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Anyone interested in Winter Solstice
Please forgive the drawn out title, but it refers to the can of worms I opened when Michael sent out the Winter Solstice news letter a couple of years back and sent me off on a wild hunt of my own about the true nature of the Yuletide celebrations. It was a real awakener for me and deepens every year.
This great energetic event has been held sacred for at least 70,000 years and though today it seems to have degraded into a materialistic orgy, the symbols that are still present speak of a hidden mystery. Central to many of these mysteries seems to be a much maligned mushroom by the name of fly agaric (amanita muscaria), yes the red and white spotted faery mushroom.
What has this to do with a daoist discussion site!? I hear you yell. Well, many daoist immortals are depicted carrying this mushroom. Dare I say that it was a major or even a primary ingredient of the external version of the elixir of immortality. Yes, I know that this is cultivated within the energy body internally but my question is – could the ancient daoists have used this Mushroom as a catalyst to the immortality and enlightenment process ?( particulary during the winter solstice which would amplify its effects. )
Taoism developed from shamanism and even today the mushroom is used by shamans in Siberia and Lappland. It has its dangers to be sure but it is not the deadly poison it is made out to be.
What about Santa Claus? Well he bears a startling resemblance to these shamans who wear red and white (no this not solely fom Coca Cola, who may have been in the know considering the original Coca Cola contained cocaine!) when they collect mushrooms which reindeer also love (flying reindeer) and they come through the smoke holes of their dwellings (which serve as both doors and chimneys)
So modern Santa bears little resemblance to the original St Nicholas. Maybe the saint merged after death with these Yuletide archetypes to eventually become the patron saint of New York (New Amsterdam). Perhaps Michael could carry out a similar meditation on the bones of St Nicholas (which now reside in New York in a Greek Orthodox church) as he did with the bones of St Francis to find out the truth!
If this sounds weird, it sounded weird when I read it but it does seem strike resonant chords.
Santa behaves very much like a Daoist Immortal with his Ho Ho Ho, earthy spirituality, longevity and magical gifts. In fact their is a Chinese version- Dun Che Lao Ren, I think.
One of the main sources of this information is James Arthur
The Hidden Meanings of Christmas, Mushroms and Mankind
and another Jimmy Bursenos
Santa Claus & the Amanita MuscariaGood work Dylan, I have seen these connections before, but you bring to light further details. I have posted a link to this topic on the forums for a gnostic community that researches these connections. You all may be interested or wise to check it out, if you havent already:
A couple other connections is that this fly agaric only grows under evergreen trees. Also, when the shamans used to pick them, they would then hang them from the trees to dry, appearing like tinsle. Additionaly, there is evidence that this mushroom is the “holy grail”. When the dew forms, its cap turns upright, it then forms a cup-shape with the cap, rain water that would contain the entheogenic substance would then be drunk by a thirsty passer by, who would begin to have visions…
I tried them once…a lot of mouth watering and resting in my bed…that was before I was a real taoist meditator though…
Oh, and amanitas are perfectly legal in the USA, and most likely, every country, but NOT ISRAEL!
I don’t think you are reaching at all, Dylan.
I hve mentioned before my experiences working with the saami shamans north of the arctic circle,
in Finland, and noticing that their power animal, the reindeer, and their dress had been adopted by the rest of europe. The Chrisitans from Sweden invaded and tried to forbid their religion. Apparently they had trouble keeping the shamans in jail, as they would simply disappear!As for mushrooms in China, even today when you walk into any jade shop you will find the mushroom of immortality a major sculptural theme. The Healing Tao comes from the Mountain Tao tradition, i.e. the hermit rather than temple tradition, and it is inconceivable to me that they hadn’t fully explored the powers of what grew around them.
Having explored many different types of natural and synthetic hallucinogens in earlier phases of my development,
I think the mushroom entities are natural deities that can effectuate healing and quickening of one’s path in the beginning or intermedidate phases of energetic development if used properly, i.e. as sacred ceremony rather than as recreation. Their principle works on yuan chi released by the entity at the level of the low astral, i.e. etheric vegetative realms. The danger is of people getting stuck there, and thinking it is the goal or end process. I believe Terrence McKenna got trapped at that level, brilliant as he was.On my recent trip to Wudangshan, I collected a batch of large Lingzhi mushrooms, from which I intend to extract the essence, and check out its potency. Probably this spring. Will let you know.
Have Merry Solstice Trip,
MichaelThis the theme of UNEXPLAINED-MYSTERIES.COM! Seehttp://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?s=be42b40a280b742bc9fe3cc49521e27e&showtopic=49269
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?s=be42b40a280b742bc9feThank you Michael
Looking forward to your winter solstice letter and your experiences in the spring.
I’m sure you are aware that Fly agaric has been suggested as Soma of the ancient Hindus and that they obtained it through trade with Central Asia.
I keep getting drawn to the Kun Lun area, mountains, Shambhala, Hsi Wang Mu, Xinjiang, Ferghana,taklha makhan desert , scythian horses dressed as deers, communities of mongoloid and europoid populations living together, trade routes, strange mummies cropping up, even stuff from the tales of the immortals, wild blue eyed foreigners studying alongside taoist immortals. It seems that far more valuable commodities than silk passed along here.
I am English/Welsh but I live in Hungary and am married to a Hungarian. Hungarians are not slavic people. Their legends and the latest research suggest they are a scythian people hailing from the xinjiang area and studies of their populations ( mixture of europoid and mongolian) and language (very very old)suggest this.The mushroom is well known here too. These themes seem to come up mysteriously in my life so I think its more than mere speculation.Thankyou again and
a Merry Yuletide to you all
Dylan
Thanks for the info Jsrit
Interestingly the fly agaric has also been suggested as the fruit of the tree of knowledge whcih would explain its banning by orthodox religeon. The Kabbalists and Gnostics were well aware of it though.
Merry Christmas
Dylan
Dylan,
I am welsh and russian, so partial to my possible kin…
And my first girlfriend and true love was hungarian, magda her middle name.
Her father was Einstein’s mathematician at Princeton (Einstein was just a physicist).Smart, those hungarians. The language, in the finno-ugric family (that includes Finland), is an ancient tongue that ultimately leads one back to Atlantis. Along with the basque tongue, and several native american languages.
I spent a lot of time in the area you are dreaming about, during my 1985 Marco Polo expedition across China. Kun Lun, xinjiang, rode a camel across part of the Takla Makan desert (Desert of No Return).
so if you decide to go there, talk to me first…..I have 10,000 photographs, was the first westerner in 40 years in many desert oases to visit.
michael
A friend of mine is a lap. His father is a shaman, and aknowledges a rock on the tundra in Finnmark, way north in Norway as his teacher.
But I have not heard of any Laps having anything to do with mushrooms…
Alot of coffee, and liquour but no mushrooms.Funny thing you talk about the Kun Lun and the Altai mountains. I have been fascinated by those for years. I read an account of a female russian psychiatrist who got initiated by a shamanic tribe in the Altai mountains, and the book is filled with stories about how this area is a realm of spirits and immortals, and that there’s a battle between the “good” side and the “bad” side. If the book had any truth content at all, it’s worth a visit.
Every day I fly across these mountains and scope their faces. On Google Earth.
Michael, how was the Kun Lun experience?
Thanks hagar
You should ask your friend’s father about the fly agaric mushroom. This was what they used before alcholic spirits came along. Throughout Siberia too. Reindeers love them and they may have been used to lure stray reindeer back to the herd. The shamans drank the piss of the reindeer (no kidding, this maybe where the English term “to get pissed” originated from!) because the reindeers’ bodies would process the harmful substances whilst leaving the safer and more potent stuff.
The authorities tried to suppress it, unsuccessfully, perhaps more so in Saamiland though.
If you don’t believe me try a google search and see what you come up with.
If you want to read a great article check out this one by Jeffrey Valance who spent some time in Lappland. He links Santa with the Lapp/finnish yeti figure as well as the magic mushrooms!
-Lapp of the gods-
What was the name of the psychiatrist? We may have a link here with the origins of Daoism! Hsi Wang Mu was the queen mother of the West and associated with Kun Lun.Dylan
Michael
Thats amazing! I met my wife to be in Wales of all places. My Dad’s side of the family come from Swansea in the South.
A famous hungarian antrhropolgist tracked down the ancestral migration of the Hungarians (magyars -persian magi?) to the Xinjiang area where many people have european as well as asian features, red haired mummies were dug up (did you get to see any in the desert that you weren’t supposed to return from?) and even found a minority tribe who had stories of a family tribe who left long ago for the west! These people have been suppressed by the Chinese goverment in much the same way as the Tibetans.
One day I would love to go there. Pay is not high in Hungary, but being a qualified English teacher might come in handy in this multi-national world! My Hungarian wife is an English teacher too but unfortunately not keen on travel.
An account one day of your travels in the area would be great.Thanks again
Dylan
google earth is nice, especially for cities, but its 3D is lousy
try downloading nasa’s WorldWind because its 3d is amazing for mountain areas. Also, you can go to a site where people have given the coordinates for amazing things they have found, and simple things like having a direct zoon into the pyramids.
worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
Chris
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