judaism it is the Star of David, which
represents a shield and symbol of war and fertility, the exact
characteristics of the Mother Goddess from Innana to Astoreth. In
Islam the crescent moon and planet Venus are likewise symbols of
war and fertility. Christianity, at least in the beginning, was on a
different path, a path that led to enlightenment or knowledge (gnosis)
here and now, a spiritual rebirth on the path to human decency that
would lead to God's house when the flesh fell away. The cross and
its symbolic values do not seem to have been as important as was
the fish in early Christianity. The fish promoted knowledge and
illumination. The cross, probably evolving out of the anchor, gains
importance signaling a different emphasis, a more politically powerful
Christianity promoting original sin, guilt, and fear. Visually, the
cross/anchor can likewise represent the mushroom. There is another
possible reason why the cross was not as popular in the beginning,
The Romans used the cross as an instrument of torture, and it may
not have been seen, initially at least, as something they would
necessarily equate with Jesus, Christ, or the mushroom. Because
Jesus was an experience, he didn't die on a cross; this is the story
added much later. | do not believe that all these cults based their

117. teachings on suffering and martyrdom; again, this comes in later as
the story line and political posturing develop and prevailing images
(fish, bread, etc.) are tweaked to fit the first, second, and third
layerings of the story past the botanical references.

There are many layers on this central mega-icon, the cross,
evidenced by the many shapes and sizes that all point to Christ or
salvation through illumination and sin atonement. Sin atonement in
the case of early Christianity simply had to do with starting over. The
clergy encourage a literal reading; that is to say, Jesus struck a deal
with God, offered a bribe, and through his willing sacrifice canceled
all our sins. But certainly this cannot be the original meaning; original
sin might not have been part of these early cults, for it certainly isn't
an Egyptian sentiment. The original meaning was very simple. You
die to your own sins; you “know thyself’ and stop doing all those
nasty things to people (the negative confession in the Egyptian
tradition; see Rush 2007). When you do, you transmute into another
person, a decent person worthy of God's house. That was originally,
in my opinion, all that was implied. So, on the one hand, Jesus told

Us to clean up our lives; no one else can do it for you. On the other,
many good Christians are encouraged to believe that miracles
happen, that Jesus or God will come down from the heavens and
Zap you with illumination and, at the same time, excise all your
wickedness. And, of course, we are also to believe that Jesus will
show up (the Second Coming) and put the world in order.

The type of cross can have special meaning or connection to
special individuals, groups, or geography, for example, the papal
cross (a standard with three cross pieces) and the Celtic cross
(Cross of lona) with the Eucharist in the center. Jesus hung on a
cross is now the standard fixture in Christianity. As Hall (2008, 83)
remarks,

The death of Christ on the cross is the central image in Christian
art and the visual focus of Christian contemplation. The
character of the image varied from one age to another reflecting
the prevailing climate of religious thought and feeling;
expressing doctrine by means of symbols and allegory, as in

118. medieval art; or, as in the Counter-Reformation painting, serving
as a simple aid in devotion by portraying nothing but the solitary
figure on the cross; or again, narrating the gospel story in a
canvas crowded with people, as in the work of Italian
Renaissance artists. The early Church avoided the subject. At
the time when Christianity was a proscribed religion under the
Romans the crucifixion was represented symbolically by the
lamb of Christ juxtaposed with a cross. Even after the age of
Constantine the Great, when Christians were allowed to practice
their religion without interference, the cross itself was still
represented without the figure of Christ. The image of the
crucifixion as we know it is first found in the 6th cent. but is rare
until the Carolingian era when representations multiplied in
ivories, metalwork and manuscripts. At this period there are
regularly found those other figures from the gospels which were
to become a permanent feature of the crucifixion: the Virgin
Mary and St, John the Evangelist, the centurion and the sponge-
bearer, the two thieves, the soldiers casting lots. Also seen from
this time on either side of the cross are the symbolic sun and
moon and the allegorical figures representing the Church and
Synagogue; these latter features were however to die out early
in the Renaissance. For many centuries the west, under
Byzantine influence, represented Christ himself alive and open-
eyed, a triumphant Savior wearing a royal crown. In the 11th
cent. there appeared a new type, the emaciated figure with its
head fallen on one shoulder and, later, wearing the crown of
thors. This version prevailed in western art thereafter.
(Emphasis added)

With Halls statement we can see how the story over the course of
many hundreds of years become elaborately detailed with images
and the story line changed to fit social circumstances. The
Carolingian era (late eighth and ninth centuries) was a renaissance
of the arts under Charlemagne, and, of course, this art was directed
by the Catholic Church. Also note that the early representation for
Jesus was not the cross but the sacrificial lamb (the Amanita cap),
which encapsulates early Christianity and the mystery: God's house

119. is reached through sacrifice (consumption) of the lamb (mushroom),
and those invited in are special people. In time, however, the cross
would overshadow the lamb and represent personal sacrifice in the
name of God. To act in the name of God will surely bring bad results.
To act in the name of human decency leads in a very different
direction. The problem that Jesus faced, as we still do today, is how
to get everyone on board. How do you get people on a path of hope?
Our myths have to change regarding the supernatural, celestial
world and our place in it, confronted as we are with new knowledge
of the universe. That new myth, with a more exciting and hopeful
story line, comes from science

Book

The book is an important motif and represents the two keys to the
mystery. The first key is knowledge and understanding of Jesus's
identity through knowledge, while the second is communion with the
deity or the experience of the mystery. This mystery, however, is
open to some and closed to others. A closed book clutched in a
covered left hand, for example, is saying that the saint is a guardian
of the mystery. When the book is opened, it indicates knowledge or
that a clue to the mystery is present. An open book with initials, for
example, Ag (alpha and omega), ICXC, HIS (IHC), IR, XP (chi tho),
and so on, informs or instructs about the mystery, that the “book” is
Jesus, which is obvious enough. What is not revealed is what stands
in back of Jesus. Most books, however, by their characteristic dots
and color, reveal that they are the caps of mushrooms. Remember
that a book is not a book and the saint is not holding his “gospel” or
the gospel of any saint. In this case the medium is not the message,
to reverse the sentiments of Marshall McLuhan—it is only a clue.

The book can be held in the left (most common) or right hand with
the garment covering the hand from view (see ). Also
notice the mushroom shape in the hem of St. Philip's cape, by his
left foot. This juxtaposition, in my opinion, suggests that the arm and
garment represent the stalk of the mushroom, while the book is the
mushroom cap. In the scene underneath (I ) bread is
being baked. Notice that the woman is holding up the scale, touching

120. the mushroom-shaped flower, or pointing to St. Philip, while the color
of the book is of the same value as the woman's cape. The first man
is forming the loaves after they are properly weighed. Notice how his
thumb forms the stem of a mushroom, and if you think this far-
fetched, see Maybe this is just an innocent bakery
scene thrown in as quaint decoration, with the baker using his thumb
to create the center indentation, but this could just as well be a
scene of weighing and processing (drying) and transforming flesh
(bread, manna) into spirit

Some scholars think that the book held by a saint or Jesus is the
Bible, and it may have morphed into the Bible because biblical
scholars misinterpret its meaning. Originally it represented
something else because a Bible as such didn't exist until after 325
CE. Very few people had books; they were items of status, and were
probably considered magical to the average person, or perhaps

nored. But their existence in the early art was not a threat to other
traditions, except perhaps for rabbis who saw their sacred god,
whom they carried in an ark, being “entered into" by less than worthy
people, goyeem. The original meaning of the book, or knowledge of
the mystery, is what has really carried on through the centuries in the
esoteric rites and exposed in the art. Hall (2008, 52) lists other
associations and meanings, including the different presentations and
meanings in secular art, and they are dissimilar.

When the pen is included with the book, this changes the meaning
slightly and suggests that this person is of the elite class, has special
knowledge, and is a trusted scribe of the tradition, thus blending into
the secular. But a pen is not a pen; it likewise represents knowledge
or ability. This image may be saying that if you read and write, you
are eligible for illumination, which, of course, is true

This is also seen in the Egyptian tradition ( ), Where the
hieroglyphs for scribe are represented by scribal paraphernalia
including palette, two cakes of ink (one red and one black), a pot of
water, and reed styluses of various size. Their patron was Thoth
(god of knowledge and writing), and they were trained in a place
called the House of Life (see Shaw and Nicholson 1995, 134). This
same place was involved in training in medicine, which would include

121. training in collecting and processing plant and mineral substances.
There were all kinds of priests connected to the temples in ancient
Egypt. These include physician priests, priests of the tomb, day,
hour, and month. There were priests of resurrection while others
were attendants and perhaps maintenance people around the
temple complex. The priests of the House of Life (pr ankh) were
overseers of the temple craftsmen. Such a place was found at
Amara, the city built by the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, Moses in
the Bible and Koran (see Rush 2008). The reader can appreciate
this long tradition of religious art, guilds, associations with medicine,
and overseers (religious clerics) of the art. These guilds today are
called associations, and they have many secrets.

Mountains, Rocks, Trees, and Truffles

Rocks and mountains hold similar symbolic values. Rocks, singularly
or in groups, traditionally are symbols of strength, longevity, and
God. Ascribing spirit power to specific rocks, mountains, lakes, and
so on (animism) is an old idea. Carving an image out of rock was a
way to release or bring the god or spirit to life in probably all cases.
Mountains rise up to the sky, touch the heavens, and bring us closer
to the deity's house. Mountains are symbolic foundations for building
and organizing.

There are several trees depicted in Christian art beginning
sometime in the sixth century. These include pine, cedar, laurel, fig,
olive, palm, and oak, which often correspond to the regional ecology,
but not always. The Lebanese cedar is one of the determinatives for
God in the Song of Solomon 5:15; the cedar encases Osiris of the
Egyptian tradition in its roots (see Rush 2008). Why is this? These
trees were tall, touched the sky, and spoke with God. St. Anne, in the
Christian tradition, is the personification of a pine tree, probably the
Lebanese cedar.

The oak stands for strength and faith; oak wreaths were often (like
laurel) used as crowns, and Amanita muscaria emerges from oak
roots. Laurel represents virginity; with the olive we have the symbol
of abundance, and the olive branch represents peace. The palm

122. represents immortality, victory, and life, the same values as the
mushroom and Jesus.

Early in the evolution of what today we call Christianity, all knew
the mystery of the portal to God's house. These were reflected in the
lamb, bread, fish, anchor, and so on, common images tweaked to fit
the Christian agenda. Slowly but surely in many of these cults, over
a course of two or three generations, fewer and fewer people are
participating in the Eucharist. As in all group formation, rules and
roles emerge if the group is to survive, and with group size a
corresponding bureaucracy develops. Because of our small-group
nature and our ‘territorial imperative," we begin to claim statuses and
pass them on to sons and daughters or other close family members
or colleagues just as we pass on our genes. At the top of the
hierarchy is the Good Shepherd, not Jesus leading the flock. It is the
Good Shepherd, sometimes traceable to a real person, transfiguring
into or communing with Jesus (see ) through the
mushroom path, rather than the more philosophical Jesus
transfiguring into God. Those closest to the Good Shepherd likewise
guard their privileged position, often restricting access to the cult
leader. This can lead to marginalization and splintering of cults as
discussed earlier. As displayed in the art, these changes happen
early on, and, at what seem to be 50-year intervals, there are shifts
in thinking in the development of the Church. These shifts were not
accidental. They were prompted by a mind-set evolving out of
particular social circumstances and mind-altered experiences
engaged in order to make decisions about social action through
spiritual decree. This is a time-honored practice that is never
abandoned

We also notice that the symbols and story line become more
elaborate, and this spells opportunity to hide or conceal a message,
clues that unlock the mystery. This elaboration in the visual media
allowed other of Jesus's exploits or parables to be graphically
displayed. It is like comic books; the author has to continually
introduce new people and situations and go back and add stories
about the past, or you don't have much to say. Each cult had its own
peculiar emphasis, just as we see with protestant groups today and
with the encounter groups of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and

123. these would be reflected in their myths and rites and rituals that
support them. Thus from 90 to 200 CE there are many inflections
with some emphasizing John the Baptist, others Jesus, and some
undoubtedly Mary Magdalene. Keep in mind what is required to
maintain these cults. You need an appealing message and/or the
ability to provide services (celestial as well as secular—food,
protection), leadership and preparation for leadership, and economic
stability that can outlast any leader or group of leaders. When the
group leader dies, it is often the case that the person holding the
purse strings runs off with the cash. Does the name Judas come to
mind? Many cults simply did not survive past the death of the leader,
and members more than likely joined more stable groups. It is not
clear that this is what happened, but it is part of our small-group
nature to attach ourselves to small groups. We were at the beginning
of the Dark Ages, the early warning signs that the worst was yet to
come, and your best strategy for survival was membership in a small
group with members who will cooperate for some common goal, that
is, spiritual, economic, protection, and so on. For most this was the
family or extended family. So, between 90 and 200 CE, there are a
number of different cults headed by priests and bishops, self-
proclaimed, ordained, or otherwise, moving in several directions
mainly in their philosophy as to the nature of Jesus, access to Jesus,
and who should be admitted into their ranks. Constantine opens the
door uniting loyal followers (Christian cult officials and their flock)
with the politic, bestowing special privileges. Thus there are political
incentives for some of the diverse groups to negotiate their
differences in exchange for power in the court and to avoid taxes
and persecution. From about 325 to 650 CE there are numerous
heresies forcing an evolution of philosophy. Then there is an
expansion of the philosophy from 700 to 1000 CE, followed by a time
of elaboration and layering the mythic history for some of the main
players between 1100 and 1550 CE. The next phase is from around
1600 CE to the present, and there is a reverence for the art forms
that preceded it. Remember, all Christian philosophy, all the rites and
rituals, address the “mystery” In the NIV Bible (1984, 1724,
comment on Romans 11:25) we read,

124. The word is used of (1) the incarnation (1Ti 3:9, 16; see note
there), (2) the death of Christ (1Co 2:1, NIV text note; 2:7,
"secret wisdom’), (3) God's purpose to sum up all things
Christ (Eph 1:9) and especially to include both Jews and
Gentiles in the NT church (Eph 3:3-6), (4) the change that will
take place at the resurrection (1 Col 15:51), and (5) the plan of
God by which both Jew and Gentile, after a period of
disobedience by both, will by his mercy be included in his
kingdom (v. 25), so that you may not be conceited. (Emphasis
added)

The mystery at the basic (nonpriest) level of initiation is that God
has a plan, the mystery plan, and everyone will be included; no one
will be left out, not even dumb and stupid Jews and Gentiles. So
humble yourself—don't think you are something special. This is not
the mystery; the mystery is not about what God will or will not do
The mystery (‘secret wisdom’) can only be known through one's
participation in God, not by waiting for the deity to show up, do things
for you, torture your enemies, and save the world. Again, the
mystery is only revealed through participation in it, with the first part,
the knowledge of the vehicle that allows participation, and the
second, actual participation. The mystery is the nature of God or at
least the way to His presence. The mystery can only be solved
through participation, and in order to learn the mystery you ask
questions, start thinking, and figure it out. This is what Jesus told us
to do as we read in Romans 16:25-27

Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel
and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times
eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is
made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith: to the
only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory
forever. Amen. (Emphasis added)

125. These are riddles, and obviously the scholars have not decoded
these or we would know and understand, and it would no longer be a
mystery. But let me emphasize that the mystery cannot be known as
long as the Christian story line is presented as historical fact

Mark 4:11-12 reads,

And he said unto them, Unto you is given the mystery of the
kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are
done in parables:

that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they
may hear, and not understand; lest haply they should turn again,
and it should be forgiven them. (Emphasis added)

This is a clear description of the nature of the mystery in the
Gospels. The mystery of the kingdom of God is not for people who
cannot appreciate its meaning; Jesus feels sorry for these ignorant
people. But you cannot illuminate people until they are ready, so you
tell stories and encourage people to think; maybe they will catch on,
perhaps not—and that's okay too. Thinking and asking questions
was dangerous to the Church just as it is in any political
organization. Never forget Joe the Plumber because this could
happen to you.

Recently a desert truffle has come to light (see Shavit and Volk
2007—I thank Jan Irvin for bringing this to my attention); mentioned

the Bible, the word paqua could refer to a mushroom. It derives
from pga, meaning to emerge. Magic mushrooms, manna, are sent
down by God and do not emerge from the ground. If these ancient
people believed that magic mushrooms emerged from the ground
rather than descending from heaven, the stories would reflect this.
Desert truffles might pass as bread, and some might even look like
the underside of a mushroom, but most look like rocks; they do not
characteristically look like mushrooms. This does not, however,
explain all the mushroom images in the pictures to follow, and if the
clergy insists that it does, then desert truffles explain the loaves and
fishes and manna in both the Bible and Koran. Either way, the

126. religious clerics are stuck on fungi, nothing magical, and nothing
otherworldly.

In Failed God, | mentioned hadith in which Muhammad says the
“mushroom” was good for the eyes, kind of an eyewash. | placed a
different interpretation on this. In any event, some species of fungi
do, indeed, have immune-boosting properties and might be good as
an eyewash. But I'm not sure if pouring a load of spores into the
eyes would necessarily be a good thing. My problem is the word
“manna” as used in this context, for manna implies something
magical coming from God or heaven, not something terrestrial

Gestalting Mushrooms

There are many mushroom images within the art to follow that are no
doubt problematic. | have attempted to reference only those more
obvious representations and their analogues, and there are certainly
mushrooms | didn't mention or missed. Also, | am including only a
representative sample of the over 1,500 images in my possession.
Although | may be mistaken in a few instances, this does not explain
away the remaining. Keep in mind that there are numerous fourth-
level representations of Jesus—for example, dove, nimbus with
cross, cross, blood, fish, and so on—all of which, in my opinion, point
back to the mushroom. With these images, however, the story can
be expanded.

Mind-Altering Substances in Early Christianity

The belief that spirits (or some spirit power) reside in streams, trees,
rocks, mountains, plants, fungi, and so on is called animism, and it is
very, very old. Early Christians, without doubt, believed that Jesus
was the spirit that resided in the mushroom (Amanita muscaria), or
perhaps that the mushroom was the conduit to Jesus, but that only
accounts for one substance in the mind-bending arsenal of these
early Christians and Gnostics, as well as most pagan “mystery”
groups.

127. The “mystery” in Christianity is the identity of Jesus, that is, he is a
personification of the mushroom, and the mushroom may be a
generic image or reference for a number of mind-altering
substances. Color often helps to identify the genus and sometimes
species. But there is a second mystery. Are particular substances or
processing of substances connected to certain apostles or saints?
They surely are connected to characters within the pagan story lines
(see Ruck et al. 2001, 2007). Let's consider some of these
substances and the preparations available to the early Christians;
keep in mind that this by no means exploits all possibilities. Again, in
my opinion, the mushroom motif was generic and stood for many
plants, fungi, oils, and potions.

Amanita muscaria (| )

The use of Amanita muscaria must go back to the hunter-gatherers
of the Late Paleolithic. This fungi grows in association with conifer
trees, oak, and birch, and was readily available to these ancient
people thousands and thousands of years ago. The references to
soma among the Hindu Vedas of 1500 BCE in all probably are
Amanita muscaria, a substance used by the Indo-Europeans who
stormed into the Indus Valley between 1800 and 1500 BCE. Some
scholars disagree and suggest, instead, that soma was cannabis,
but most respectable scholars agree that soma referred to some
mind-altering substance or potion. In any case the Amanita appears
to be one of the oldest or best-documented ritual “plants” or “fruits,”
and because it was the Christian clerics who commissioned the art
and connected the fungus to the god of the Jews, it is only befitting
that Jesus became connected to that fungus as well. Moreover,
although ritual can condition or direct the experience, mushrooms
harvested at various times of the year and in different soils can have
Variations in chemical content. For example, Amanita muscaria from
Northern Europe appears to have different chemical constituents
than those that grow in Oregon and Washington. The most potent
San Pedro cacti (mescaline), an example from the New World, grow
in soils rich in copper and calcium. The ancients would have learned
this because of their importance in staying in touch with the gods

128. and developing proper doses. They were scientists as well as
mystics
For Amanita muscaria the major hallucinogenic components are
muscimol and ibotenic acid. When the mushroom is dried, ibotenic
acid converts to muscimol. Other less important components are
muscarine and muscazone, which are probably responsible for at
least some of the negative effects. Muscimol is metabolized without
altering its chemical structure and is removed from the body through
the kidneys and urine. This led to urine drinking among Siberian
shamans, and this practice is also mentioned in the Vedas of the
Hindu tradition and alluded to in the Bible (see
. and Five). There are several methods used to prepare the
mushroom after drying, and these are suggested in both verse and
icon. One method was certainly to break the stalk from the
mushroom (the stalk contains little if any of the magic chemical) and
then eat the cap in its dry form. This was probably the original
method. You can also peel off and consume the top of the cap, which
has the highest concentration of muscimol. The top of the cap pulled

away from the rest of the cap does look like a cape, cloak, or veil.
The whole cap could also be soaked in honey, “and it shall make thy
belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey” (Revelation
10:9).

Once dried, the caps can be soaked (‘baptized’) in water or even
wine, the liquid squeezed from the cap, and the liquid (now
containing muscimol) consumed, Another method, mentioned above,
involved urine drinking, and one has to wonder how our ancient
ancestors stumbled onto that. Drinking urine from a sacrificial victim
(the one who consumes the mushroom, gets sick or “dies,” and
returns) eliminates most of the negative effects. Muscimol passes
through the body and is excreted in the urine, which can then be
consumed and passed on through four or five group members,
suggesting the number of members present during the communion.
There may also be combinations of Amanita and other substances,
but the art may also suggest warnings about doing so. In any case,
an animate force and spiritual experience that can be passed from
one person to another surely would reinforce the idea of everlasting
life. These rituals were small group affairs, and not all participated in

129. the Eucharist, but all had parts to play. The sacrificial victim (Christ

on the cross) is in a sense the Grail (vase, well, jar) that spills forth

the elixir of life. Urine was often mixed with honey, one of the many

connections between bees and mind-altering substances (see
).

Experiences with Amanita muscaria, as with other mind-altering
substances, are conditioned by setting; the constituents of fungi
determined by genetics, soil chemistry, weather conditions, insects;
the method of ingestion; whether the mushroom is used in
conjunction with wine, beer, or other nutrient and/or mind-altering
substances; and so on. Not everyone, however, is a Holy Mushroom
person. Some visit the dark side. The early part of the experience
with the mushroom cap usually begins with a sense of nausea
Some people fall into a deep, deep sleep and have been thought
dead. Recall that Joseph and Daniel had deep dreams, and Jacob
slept and experienced angels going up and down a ladder. Most can
adapt to the nausea after a few encounters and simply lie down and

' one is to have faith and trust in God. Unpleasant aspects of
the experience are, for the most part, neutralized as muscimol
moves through the body and exits unchanged in the urine. Through
urine drinking you go right to the source, God's house—no waiting in
agony at Gethsemane. Also, for those not into urine drinking the
mushroom can be rehydrated and the liquid expressed and
consumed. In either case honey can be used as an additive,

Hearing voices is a common experience, but in many cases the
voices are from your guide, while some voices are from the other
side of you, the subconscious mind, the Supreme Controller. Some
people do believe the voices come from outside, from foreign
sources (see Shanon 2002), perhaps other universes, but Im not
convinced. Perhaps M Theory will give us the answer.

It is possible that Amanita muscaria was not used in rituals for
novices and that other rites, rituals, and recipes preceded it. | am
absolutely certain that the pagans knew that the Christians were
using some substance(s) to commune with the gods, but the
substances were not God, and this is probably the source of at least
some ridicule. Although the grape was personified as Bacchus, no

130. Greek or Roman would ever believe that Dionysius or Bacchus was
the grape. These gods provided grapes to humans—they weren't the
grapes. It certainly must have been seen as a step backward to think
that the mushroom was the god.

Again, the mushroom that stood for Jesus, and also a generi
symbol for other substances, is probably the Amanita muscaria. This
specific mushroom, | believe, is also the Aten sun disk, the nimbus
or halo, bread, sometimes a cushion with its distinctive red color
often with white dots. It is the book held by Jesus, Mary, and the
saints; and it is a shoe, footstool, and blood, each of which is a
determinative and/or adjective describing a character or experience
of the mushroom,

Others (see Dugan 2008) do not see Amanita or any mind-altering
substance as having much to do with Judaism and Christianity,
although through a careful study of pagan traditions they abound and
helped to shaped early civilizations in Europe. Dugan (2008, 108),
for example, considers authors suggesting the place of mind-altering
substances in connection with Judaism and Christianity to be
“exuberant, experientially oriented authors who are entertaining, but
readers must be on their guard to distinguish myco-history from
myco-fiction.” A close look at Christian art tells another story, one
more in line with the opinions of “exuberant,” “experientially
oriented,” and “entertaining” authors.

Psilocybin Species (cubensis, caerulescens) and Stropharia
cubensis (| )

The conical mushroom shape, common to Psilocybin species, is
seen most often in the hems of albs (ankle-length sacks with a hole
for the head and arms with loose sleeves) and stoles worn by
patriarchs, angels, apostles, Mother Mary, and so on. This is
probably because of the natural geometry of loose clothing to flow
with movement in dreamland. Some have suggested that the
mushroom shapes in icons represent flowing movement and puffs of
air, but flowing movement does not explain the stems or stalks
connected to many of these identifiable shapes.

131. The exact species of Psilocybin mushroom available in the Middle
East and contiguous areas two thousand years ago is probably little
different from that existing today. We can assume that because
mushrooms have been around for millions and millions of years, the
chemical constituents did not magically show up in the Middle East a
few thousand years ago or that their existence and use were
unknown. This cannot possible be the case. Psilocybin species are
found in open fields and usually emerge in the dung of grazing
animals (sheep, goats) that eat grass and associated mushrooms.
The spores end up in the dung and most probably are available year
round. This is not necessarily the case for Amanita species; different
substances connect perhaps to specific rituals at different times of
the year. Psilocybin also grows around rotting tree stumps, in moist
wooded areas, and in and around stables or mangers—they are
cosmopolitan. Recall that Jesus was born in a manger just like
Psilocybin.

In the Hindu tradition one stand-in for Psilocybin is Nilakatha, a
rendition of Shiva who, during the churning of the ocean (amrita, the

potion of immortality, soma, the water of life), drank poison that came
to the surface in order, we are told, to protect humanity from its
effect. After Nilakatha drank the poison, his neck turned blue. When
you pinch the stalk of Psilocybin, it turns blue. The reference to
poison may represent a restriction of the fungi to special people “to
protect humanity,” or the myth may be telling us not to mix certain
substances (plants and fungi)

As presented in (also see Rush 2008), there are
scenes in St. Marks Basilica, Venice, that seem to represent
Psilocybin species. The major chemical or mind-altering constituent
is psilocybin, which is converted to psilocin by angels with blue
faces, hands, and translucent wings during the drying process, a
common image in Celtic fairytales. Psilocin, when consumed, goes
on to modify brain chemicals resulting in sensual alteration, with the
mind attempting to make sense out of these alterations. This does
not mean that you are experiencing another dimension; it doesn't
mean that you are communicating with an entity, magical craftsman,
or philosopher. What it means is that somehow the mind, the
motherboard that stands in back of the chemical and electrical

132. activity, has some genetically inspired but socially conditioned
standards that are used to make sense of data generated in a new
chemical/electrical matrix. This means new combinations of
information addressed or interpreted in a very different manner.

The experience with Psilocybin depends on the factors outlined for
Amanita, and, for sure, some species of Psilocybin are much more
potent than others. One common early experience is coldness,
shaking, and a desire to stay warm. It should also be noted that urine
drinking may likewise be connected to Psilocybin (see Irvin and
Rutajit 2009). Psilocybin mushrooms, once dried, can be eaten,
soaked in wine, and consumed, as well as in other preparations.

Cannabis

Cannabis, or Cannabis sativa (and indica), is a common substance
used medicinally and magically for at least 10,000 years. Some
authors suggest that cannabis was a possible substance in the
Hebrew anointing oils and that it was burned in braziers in Canaanite
temples (see Bennett and McQueen 2001). Cannabis was
undoubtedly used recreationally, although the biblical archaeologists
and historians have not, until recently, considered the plant
significant enough to include in their analysis of beliefs and
behaviors (see Hillman 2008). In a recent entry in the Annual Review
of Anthropology, by Boyer and Bergstrom (2008), there is no mention
of mind-altering substances and religious development although the
thrust of their paper centers on human cognition. These substances
were used for ritual purposes, reinforced beliefs in the supernatural,
and certainly brought people to action.
From (November 28, 2008) we read (| ).

The world's “oldest' stash of cannabis has been unearthed
inside a remote tomb in China. The 789 grams of marijuana is
thought to be about 2,700 years old and appears to have been
buried next to a shaman, according to The Star. Favorable
conditions means the stash still has its green tint, although
possibly disappointed researchers said its lack of odor told them
immediately it wasn't still good to smoke.

133. The stash amounted to about twenty-eight ounces and was
perhaps not as potent as some strains grown today. Because the
cannabis was buried with the shaman, the amount might suggest a
seasonal harvest for one shaman to take to the netherworld. The
active ingredient in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The
effects of THC lead to inner contemplation and a flow of information
that can lead to unusual connections, but in a much milder manner
than Amanita muscaria, depending on setting, amounts used, and
how administered. Used in a structured contemplative setting, THC
can lead to ‘spiritual’ experiences and is unlikely, compared to
alcohol, to lead to aggressive behavior. Cannabis can be prepared
for use in many ways. It can be baked into bread and eaten; it can
be inhaled; it can be added to anointing oils and absorbed through
the skin; and the buds and leaves can be added when making beer
or wine, thus accentuating the experience.

Cannabis was possibly the substance of choice in the early rites of
disciples before graduating and moving up the celestial bureaucratic
ladder and eventually to God's house. We see this at the secular

level, for not everyone had access to the king, and it was (and still is)
necessary to climb a bureaucratic ladder (Jacob's ladder is possibly
a reflection of this). In Matthew 6:10 we read, “Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” Going from one level to
another always involves rituals, and they are different at various
levels.

Also keep in mind that the initiates in most cases probably did not
know what the potion or substance was, especially when the original
rituals of locating, processing, and consuming became obscured with
the story line of Jesus's birth, maturation, and death.

Cannabis had many uses in ancient Egypt, from making rope and
being used medicinally for eyes, for uterine issues, and in the form of
oil to treat inflammation. It is difficult to believe that the Egyptians
were ignorant of the mind-altering effects connected to this plant as it
was used medicinally by the Assyrians ‘to dispel sorrow and grief”
(Manniche 1989, 82-83). It is also of interest that hemp was found in
the tomb of Akhenaten at Amarna and on the mummy of Ramses Il
(Manniche 1989, 82). Campbell (2008, 228) states, “The ancient

134. Egyptians had access to hemp (Cannabis sativa) but there is no
evidence of its sedative properties." Manniche (1989, 82-83) makes
a similar statement: “There is nothing to suggest that the ancient
Egyptians had discovered the effects of cannabis when taken or
smoked." | suppose it is possible that the spiritual uses of cannabis
were unknown to the ancient Egyptians even though such use in
Europe and the Middle East predates the Old Kingdom (see
Devereux 1997) by thousands of years. The practice of furnigation—
or the inhalation of fumes from smoldering herbs for medical
purposes—is well attested for the ancient Egyptians (see Nunn
1996), and to suggest that they only knew of medicinal uses
attributes a great deal of ignorance to the physician-priests. As Nunn
(1996, 156) reports,

There is general agreement with the view of Dawson (1934a)
that shemshemet means cannabis, and the identification was
strongly supported by the use of hemp in rope making. As a
drug, it has remained in active use ever since pharaonic times. It

does not appear very often in the medical papyri, but it was
administered by mouth, rectum, vagina, bandaged to the skin,
applied to the eyes and by fumigation. However, these
applications provide no clear evidence of awareness of the
effects of cannabis on the central nervous system. (Emphasis
added)

Nunn was doing well until his disclaimer, that we can't suggest that
they used this for more than medicinal purposes. But, of course, the
Egyptians made little distinction between spirituality, magic, and
medicine. When we compare pharmacies of cultures all over the
world, we find surprising similarities between fungi and plants and
their analogues in terms of chemical content, preparations,
administration, and use. This to me was one of our first scientific
endeavors, that is, classifying and testing for cause and effect, with
mind-altering substances and purgatives at the base of this ancient
experiment (see Johns 1999), first coded in myth through storytelling
and then written down, allowing knowledge to accumulate past the

135. storage capacity of the individual or the group. All prescription drugs
of our day and age are analogues of these plant chemicals

A neglected component of United States history is the use of
hemp (Cannabis sativa) by the early colonists, and until tobacco
became our major cash export, hemp was grown to make rope,
cloth, and so on, and was no doubt smoked on a regular basis by
our founding fathers. There isn't a culture on the face of the planet
past or present that grows hemp for the fiber and throws away the
buds. One has to wonder how this affected decision making in the
political construction of this country. Thus, cannabis, alcohol, and
other substances were part of decision making not only at the
celestial level but at the secular level as well. This is a neglected
consideration in the development of political systems, technology
and innovation, music, and the arts.

Hyoscyamus niger or mutagens (Henban\ )

The major psychoactive constituent of henbane is scopolamine, a
known hallucinogen. | might add that Hyoscyamus mutagens
(Egyptian henbane, .5 percent alkaloid yield) is much more potent
than the European Hyoscyamus niger (.04 percent alkaloid yield),
Scopolamine (along with hyoscyamine, hyoscipicrin, and choline) is
absorbed through the skin but can be administered in other ways
(Rush 2008). Henbane was possibly the major component in the
anointing oils of both the Egyptian (see ) and Hebrew
traditions. These alkaloids are freely soluble in hot water, alcohol,
and oils.

Some people, however, are not scopolamine people, and feelings
of anxiety and trepidation (bad trips) do occur, although they are not
common in controlled settings with a directed mental set. Mixing
henbane with cannabis can lead to intense spiritual experiences, a
sense of flying, for example, but there is also the dark side. Witch's
brew, discussed in , is a mixture of alcohol and henbane
(and/or belladonna), a potent combination

Henbane does not have a wide variety of uses. In Europe it was
used in various brews and, as the story goes, was burned and
allowed to smolder under trees to intoxicate chickens. The chickens

136. would inhale the smoke, fall out of the tree, and then be dressed for
dinner—thus the name henbane—an interesting story. Scopolamine
is also used for motion sickness, as a sleep aid, and as a muscle
relaxant during childbirth. As with cannabis there is a reluctance to
suggest the ancient Egyptians used plants and fungi within sacred
contexts. Modern Western medicine evolved from magical thinking
and experimentation. The ancient Egyptians, like modern medical
doctors, would not arbitrarily prescribe their formulas. For example,
henbane was apparently used as a muscle relaxant (Ebers Papyrus
66), and it will certainly do that. How did they come to learn how
much to use, and what happens when you absorb too much? One
also has to consider antidotes.

These ancient people, it is reasonable to assume, experimented
with all these plants and fungi to determine proper doses, and out of
this they learned other properties reserved for the celestial world.
The alterative properties of these plants, especially those that alter
consciousness (which would, in most cases, be immediate) are the
model, | believe, that led to modern pharmacology and medicine
(see Johns 1999). Datura or henbane alters consciousness
immediately while the analgesics, such as willow bark (aspirin) of the
New World, might take an hour or so; still others might take days or
weeks (antihelminths and detoxification herbs). These would be
observable effects.

It is of interest to note that columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris), a plant
often depicted in Christian art, does have some structural (but not
chemical) similarities to henbane. Just as the mushroom has stand:
ins, certain flowers would as well. Both plants are noted at St. Mark's
Basilica (see ). According to some researchers (see
Sill 1996, 51), columbine symbolically represents sorrow, but
because of the shape of the leaves, "it becomes the botanical
emblem of the Holy Ghost.” In my opinion, columbine is a terrestrial
stand-in for the celestial henbane.

Belladonna (| )

Atropa belladonna has been associated with beauty products used
during the Middle Ages. When absorbed through the skin in a fat-

137. based ointment, the atropine in the plant dilates the pupils, making
one appear more attractive (subconsciously we are attracted to
enlarged pupils). This chemical was formally used by
ophthalmologists for dilating the pupil in order to examine the optic
nerve. At any rate, there was another use for Atropa belladonna, that

, for witch's ointments used to transport (‘fly’) the individual to the
pagan Sabbath, and thus the witch on the broom motif. Recipes
were extracted from alleged witches during the witch-hunt craze in
the fifteenth century. The Church obviously knew all about the
anointing substances; they had their own called “Oils of Gladness."
The mind-altering components of belladonna are atropine, hyoscine
(scopolamine), and hyoscyamine. Scopolamine is the magic
ingredient, also found in henbane, likewise associated with these
ointments. Because of the combination of chemicals in belladonna,
some experience a rough ride. The religious clerics of a time past
must have realized that a number of substances were necessary to
accommodate the cult members. As in modern medicine, some
people respond better to certain antidepressants than do others; the
same is true for homeopathic remedies.

Datura inoxia ( )

Datura species are found in both the Old and New Worlds. | have in
my collection a species (Datura mete) from Tibet, somewhat smaller
than native species, but certainly significant enough in the Hindu
tradition to be included in the tiara of Shiva as he dances the song of
the universe. Datura contains similar chemical constituents as
henbane, including scopolamine. Some differences between Datura
inoxia and other species (Datura metel, Datura stramonium, etc.) are
the combinations and amounts of the alkaloids, and the geographies
in which they are found. Datura inoxia and stramonium most likely
are New World in origin, while Datura metel might have its origins in
eastern Persia or Afghanistan and was traded or brought west most
likely with the Indo-Europeans as they spread into Turkey, Greece,
and Bavaria. Datura can be quite invasive, reseeds easily, and is
drought resistant in mature specimens with deep roots.

138. Datura leaves or seeds should be dried before they become the
Eucharist. Consuming the fresh leaves or seeds is a dangerous
enterprise, and if you are unsuspecting of this, you can have a very
negative experience. Fumigation or hot boxing with the dried leaves
(or in combination with cannabis) can lead to a transformation or
transmutation in which the initiate can experience changing shape or
flying. The same experiences, as mentioned, are available with
henbane and belladonna. This perhaps accounts for the werewolf
and other transformation stories as encountered in the classical
literature and fairytales of which we are all familiar; dear old Santa
Claus fits into this as well

Mandragora officinarum (| )

Mandragora officinarum has a long history (and probably prehistory)
and was used by the Hebrews as well as pagan and Christian
communities. It is also purported to be one of the ingredients in
witch's brew, and this is a possibility especially during times (at least
in Europe) when henbane or belladonna were less available. The

major mind-altering chemicals are hyoscyamine, scopolamine,
atropine, and mandragorine. In Genesis 30:14-17 we read,

And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found
mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah.
Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, | pray thee, of thy son's
mandrakes.

And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken
away my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's
mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with
thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes

And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went
out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for |
have surely hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay
with her that night.

And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare
Jacob a fifth son.

139. It was through the deity, spirit, or power in the mandrake that
conception was possible. The mandrake also appears in the Song of
Solomon (7:10-13)

Lam my beloved's; And his desire is toward me.
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; Let us lodge in
the villages.

Let us get up early to the vineyards; Let us see whether the vine
hath budded, And its blossom is open, And the pomegranates
are in flower: There will | give thee my love.

The mandrakes give forth fragrance: and at our doors are all
manner of precious fruits, new and old, which | have laid up for
thee, O my beloved.

is from the Tacuinum Sanitatis, a medieval herbal
handbook. It is patterned after the Taqwin alsihha, an Arab medical
treatise produced in Baghdad in the eleventh century by Ibn Butlan
(see Arano 1976). The root of the mandrake is personified as a
homunculus or little man because of the root's configuration. If not
removed from the ground in a ceremonial fashion, so the story goes,
the screams emitted from the root can be deafening but at the very
least annoying—recall the scene in the Harry Potter series
Josephus (1999, “The Jewish War," 7.6.3, 922) relates,

But still to this day in that valley which encompasses the city on
the north side there is a certain place called Baaras, which
produces a root of the same name with itself. Its color is like that
of flame, and towards the evenings it sends out a certain ray like
lightning. It is not easily taken by such as would do it, but
recedes from their hands, nor will yield itself to be taken quietly,
until the urine of a woman, or her menstrual blood, be poured
upon it; nay, even then it is certain death to those that touch it,
unless anyone take and hang the root itself down from the hand,
and so carry it away. It may also be taken another way without
danger, which is this: they dig a trench quite around it, until the
hidden part of the root be very small, they then tie a dog to it,

140. and when the dog tries hard to follow him that tied him, the root
is easily plucked up, but the dog dies immediately, as if it were
instead of the man that would take the plant away; nor after this
need anyone be afraid of taking it into their hands.

According to Anthony Roe (| ):

Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes an herb called
“baaras” (from the Hebrew ba'ar, to burn), which is certainly
none other than the mandrake. Josephus is the first to record
the practice of employing a dog to assist in the plucking
According to him, the plant has the virtue of attracting demons
out of the bodies of persons possessed. It was also used under
the name morion or “death wine” to render insensible those
about to suffer torture. Hence under Roman rule, Jewish women
would administer it to those who were being crucified. It would
allay suffering and wrap the soul in night. It was on account of
the occasional recovery of the crucified after they had been
removed from the cross as dead that the Roman soldiers were
ordered to mutilate the bodies before they were handed over to
their friends for burial. Pythagoras gave it the name of “human
bodied.” Bacon said of the mandrake that it was “a root whereof
witches made an ugly image, giving it the form of a face on the
top of the root.”

We can see, then, that gathering the material for that trip to God's
house was not a simple matter. Josephus obviously believed much
of what he wrote, and most stems from legend, myth, and his own
creative mind. There are cautions and precautions lest the entity
within the plant harm those who travel its path. Note also the story
about crucifixion, where the person would be given mandrake, and,
appearing dead, be taken from the cross and “brought back to life."
Schonfield (1966) suggested such a scenario for Jesus in The
Passover Plot.

Look closely at ; note the similarities of this drawing to
possibly henbane and cannabis leaves encountered in ;

141. Which further indicates that these plants are not incidental artistic
filler but symbolic of the mystery. In the case of , the
combination of plants and fungi may point to mixtures or proprietary
potions.

Papaver somniferum (Opium; )

Opium has a long history and certainly prehistory, and it is
associated with Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. One of the
sons of Hypnos, Somnus, brought images of humans in dreams
while his brothers, Phobetor and Phantasus, brought animal forms
and phantoms, swords, rocks, and other inanimate objects. How a
god “came to” or contacted the prophet tells us, perhaps, what type
of substance was involved. Those gently falling to sleep might be a
possible allusion to opium or even cannabis, as opposed to the hand
of God being “on someone,” which might refer to Amanita muscaria
or other more potent substances. There are opium+like substances,
for example wild lettuce (Lactuca serriola), known as “lettuce opium,”
which was used to adulterate opium and in the brewing of a potent
sedative ale. There is also Withania somnifera, the roots of which
exude a white, sticky liquid very similar to that of opium lettuce.
Withania also contains nicotine (see Counsell 2008), leading early
investigator to suggest transatlantic contact and use of tobacco by
the Egyptians. This is probably not the case, with the nicotine found
in mummy tissue the result of Withania somnifera or perhaps Apium
graveolins or even cigarette-smoke contamination by museum
patrons

Papaver somniferum has a distinctive appearance and, although
not a prominent image in Christian art, it is not there by accident.
From an experiential or ritual position, for example, perhaps it wasn't
a substance of choice. Moreover, it was well known by the pagan
mystery cults and would be easily identifiable within the art. They
may have understood its addictive qualities; but used ritually, this
probably wasn't an issue.

Claviceps purpurea (|

142. Claviceps purpurea is an ergot fungus found on rye and barley and
possibly used in the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece,
although some disagree, and it may have been used purposely as a
hallucinogen in the Middle Ages. It was accidently ingested when
ground up with the rye to make bread, however, and there are
reports from the Middle Ages of whole villages going temporarily
insane (see Matossian 1989). Some also developed sores and even
gangrene on feet and hands. This may be the cause of “stigmata” of
St. Francis of Assisi. In any case, these outbreaks of ergot poisoning
led to accusations of witchcraft and would have offered proof of
demonic influences. The alkaloids in the fungus are derived from
lysergic acid, and the effects are similar to that of LSD (lysergic acid
diethylamide).

For the ancient Greeks, however, there was apparently a family
involved in making barley or rye wine used in the Eleusinian
mysteries; this potion would have been proprietary and not publ
knowledge. | think it prudent, however, to include the idea that there
was more than one potion involved in the Greek and early Christian
rites. The Hebrews came out of Egypt and were certainly informed,
as a community of priests, about the rituals and substances used to
commune with the gods. This would have been mystery information
guarded from the masses. The knowledge of the ergot fungus, or at
least the consequence of ingesting infected rye or barley, must go
back to the earliest beginnings of agriculture. The ancient Egyptians
grew several types of wheat as well as barley. The fungus is
probably not common in the wild, but such infestations must have
periodically happened. The environment for encouraging the fungus
would be growth in marshy wetlands or possibly binding sheaves
with wet grain and stock, allowing a moist, dark, warm environment
suitable for fungal growth. Although many stories in the Bible
originated in Mesopotamia, the Hebrew substances of choice for
contacting the deity were most likely borrowed from the Egyptians,
and ergot might have been among them. However, unless you
purposely grow the ergot, it is an unpredictable harvest. The ancient
Egyptians grew wheat and from this (and probably other plants)
made beer, lots of beer, and of course had various types of wine,

143. anointing oils (see ), henbane, cannabis, and
mushrooms.

Peganum harmala

Syrian rue or Peganum harmala was known from Asia Minor to India
and had at least two known purposes. The first was the use of the
plant extracts harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine as dyes in
carpet manufacturing. Persian carpet makers long understood the
use of this plant in another fashion depicted in the stories of Aladdin
and the flying carpet. Harmaline and related compounds are called
beta-carbolines, and they are potent mind-altering substances.

| don't get a sense that this plant was important in the Egyptian
tradition, but it might have been important in the Zoroasterism
tradition in Persia, and the Jews and early Christians were probably
aware of its existence and properties. There must have been many
mixtures of plants, and these would have been proprietary and
guarded

In my opinion, the Jews and Christ, Jesus, and Gnostic cults
centered mainly on cannabis, Amanita, Psilocybin, and henbane-
type plants as their communing substances of choice.

The Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea, lotos, and nucifero; )

Let us not neglect the lotus so prominently displayed in Egyptian art.
Although it is not common in Christian art, | bring it up to offer a
couple of connections and make a point. In (left) we see
a portion of a stela of the official Inyotef. Note that Inyotef is holding
a lotus to his face, while his wife holds an erect lotus bud. The lotus
represented life in the physical sense; that is, sex equals life. Sexual
performance and the ability to have babies were important then as
now. Remember that you need family to set you on your way to the
Field of Reeds, to look after you when your number is called. The
lotus is connected to sex and life. On the right we see Seti | being
offered life by Ma'at in the form of an ankh (life), which is not the
breath of life any more than you can sniff a lotus and have a four-
hour erection. The ankh is the food of the gods. Both the lotus and

144. ankh represent life, the former secular, perhaps recreational/ritual,
and the latter (mushroom, henbane) ritual/spiritual. As Nunn
comments (1996, 157-158),

Nymphaea contains four narcotic alkaloids which are
concentrated in flower and rhizome but absent from the seeds,
stem and leaf. These alkaloids are soluble in alcohol but not in
water. The effect can be experienced either by ingesting the
roots or flowers, or by drinking wine in which they have been
soaked. Harer has suggested that placing lotus blossoms in
wine would produce a narcotic-laced wine or that a wine-extract
of blossoms might be added to wine, as some depictions
suggest. He also points out that an uninhibited young lady in the
Turin erotic papyrus (no. 55001; Omlin, 1968) is always shown
with a lotus above her head. However, it would not be possible
to obtain any effect from sniffing the lotus blossom, as is so
often depicted. (Emphasis added)

Nunn goes on to talk about soaking lotus flowers in beer or wine,
which is mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus (209 and 479). | am
making a connection between “sniffing” (lotus) and the “breath of life”
(ankh) as metaphorical of taking in some substance to produce
some effect. By suggesting that the ancient Egyptians literally meant
that the ankh bestowed life certainly goes way beyond taking in air.

Another point to be made is that the potency of the beer or wine is
important because the alcohol can only extract a specific amount of
the alkaloids. In plant chemical extraction this is what is called a
standard tincture. The more potent the wine (alcohol content), the
more alkaloids are absorbed; over time the “brew master” could
produce different brews for different occasions, and it only seems
reasonable that they experimented. The other point is the brewing
process. If the lotus roots and flowers are added to the mix before
fermentation, you would likewise increase potency, rather than
simply soaking the roots and blossoms in the wine for several hours
before drinking. In most cases of plant chemical extraction the
process takes several days.

145. The major point is that these ancient people used a variety of
substances, depending on the occasion, to alter their consciousness.
The ritual uses of all these substances reach deep into prehistory.
They were used ritually all over the Middle East since the time of
written history, and I find it difficult to believe that somehow the
ancient Egyptians were left in the dark.

Beer and Wine

There are many ways of extracting and concentrating extracts from
plants and fungi; this is not rocket science, but it is science
nonetheless. Readily available solvents for many plant chemicals
include water, urine, honey, milk (as in “milk and honey”), and
alcohol, and two of these solvents (honey and alcohol) offer the
added bonus of preserving the desired chemicals. Fermentation to
make beers and wines would have been the most popular method of
extracting the desired chemicals in plants and herbs. Beers, for
example, took on many ingredients in the past and were very
different than those of today (see Buhner 1998). Some of these
products of fermentation were consumed on a daily basis, just as we
consume beer, wine, water, or pop, and overconsumption was likely
during specified rituals and other festive occasions. The major active
ingredient in modern beers is alcohol, a monoamine-oxidase inhibitor
and overall depressant of the central nervous system. Most also
contain hops, which adds lupulone and humulone (among other
constituents), both of which are also sedatives. Yes, people can
have visions while on alcohol, but prophetic images, phantoms, and
so on are usually the product of malnutrition and cellular toxicity
(liver damage) from long-term abuse

There were many types of beers and wines, but as a solvent wine
would be the better choice because of the higher alcohol content,
especially in something like date palm wine. You could also
concentrate the dissolved plant chemicals through evaporation,
although the alcohol would be lost. These concentrates could then
be added to brews or mixed when needed

146. Review

Christian art serves several purposes. One is to indoctrinate and
educate by attaching visual images to poetry. A visual image can be
used to compress a multitude of beliefs and behaviors. Education
occurs on at least two levels. The first level is education for the
masses using a storybook approach, much the same as comic
books or children’s books in our culture act as mechanisms for
teaching preschoolers to read. Christian art speaks volumes through
the words of the priest as he tells stories about the life of Jesus,
various saints, and the development of the Church. This is presented
as history, fact, and truth rather than as metaphorical of something
else. This may be what the early iconoclasts were reacting to: Jesus
was an experience and not flesh and blood any more than Mickey,
Donald, and Goofy are real even though we have numerous stories
and images about their exploits.

The second level of education is for priests and represents the
esoteric rites. These would include discussions of magical
substances, the rituals of obtaining and processing, how these
connected one to a world beyond, spiritual taphonomy, and spiritual
anatomy and physiology. As time went on the story became more
and more layered, disguising the original botanical references.

Visual art made the stories come alive, and although this borders
on idolatry, and certainly today many Christian groups are idol
worshippers, the original purpose seems mainly to indoctrinate,
instruct, or provide reference points during cult initiation. Cults did
develop around images of saints, so fear of idol worship, in my
opinion, was not a main concern for most. Understand that there
could not have been images of Jesus until the fourth century, when
the Semitic image of Jesus first appears. Why so long? Because
Jesus was an experience and this experience was personal, as it
only can be, and not a generalization upon which to paint a face
When the face of Jesus shows up, we have a new type, or should |
say, an authorized version of Christianity. Prior to this there were
many types of Christianities, and their origins could have involved a
number of defectors from the various Jewish groups including the
Essenes, Nazarenes, and so on. But the groups that eventually led

147. to Christianity as we know it today possibly have their origins with an
Essene apostate or small group of apostates. If they didn't derive
from the Essenes, they certainly relied heavily on their story line and
that of the Old Testament in general. The symbol or spokesperson
was John the Baptist, or someone like him. He had a simple
message delivered in a way (parables) that encouraged people to
think, This message was originally organized around the sacred
meal, a simple philosophy of do unto others, and an experience
(communion) with Jesus (Esau, Teacher of Righteousness) through
the Holy Mushroom. But with the death of the Baptist (or whoever
touched off this cult) we get a creative/adaptive radiation leading to
various story lines, other parables, different experiences, different
rituals, and so on. The story of Christians identifying each other by
drawing half a fish (perhaps it is a mushroom cap?) in the sand
might be true, but to other Christian types this might not have any
meaning, especially if they subscribed to the Second
Commandment. Moreover, these different Christian groups had
limited membership in limited geographies; members would have
been known to one another, and therefore there would be no need to
draw secret signs in the sand. Christianity has never been a
homogeneous entity, but it became more homogeneous when visual
images were added and politics changed in its favor. At this point,
when it merged with the politic, there would be no need for secrecy
—except, of course, for the true identity of the main player, Jesus.

In | present Christian art spanning the time period
from approximately 200 to 1000 CE. There are two phases to this,
the first from 200 to 800 CE and the second from 800 CE to 1000
CE. | have selected images from different media and different
geographical areas to show the continuity of images over time and
space

In | examine the art spanning 1000 CE to
approximately 1550 CE. This in my estimation is the most interesting
material because it includes a time of more open expression and
experimentation in concealing the mushroom, almost like a game or
challenge, most likely between artists or even art guilds. There was a
style of poetry (Languedoc) born in France during this time designed

148. to conceal messages to lovers yet performed openly in court, and
concealing mushrooms might be analogous to this.

covers the time period between 1550 CE and 2000
CE and will include Old as well as New World art. The art moves
toward more complexity; there is refinement, and hiding the
mushroom has definitely become an art form in itself. Icons from the
Eastern Orthodox traditions, however, tend to maintain the old-time
tradition, and specific motifs (including mushrooms) change little for
well over a thousand years.

is a review of findings along with opinions about

meanings.

149. Early Chri n Art, 200 CE to 1000 CE

must, because of time and space, only briefly outline some of the
history or social circumstances surrounding the paintings, mosaics,
and so on that follow. We can begin with the catacombs in Rome,
which were burial practices borrowed from tombs of the ancient
Egyptians and Romans. Unlike those of the Egyptians and Romans,
these catacombs appear to have been multifunctional. They were
designed to bury the dead, but family vaults were apparently used as
geographies for feasts, certainly at the time of burial and
anniversaries, and they were undoubtedly used as meeting places
especially for exposing the initiate to the mystery. The reader can
appreciate the catacombs as a place to act out life, death, and
resurrection. This idea of going into the earth for ritualistic purposes
has a long season at least dating to the times of caves in France and
Spain (32,000 to 34,000 years ago). Similar practices most certainly
went on at Amarna during the reign of Akhenaten (1356-1333 BCE),
the probable template for the mythic hero Moses in the Bible and
Koran (see Rush 2008). As mentioned in , these tombs
reflect a tradition that had literally gone underground, and those cells
or units that survived did so by establishing meaningful rites and
rituals for their members. We witnessed a very similar situation in the
peace or “hippy” movement of the 1960s, and although some of the
communes survive, most individuals melted into the dominant
culture
The paintings in these catacombs were meant to be seen; they
were to instruct, unlike the Egyptian tomb paintings, which were
never to be seen by human eyes once the tombs were sealed. The
early Christian images were also points of meditation—especially, in
my opinion, when under the influence of some mind-altering
substance. This is revealed in the idea of the communal meal, which
had little to do with obtaining calories or nourishment, at least in its
early stages. This evolved into the exoteric, wheat wafer taken at
communion and the caloric meal often enjoyed by friends and

150. relatives on church premises. The real body of Christ, the sacred
mushroom, was restricted to the religious clerics. It is my position
that, from the start, biblical scholars and art historians have missed
the central message or mystery to which all Christian art points, and
have instead wrongly assumed (had faith) that Jesus was a real
person in history. We read de Rossi's account, dated 1869,
comparing his knowledgeable rendering of the symbols of the
anchor, vine, bread, and fish to that of modern scholars. And for the
most part his interpretations are maintained probably because
scholars thought de Rossi got it right. But things just might be
different, an my opinion that the first groups forming after the
murder of John the Baptist (or whomever) understood Jesus to be an
experience, but the groups breaking away from this original group
went in many directions and developed different philosophies as to
the nature of Jesus. Some groups, of course, believed Jesus to be a
real person, and this probably came about among those who, early
on, restricted the use of the holy sacrament (mushroom) to the
priesthood in their esoteric rites; they substituted the wheat wafer in
the rites of the commoner. In any case, it took almost 300 years for a
compromise to be reached, that is, that Jesus was human—he had
to suffer and needed a corporeal body to do so—but also divine
(God) and capable of spectacular feats of magic, like bringing people
back from the dead, removing demons, and saving humanity from
sin. Then there had to be something that brought the two together,
the Holy Ghost, the messenger of the experience, represented by
the fish, dove, angel, lamb, and Jesus himself.

Cults and Cult Development

When new deity-oriented groups emerge, they are rarely pristine but
stem, instead, from ancient, prehistoric, or historic sources. In terms
of modern development Christianity morphed out of Judaism and the
surrounding pagan cults. It is to be expected that other groups would
emerge from the original group of apostates, with each splinter group
certainly, in time, developing its own spiritual anatomy, physiology,
and taphonomy, or it would not have diverged in the first place. The

151. new group is called a cult, which simply means a group of people
who subscribe to a different creed (beliefs, rites, and rituals) perhaps
pointing to a different code (ie. Jesus as human, Jesus as
experience, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene). The hangers-on to
the old system are usually antagonistic toward the apostates, and
this serves to keep the split permanent. Antagonism between the
various Christian splinter groups was pretty open at times, leading to
violence; violence is a sign of noncompromise and no return. We see
this today among the fundamental Christian groups who have used
intimidation tactics and violence to stop abortions and the teaching of
evolution and sex education in our schools. Fundamental Muslims
have tortured and murdered those who speak out against their brand
of fascism (see Rush 2008)

In any event, those groups that saw images as useful during
instruction or initiation used common pagan images. The images in
the catacombs had to be seen as a “fit” with the surrounding groups,
or they would have been destroyed. If you have a picture of the
Good Shepherd on the wall, defacing it would be like defacing the
Good Shepherd story, your own story that dates back to the god El

(2500 BCE) in Mesopotamia and also Pasupati of the Indus Valley
civilization of about the same time period. Thus, to see one's own
images, or at least familiar images, would not represent a threat and
perhaps helped preserve some of the art from vandalism. But this
also misleads art historians. These paintings probably represent the
first truly Christian art, although it is an art that bridges other
traditions as well but mainly in form and not necessarily symbolic
value. The earliest artistic renderings would not represent the
unusual, for that would be quickly identified. Placing a big mushroom
or large henbane plant on the wall of a meeting place would draw
immediate attention and betray the mystery. Moreover, in mystery
religions, obviously, you do not want to give away your secrets,
although it is always coded and only known to a few. In the mystery
religions the novice took a potion but might not know what was in
the elders did. In early Christianity, all are initially introduced to the
mystery, but those groups that survived restricted this knowledge,
and it has remained so ever since

152. Crypt of St. Lucina, c. 100-300 CE

In the early structuring of this artistic tradition we can see several
prominent symbols: fish, bread, book, anchor, vine, lamb, and Good
Shepherd, all of which are common in and/or shared by other
groups. One of the earliest images (I ) depicting bread and
fish is to be found in the Crypt of St. Lucina, catacombs of St.
Callixtus, and dates between 100 and 300 CE. Recent carbon-14
dating suggests that the catacombs might be closer to 300 CE,
although some in the Christian community say that carbon-14 dating
isn't scientific and proves nothing.

There are many stories about the association between the fish and
Jesus. The two most mentioned are the Greek words that form
“Jesus Christ of God the Son Savior,” the first letter of each word
forming “fish” (IXOYZE or ichthys). Christians were called, we are
told by Christian clerics, “little fishes.” This may be true, and catching
fish is certainly a metaphor for snaring the unsuspected; in
Christianity this is called proselytizing.

The other story has to do with drawing half a fish in the sand, as
mentioned in . and if the another person completed the
image, that signaled one's affiliation to Christianity. A problem with
this story is that “Christians” were not a unified group, so this would
not have been a sign for all. In fact, what was drawn in the sand may
not have been a fish at all but a mushroom cap, to which the receiver
drew his cap, and, overlapping, they create the fish or mushroom on
its side. As discussed in , the mushroom and the fish
are messengers and the message

Certainly not all Christians were buried in the catacombs, and
Christians then, as today, were not a unified group; in many cases
they only share the reference to Jesus and/or Christ. The fish was a
common image, and outsiders would not have felt offended. But
what is the fish’s symbolic value? Why would it be associated with
Jesus? Some say that it is a connection between Jesus and Pisces,
the fish of the zodiac, and Pisces is connected to February. In the
Celtic tradition Imblog, which translates as “sheep's milk," is
celebrated on February 1, the celestial birth date of St. Brigit of
Ireland, with February 2 the Purification of the Virgin in the Catholi

153. tradition. Pisces could also relate to the age of Pisces (Jesus)
moving into the Age of Aquarius, but | suspect that this is a more
modern translation. As we peel back this very large and eye-
watering onion, at the very core is the symbol of fertility and life as it
emerges from the primal abyss. We can also appreciate the
connection to the water (amniotic fluid) that issues from the vaginal
opening just prior to birth. And, of course, fish from a secular
perspective meant food. In the sense of this picture, however, the
fish is like the hand of God, rays of light, angel, and the dove. The
fish is the messenger who brings the message, and, in a Christian
sense, this is the savior. We see then the two characteristics of
Christ or Jesus. He is the messenger and the message. The fish has
certainly taken on many layers as storytellers get in on the adventure
of interpretation. We might even be able to detect where the fish, as
a fertility symbol, came from. First, many early Christians were
dropouts from Judaism—disenchanted members marginalized
because of their status, physical characteristics, and emotional
problems, and those down and out. Political systems, in those days
and even in today's world, usually don't spend much time and
energy looking after those who cannot or will not contribute in some
way. These people are ripe for leaders who will show them the way
to a better place even if it means violence toward self or others.
People are small-group animals; we do not function very well in
anonymous systems, where all around are merely trees in a forest.
Early cult development attracts some pretty goofy people, all of
whom are in extreme need of acceptance—or they see an
opportunity. Along comes John the Baptist, or someone like him,
who is nice to people, explains life, and opens the door to knowledge
without a cluster of rules about what you wear, eat, or who you can
hang with. What a relief!

Second, John offered life, reason, an audience with God, and a
sense of belonging. This sense of belonging is extremely important;
committed individuals will cooperate vigorously for a common goal
This is our small-group nature. Members help to support one
another, and in order to do this they have to love thy neighbor, love
thy enemy, know thyself, stop judging, and so on. These numerous
Jesus cults, Christ cults, Gnostics, or whatever label, had secrets

154. And just as the poets constructing the Gospels knew how to slide
secret messages between the lines, so did the visual artists.
Through the use of common symbols they could glorify their deity
and no one would be the wiser. Through story they could elevate the
humble fungus to the station of God, and because people want
acceptance and a sense of belonging, the story is delivered and
received as historical fact. Fear of rejection and lack of critical
thinking keep such an irrational story alive in a scientifically oriented
world (see Rush 2008).

Third, the Hebrews, through their rules and regulations, were
separating themselves from the Canaanite tribes and relied heavily
on the Egyptian tradition for their symbols and symbolic values. The
fish as a fertility symbol most likely comes from Egypt, through the
HebrewJewish tradition, originating with Akhenaten (1352-1336
BCE) but contained within the ancient Osiris Round. Because many
Christians were apostate Jews, the fish symbol would have been
known to them through the stories of Osiris and the fish that
swallowed his penis after his evil brother tore him to pieces and
scattered them to the four winds (see Rush 2007). Osiris's penis is
an obvious symbol of fertility, and he used his penis—his magic
phallus (mushroom)—after he was dead to impregnate Isis and
conceive Horus, the Holy Ghost, the God of Light. Osiris, then, in his
death, brings forth life through his dead penis/dried mushroom.
Jesus (mushroom) in his death brings forth life; Osiris's penis brings
forth life even after death. The fish swallowed the penis, the holy
sacrament, and has become one with the penis. We can look for
connections all over the Middle East but I think the story from Egypt
is a better fit because it would have been known to many of these
cult leaders, some rabbi possibly from the Essenes, or an apostate
Egyptian priest who offered a new message with a new method of
delivery as well as an experience with the godhead to those worthy
of illumination. Remember that the Jews had twenty-six years (586-
560 BCE) to absorb the stories encountered in Babylon during their
exile, but they lived for hundreds of years in Egypt. There is certainly
an amalgam in the Bible, but | suggest that the most important
elements—including their god, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, David (or
at least exploits of David), parts of the creation story, laws, and

155. overall attitude—are Egyptian. You aren't going to change a tradition
many hundreds of years old composed in Egypt and modified in
Palestine, after twenty-six years in Babylon. Remember the
importance of tradition for these people

From the Hindu/Buddhist tradition we find Matsya ( ), an
incarnation of Vishnu in the form of a fish, who saved humankind
from extinction by building a boat and placing onboard the seed of
every living thing. So even here the connection between fish and
fertility or defeating death existed over a large geographical area. |
still lean toward the Osiris story because of the many symbolic
associations from Egypt found within the Christian tradition (see
Murdock 2009). And this makes sense if what we know as the
Israelites or Jews were a possible remnant of the folks at Amarna
during the reign of Akhenaten and his oppressive monotheism, a
plague let loose on the land. The scholars can argue over the
details, but this is really all about the social circumstances and the
oracle mushroom and other mind-altering substances that shaped
these traditions and the myths we live by.

Bread is an old term for manna more than likely because of its
direct association with beer, which is squeezed out of the fermented
grain, and because it likewise stands as a symbol of Jesus, it too
represents life, "but ... man cannot live by bread alone but through
every word from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). It is very clear
when the poets are talking about bread as opposed to manna. So
bread can be a food as well as a determinative for a mind-altering
substance, and in the latter case we obviously are not talking bread
in terms of calories. It is noncaloric, it is spiritual, it is the portal to the
other side, and it is personified as Jesus. The scoring of the bread in
the form of a cross, or variations, is likewise the nimbus or halo, and
it is usually only God and Jesus who have the scored nimbus. This
scoring is also noticed on the book held in the covered hand of a
saint; sometimes this is presented as a tie-down for the cover.

Bread and its connection to the gods must begin with beer, a by-
product of bread making. Fermentation, however, may have begun
with honey, figs, or fruit rather than grains. But in any case, bread
has a long-established connection with altered states. Dried

156. mushrooms, especially Amanita muscaria, do look like bread or
cake. So, at least in my opinion, the central theme or coding in the
catacombs represents symbols from other traditions restructured so
as not to draw attention, with each symbol a determinative for Jesus
and adjectives describing his characteristics and/or as symbols for
ritual practice. These were secret organizations with peculiar twists
to the supernatural world. Standard rituals can produce similar
cognitive experiences for group members, but they are likewise
personal. There is always a debriefing in which revelations or
meanings can be provided to the initiate, sort of like psychedelic
psychiatry, which showed great promise in the United States during
the late 1960s and 1970s but was rather abruptly abandoned due,
most likely, to political pressure—a synonym for political correctness
For the early Christian groups that splintered from a possible first
group headed by a rabbi, there would have rapidly emerged different
interpretations with corresponding rituals enacting those
experiences.

There are no faces of Jesus until after the third century, and if the
carbon-14 dates are correct (see Rutgers et al. 2005), the earliest
pictures of Jesus occur around the time of Constantine (312 CE). As
mentioned in , this would coincide with the counsel of
Nicaea (325 CE), and the reason that Jesus does not reveal his face
initially is simply on philosophical and experiential grounds. If Jesus
is encountered only during mind-altered states, then he is an
experience and spirit only. On the other side, however, this element
did not fit the story line of a savior who died for our sins; he had to be
human to feel pain and suffer in order for it to count (gain merit). |
believe there is enough evidence, in the pictures to follow, to
confidently say that Jesus was an experience and not a living,
breathing human being, and we are first alerted to this experience by
the angels, who represent the messengers of ecstasy, and the halo
or nimbus representing the experience or ecstasy. The term saint in
Catholicism is a reference to one who is experiencing the mushroom
all the time; a saint, in a sense, is (or was) an earthly representation
of the mushroom, personified as Jesus, in a similar manner as
Pharaoh is the earthly representation of the sun god, Re. Pharaohs,

157. remember, were gods on earth, unlike the Middle Eastern kings who
were merely caretakers of what the gods provided.

Concerning , look closely at the “bread” in the basket;
notice the cap and the stalk. If the water-fish-basket image is turned
upside down, the viewer can appreciate the possibility that the
basket actually represents the stalk of a mushroom, the cap is
represented by the water, and the fish is part of the cap (veil) as it
sticks to the stalk when the cap opens. The veil inhabits two worlds,
originally encasing the whole, now "rent in two” and occupying both
worlds. Look at this image again once you are introduced to the
other images in the chapters to follow. This connection is seen in the
bottom frame where the man/boy on the left is about to pick up the
“read,” but the woman appears to be communicating caution or
perhaps even “stay away.” If you look closely, you will notice a fish
on the bread, just as the fish lies upon the water in the top image.
The meanings are accumulative in that the water represents that
which supports life and death, the primal abyss, out of which all
things come and into which all things go (God). The fish represents
the manifestation of life (Jesus). The bread (manna) is that which
connects one to the experience (Holy Spirit), or to that which
provides and maintains life. Therefore all three represent life in its
three manifestations—Father, Son, and Holy Experience (Spirit,
Ghost). All three allow diverse story lines of healing and resurrecting,
water used to cleanse or baptize, the primal abyss, crossing the
river, and so on. This is the original connection to the water, fish,
bread, and Jesus. They all represent life, the experience of the other
side or experience with Jesus, and they all represent or point back to
the mushroom. The meanings of the symbols change from their
pagan values once incorporated into the Christian story line. The fish
manifests out of nowhere (Father-mushroom), it is tangible (Jesus-
Son-mushroom), and it has the life essences within (Holy Spi
muscimol); both mushroom and fish share the same value

Notice, again, in the bottom frame (I ), the man is about
to pick up the fish/bread while the woman seems almost afraid: her
hands and arms are not in a praising gesture but one of fear or
apprehension. Why is this if this is just fish and bread? This is not
fish and bread as caloric items. | strongly suggest they are symbolic

158. of the mushroom (the underside of the cap), and perhaps the lady
waving her hands is saying if you are not pure of heart, mind, and
soul, a bad trip awaits. Is this the original rebuking at Gethsemane?
The lady on the right likewise seems to be some sort of priestess
perhaps lecturing or administering some portion of the ritual.
Instruction seems to be in progress, suggesting that these pictures
are in a sequence for meditation or education. And what are those
caps on the woman's head? They may be part of the hairstyle, but it
appears that under these caps she is wearing a scarf or veil. Is this
the mushroom-maiden, who, like the dove, is a messenger, bringing
bread (manna) and fish (life or fertility)?

shows Christmas ornaments from Russia (c. 1998 CE)
based on old, medieval figures. On the left is the Woodcutter with
pine tree; the ax is a transmuter. The pine tree is brought into the
house, and gifts are placed under the tree. In another time, the gift
under the tree was Amanita muscaria. The Mushroom Maiden
holding a basket with Amanita muscaria, the gifts; these are
noncaloric, as is the fish held by the Fisherman. The fish in this

sense represents the deep subconscious, emergence, and life, while
the fisherman is next to the Snow Maiden holding a tray with
snowman (metamorphosis). Next to the snowman are some
interesting cakes (bread, manna), stacked one on top of the other,
while the minstrel sings the song of life, death, and spiritual return.
Notice the detailed designs in the clothing.

In any case, in the woman represents some persona
of the rite or ritual process. | believe that the “bread” in this image,
especially in the basket, is the mushroom and, if so, this is the
earliest image of a mushroom, in a Christian context, in my
possession. It would go unnoticed, however, to the casual observer.

St. Callixtus

In we see St. Callixtus as the Good Shepherd, holding a
book in his left arm. This image is to be seen in the Papal Crypt,
Catacombs of St. Callixtus, and we are told that it dates to sometime

159. after 222 CE. Again recall the inconsistencies revealed with carbon-
14 dating. As explained in , there are no undisputed
pictures of Jesus until the early fourth century. And so just as the
temple priests and priestesses in the pagan traditions were stand-ins
on earth for the gods in heaven, so the pope, in our own time, is a
stand-in for Jesus. In every case they are worshipped and bowed
down to in the belief that through them miracles are available

Who was St. Callixtus? St. Callixtus (180[?-222 CE) has a
colorful history; apparently he began his career as a slave and bank
robber. He was eventually captured for arguing in a synagogue,
where he was arrested for disturbing the moneylenders (does this
sound strangely familiar?) and attempting to collect debts. He
doesn't do well in jail and is eventually released through the efforts of
a welkplaced priest who was good friends with a mistress of
Emperor Commodus. He is given a pension by Pope Victor |
(probably because he robbed a Jewish bank) and then became a
deacon and eventually pope (217-222 CE)—talk about the spiritual
land of opportunity! Callixtus was a troublemaker, as were many out-
oftthe-closet Christians, and was eventually killed (martyred) and
made a saint, around which a devotional cult emerged. There is a
different telling of this story in The Golden Legend, but in either case
it is a story of painfully giving of oneself, suffering through
persecution, and eventual martyrdom. Understand that groups or
individuals connected to these various cults were not targeted for
persecution necessarily because they were Christians. It is because
these groups became political rather than remaining systems of
individual spiritual quest, in the sense of direct communion with the
deity. That was reserved for a select few. Callixtus's main claim to
fame is liberal forgiveness of sin. If a person stops sinning for a
specified amount of time, then he or she can once again receive
communion, a position that certainly not all bishops agreed with

The saint or Good Shepherd stands for a just ruler, a ruler who
looks after his faithful flock by directing mind and body. Remember
there are no images of Jesus, and it is the saint's job (he was
originally a priest, bishop, pope, or other servant of God), through his
ordination, to act as the temporal stand-in for Jesus, the mushroom,
just as the pharaohs were stand-ins for Re, the sun god. Jesus, then,

160. was originally an idea of hope and justice, and it isn't until the fourth
century that he officially shows a face made real by papal decree.
Much of the squabbling over the nature of the Trinity (an idea, |
believe, with its original rendering in the water, fish, and bread trio) is
what led to this facial grand opening. Jesus, by 325 CE, was
philosophized as being both human and divine, so it became
legitimate to show his likeness—for instructional purposes only, of
course. Well, people have been thanking and bowing down to Jesus
ever since; idolatry was in reality encouraged by the Church, but
many Christian groups opposed (and still do) images for at least
three reasons. The first, and most important, is that they realized that
humans have a strange capacity to imbue various objects with life
force and worship them (Second Commandment). Second and
closely related to the first, Jesus was an experience, a personal
experience, which no image could represent. And third, the images
might reveal the rituals and rites and consequently the mystery.

In any event, Callixtus, the Good Shepherd, has a halo (nimbus-
cloud), which, as we saw in is interpreted as a sign of
divinity or the sun (most likely, the Aten sun disk of ancient Egypt),
and this is an important person (saint). The halo originally (probably)
represented the mushroom or the experience with the mushroom
and would not be seen as a threat because the underlying meaning
is not openly revealed. Callixtus is holding a book complete with
dots, a fourth-level depiction of the mushroom representing the
mystery. We are told that the book is the Bible or the gospel of a
particular saint, but its main symbolic reference is the knowledge of
the mystery, the mushroom. Books would not have been common
objects in those early days and certainly not a common feature in the
art of the surrounding pagan tribes, but it is just a book and not a
threat. The book, then, became a useful device or code for the
mushroom. When Jesus holds the book, it is like he is presenting his
business card, a determinative; he is the book, the mystery. When
saints hold the book, they act as referrals to Christ's authenticity. The
saints are not the book, but they do hold the mystery in their hands—
they know the mystery, they know the potions, the mixtures, and the
ritual process of collecting, combining, administering, and honoring
the deity. All the icons in Christianity, at least on one level, relate to

161. locating, processing, consuming, and acknowledging or praising the
mushroom and the divine experiences provided. If read spiritually,
the icons also speak to the wisdom of the mushroom experience.

As mentioned, there are no images of Jesus until the early fourth
century. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that there was no real
person to image. After the Council of Nicaea and the details of the
Trinity were worked out, Jesus is provided a face to correspond with
his “voted in” human existence. This is very telling in itself and
something that the art historians and biblical scholars have to explain
away. That is to say, if Jesus were a real person, like Callixtus or
Apollinaris, there would have been a portrait. What would have been
the difference between painting the portrait of a saint as opposed to
Jesus? Drawing a saint on the wall would certainly make the image
sacred, so why not the real McCoy?

What this also suggests is that the story line for Jesus as a living
person possibly, just maybe, had not been worked out or perhaps
agreed upon. There was a general story line, but there were
undoubtedly gaps and fallen logs on this bumpy mythic road, and
this brings into question the dating of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. They must have been completed, as we have them
today, much latter than the first century CE, and more likely after the
Council of Nicaea (325 CE). Books held in the hand of saints, until
Jesus was proclaimed both human and divine, could not represent
the Gospels or teaching of any apostle about the life of Jesus as
they have come down to us. Remember, these are icons, and a book
is not a book

The Gospels as we appreciate them are composite stories from
times past tweaked to fit a new agenda. These early images come
down to us from people who were representing Jesus as an
experience, with the book representing knowledge of the mystery.
Hidden within this issue of whether or not Jesus was a living,
breathing human being was, in a sense, a questioning of one's
reality. Were the experiences with the mushroom real or just plain
hallucination (see Masters and Houston 1966)? To admit the latter
would surely discontinue the tradition, so for economic and political

162. reasons the experiences had to be real. And, through celestial logic,
Jesus could occupy both worlds. Well, of course he can; he's God

Some clergy still suggest, as noted earlier, that there are no
images of Jesus before the fourth century to prevent idolatry. This
surely did not stop the saints from being worshipped. There is no
face of Jesus because he did not exist as a real person. In fact his
nonexistence led Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263-339 CE) to forge
documents proclaiming the existence of Jesus and probably
obliterating others not conforming to his quest for a unification
inspired by Constantine, probably at the point of a sword (see Rush
2008). His fraudulent acts (and those of many others; see Wheless
1930) are a clear signal that after the Council of Nicaea (325 CE)
Jesus had to be presented as part human as well as part god, and
thus the search was on for the historical Jesus. Constantine's
mother, Helena, is accredited with being the first archaeologist,
finding, so we are told by religious clerics, Jesus's cross and so on.
The Church presents this as historical fact

Jesus's human part, however, is problematic. In my opinion this
issue of whether Jesus was alll spirit or all god, or part human and
part god, would never have been an issue if it were not for the
mushroom experience. The Trinity is simply a way of satisfying all
concerned—God (creator, not human), Jesus (created, human), and
Holy Ghost, or that which encompasses and unites as well as
overwhelms and directs (i.e.. life).

Quite simply, documents are forged or destroyed in order to add or
remove information from a poetic story line. The ancient Egyptians
were masters at this, although not subtle at times. They attempted,
for example, to carve away the existence of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten,
and so on, and some pharaohs laid claim to existing statues and
temples by forging their names on the inside and out. “So it is
written, so it shall be.”

So, what would be the need to forge the existence of Jesus?
Eusebius (and others), as mentioned, was probably commissioned
(or threatened) to discover Jesus and could not, prompting these
early priests to forge as well as confiscate and probably destroy

163. priceless documents. For his actions Eusebius is considered one of
the greatest biblical historians.

Baptistery St. Giovanni, Laterano, Rome, c. 500
( )

This basilica is dedicated most appropriately to St. John the Baptist
and his shadow, St. John the Evangelist. First mentioned in 313 CE,
it was the residence of popes and bishops until the papal seat was
moved to Avingon by Pope Clement V (1305-1314 CE). The basilica
was sacked by the Vandals and rebuilt by Pope Gregory around 590
CE. Other restorations occurred in the seventh and eighth centuries
The Baptistery, we are told by Church historians, was ordered by
Constantine, suggesting that the structure was built around 313 CE.
Constantine probably had this and other structures built, but not
because he became a Christian. He did this to create obligations and
to keep the Christians at arm's length. In any case, this may be one

of the first, official Christian baptismal structures.

The Holy Font was large enough for the initiates to stand in water
to their knees while “water was poured over their heads. This would
be considered a partial immersion, but still very impressive. A very
significant mosaic ( ) is found in the ceiling above the font
and clearly shows the Amanita muscaria in the center of a chalice or
vase (eight in total) representing everlasting life

The birds flanking the Amanita are both male and female of the
species. The Amanita is the axis mundi, the world tree, the center
from which all things come and into which all things go. When things
come forth, they split into paired opposites. That center, that which is
everything and nothing at the same instant, is referred to as God,
Aten, Atman, Amun, energy, singularity, and so on. Here that energy
is represented as the Amanita muscaria emerging and separating
from the veil symbolized by the lip of the chalice (upper and lower)
The center likewise represents ultimate knowledge, which can never
be known until or unless it splits into paired opposites. Knowledge is
revealed through comparison of one thing to another; this is called

164. relativity. These ancient people used Amanita muscaria and other
forms of manna to formulate this idea, which Einstein clarified with
mathematics. We will see the mushroom in the chalice again as the
determinative for Gethsemane. But there is more.

This image of birds flanking the world axis is found in Egyptian
myth where Osiris, the axis, represents primordial life (the djed pillar
or backbone of life). In this ancient drawing (I , bottom
center) Osiris is referenced as Khepri the scarab beetle, who, like
the beetle, climbs out of the ground but is unseen until he does so.
Osiris is the primordial mound (mushroom encased in the djed pillar)
in the underworld, and he is flanked by his two Queens, Isis and
Nephthys, in the form of birds (see Rush 2007, reverse of Plate
Five). Nephthys and Isis are paired opposites connecting the
spiritual female energy. That is, Nephthys represents the
male/female union—the carnal female union with the god—while Isis
represents male/female devotional, loving, healing, and spiritual
noncamal union. They cling to the mound, the penis, crying, wailing,
and waiting to reunite with the resurrected god Re as the newborn
sun, for they also represent life in the female condition. In short, the
mound, at least for the ancient Egyptians, could not simply represent
the male energy; the female energy is always present. Artemis the
singularity, Mistress of the Animals (Animal Master, Shaman), is
depicted in the bottom-left image with a deer in her left hand (a
symbol of the moon) and a lion in her right, a symbol of the sun,
symbols (sun and moon) that flank Jesus, in some medieval
renderings, on the cross at Golgotha. All these images relate to life,
death, and return, or transmutation, of going from one state to
another in the never-ending paired opposites in the field of time.

Also note in the center of the mosaic the sacrificial lamb with
nimbus, an early depiction of Christ. One can easily gestalt an ankh
by combining the circle surrounding the lamb, the horizontal line
beneath, and the vertical line in the center.

is a portion of the Metternich Stela, Dynasty 30, reign
of Nectanebo Il, Alexandria, 360-348 BCE, which now resides in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This stela is covered
with magical texts and images, and it was believed that water poured

165. over it would absorb the power of the words and images and act as a
powerful deterrent to evil forces. Evil was personified and
generalized as the scorpion or snake, as these were a real menace
in the desert. Note the center image, the infant Horus with his
topknot, on top of which is Bes flanked by Eyes of Horus (Ruck
2006, 31, suggests that the Eye of Horus is a “highly stylized
mushroom’). In his left hand are a lion, scorpion, and serpent, while
on his right are an oryx, scorpion, and serpent, all symbols of the
desert. The paired opposites are the oryx (prey) and the lion
(predator), as we saw with Artemis ( ). Horus is flanked on
his left by Thoth, who is wearing an unusual Atef headdress (see

). Horus the Hawk stands on his right, and on his far right,
Isis.

In note the Atef headdress worn by Thoth. The crown
appears as a pod out of which has emerged some mushroom-
shaped object. This may simply be Re with flanking cobras. Also
note the “crowns” worn by the cobras on either side. One also has to
wonder about the stave on Thoth' right, especially the cobra in the
“inverted bow!" and the counterpoise on the menit-necklace hanging
from the lotus crown between Horus and Thoth. | don't know if these
shapes are symbols of the mushroom, but we are dealing with
magical/spiritual matters and thus within the right context.

shows analogues of the axis mundi rendered as the
Fountain of Life (top center), and the depiction of Melusina (left; see
) and Mother Mary (top right; see ) at the
well. The ancient tomb painting at Amarna (lower right; see
), Akhenaten's land of milk and honey, is also of the same
symbolic value. The center image is the symbol for Gethsemane, a
stylized rendition of the Amanita in the chalice.

Miniature, Vienna Dioscorides, c. 512 CE (|

)

The Vienna Dioscorides is a compendium of earlier treatises on
herbs and their healing properties, birds, and so on, and is

166. comprised of works from Crateuas (c. 100 BCE), Dioscorides (c. 50
CE), and Galen (129-199 CE). Women during this and all time
periods, | might add, were often the herbalists and practitioners of
medicine, and this compendium may have been presented to
Princess Anicia Juliana as a sort of modern-day medical manual for
family or household use, or perhaps a bribe. Remember that books
were rare and valuable. What is also of interest in this miniature is
that a Christian theme is, for the most part, lacking, and | think there
is a good reason for this. First, let's consider the symbols and their
possible values.

is the frontispiece of this codex, and it may be the first
of a long line of what are called donor portraits. In the center of the
folio is Princess Anicia Juliana (royalty with a capital R) with
magnanimity (high mindedness, generosity of spirit) on the left, and
a figure representing knowledge on the right. Surrounding her are all
kinds of adjectives, for example naked Pothos on the left, a
primordial being who brings desire but consorts with darkness or
Omichle, representing particles like water or mist, who dims or

obscures like a film across the eyes. But he also brings forth the
spiritual, and, interestingly enough, the physical characteristics of the
universe. God, that which is all and nothing at the same instant, has
visited Juliana in these forms and not in a Christian manner. Pothos,
| might add, is also the name of the plant Epipremnum aureum and
is also called devils ivy. There is a variety called golden pothos that
has heart-shaped, variegated leaves.

There is a dark side to Juliana, which she obviously recognizes. In
a milder sense, though, Juliana has a desire to build monuments (a
modern-day Solomon?) and support the arts. She was the original
patron of the arts, and could afford to be. There is a very small
woman kneeling on the left showing almost absolute subservience
while presenting the open manuscript, to which Juliana is pointing
with her right hand. In her left hand Juliana now holds the book, but it

closed; she will keep the secret. So Juliana, at least in her own
mind, is intelligent, generous, and fair; she has been with
supernatural beings, and constructive passion or desire was the
outcome. She has a passion for building and the arts, but she is the
boss; I'm sure she was always on top. She can drop names and pull

167. rank, but she was probably fair. She most likely had a hand in the
placement of all symbols in at least this miniature, including the
mushroom on her head. Notice the hat or crown the princess is
wearing (I ). It appears to be Amanita muscaria, which
might not be too surprising. This manuscript, produced in
Constantinople and presented to the emperor Olybrius's daughter
(Juliana), however, is about medicine and herbs. But it is also about
Princess Juliana, who had three churches built in Christ's name, and
this manuscript, an invaluable treasure, was presented to her in 512
CE in honor of her high-mindedness and patronage of the arts and,
of course, churches. Here we see, once again, the connection
between science, medicine, and religion, with religion (philosophy)
driving the other two at that time (and still today). Because Princess
Juliana built the church, she is honored with the presence of Jesus;
thus the mushroom on her head. Look close, however, and you will
see Magnanimity on the left (high-mindedness, generosity of spirit)
supporting a very large mushroom cap on his left hand (although it
could be his right fist) held on top of the cape slung over his left
shoulder. The lower portion of the cape acts as the stalk. Below this
is the manuscript and Juliana's open hand. Magnanimity, | believe, is
holding the mushroom/book" in the cloaked hand just as we saw
with the saints. Knowledge on her left (right side of image) is pointing
to something (look over here"), and | think it is the book. Note how
the cloth, in the form of a cap, sits on top of the book, and the cover
is spotted. The book held by Pothos is the Vienna Dioscorides, and
the knowledge for entering the celestial world is represented by the
mushroom above. Juliana also holds the Vienna Dioscorides (she
has had the experience), as does Knowledge, who holds the book as
knowledge of the mystery. Said in another way, Juliana has
experienced the celestial as evidenced by the mushroom on her
head, while Knowledge, on the right, guards the secret, the mystery.
So what is the meaning of this miniature? Besides Princess
Juliana being intelligent, generous, passionate about building and
the arts, and fair but in charge, she knows the secret. She has
placed herself in the role of a living saint-in-waiting; Pothos tells us
she was visited by the gods. Princess Juliana, indeed, was not
stupid and did not build these churches simply out of generosity or to

168. create social immortality for herself and heirs—she saw a way (just
as did Constantine) to control the Church and, at the same time,
learn the secret, and lay bare the mystery. Perhaps she bribed Pope
Hormisdas, threw him a bone or two if certain things happened. Note
that Juliana made gifts to the Church but, except for the communion
with the mushroom and the book held by Knowledge, there is a lack
of Christian symbolism in this image. These images point to her
knowing the secret and suggest that she herself has had the
experience and wears a mushroom; a halo would perhaps symbolize
handing too much power to the church. The secret was probably in
that manuscript, which unfortunately is only partially complete
Princess Juliana, like Constantine (part of her bloodline), desired to
keep the Church close but obligated to her. She did this by giving the
church more than it could ever repay (as did Constantine), yet she
visually kept her distance. There is a poem (acrostic) within this
miniature that contains a secret message. If you look just above the
gold braid ( ), above the pink triangles within the black
inner boarder, there is a script.

The Glory of Christ, Sixth Century, Basilica of
Saint Cosmas and Damian, Rome, Italy (|

)

Here we see, early on, the human representation and the spiritual
brought together in one image. Jesus transcends nature, and his
divine nature shines through. The Councils of Nicaea (325 CE), and
succeeding debates, characterized Jesus as both human and divine,
and therefore his likeness in front of the masses was not only
desirable but also absolutely necessary. These decisions from the
Doctors of the Church carved a very crooked, although interesting,
path to idolatry. Notice the mushroom-ball (actually, a cluster of
mushrooms) of fire in the left comer with the mushroom-dove
descending. We will see this mushroom-ball again in an unexpected
manner in Jesus is pointing to it. Notice the sacrificial
lamb (Jesus) in the lower center frame, above and to the right of

169. which is a tree stump and an Amanita muscaria cluster of three
There may be caps drying on the rocks/stump to the left. If you look
closely, the sacrificial lamb in the center appears to be female or
neuter, while the other two are male. The artist perhaps realized that
the mushroom had to be both male and female or neither. Perhaps
this is Mary Magdalene.

Ravenna, Basilica of San Vitale, Sixth Century CE
( )

In this image, Christ Crowns a Martyr Saint, the mushroom per se
difficult to discern until close inspection. Note the Z shape on Jesus's
cape (stylized chi rho?). I include this picture to point out several
techniques that became refined over time. The first has to do with
the color of the lower part of the Jesus's leg on the right (actually his
left leg, the same side for book or scroll—also see ). This
might be the mushroom stalk for the cap, which is formed by the

garment flowing over his knee. This seems quite a stretch, but we
will see some very sophisticated examples of this, and they are
obvious mushrooms. We also see the hokeypokey stance with one
leg pointed out while the other remains in, a sophisticated mushroom
motif.

The second has to do with what Jesus is holding in his right hand.
Notice the red insert; Jesus is holding the mushroom cap (the red
portion) in his right hand in the form of a crown. This is more than
just a crown, and it has possible connections to ancient Egypt.
Naydler (2005, 119-120), regarding the Pyramid Texts, comments
that

utterances 220 and 221 describe a ritual involving the crown of
Lower Egypt, in which the crown is removed from its shrine and
addressed as a goddess by the officiating priest and then by the
king. The king says to the crown:

Ho crown, great of magic!

Ho fiery serpent

170. Grant that the dread of me be like the dread of you;
Grant that the fear of me be like the fear of you;

Grant that the acclaim of me be like the acclaim of you;
Grant that the love of me be like the love of you

Set my ‘aba scepter at the head of the living,

Set my sekhem scepter at the head of the spirits,

‘And grant that my sword prevail over my foes! (Emphasis
added)

This ritual is part of the Sed festival, and we will see the crown
again in a clearer representation of the mushroom. The crown, of
course, is a cap, the royal cap (see ), and it most likely
represents the mushroom in this context. | will return to the Sed
festival shortly and present other connections.

The angels represent ecstasy, and the saint is touched with
ecstasy. Also notice the interestingly shaped rocks under the feet of
the angel on the left. This technique is also found in the Tacuinum
Sanitatis (c. 1450 CE), a secular work on health and herbs of a much
later time period. The early paintings and mosaics show
experimentation with shape and methods of concealing Jesus, the
holy fungus, and | believe that this rapidly turned into an art form in
itself. That is, artists began to include the mushroom in the art, but
hidden in such a way as to go unnoticed by the uninitiated;
mushrooms became motifs in themselves, taught and handed down.
The halos represent the experience of the mushroom—thus the
ecstasy connected to the angels—but Jesus has the “cruciform”
halo, where the halo and cross are combined. The cross on the halo
is a means of separating Jesus from the saints. From a botanical
standpoint, the scored nimbus represents the gills of the mushroom.
The reason none of the saints or angels wear this distinction is
because their halos represent experiencing while Jesus represents
that through which the experience is gained. According to some
scholars (see Hall 2008, 148), the nimbus doesn't appear in
Christian art until the sixth century. Callixtus, however, shows up with

171. a halo in the catacombs, and this would be the late third or early
fourth century CE if the carbon dating is correct.

The Hospitality of Abraham, St. Maria Maggiore
( )

St, Maria Maggiore is an ancient basilica in Rome devoted to the
Virgin Mary that dates to the late fifth century CE. Here we see
Abraham playing host to three “men.” Genesis 18:1-14 begins,

And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he
sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood
over against him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them
from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, My
lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, | pray
thee, from thy servant.

Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest
yourselves under the tree. (Emphasis added)

To this point Abraham is camped in an oak grove in Mamre, a
Canaanite shrine devoted to the sky god El, whom the Hebrew also
appreciated as the Aten (Adon in Hebrew). Both are connected to
manna, the food of the gods. Oak groves also accommodate
Amanita muscaria. Being in his tent door might even suggest hot-
boxing with cannabis, as is found in Exodus 33:7-11. These three
men are God in triplet form; Abraham says so. These men are
usually thought of as angels, archangels no doubt, and angels, like
God, do not eat human food, at least not for its caloric value. So
what is all this “food” about?

And | will fetch a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart.
After that ye shall pass on. Forasmuch as ye are come to your
servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

172. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make
ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make
cakes.

And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and
good, and gave it unto the servant. And he hasted to dress it

And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed,
and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree,
and they did eat

All the foodstuffs, the meat, butter, and milk are examples of
altered or transformed things; that is to say, they are processed.
They are also sacrifices. Have you ever wondered where the
sacrificed lamb chop goes when it burns up? Well, it is processed by
angels (God in the form of angels), who breathe in the smoke or that
of which life is composed, and then return it to earth to create more
life. After identifying these “men” as God or angels we get to God's
purpose.

And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said,
Behold, in the tent

And he said, | will certainly return unto thee when the season
cometh round. And, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And
Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age. It
had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After | am waxed old
shall | have pleasure, my lord being old also?

And Jehovah said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh,
saying, Shall | of a surety bear a child, who am old?

Is anything too hard for Jehovah? At the set time | will return
unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall
have a son.

173. These are the angels (God) sent by God, El, or Aten to inform that
Abraham and Sarah will have a son by celestial decree. The other,
more reasonable, interpretation is that Abraham consumes the
mushroom and communes with God, who appears in the form of
three men or angels. All angels are manifestations or characteristics
of God (everything is a manifestation of God!). To Abraham God is a
voice, and when direct, face-to-face, human contact is desired, God
or El can't show up in his real form. Like Zeus, they all bring fire, the
sun, and you would simply vaporize. Zeus can show up as a cloud or
swan, but he often materializes in human male attire with a white
beard and large thunderbolt. The Aten sends hands with ankhs, and
YHWH sends whirlwinds and smoke, while the Christian God sends
hands, angels, and doves.

In any case, we see in the mosaic that the deity in the upper left
has altered Abraham's awareness, and he sees three men close by
on a hill. He immediately prepares food for them. These are angels
(manifestations of God), and they do not consume caloric food, so
the consumption by the angels cannot be for physical maintenance.
They (God), in fact, transform death (the sacrifice, the burnt offering)
into life and then return this life to Sarah in the form of a son in spite
of the fact she is ninety years old. Abraham first transforms food
from raw to cooked, but he is incapable of reversing the process, of
turning death into life (he can't impregnate Sarah); that comes by
way of God's will. And that is precisely what the “energy that informs
all" does; God gives and takes. These three angels represent life,
death, and return.

The “loaves” of bread on the table are in the form of conical
mushrooms, not the round loaf with a hole in center that is
associated with Jesus. If you look closely at their bases, the stems
are visible. This is a little difficult to see with respect to the
mushrooms on Sarah's table, however. Also note the objects
(mushrooms) on the mushroom cap or bread held in Abraham's
hands. The calf in ancient Egypt and among the Hebrews, as well as
the Greeks, stood for God. The main thing is that it is God who “had
been dressed” or prepared, and then “cooked” by angels transmuting
death into life, which is given to Sarah. This can be read as a story

174. about botany and chemistry and certainly as speculation as to where
life comes from.

There are suggestions of mushrooms in the folds of the garments,
but the loaves of “bread” on the table are most likely mushrooms.
Also, | think the shape gives them away—they represent God and
not Jesus, who has as one of his references a round loaf of bread
sometimes scored but usually with a hole in the center. Jesus is
present, however, for he is referenced by the letter | on Abraham's
cape

St. Apollinaire, Ravenna, Italy, c. 550 CE (|
)

During the sixth through eighth centuries, one of the geographical
sanctuaries in Italy was Ravenna, located on Italy's east coast a few
miles south of Venice. Ravenna was originally built on small islands
in the coastal swamps in a similar fashion as Venice, but today it is

on dry land.

One of the oldest and most unquestionable images in my
collection of the sacred mushroom displayed in Christian art is to be
found among the oldest mosaics at St. Apollinaire in Classe,
Ravenna, Italy. The mushroom, at the top of the arch (| ), is
central to the image as a symbol for God, Jesus, and life; they are
interchangeable. In the next layer, the mushroom manifests as the
hand of God (just below the mushroom and arch), as well as
metaphorical of “the food of God,” a portal to the supernatural world
Jesus comes to us through the mushroom, and by consuming him
(his sacrifice) we can experience his world. The saint is a
representation of, or stand-in for, Jesus.

Work on the basilica began in 543 CE by an architect believed to
be Julian the Silversmith, who was commissioned by religious clerics
in authority to do so. This mosaic (only one of many at St.
Apollinaire) illustrates the transformation of Apollinaris, or divine
transcendence and human transformation. This was the original
story line, where the bishop or priest transforms, uniting with Jesus,

175. then communing ( ) with Moses (the law, warrior chief)
and Elijah (prophecy, the magician priest). Prophecy has to fit within
the law; prophecy cannot go beyond the bounds of the myth, for to
do so promotes heresy.

The later story, substituting Jesus for the bishop ( ), can
be found in Matthew 17:1-8 (also see Mark 9:2-8):

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and
John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain
apart

and he was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as
the sun, and his garments became white as the light

And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking
with him.

And Peter answered, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us
to be here: if thou wilt, | will make here three tabernacles; one
for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah

While he was yet speaking, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them: and behold, a voice out of the cloud,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom | am well pleased:
hear ye him.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were
sore afraid,

And Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise, and be not
afraid

And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, save Jesus only.
(Emphasis added)

This is an interesting image and interesting language, parts of
which seem to have been borrowed from the Pyramid Texts
(Faulkner 1969, 1)

Utterance 1

176. Recitation by Nut [sky goddess], the greatly beneficent: The
King [Osiris-Jesus] is my eldest son who slit open my worn!
is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.

Utterance 2
Recitation by Geb [earth god]: The King [Osiris-Jesus] is my
bodily son

Utterance 3

Recitation by Nut the great who dwells in the Lower Mansion [a
shrine to the sun god at On or Heliopolis}: The King [Osiris] is
my beloved son, my first-born upon the throne of Geb, with
whom he is well pleased, and he has given to him [Osiris] his
[Geb's] heritage in the presence of the Great Ennead [a group of
nine gods]. All the gods are in joy, and they say: How goodly is
the King [Osiris]. His father Geb is pleased with him. (Emphasis
added)

The Pyramid Texts (see Rush 2007) come from the pyramid of
King Wenis or Unas, who dates to the late Fifth Dynasty, Egypt
(2484-2345 BCE). Almost word for word we read how the deity is
well pleased with his son, and because the King is given the heritage
of Geb, he is wise—‘listen to him.” The original meaning in
Christianity comes from this sentiment, where the saint stands in a
similar relationship to God as does Pharaoh in the Egyptian tradition
In we see St. Apollinaris, a Catholic bishop who lived
between 320 and 390 CE, and formerly Bishop of Laodicea, Syria,
as the stand-in for Jesus whose little, itsy-bitsy face is centered in
the middle of the cross. (Above this mosaic is a full picture of Jesus
with angels holding “books’—that mosaic was added hundreds of
years later) This little image of Jesus is interesting because
Apollinaris considered Jesus divine and not the least bit human. I'll
say more about this shortly. But the Transfiguration at the time period
of Apollinaris and before would not have been Jesus; it was the
transfiguration of a saint into Jesus. It is Apollinaris, and not Jesus,
who is the conduit through the mushroom god (Jesus) to the other
side, the spirit world. This suggests, in my opinion, that Jesus, at
least up to the time of Apollinaris and his cult followers, was an

177. experience and not a flesh-and-blood human being. Every time | look
at this image | see Jesus trying to squeeze though a tiny hole in the
center of the cross, or the center of the mushroom, and make his
debut. This may be the original symbolism in an attempt to capture
the two ideas of body (a living, breathing human being), suggested
by the tiny face of Jesus, and spirit, the mushroom, or that for which
Jesus stands (i.e., the spiritual world). Apollinaris would not approve
of this, of course

There are two general messages in the mosaic. The first, and
most important, is the esoteric message revealing the mystery of the
divine, not available to all, through consumption of Amanita muscaria
(or perhaps Psilocybin sp.). The second, or exoteric, story line, is
that Apollinaris is a special person who has been in the presence of
God, and that God has ordained that he manage the community. In
short, through God's will the peasants are to do as Apollinaris tells
them, and with this story, belief in the supernatural is created and
maintained, which leads to social action. God is happy because his
children are behaving, and Apollinaris is rewarded because God
says so.

The mosaics at Ravenna and the heresy connected to Apollinaris
make little sense without discussing mind-altering substances
According to Apollinaris, Jesus was all God and not the least bit
human; this is similar to the beliefs connected to another sect, the
Arianists. The other side saw Jesus as simply human or both human
and divine, an idea perhaps coming in with the ancient Egyptians.
The Greeks saw “divine” as a possibility, but only in a mythical
sense, and the Romans were quite opposed to it because it
promoted abusive rulers. The Christians were into philosophy as to
the divine nature of each of us, a philosophy beginning with one or
more cults, where decency equals divinity, not how often you go to
church or leave money in the collection plate. Somehow, however,
we have to recognize our sins and stop doing certain things. The
story of Jesus not only helps us to recognize the past, but because
he atones (through his death) for each of us, we don't have to live in
the past and continue to do horrible things to one another. If Jesus is
not in some way human (Le., flesh and blood), then he could never
suffer for the purpose of sin atonement. This is what burning paper

178. money, throwing valuable items into a peat bog, and sacrificing
humans and animals were/are all about; it is a bribe. In other words,
this is a form of gift giving to the gods to forgive our faults and
continue to provide food, shelter, and, essentially, life or life
everlasting in some spiritual geography.

Apollinaris had a more personal conduit and experience with God;
he was ordained by his cult to do so, and not all need apply. It was
only those with a “calling,” which means they were liked for some
reason, or those who figured out the mystery. Apollinaris and his
cleric contemporaries were the last of the Old Time Religion, the last
of the shamans who introduced at least some of their flock to the
sacrament. It was Apollinaris who “flew” to the godhead, a very
personal experience that could then be shared with the flock via
prophecy, rules, regulations, and so on. You would have great
difficulty standardizing this type of church. If standardization was to
come about, its main character needed a face. Jesus had to stand
and speak for all, but only through special people like the Pope and
not Apollinaris and a multitude of others. Again, Apollinaris was
considered a heretic because his brand of Christianity led to an
individual experience of the divine and this, of course, leads to
questions that always lead to heresy. Heresy is another word for
contradiction in a perfect world, a ripple or undulation that disturbs a
mirror-perfect exterior sometimes with great force. Heresy can be
dispelled with violence, torture, and threat if an organization has
enough power. At a minimum, Apollinarism and Catholicism
represent contrasting experiences with and interpretations of the
mushroom.

But there is another heresy, the Donatist heresy, which helps to
make clear exactly where the divine power resides—suggesting, on
one level at least, that the Church agreed with Apollinaris. It goes
something like this: If a priest commits a sin (e.g., breaks his vows of
celibacy or renounces God), can he still administer the sacraments
(baptism, communion, ete.)? This is the question put forth by
Donatus of Casae Nigrae, a bishop in North Africa, in 311 CE, and it
raised a great problem if parishioners expected their spiritual leaders
to be pure as gold. St. Augustine put an end to the Donatists by
asserting that the sacrament was incorruptible. Although an example

179. of discussions or attempts to determine the number of angels that
can sit or stand on the head of a pin, it does suggest a realization
that the divinity comes by way of God (the mushroom) and not the
priest; the priest is simply an ordained messenger, the “frequent
flyer.” Whether or not he is buggering the altar boy was of little
concern, and this is the way it stands today.

Was Jesus part human and part god, or was he all god but
dressed in a human suit? Did he have a corporeal body at all? All
celestial truths and heresies are born on faulty cause and effect and
mature within a political agenda maintained by dogmatic
interpretations of who and what we are and who has the final say on
this. This certainly brought people to action. If you believe that the
directives are coming by way of a third-person power much greater
than the king, then this justifies every action; the king (bishop, pope)
is the caretaker, and God gives orders and directives. There can be
no doubt that many decisions were made as a direct result of the
mushroom (and other plants and potions). The cognitive kick
provided by plants and fungi is a crucial player in understanding how

cultures and civilizations validate magical thinking and supernatural
beliefs, which then direct social action.

In any case, Apollinaris became Bishop of Ravenna through his
contact with none other than St. Peter—who bequeathed the
position! St. Peter must have been really, really old, or we have a
play on St, Paul and his “Road to Damascus” story. As is implied,
many of these cult leaders may simply have ordained themselves.
What we are seeing at St. Apollinaire, Ravenna, Italy, is a story of
how Apollinaris could commune with God, but never be God, while
Apollinaris the man stands below surround by his sheep (followers,
his apostles when in the experience), his countryside or world, and
his rock garden of heavenly delights. Apollinaris in the center is part
of the trinity completed by Moses above on the left (the law) and
Elijah on the right (prophecy), through an experience brought about
by God, the mushroom so elegantly woven into their white stoles
0 ). Jesus was not human but existed in or as the
mushroom, and when consumed you die (become very ill, depending
on which mushroom you take and how you consume it) and go to

180. that celestial place, only to return again several hours later. This
allowed special people, with special knowledge of plants and fung
and the rituals supporting their acquisition and consumption, to visit
this spiritual geography and seek advice or direction. This, in my
opinion, is an early (550 CE) visual depiction of the ritual shamanic,
mushroom experience. The mushroom was a code or “mystery”
understood by the pope, bishop, priest, and certainly trusted others
who took part in the esoteric cult rituals. The path chosen by the
Catholic Church, however, meant standardization and dogma rather
than individual experience. Christians were running into trouble with
the authorities because the clerics ruled the people through fear of
damnation, and this is one of the reasons why so many early priests,
bishops, and popes were murdered. In order to halt persecution,
they needed a standard aligned with the politio—and that is the key.
Without alignment there can only be persecution by the rival political
party. And in order to standardize, they needed to emphasize group
experience and universal control rather than individual experience
and local expression. Some of these groups must have been
extremely radical and openly expressive; logic suggests that these
were the individuals who were most persecuted. Apollinaris was
following the old-time tradition but limited (as did other bishops) the
esoteric rites to a few special people, perhaps five or six, who acted
in some ritual capacity, apprentices perhaps. This was an individual
experiential process. For the Catholics, on the other side, this had to
be a group experience with all the symbols and meanings pointed in
one direction, with little or no personal interpretation. The individual
is cautioned about going beyond the boundaries of Catholic truth or
myth, for if you do, there will be terrestrial and celestial punishment
The Catholic Church actively censors books and movies, evil stuff to
be avoided by the faithful. For Whom the Bell Tolls, with Gary
Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, was on that blacklist in the 1950s, as
was George Orwell's novel 1984. More recently the Church
attempted to censor The Da Vinci Code and the Harry Potter series.
The Catholics also realized that the mushroom needed a face; a
face provides the audience with something more “tangible” to
worship than an idea. In other words, people worship a concept like
love with great difficulty, but people will very quickly worship a peni

181. golden calf, image of a Greek god or goddess, movie star, saint, or
Buddha, These Doctors of the Church were not stupid. They also
realized that Jesus had to be personified in order to build a mythic
genealogical connection to the House of David, a useful theme
justifying their authority to rule, even if simply through proximity to
and a story about Jesus passing the baton to Peter. It allows for a
very elaborate story line that can include something with which each
and every member of the audience can identify. Consider the
sermons given in church; any minister will know to connect the Bible
stories with everyday events so that a personal relationship with the
teachings of Jesus can be amplified and reinforced. These
genealogical connections further eliminate who can communicate
with Jesus, at least firsthand. The pope has a direct line for sure,
along with cardinals and bishops, while priests have to wait for an
invitation, and as far as nuns go, they don't get to use the phone,
although | am sure some sainted women did, such as Joan of Arc,
and nonsainted women like Princess Anicia Juliana and Hildegard
von Bingen

Some of Apollinaris's followers most surely had experienced the
mushroom and as true believers were seen as a problem to Church
authority. Apollinaris himself may have been disliked by his peers; he
certainly argued with many of them, but to the peasants and perhaps
even the authorities he must have been a fire-breathing, brimstone-
slinging person to fear. He had been ordained (by himself or
otherwise) and granted magical power, and he could use that to
subdue others with celestial threat,

Needless to say Apollinaris didn't have an easy time in Ravenna;
his brand of politics was seen as a threat to the power structure. As
the story goes, he was repeatedly harassed and finally driven from
Ravenna and murdered (martyred—stabbed with a sword, we are
told) before reaching the edge of town. For this act, however, he
became a saint. There is a different story, drafted in the Middle Ages
by Jacobus de Voragine (The Golden Legend), of extreme
persecution, being beaten with iron rods, and so on, but he went
around healing the sick, restoring sight, driving out demons, much
the same as the stories for Jesus. All the saints, especially those
with little or no documentation beyond compromised Church history,

182. did magical things and then were martyred as Jesus was; it goes
with the role of stand-in. Most of the historical saints—that is, those
with historical visibility—reached sainthood not by way of
persecution and death by the sword, but by extreme devotion and/or
reported magical healing powers. When you have no power
(Christianity before Constantine), one would predict cult persecution
and martyrdom accomplished through violence, usually decapitation
Once in power, persecution abates and martyrdom must be
accomplished in another manner, that is, true unwavering devotion to
Christ through word and deed.

Apollinaris concluded that Jesus had only one nature—divine—
and was not human in any respect. How did he come to this
conclusion? The experience with the mushroom and other mind-
altering substances, taken singularly or combined, clearly signaled
that God or Jesus was an essence and not flesh and bloc:
Apollinaris got it right. The images and voices these early saints
experienced while under the influence were understood as
ephemeral and not tangible. | have been told by clergy that there

were no faces of Jesus before the late third century in order to avoid
persecution. The saints, however, were stand-ins for Jesus—they
were the shamans, the go-betweens. An outsider would not
necessarily recognize one saint from the other or whether the face of
Jesus was present or not, so this is somewhat disingenuous. | will
take this one step further.

The story circulating about a savior, a god, who rode into town and
saved us from sin, was understood to be a story of an event to occur
in the future. What do you suppose was coming to town? This would
be the end of the world, the end of unjust rule, and the end of misery
and poverty. To have pictures of someone who hasn't arrived yet and
is personally known only to God, well, would certainly make
Christians a laughing stock. Such an event had not occurred; it was
supposed to occur in the near future. Moreover, when the face of
Jesus shows up, this is a signal that the event was converted from
“going to happen’ to historical fact with the stroke of papal pen. This
historical “truth” was created, signed, and sealed in 325 CE at the
Council of Nicaea; “so it is written, so it shall be.” This “truth” could
not have existed until joined to the politic and considered legitimate.

183. Your history is only as good as those who believe in it, and until
conjoined with the politic, Christianity was suspect. Why? Because
they bring people to action as do all political systems.

Apollinaris was branded a heretic by the Church because he
maintained the belief that Jesus was all God and not the least bit
human. The Church, however, had another agenda: to make Jesus
human. Different groups have different experiences with the
mushroom god, and this leads to challenge within the Church, which
likewise challenged the politic. The Catholic Church understood this
very well in its own political posturing, excommunicating, forging of
documents, and assassinations. The Catholic Church, when in
power, terrorized the populace with torture or imprisonment in the
here and now and eternal damnation on the other side if they did not
think and act the way they were told. In order to get everyone on the
same page, you need an identifiable reference point, which first
begins with the saints and then switches to Jesus, thus increasing
conformity. The saints, then, are designed to lend credibility to
Christ's existence through their “personal” interaction via the
mushroom. They are moved from being conduits to the godhead, to
representations or attributes of Jesus in living form, with the stories
in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and other
books of the New Testament used to bring out these characteristics
in poetry and parable. In their number and general attributes they
can point down endless roads of martyrdom reinforcing the sacrifice
of Jesus, endless stories of evil rulers and just Christians, endless
stories of triumph over death, endless stories validating the right for
cardinals, bishops, and popes to tell us what to think and how to
behave. This is a different type of mythical charter than is
encountered in the Old Testament; Christianity leans toward special
privileges and landholding in another geography—heaven—but only
if you obey the rules invented by the religious clerics, and God will
extract payment if you don't! The Catholic Church cannot tolerate
opposing views; opposing views challenge faith.

shows Apollinaris with his arms raised in honor or
admiration of the circle with red and gold dots, the green
background, and the gold cross. All three symbols refer to Jesus,
God, and the mushroom. If you look closely at the center of the

184. cross, you see the face of Jesus, clearly indicating that the cross is a
determinative for Jesus.

Above the circle-cross there are wavy lines, at the top of which is
the hand of God ( ). Slightly above that, in the border of
the mosaic, there is an inverted mushroom, symbolic of God, from
which the hand emerges. Flanking the hand and to either side of the
circle-cross are two figures suspended in ethereal space, with only
the upper body showing. These are Moses (left) and Elijah (right),
and they are part of what is termed the Transfiguration. As Sill (1996,
84-85) states,

Peter, James, and John were taken by Jesus up to a high
mountain ... where He ‘was transfigured before them: and His
face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the
light.” Miraculously, the Old Testament prophets Moses and
Elijah appeared on either side of Jesus. This event reaffirmed
the son-ship of Jesus, and suggests that He brought together
the Law of Moses and the words of the Old Testament prophets,
represented by Elijah. Peter offered to construct three shrines,
one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Christ. Suddenly “a
bright cloud ... said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased: hear ye Him" (Matt. 17:5). Terrified, the Apostles fell to
the ground. Jesus reassured them, and when they arose, Moses
and Elijah had disappeared. Jesus charged the Apostles, “Tell
the vision to no man until the son of man be risen again from the
dead" (Matt. 17:9). (Emphasis added)

To what does this refer? White is a reference to purity, innocence,
and truth and is the opposite of dark or black. Moses stands for the
law, and Elijah represents the word of the prophets. In the famous
picture by Raphael (Transfiguration, 1520 CE; ). Peter,
James, and John are witnesses to Jesus's divinity as light (divine
presence, purity, etc.) shines through his corporeal self, indicating
the laws are God's laws (symbolized by Moses) as represented in
the words of the prophets (represented by Elijah). This “witnessing”
is designed to give visual proof that the event occurred. All the

185. Christian images are designed, on one level at least, to “prove” that
the story line of Jesus is true and historical fact.

One has to be pure to get to God's place, which in my opinion is a
ritual warning. Purity of mind-set dispels the negative effects, the
demons. As we read in Revelation 16:5, “Thou hast a few names
even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall
walk with me in white: for they are worthy.” We also read in
Revelation 2:7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will | give to eat of
the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
Accepting Jesus as one’s savior (to protect you from the dark side
once the door opens) defeats evil in this world, overcomes death,
and results in purity and a mind-set necessary for consumption of
the sacrament, the mushroom. We also read in Revelation 2:17, “He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churche:
To him that overcometh will | give to eat of the hidden manna, and
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written,
which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." The “white stone”
is a reference to purity (or perhaps to the underside of the
mushroom), and the “new name” comes from the voice (often
created by the guide) or determined during debriefing of the
mushroom experience. The new name represents transmutation in a
social sense informing the world of commitment to the faith. For
example, when women become nuns they give up their name
(essentially their identity), take on the name of a saint, and recognize
their birth date as that of the patron saint, At baptism a person is
given his or her name, and one of those names is likewise the name
of a saint or famous player in the Old Testament. In another sense,
the name change occurs because you had the mushroom
experience, and the new name is recognition of this emotional
transmutation. Notice how popes carry the name of a predecessor.
Changing someone's name disrupts identity and allows change in
beliefs and behaviors

In the bottom half of the painting by Raphael we have a composite
of passages from the Book of Matthew in which the apostles attempt,
unsuccessfully, to remove a Gerasene demon from the young man
on the right, He is freed from the demon when the transfigured Jesus

186. performs a miracle. This juxtaposition of divinity (above) and demon
(below) might, in fact, have a similar reference point, that is,
experiences with the mushroom. The key word is mind-set; only a
divine mind-set is appropriate when consuming the mushroom. A
negative mind-set can result in encounters with demons or pagan
deities. With this interpretation, is not early Christianity a meditation
on the powers of positive thinking?

In the mosaic at Ravenna ( ) dated almost one thousand
years earlier than that of Raphael, Apollinaris is the stand-in for
Jesus and perhaps just as divine—notice his white robe. Again, this
represents a saint or shaman's personal experience with the
mushroom. In the stole of the figure floating on the left (Moses;

) we see the outline of a mushroom. The figure on the right
(Elijah) likewise has a mushroom at the end of his scarf or stole
combined with the capitol letter | for Jesus.

This mosaic at St. Apollinaire is at such a distance and busy
enough that the observer visiting the church would not notice the
mushrooms; the mind, likewise, misses things it is not looking for.

You really have to know what to look for, what people are pointing at,
symmetry and asymmetry of symbols, and so on—all the elements
used by symbolists and art historians when interpreting art. Also this
is sacred space, and bringing a ladder into such geography, without
appropriate rites and ritual, would not be allowed. To this day, those
artists commissioned to create, examine, or repair art in cathedrals
and basilicas have to be ordained or licensed to perform such tasks
Why, if this is merely educational with a spiritual twist?

Chemists today know the constituents of plants and fun
pharmaceutical companies have studied plant chemistry for years.
Chemists have yet to find God, Satan, or any entity in mushrooms
studied to date. The chemicals in Amanita muscaria have predictable
effects on people, especially during ritual process where images and
outcomes can be preconditioned and thus more controllable. Our
ancestors believed that gods lived in plants, and many of the most
significant events noted in the Bible can be explained once the ritual
use of mind-altering substances is seriously considered. The
alternative is psychosis (see Rush 2008).

187. ‘We also see in the hand of God (between and slightly
above the two floating images) coming down from the ceiling, above
which is an inverted mushroom. The “hand of God” motif is very old
and probably originated with the ancient Egyptians (I and

). We see the god Atum ( , On the left) placing the ankh
(manna, food of the gods or breath of life) up to king Senwosret's
(1971-1926 BCE) nose-mouth, a very early representation of the
“hand of God." We also see Akhenaten (1352-1336 BCE, Moses in
the Bible) worshipping the sun disk (image on the right), the Aten
(Adon in Hebrew). The disk's rays end in hands holding ankhs to the
nose of both Pharaoh and his queen, Nefertiti. One of the hands
comes down to Pharaoh's genitals, suggesting that this is more than
simply breath. This is a personal experience with the godhead in
which the god offered the substance (life in is worldly form, ¡.e.,
mushroom) and thus the experience with the gods perhaps obtaining
advice or wisdom. The same could be said for St. Apollinaris (image,
bottom right), with the mushroom standing above the hand of God,
which means the mushroom is God. Also of interest is the
displacement of the Aten sun disk, once Akhenaten was out of the
picture and his son, Tutankhamen took his place. This morphing is to
be found on Tutankhamen's Golden Shrine found in his tomb by
Howard Carter those many years ago. We can see ( )
the Aten sun disk clearly displayed with rays with hands and ankhs,
representing life and, in my opinion, the mushroom. In contrast, on
the other side we see a revival of the Hathor cult with Ankesenamun,
shown here with female head and horned headdress, with hands
offering ankh and menit necklace to Tutankhamen. Her body is in the
shape of a phallus, complete with mushroom cap and dots. In

we see a cow, perhaps Mother of the King or Hathor flanked
by mushroom-shaped offering tables. The necklace and offering
tables may be a reference to Hathor's other side, her fiery side,
personified as Sekhmet the Lioness who devours (see Roberts
2008). These are possible allusions to the physiological effects of the
mushroom (Amanita muscaria), that near-death experience before
encountering the deity; there must be purification before illumination.
What seems to be said through the symbolic values of
Tutankhamen's shrine is that the oppressive monotheism instituted

188. by Akhenaten is in the past, but its major sacrament (Amanita
muscaria) is now available through the Cult of Hathor, as it most
probably was in traditional times. The Aten is the sun disk (

) poised between her horns, again representing a return to the
pre-Akhenaten tradition. This morphing, with remnants attached, is
exactly what one would expect when a renegade cult goes back into
the mainstream; the threatening symbols drop away, and the more
traditional symbols are reinstalled, sometimes with a slightly different
twist. Tutankhamen's death, at such a young age, suggests that
some saw his return to the good old days as incomplete, and, seen
as a threat to the Amun-Re priesthood, he may have been
murdered

Notice the cross in the center of the dotted outline of a circle
@ ) with red and gold dots. Both strongly suggest a
reference to Amanita muscaria. The halo is most probably a
reflection of the experience, like when we see a lightbulb above the
head of a comic book character, alerting the viewer to an idea,
emotion, or experience. In the present case this is a dreamscape
created by the mushroom that leads to illumination or spiritual
awareness—or perhaps in the other direction, depending on one's
mind-set. The floating images of Moses and Elijah represent this
dreamscape, ecstasy. In (the descending arrow) we can
see the symbolic progression in the Christian tradition from
mushroom, within which is the hand or spirit of God, which is then
abstracted into a disk (the underside of the mushroom), sun disk, or
halo, the experience. Next we encounter the cross, the tangible
symbol of the mushroom and its sacrifice (transmutation of flesh into
spirit through death and rebirth) and resurrection, and finally Jesus
So we have the Father (mushroom/hand), the Son (the cross, face of
Jesus), and the Holy Ghost, or the experience symbolized by a disk
or halo and of course Moses and Elijah

In we see Apollinaris centered under the cross and
circle with red dots on the outside rim with gold dots on the inside
The sheep represent his apostles, shamans in training perhaps. The
circle and cross are flanked on the right and left with pine trees
(Amanita muscaria grow synergistically on the roots of pine trees)
and “plants,” in the shape of the cross, which have been identified

189. possibly as tree-mushrooms or mushroom-plants (see Rush 2008)
These images are a code (the mystery) that would be revealed to the
chosen few. Again, some of these images are problematic, but they
are a theme that repeats across 1,500 years. Compare the image of
the mushroom-plants from Ravenna, for example, with that from St.
Marks Basilica in Venice dated to the twelfth century CE (|

)

Apollinaris's arms are lifted up with the palms pointing to the circle
and cross in a position of praise or supplication, not servitude. There
is a cross to the right and left of his respective hands perhaps
included to frame the picture and accentuate his rendering of Jesus
or Christ, whose face is barely detectable at the meeting of the
standard and cross beam. This is one of the earliest renditions of
Jesus on the cross, albeit just his tiny face.

In we see a close-up of the rocks scattered about, and
they appear to have mushroom characteristics. In other words, there
are many ways of drawing rocks, and most are similar in outline.
Seen at a distance, however, they could be mistaken for sheep or
the townspeople; most observers would only see this mosaic at a
distance. Up close they are mushrooms, manna from heaven; they
are evidence of God's divine presence everywhere. Perhaps the
surrounding area of Ravenna is covered with rocks shaped like this
Remember, however: this is an icon, and a rock is not a rock. When
compared alongside the mushrooms hidden in the robes and the
inverted mushroom in the top border, it makes sense that they are
also mushrooms. Remember that all motifs in the image are
rendered in their spiritual form; even a mushroom is not a
mushroom. The mushroom, as with all the images, is a reference to
the energy that precedes it

In notice the twelve sheep flanking Apollinaris. These
refer to the twelve apostles, while the sheep at the top of the cupola
represent God uniting the Old (Jerusalem) and New (Bethlehem)
with new dispensations or privileges. Also notice in the upper left and
right palm trees often associated with Christian martyrs, which aptly
applies to Jesus and Apollinaris.

190. Notice that two sheep (flanking the base of the mushroom cap) on
the right are looking at the single sheep on the left; the three
together, we are told, represent three apostles. Does this make
Apollinaris an apostle—a lesser apostle like St. Paul? If you look
closely, however, the sheep on the right are male (at least the one
closest to us), and the sheep on the left is female—no testicles and
thinner than her friends on the other side. What could this mean?
The sheep on the left is possibly Mary Magdalene, while the sheep
on the right are likely to be Peter and John. The single sheep on the
left appears most obviously looking at either the mushroom cap or
the pine tree. On the other side, they may likewise be looking at the
halo-mushroom cap in the center, but they could also be looking at
the pine tree or perhaps the tree-mushroom to their left. The number
three within the Christian context points in many directions, from the
various trinities, the Magi, the three Maries—take your pick (see
Bullinger 1967)

My impression is that describe the mystery, one in
which anyone can participate if he or she can find the key. It's all
about the mystery, the magic trick. What Apollinaris had to offer was
experiential for those open to the mystery, perhaps a more Greek
idea of individual involvement and personal responsibility
Catholicism, on the other hand, has more to do with control, or the
divine right to direct the metaphor of what and who we are and how
to address their deity—this is not an individual matter. Again, you
can see why the Catholic Church deemed Apollinaris's ideas
heretical and rapidly moved away from the true meaning of the
sacrament, at least for the masses, and toward idolatry. The
Apollinarian approach to the mushroom appears to be an individual
event; no one is watching, except some of the sheep perhaps. In
contrast to this mosaic of the sixth century, those at St. Mark's
(twelfth century) suggest more a guided tour to make sure your
experience matches some script or outcome.

The Holy Mushroom crowns this mosaic; all symbols point to and
away from it, for it is only through the mushroom that the
transfiguration (transformation) or experience of the godhead can
occur. The most prominent symbol is the circle, center stage,
complete with its determinative, the cross and the tiny face of Jesus.