by Carl de Borhegyi
Above is a close up of a Late Classic (600-900 C.E.) Maya vase painting K5857, that depicts
the hunting of the sacred deer. It is well known that many
psychotropic mushrooms, such as the Psilocybe and Panaeolus genera
mushroom, grow in the dung of certain quadrupeds. If you look closely
"hidden in plain sight," I believe there are tiny mushrooms encoded
above the deer's antlers. Mushrooms found growing in the dung of deer
were easy to find, and safe to consume. They were also very easy to
cultivate for the purpose of trade.
While I may be the first to call attention to this encoded mushroom imagery, these images can be viewed and studied with ease on such internet sites as Justin Kerr's Maya Vase Data Base and F.A.M.S.I. ( Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc).
According to ethno-archaeologist Peter Furst....
"The discovery, by early migrants into Mexico, of a functional deer-mushroom relationship could, conceivably, have served to reinforce whatever ancient Asian traditions might then still have remained alive concerning the deer as source of supernatural power, and especially the visionary gifts of shamans."
According to Peter Furst, among the tribes of Siberia the deer is the spirit animal that carries the shaman in his ecstatic state, to the realm of the sky deities. The Siberian shamans costume is typically adorned with deer symbolism, and the shaman's headdress is frequently adorned with antlers, without which he cannot properly shamanize, for it is the deers antlers that embody the concept of supernatural power and eternal renewal (Furst 1976, p. 170).
"It happens that not only Siberian shamans but their reindeer as well were involved with the sacred mushrooms. Several early writers on Siberian customs reported that reindeer shared with man a passion for the inebriating mushroom, and further, that at times the animals urgently sought out human urine, a peculiarity that greatly facilitated the work of the herders in rounding them up—and that might just possibly have assisted their reindeer-hunting ancestors in early efforts at domestication:
. . these animals (reindeer) have frequently eaten that mushroom, which they like very much. Whereupon they have behaved like drunken animals, and then have fallen into a deep slumber. When the Koryak encounter an intoxicated reindeer, they tie his legs until the mushroom has lost its strength and effect. Then they kill the reindeer. If they kill the animal while it is drunk or asleep and eat of its flesh, then everybody who has tasted it becomes intoxicated as if he had eaten the actual fly agaric. (Georg Wilhelm Steller, 1774, in Wasson, 1968: 239-240)
While I may be the first to call attention to this encoded mushroom imagery, these images can be viewed and studied with ease on such internet sites as Justin Kerr's Maya Vase Data Base and F.A.M.S.I. ( Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc).
According to ethno-archaeologist Peter Furst....
"The discovery, by early migrants into Mexico, of a functional deer-mushroom relationship could, conceivably, have served to reinforce whatever ancient Asian traditions might then still have remained alive concerning the deer as source of supernatural power, and especially the visionary gifts of shamans."
According to Peter Furst, among the tribes of Siberia the deer is the spirit animal that carries the shaman in his ecstatic state, to the realm of the sky deities. The Siberian shamans costume is typically adorned with deer symbolism, and the shaman's headdress is frequently adorned with antlers, without which he cannot properly shamanize, for it is the deers antlers that embody the concept of supernatural power and eternal renewal (Furst 1976, p. 170).
"It happens that not only Siberian shamans but their reindeer as well were involved with the sacred mushrooms. Several early writers on Siberian customs reported that reindeer shared with man a passion for the inebriating mushroom, and further, that at times the animals urgently sought out human urine, a peculiarity that greatly facilitated the work of the herders in rounding them up—and that might just possibly have assisted their reindeer-hunting ancestors in early efforts at domestication:
. . these animals (reindeer) have frequently eaten that mushroom, which they like very much. Whereupon they have behaved like drunken animals, and then have fallen into a deep slumber. When the Koryak encounter an intoxicated reindeer, they tie his legs until the mushroom has lost its strength and effect. Then they kill the reindeer. If they kill the animal while it is drunk or asleep and eat of its flesh, then everybody who has tasted it becomes intoxicated as if he had eaten the actual fly agaric. (Georg Wilhelm Steller, 1774, in Wasson, 1968: 239-240)
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