What is the connection between the moon and the culture surrounding “magic mushrooms”? We did a little research into this recently, in order to share our learnings with you in time for the Fall Equinox. As we all know, it is incredibly important to take note of the setting we are in before experimenting with psilocybin. Ritual, or ritualistic practices, are a key way to focus one’s energy and spirit so a relaxing and generative session will ensue. Given that the moon is at the centre of so many ancient rituals, not to mention a major factor in the hormonal cycle of the human body, it’s interesting that there isn’t more information available about the link between mushrooms and the moon.
One of the foundational cultures of the West, the Sumerians, whose heyday was around 2,100 BC, provided us with what would later become the Gregorian calendar. It was the Sumerians who first divided a year into 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days. The Sumerian calendar differed in that the first day of the new month was always the first day of the new moon, which made sense. Sumerian cultural rituals focused on virility, fertility, and birth. A new cycle would naturally begin with a dark sky, awaiting that first sliver of moon.
In 1970, John M. Allegro, an English archaeologist, published a book called The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, which studied the origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the Ancient near East. One of his posited theories, which earned him a dubious reputation to say the least, was that early Christian cults experimented with psilocybin and that Jesus was, in fact, a collective hallucination. He pointed to various fresco paintings, such as the one depicted below, from the 12th century Plaincourault Chapel. It is hard to deny the clear representation of mushrooms here, most likely of the Amaranita muscaria variety. Allegro was roundly ridiculed, not just by the academy but by countless media sources in the early ’70s. Time magazine classified his book as the “psychedelic ravings of a hippie cultist.”
Thanks to the literature of writers such as Carlos Castenada, much has been made of ancient psychedelic rituals linked to South and Central American shamanistic practices. However, given the above cultural touch points, we can be certain of at least one thing: the exact nature of how mushrooms were used by early Western cultures, in what context and for which rituals, has long been buried by the progenitors of our inherited historical narrative. “Visions” have been the purview of the clergy exclusively, and anyone outside of the Church who described such an experience was persecuted for being blasphemous, or worse, practising “witchcraft” in consort with the Devil.
Let’s reclaim these cyclical rituals for ourselves. The Harvest Moon is just behind us, on September 17th, and the Fall Equinox falls on Sunday, September 22, 2024. The charged effects of this particularly abundant full moon are still being felt. Enhancing this experience with mind-expanding pharmacology as the Earth balances equal day with equal night!