Song of Solomon 8
1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.
The narration is now addressing the mushroom directly in relation to the bad experience related in the chapters above. The first line “O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother” is attempting to draw a picture for the mushroom that were it as a brother, very close, having suckled the same breasts then “I should not be despised”. The mushroom spirit (the beloved) fled the scene at the end of the experience and was nowhere to be found when the watchers were beating up the narrator. It is no wonder our narrator feels deserted and despised after this ordeal and the innuendo is clear that this has not been forgiven or forgotten. The reference to the previous experience without the city is made clear by the statement ”when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee”. Our narrator is clearly distraught about this event.
2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
Another verse easy to misunderstand with illusions of sexual favors is really referring to how our narrator would have treated the situation were the roles reversed, drawing parallels to friends taking care of friends during the vomiting stages of the mushroom experience in the next verse. There is also a reference here to “spiced wine” that is drugged wine.
3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
The upset psychonaut is explaining how one should be treated when intoxicated on Amanitas, ‘His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me” explains the correct way not to allow the intoxicated tripper to die from asphyxiation and keep from puking on himself. Remembering ”when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee” from verse one makes it clear that this is exhortation about these previous events. The Amanita muscaria mushroom experience is inconsistent and it bears repeating that this is like throwing the dice between Paradise and Purgatory.
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
Now we will refer you back to the previous discussion of this nature. To not wake the mushroom until he please is not to take the mushrooms until they are ready (ripe for the picking) as evidenced by numerous other analogies in this song but there is another meaning. The mushrooms are “fountains of living waters” frozen in time. The events of the previous experience are being analyzed and interpreted as “the mushroom was not ready to be awakened” and so the experience went awry. Lots of people get upset when they are awakened in an untimely fashion and wind up in a bad mood (woke up on the wrong side of the bed). Here our narrator is trying to figure out the mushroom’s ambivalence to the events in the light of their presumed mutual love.
5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
To “come up” (exactly the growth pattern of the mushroom which as it grows it “comes up”) out of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved is a reference to the pine or cedar tree. “Her beloved” is the host tree in this verse. “I raised thee up under the apple tree” requires connecting the word apple for the mushroom and thereby identifies the “apple tree’ as the pine/cedar (also this is the real meaning of the word “Pine-Apple”). So under the tree is where the mother (tree) brought up the mushroom “there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee” connects the host trees with the mushrooms.
6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
The seal is a bond between the mushroom god and the partaker. The mushrooms are described as coals of fire with a vehement flame. The mushroom god of Israel is a jealous god (according to Jewish and Biblical texts) and this is one interpretation that is used to explain why the experience is inconsistent (pleasure or pain).
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
The waters here describe the profuse sweating that accompanies the Amanita experience. Floods drowning the love are the intense salivating that accompanies the same. Despite the discomfort that some parts of the experience bring with it, the love of the mushroom god prevails. Here it also comments that you can’t buy love and even if you gave everything you own it would be worthless (and despised). The emphasis here is the “love” as the mushroom experience cannot be purchased. One may be able to buy or trade for mushrooms but this will not buy the atonement (at one-ment) and favour of the fickle mushroom-god.
8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
The narration has again shifted to the position of the mushroom or the collective mushroom consciousness) and discusses again the ripening of the mushrooms. The little sister here is not ready for picking and so the question is what to do about it?
9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
All of the above describes a waiting, nurturing and tending of the garden until the sister becomes ripe. Enclosing her with “boards of cedar” describes the mushroom as it becomes bigger and the environment of cedars that surround the developing fruit.
10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
Again the same narrative (mushroom collective consciousness, Solomon, the beloved, the Lord) now has breasts like towers and finds favor, meaning has become ready for harvesting.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
Baalhamon is a combination of two Hebrew words “Baal” and “Hamon” meaning “master (of the) multitude”. Solomon, being the mushroom (lord), would stand in charge of all mushroom patches.
12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
Our narrator is acknowledging that there are many others working towards the same goal, an amicable, consistent, blissful love affair with the mushroom. One considers oneself a keeper of the garden once you find a mushroom patch. Solomon is the mushroom, none other, yet Solomon is the god of every mushroom patch. Every single mushroom is Solomon. Every single mushroom is the one and only god of the universe every single time. In the mind of our keeper there must be lots of others in the same circumstance “thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred (like me)”.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.
As the point in doing the mushrooms is to build a relationship with the “beloved” (Lord of Hosts) hearing the voice of the mushroom god is logically considered the best way to keep on the right side of the lord. Everyone assumes that someone else must be able to hear it because sometimes the experience is glorious and descriptions of these types of trips flood the ancient texts. But how to keep a consistent heavenly buzz has always been the question.
14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
Their taste, medicinal effects and smell distinguish spices. In fact, the Hebrew word translated here as spices is “besem” which translates as spices, smell, fragrance and sweet odor. The Amanita muscaria has a very distinct odor when dried, sweet, a bit pungent and yet quite pleasing (pleasant). In the final verse our narrator is calling to the mushrooms to return (make haste) as one does throughout the year, particularly through the dry summer and the frozen winters.