KMHQ 12/05/2021
This place setting and service which was contributed by a very good friend who has been always an inspiration to me is certainly a real fine example of what a truely enlightened Christmas meal is all about. You don’t have to read very far into this symbolism to realise what the table is saying about dinner.
The idea of a Sacred meal is incorporated into many ancient traditions that also celebrated the birth of the God on December 25th. The Sun as it reaches the winter Solstice ends its course across the heavens and appears to stop for 3 days, then it begins anew its trek across the heavens towards the Northern hemisphere.
This 3 day apparent stoppage is mythologized as the death of the Sun of God on the cross of the celestial 4 points, and after the 3 day waiting period it was thought to return to life, as it begins its precession across the sky. Later mythologies transfer the death on the cross to a hanging on wood, and the 3 day death to The Son being locked inside a tomb.
The fact that the mushrooms must be dried (before consumption) is another euphemism that the god must die (sacrificing himself) to save mankind through enlightenment by giving his own life. This is only the beginning. A few of the associations this mushroom has with the Christmas traditions.
Here are some Synonymous names and/or terminologies given to this Mushroom throughout history, many of which we will be exploring further.In fact, there are so many that expounding upon them could take a lifetime, therefore, obviously, this list is not all-inclusive. The Egyptian term; “the God of a thousand names” begins to make sense as this research begins to encompass so many other traditions, mythologies and religions.
SOMA (Hindu plant-god). Soma is also Greek for “body”.
Amrita (Buddhist Magical Sacrament).
Ambrosia (Greek, “Food of the Gods”).
The Holy Grail (note the Grail-like shape of the upturned muscaria mushroom; “Vessel containing the blood of the God”).
Fruit of the Tree of life: Fruit of the Tree = the mushroom; the main body (mycellium) growing underground in a Symbiotic relationship with the Pine tree.
The Golden Fleece
The Fountain of Youth: Ponce De’ Leon is likely to have unknowingly kicked over the very thing for which he was searching; the red muscaria grows under Longleaf Pine in northern Florida in December.
Haoma: Islamic Sacrament.
Manna: There are two kinds in the Bible; see John ch. 6 to 14. Manna means “mushroom”.
Bread of Life: Yes, it’s the “Loaf of Bliss”.
Fountain of Living Waters: Its alive, 90% water, and shaped like a fountain.
Hidden Manna: See Rev. 2:17
The Cosmic Egg, The Easter Egg (What are we really mimicking at Easter? The mushroom hunt, OF COURSE).
The Prima Materia/Philosophers stone: The secret substance of the Alchemists (Get Clark Heinrich’s book “Strange Fruit” for this one; fascinating!).
Soma: The Hindu plant God and elixir of immortality.
The Flesh of the God: The mushroom is very flesh-like and is depicted so.
The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge/Life.
The Flesh of Jesus, and other Gods (Take and eat. This is my “body” [Greek, “SOMA”]).
The Hammer of Thor: The shape is obvious. Thor throws his mushroom-shaped hammer to the ground in a bolt of lightning and a mighty thunderous CRACK. Lightning is the mythical creator of the mushroom.
The Small White Stone: The infant state of the mushroom resembles a small white stone.
The Elixir of Immortality: The churning-of-the-milky-ocean myth describes this in a phenomenal way.
The Feathered Serpent: From its first egg-state to its snake-looking second state, then shedding its universal veil (shedding its skin) and finally upturning its cap (gills resembling feathers). The feathered serpent is cosmopolitan in its symbology.
The Phoenix: From the ashes (spores) the egg appears. Then comes the upturned cap resembling a gold and red colored bird (the gills as feathers). Then the heat (sun) burns the mushroom and it dissolves, once again leaving only ashes (spores), and finally repeating the whole cycle.
Ankh: Waters and life, or the waters of life in Egypt.
Rudra: The Hindu red god of the forest.
Djed: The phallus or pillar of Osiris.
The One Eyed Howler: The round eye shape which represents the vision of the universe.
The Eye of Horus: (Djed-Eye) Sound familiar?
The World Tree: The mushroom is thought to be the creator of the world, in many cultures.
Celestial Food: The food of the Gods in the Egyptian “Book of the dead”.
Aten: The Egyptian winged-disc.
Fly Agaric: Although “Fly” is commonly thought of in association with the “House-fly”, there is also evidence that it refers to the act of “flying”, as in taking spiritual flight.