Have Yourself a Psychedelic Little Christmas

by Andrew Rutajit

------------------------------

Santa Claus. This mysterious old man, some how got himself intertwined into Christmas.

The story of Santa is very old, and most countries today still celebrate the winter solstice in strange, but similar ways. In the middle ages, Santa was a Shaman, and you can easily find many similarities between the Shaman of the past and our Christmas traditions of today.

A Shaman is, in many ways, similar to what we more commonly refer to in America as a medicine man.

Shamanism originated in Siberia where the local Shaman was the oracle of the community, nothing of importance happened in the community without the okay from the Shaman.

The Shaman would also hold very strong plant knowledge and they often used powerful hallucinogenic plants in their ceremonies (and many other plants for medicinal reasons).

This mushroom is the Amanita muscaria. It evokes an intense psychedelic experience - it is one of the most potent psychedelic mushrooms known.

Plants to a shaman were food, clothing, shelter, and their link to spirituality.  But where does the Shaman and his plants fit into our Christmas traditions?

You must have seen this mushroom somewhere else before you stumbled across my blog.

Whether youve seen it in video games >>

<< or in Alice in Wonderland...

...this mushroom has become rather popular over the years.

Its name:  Amanita muscaria

This little red and white mushroom has gained celebrity status over the yearsand for good reason.

This mushroom has been worshipped by millions of people throughout history.

Why?

Because its arguably the most potent hallucinogenic mushroom on the planet.

Those who have eaten this mushroom describe the experience with words like: rebirth process, talking to God, leaving your body, extremely intense, Life changing and religious experience.

This mushroom, along with other hallucinogenic plants have been used in religious ceremonies for as long as there have been religious ceremonies, and these sacred plants are still being used today by individuals seeking spiritual enlightenment.

Im not suggesting that we all go pick mushrooms that look like this and eat them, some mushrooms are deadly, one should do research and/or refer to a mycologist before ingesting any freshly picked mushrooms. 

These mushrooms, along with many other spiritual "plants" (plants & fungi)En meaning IN Theo meaning GOD and Gen meaning GENERATE. These are quite literally the plants that generate God within you. are commonly known as entheogens

Thatis exactly what these plants do; they allow a direct communion with God. Some cultures refer to their psychedelic mushrooms as Teonanacatl, which directly translates to Flesh of God.

It's as if Mother Earth were saying:

Take, eat; this is my body.

The ancient Shamans of Siberia would go to the houses of the people in the community on the winter solstice and bring to them the Amanita muscaria mushroomit was their tradition. The Shaman; dressing in the colors of the mushroom (red with white trim), and carrying a huge bag full of mushrooms that he had picked and dried during the previous season (enough for the entire community) would go door to door and give to the community the mushroom experience.

If the main door to the houses were snowed over (which they often were during the winter time), the Shaman would enter the houses through the secondary entrance, which just happens to be the smoke-hole in the roof or the chimney. And because these Amanita muscaria mushrooms are often dried before ceremonial consumption (allowing the shaman to consume more), traditions of drying the mushrooms also came about. Even to this day, it is a common practice for people to stack their mushrooms insocks and hang them over the fireplace overnight to dry them out.

Believe it or not, reindeer are real. Before Santa Claus there was Thor or Donner (German) whose "Golden Flying Chariot" was pulled by two Goats (Cracker and Gnasher). These goats were the mythological ancestors to Santas reindeer. Reindeer are a bit more appropriate than goats because reindeer are indigenous to Siberia and they love to eat the Amanita muscaria (so much that the shaman must find the mushrooms before the reindeer do or all of the mushroom caps will be bitten off at the stem). Reindeer also provided the people of that area with food, clothing, utensils, etc.

If the Christmas tree is a symbol for life, then could it also be the actual Tree of Life?

The Amanita muscaria is the Fruit of the Tree of Life because the Amanita muscaria cannot grow without the conifer tree. The Amanita muscaria mushrooms are quite literally the fruit of the pine tree because of the chemical relationship that they have with the roots of that particular type of tree.

They are found growing only under coniferous trees in nature. Just as nature needs an apple tree to grow apples, nature also needs a coniferous tree to grow the little red and white Amanita muscaria.

Keep this in mind next time you bring a pine tree into your house and place red and white gifts underneath it.

Do you recognize this symbol? In our book, Jan and I go much further to explain what this symbol actually means; for now, all you need to know is that this is the modern-day, universal symbol for drugs/medicine.

So, what is the Christmas REALLY a symbol of? Well, the Christmas tree is a staff, oftentimes it is entwined with ribbon or popcorn, and adorned with wings on the top. It is symbolic of the caduceus...symbolic of the drugs that grow below it. The Christmas tree is the caduceus, representing the drugs that grow underneath it in nature. The Shaman, Amanita muscaria mushrooms, pine trees, reindeer, Saint Nicholas, Santa's bag of goodies, the fireplace entrance and exit, Santa's colors, the mysterious gifts under the tree, and stocking stuffers are all neatly interconnected and they are all indigenous to Siberia, Russia and the Shamanic traditions that originated there.

CLICK HERE for more Mushroom/Christmas images!!