One day as I was riding my horse on my friend’s property I passed a huge patch of A. muscaria mushrooms, also known as fly agaric. With their bright red tops and brilliant white specks they were unmistakable and unmissable little messengers from the Otherworld.
As I rode past I clearly heard them saying “Eat me, eat me!” in a cacophonic chorus.
“I don’t think so. I think you’re trying to trick me. I’ve heard you’re quite toxic!”
“EAT ME!” they replied.
I went home that day and researched these mushrooms, their uses, and their toxicity. This was years ago, and today you’re ready some of the results of that encounter.
I’m an herbalist, and was at the time. I’m also a shamanic practitioner in the Scandinavian tradition, but this was something that was just budding at the time the mushrooms spoke to me.
Years later and I thoroughly understand their place in shamanic practice, and I understand a bit about why this botanical helper (not technically a plant helper, but in that general category) is not widely used.
Psychedelic mushrooms and humans have a very interesting relationship, and I’ll link an article at the end that thoroughly explores this in cultures across the globe. Humans are the only primates who have serotonergic systems that respond to psilocybin mushrooms the way we do. Other primates do not experience a “high” or hallucinations from them while we can. This indicates that there is something about psychedelic mushrooms and responding in a psychedelic manner that was an evolutionary advantage to us.
Certainly these are a different kind of mushroom, but psilocybin mushrooms are found nearly everywhere that humans have lived on this planet and Amanitas are found on every continent, though the only place they grow in the US is right here in the Pacific Northwest (up to and including Alaska).
Entheogenic practices are so common in animistic traditions (the ones that give us shamanic practices) that I would venture to say they are essential. Whether we’re talking about San Pedro cactus, psilocybin mushrooms, Amanitas, Ska Pastora (salvia), peyote, ayahuasca, and DMT (frog medicine), just to name a few.
In fact, when we look at some traditions, we find it. There is strong evidence that soma/houma, the drink that brings enlightenment in the Hindu Vedas is made from Amanita muscaria, and I would argue that the red-gold mead of poetry in the Poetic Edda of Norse tradition is not mead at all, but a fly agaric beverage (perhaps mushrooms mixed in honey wine).
In fact, in the Norse myths, we frequently hear tell of the “red-gold” as a metaphor for spiritual wealth and spiritual enlightenment. What if this isn’t just a metaphor for having something valuable spiritually, but also for the drink that brings that wealth and understanding to you?
There are some very interesting archeological finds that support this. In the linked article you will find a number of these sources, but one of the most interesting ones to me are the razors and petroglyphs from Bronze Age Scandinavia that show mushrooms which appear to be A. muscaria being worshipped or the mariners for voyage that many “crew members” are going on in their little ship.
Yes, these mushrooms have toxic principles, but so does alcohol. Most of these consciousness altering substances are a little bit toxic, and, of course, the toxin is in the dose. Always. Strong herbal medicines will always be toxic if you take too much.
I have since “eaten the mushrooms.” I put that in quotes since I actually prepared them by drying and making a tea, not by eating them.
Some people might ask, why fly agaric when you can have psilocybes which have almost no side effects other than mild nausea? (Fly agaric can be a bit like ayahuasca in it’s causing you to purge your stomach.)
Firstly, it’s a different medicine. Different medicine, different experience. Different needs, different medicine.
Secondly, it works on a different system altogether. Psilocybin works on the serotonin receptors, and I think mine might be funky (yours might be too), while the muscimole of the fly agaric works on the GABA receptors. That’s really just another way of saying different medicine, different effect.
If you’ve heard the mushrooms calling, you know you can’t deny them. They’ll talk to you forever. Maybe especially if you take them.
Questions? Get in touch!
Next up? Let’s talk about suicide and bodily autonomy.
Resource article: https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/3/2/article-p43.xml