Song of Solomon 4
1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast dove’s eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead.
The repeated verse including “dove’s eyes” is again reference to the mushroom cap. Now we have also reference to the dove’s eyes within the locks (of hair). The locks are the spots on the cap that resemble fur, wool or hair on top of the mushroom. Dove’s eyes within the locks is reference to the bright red cap that is visible within (between) the spots on the cap. A flock of goats is a group of mushrooms and Mount Gilead is again referring us to the dung loving Psilocybe. Gilead is a Hebrew word (name) “Gilead” coming from two Hebrew words “gal” which is a heap of stone or dung and “ed” or “uwd which means a witness or testimony and to stand upright. The mushroom itself is not compared to the goats atop the mountain or we could easily conclude that the mushrooms are the goats in its natural environment (atop a mountain). Instead the hair (bumps on the cap) are compared to the goats on the mountain. So our flock of goats is a group of mushrooms which stand upright in the heap of dung like the bumps (hair) atop the Amanita cap (the bumps being the mushrooms and the rounded (mound) cap being the dung heap. Our narrator is comparing the Amanitas to the Psilocybe that were found during the winter in the dung mounds while the beloved (Amanitas) were hibernating for the winter in the mountains.
2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.
Teeth here is the Hebrew word “shen” and refer to a tooth that is sharp. The bumps on the Amanita cap are sharp and pointed. The flock of sheep is the bumps on the cap and they are as if even shorn (uniform in appearance) and they are as if they have come up from the washing. The washing refers to the rains that are necessary before the mushrooms “come up”. The word translated here as “washing” is the Hebrew “rachtsah” or “rachats” and the meaning is washing or a washing pot. The mushroom cap resembles a pot filled with red (blood) and the sheep (veil fragments) look like sheep floating on top or coming up (emerging) from the (red) full pot. Washing in a Biblical sense is the washing away of sins by the blood of the lamb so the bumps are as white sheep that have emerged from the blood cap washing. Both “bear” and “twins” in the Hebrew are the same word “taam” which means to duplicate or multiply and, as with any desirable substance, the hope is for it to multiply “and none is barren among them”.
3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
The lips are the round red (scarlet) mushroom caps. Lips is Hebrew “sepheth” and means boundary, lips or border. The edge of the mushroom is red and like threads running between the white patches. Speech is the Hebrew “midbar” which means pasture. The temples in this verse are not temples of worship but the temples on the side of the head, in other words, the sides of the mushroom cap. The Hebrew word translated here as temple is “raqqah” and has only one meaning, the side of the head. Temples within the locks are again the red cap of the mushroom and, like a piece of Pomegranate, deep red, visible in between the white patches (locks) that resemble wool. All these metaphors are relating the mushroom cap as the top and curving down to the edges or sides (temples) of a head, flecked with white patches of wooly hair. In between the wooly patches the red of the cap is visible.
4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
Since the previous verse discussed the mushroom cap as the top of the head, it is only right that we proceed to discuss the neck as the mushroom stem. The neck is tall and slender just as the mushroom stem. Armoury is translated from the Hebrew “talpiyah”which means “to tower” or “something tall.” The word also can be used to denote the plural and is then defined as “armoury”. This then indicates several things that are tall (armoury) or one slender, tall thing. To say that the tower is like it was builded for an armoury upon which hang a thousand bucklers (shields) is a play on numbers. “A thousand” can also mean “one” and the buckler/shield is again a perfect analogy for the mushroom cap because a buckler is a round conical shaped shield. So in the plural “all shields of mighty men” is an allusion to a company of a thousand mushrooms, all bucklers towered/armoured with the stems.
5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
Two breasts like young red deer with white spots among the lilies is clear as two mushrooms in their native habitat. There is argument about what lilies they are talking about in this book but lily also used to mean any plant that springs up, or any flower, so the question about what specific lily receives mention here is nearly unanswerable. Besides, really, the whole cant is primarily about mushrooms.
6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
Until the daybreak and the shadows flee away our narrator will be going up to the mountain of myrrh (the yellow-red-golden mushroom) and to the hill of frankincense (which as previously shared is a gum resin exuded from pine and fir trees). The point here is to go to the mountains where the pines and fir can be found and, so too, the Amanitas.
7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.
The word “spot” here would appear to be a contradiction in describing the Amanitas for harvest, but the Hebrew word translated in this verse as spot is “muwm” and it actually means a stain or blemish. Our coded “Mushroom Hunting Field Guide” explains that the ones to pick are the perfect specimens, those without blemish, fully ripened and ready.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
Our narrator is bringing the mushrooms from the mountains of Lebanon, bringing them away from the mountains of cedars and pines. Looking from the top of Amana, Shenir and Hermon, all mountains of Lebanon. The Hebrew word translated here as lions’ is “ariy” and it means specifically a young lion. Young lions are spotted as are leopards; they are also golden or tan/red as the color of the Amanitas. One of the mountains is called Amana and this is very close to the Latin name of the Amanita. In fact, if you insert the word “it” in there the name is complete. This is only interesting in a sense of commonalities that would most likely be considered coincidental by academics. One might also draw the same interest to the Egyptian god Aman and his consort Amanit and even the word for underworld Amenta. Somewhere along the lines it just might be that all these words are somehow related.
9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
Our narrator continues with his poetic license to refer to his beloved now as his sister and spouse. The eyes and the chain of the neck are both descriptive of the mushroom that ravaged our narrator’s heart. The heart, it is known today, has many of the same receptor sites for psychoactives as the brain and there is much more work to be done in this regard. A ravaging of the heart is descriptive of the effects that the mushrooms have upon the heart. This can be realized in the religious artworks depicting Jesus with the glowing, radiating and exposed heart. The heart itself is another homologue representing the mushroom and it bears mentioning.
10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine! And the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
Love, as previously explained is the spiritual experience provided by the sister, the spouse, the mushroom. It is emphatically proclaimed here to be far superior than the love (experience) afforded by wine. The word “smell” here (and throughout this song) is the Hebrew word “reyach” to smell and it comes from “ruwach” which means to “make of quick understanding”. As reported before the ointments are not your average ointments and, in all likelihood, this is referring to the “flying ointments”.
11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
Of course the smell of the mushroom would be like Lebanon because of the pines and cedars where the mushroom grows. The lips reference was explained earlier and the association of the lips dropping like a honeycomb is reference to the veil fragments that appear to be dripping off the edges of the mushroom cap (lips). Honey and milk are under the tongue is reference to the red cap (tongue) under which if you section the mushroom cap you will see under the red is a layer of yellow-gold flesh (like honey) and below that the color of the flesh is white, like milk.
12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Here we have reference to a spring shut-up and a fountain sealed. The allusion to the mushrooms by using the descriptive term ‘fountain’ is apparent and a fountain sealed is drawing us the picture that it is ‘as if frozen in time’. It appears as a fountain but it is not running water. Instead it is a fountain sealed. This is the same as a spring shut-up; it appears as a spring but does not run with water. A garden enclosed is one that is protected. The fact that the mushrooms are a secret, their identity and description protected in code, is testament to the garden enclosed.
13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
The “fountain of living waters” is one of the most profound and important secret descriptions of the mushroom. It is shaped like a fountain and contains the living waters (it is 90% water and it is literally alive). So to wind up this chapter we have a listing of the various descriptions of the homologues used for the mushrooms as describing that that is found within the protected garden, a “fountain of gardens”. Streams from Lebanon represent the waters of life that flow out of the forested areas via the carriers sent to fetch them. The secret remains a secret because of these coded messages.
16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.