by Jan Irvin
~ Anna Partington
In Fungus Redivivus, Ruck states:
The basic objection is that Sumerian is apparently sui generis, a language unrelated to any other, and hence similar sounding words in Hebrew, Greek, and other ancient languages can have no significance. Also that Allegro often hypothesized words not actually extant in Sumerian; this latter objection is, however, the standard linguistic procedure, to recreate the necessary missing bridges. As for the former, it leaves out of account the fact that geographically proximate peoples borrow, pun, and assimilate words, especially in the case of imported rituals and a sacred vocabulary. Cults, moreover, are apt to spread through imported foreign leaders or priesthoods, continuing to conduct the rites, at least at first, in the magical-religious formulae of their native tongue, as, for example, with the importation of the religion of Cybele from Anatolia into Rome in the year 205 BCE, where she was served at first exclusively by her Oriental priesthood until the time of the Emperor Claudius. […]
The truth of the matter is simply that the language tree or the families of languages are contaminated; and the criticism of Allegro’s linguistics is based upon outmoded and simplistic assumptions about a still evolving discipline. The immense learning behind Allegro’s notes and references to ancient sources is dismissed by his critics, who hastened to silence him forever for proposing an unseemly and overly sexual context for the Judeo-Christian religion, scandalously embedded in the Anatolian fertility traditions of drug-induced ecstatic communion with the deity, something not only prevalent in the area, but also the expectable shamanic experience of all ancient religions. As a brilliant demonstration of mythopoeia and mythical analysis, the work could never have passed muster except as a whole; nor did his critics match the breadth of his compilation of ethnobotanical material from the ancient Classical sources. […]
Wasson had in his hands a paper by the brilliant Russian linguist, Vladimir Nikolaevic Topovov [sic—Toporov], that should have laid the basis for a reexamination of Allegro’s etymologies. [Ruck then goes into a page of etymological descriptions of Toporov’s work showing its support for Allegro.]
~ Carl Ruck, Fungus Redivivus
Wasson continues: “When he occasionally touches on subjects with which I am familiar, as the Plaincourault fresco and the chemistry of the fly-agaric, he is, well, unimpressive.”
If we unquestioningly agree with Wasson’s contradictory and shaky, if not downright dishonest, position regarding the Plaincourault fresco, then his argument, at least on the surface, appears logical. But as has already been shown (Hoffman et al, 2006; Ruck et al, 2007/2005/2001; Samorini, 1998), the Wasson-Panofsky argument against the Plaincourault fresco as Amanita is unfounded.
Wasson closes his letter with an insult to Allegro, calling him: an “Anglo-Saxon mycophobe” because “The peoples of the Near and Middle East about whom Mr. Allegro is writing were among the most gifted and sophisticated that mankind has produced”. As mentioned before, and as I’ll further show, Allegro based his descriptions of the mushroom’s effects mostly on those of people that Wasson himself had worked with. And Wasson is saying this of Allegro—a man who spent years in the Middle East translating the Dead Sea Scrolls.
This leaves Wasson with one valid contention remaining against Allegro, the issue of the chemistry of the fly-agaric. To examine the schism further, we will review exactly what Allegro’s sources were.
Allegro’s References and Citations
This section offers critical analysis and commentary on all of Allegro’s endnotes and citations in The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (SMC) with regard to entheogens. While careful study of this section will provide the scholar with an in-depth understanding, some readers may wish to skip through and read only the commentaries.
Directly below is a list showing the number of times each entheobotanical scholar is referenced by Allegro in SMC. They appear in descending order.
Professor John Ramsbottom (9×)
R. Gordon Wasson (5×)
Robert Graves (3×)
Dr. S. Henry Wassen (3×)
Dr. Andrija Puharich (2×)
Dr. Richard Evans Schultes (2×)
Waldemar Jochelson (2×)
Dr. Albert Hofmann (1×)
Dr. Roger Heim (1×)
The following excerpts are from SMC and pertain to entheogenic and entheobotanical studies. They appear in the main text of the book and represent all the specific references to other scholars in the field of entheobotany and entheogens listed in SMC. Also provided is each endnote connected with the main text and, with a few exceptions, each citation connected with the endnote. The excluded citations are as follows:
One citation to Wasson—Soma—discussed but excluded for brevity.
One citation to John Ramsbottom—discussed but excluded for brevity.
Three citations to Henry Wassen—discussed but excluded for brevity.
One citation to Heim and Wasson on Psilocybin—not important to our study.
One citation to Albert Hofmann on Psilocybin – not important to our study.
Citations to Professor John Ramsbottom
(Mushrooms & Toadstools, 1953/1954):
Ch. V, Pg. 231, endnote #19
Ch. VII, Pg. 241, endnote #2, #5
Ch. VII, Pg. 242, endnote #10
Ch. IX, Pg. 253, endnote #20
Ch. X, Pg. 256, endnote #27
Ch. XIV, Pg. 277, endnote #32
Ch. XVII, Pg. 299, endnote #94
Ch. XVIII, Pg. 301, endnote #5
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. V, pg. 40:
Even among the Greek and Roman botanical works there are scarcely a dozen different words which have been recognized as relating specifically to the fungus, and the whole of extant Semitic literature can produce few more. Mycology, as the study of fungi is called after the Greek mukes, “mushroom”, is a comparatively modern science. (19)
Ch. V, Pg. 231, endnote #19:
For a useful summary, see J. Ramsbottom, Mushrooms & Toadstools, London, 1953, ch.3
Ramsbottom: ch. 3 [Omitted]
Chapter 3 in Ramsbottom’s book Mushrooms & Toadstools, is entitled “History,” and is composed of twelve pages of general citations on ancient mushroom history and the development of mushroom knowledge (mycology). See pages 12–24.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. VII, pg. 54:
More prosaically, perhaps, the process is thus described by a modern mycologist: “In the genus Amanita a membrane surrounds the young fungus. In addition to this wrapper or volva there is another membrane, stretching from the margin of the cap and joined to the stem, as in the mushroom. Thus it is as if the “button stage” were surrounded by an outer skin. As the fungus develops this is torn apart. If its texture is sufficiently tenacious to hold it together, it is left as a cup at the base of the stem . . . With growth the membrane covering the gills tears and is left as a ring on the stem.” Of the Amanita phalloides, the writer adds:
“Before the volva breaks the fungus looks somewhat like a pigeon’s egg half-buried, or like a small phallus ‘egg’. It is common in glades in woods and adjoining pastures after the first summer rains, and continues through early autumn. (2)
Ch. VII, Pg. 241, endnote #2:
J. Ramsbottom op. cit. p. 39.
Ramsbottom pg. 39:
In the genus Amanita a membrane surrounds the young fungus. In addition to this wrapper or vulva three is another membrane, stretching from the margin of the cap and joined to the stem, as in the mushroom. Thus it is as if the “button stage” were surrounded by an outer skin. As the fungus develops this is torn apart. If its texture is sufficiently tenacious to hold together, it is left as a cup at the base of the stem (A. phalloides); if it is friable the part covering the cap remains there and becomes broken up into wart-like particles (A. muscaria, A. pantherina). An intermediate type is seen in A. mappa. With growth the membrane covering the gills tears and is left as a ring on
the stem. The spores are white and the gills in most species are also white: they do not quite reach the stem.
Amanita phalloides has a hemispherical, then flattened, greenish olive silky cap with blackish fibrils radiating from the centre; occasionally it is more yellowish or brownish or even whitish. The gills, stem and ring are white, but may have a slight greenish tinge. It has no particular smell or taste. Before the volva breaks the fungus looks somewhat like a pigeon’s egg half-buried, or like a small phallus “egg”.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. VII, pg. 54–55:
Until the invention of the microscope the function of the spore, produced by each fungus in its millions, could not be appreciated. The mushroom has, indeed, no seed in the accepted sense, germinating and giving out a root and later a stem apex with or without seed leaves. The walls of each minute spore extrude to form thread-like tubes which branch further until all mass together to form the spongy flesh of the fungus. The result is neither animal nor vegetable, and the mystery of its proper classification persisted until relatively modern times. Thus a sixteenth-century naturalist wrote: “They are a sort of intermediate existence between plants and inanimate nature. In this respect fungi resemble zoophytes, which are intermediate between plants and animals.” (5)
Ch. VII, Pg. 241, endnote #5:
Caesalpinus in De Plantis, 1583; qu. Ramsbottom op. cit. p. 14.
Ramsbottom pg. 14:
The earlier herbalists were occupied for the main part in elucidating De Materia Medica of Dioscorides. Their interpretations were not simply literary exercises but commentaries with reference to the floras of their own countries, which became more and more valuable as it was gradually realised that many of the plants were different, and illustrations were made from living specimens. William Turner in A new Herball (1551–1568), the first important English botanical work, realised the difficulties, and in his forthright manner—wrote that he had:
“taught the truthe of certyne plantes… And because I would not be lyke unto a cryer yt cryeth a loste horse in the marketh, & telleth all the markes and tokens that he hath, & yet never sawe the horse, nether coulde knowe the horse if he sawe him: I wente into Italye and into diverse partes of Germany, to knowe and se the herbes my selfe.”
Mixed with ideas about the nature of fungi which are derived directly from writers of antiquity, we find modifications due to personal observations and independent judgment. Thus Caesalpinus in De Plantis (1583), wrote that:
“Some plants have no seed; these are the most imperfect, and spring from decaying substances; and they therefore have to feed themselves and grow, and are unable to produce their like; they are a sort of intermediate existence between plants and inanimate nature. In this respect fungi resemble zoophytes, which are intermediate between plants and animals.”
Here we have a fairly clear statement that fungi arise spontaneously and a suggestion that they are not plants. They played a notable part in the controversies about spontaneous generation, which held on, with shifting ground of argument, until almost the end of the last century. Whether fungi are plants or not depends upon definition. The question repeatedly arose, and several, like Linnaeus, thought fungi might form a new natural kingdom between those of plants and animals.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. VII, pg. 56:
The slimy juice of the mushroom which, in some phalloidic species, spills over the “glans” and down the stem, seemed to the ancients like the viscous exudation of the genital organs prior to coitus and the seminal discharge at orgasm. The Hebrew word for “smooth, slimy” derives from a Sumerian phrase meaning “semen running to waste”, and figures in a number of biblical allusions to the mushroom. It was otherwise known as “spittle”, and Job asks if there is any taste in the “spittle of the mushroom” (as we should now read the name of that plant) (Job 6:6). (10)
Ch. VII, pg. 242, endnote #10:
[…] (“viscous gummy moisture from trees from which fungi are derived”, and the tradition among the Koryaks (↑V n. 12) that the mushroom was derived from the god who spat on the earth, and out of his saliva agaric appeared. Note also the Polish story that mushrooms appeared where the apostle Peter spat on the ground as he walked behind Jesus (qu. Ramsbottom op. cit. pg. 45)); […]
Ramsbottom pg. 45:
There is a tradition that the Vikings sought its aid to go berserk—apparently started by S. Ödman in 1784—and stories were told in the days of prohibition in U.S.A., that it was found less expensive and just as effective as boot-leg liquor. What would doubtless be regarded as a fable but for its repeated confirmation over two centuries, is the use made of the fungus by the Koryak and neighbouring tribes of Kamchatka: […] * […] all refer to it. W.I. Jochelsen [sic], in 1900-01, carried out a study of the Koryak tribes. The Fly-Agaric is among the objects believed by the Koryak to be endowed with particular power.
“Once, so the Koryak relate, Big-Raven had caught a whale, and could not send it to its home in the sea. He was unable to lift the grass bag containing traveling-provisions for the whale. Big-Raven applied to Existence (Yahiynin) to help him. The deity said to him, ‘Go to a level place near the sea: there thou wilt find white soft stalks with spotted hats. These are the spirits wapaq. Eat some of them, and they will help thee. Big-Raven went. Then the Supreme Being spat upon the earth, and out of his saliva the agaric appeared.† Big-Raven found the fungus, ate of it, and began to feel gay. He started to dance. The Fly-Agaric said to him, ‘How is it that thou, being such a strong man, canst not lift the bag?’—‘That is right’ said Big-Raven. ‘I am a strong man. I shall go and lift the traveling-bag.’ He went, lifted the bag at once, and sent the whale home. Then the Agaric showed him how the whale was going out to sea, and how he would return to his comrades. Then Big-Raven said ‘Let the Agaric remain on earth, and let my children see what it will show them.’ ”
The Koryak’s idea is that a person drugged with the fungus does what the spirits residing in it tell him to do.
* It is apparently from Strahlenberg that Oliver Goldsmith derives the account given in Letters from a Citizen of the World to his friends in the East.
† This recalls the tradition current in Poland and adjoining regions. When Christ and Peter were passing through a forest after a long journey without food, Peter, who had a loaf in his sack but did not take it out for fear of offending his Master, slipped a piece in his mouth. Christ, who was in front, spoke to him at that moment and Peter spat out so that he could answer. This occurred several times until the loaf was finished. Wherever Peter spat out, edible fungi appeared. The devil who was walking behind saw this and decided to go one better by producing brighter and more highly coloured mushrooms. He spat mouthfuls of bread all over the country-side. The wonderfully coloured mushrooms as well as those which looked very much like St. Peter’s mushrooms, were however, all poisonous.
Commentary
† This places in question Wasson’s contention that the practice was not held since “pre-history,” being a modern Polish story. It gives Allegro more cause to question Wasson’s conclusions. Below are three new world accounts on a similar theme, one of them from Wasson.
The Mixe consider the mushrooms extremely wise. This is because they spring from the Earth, which is all-knowing of the past and present affairs of man, and furthermore are said to be “born” from the bones of ancient sages and prophet-kings. Related to the latter notion is the belief that only persons with hollow bones are capable of becoming diviners or obtaining successful results when taking the mushrooms.
Additionally, the Earth mushrooms are considered to be soothsayers, being equated with the blood of Christ. The Mixe believe that when Jesus was on the cross, blood flowed from His heart to the ground. From it issued numerous flowers and many kinds of edible mushrooms. All but the last of these miraculous plants then disappeared. Those that remained are the Na•shwi•ñ mush.
~ Frank J. Lipp – Sacred Mushroom Se
eker, pg. 152
[T]he Mazatecs spoke of the mushrooms as the blood of Christ, because they were believed to grow only where a drop of Christ’s blood had touched the earth; according to another tradition, the sacred mushrooms sprouted where a drop of Christ’s spittle had moistened the earth and because of this it was Jesucristo himself that spoke and acted through the mushrooms.
~ Peter T. Furst quoting Albert Hofmann
I’m glad to tell you whatever I can about the Mazatec mushroom. […]
Sometimes they refer to it as ‘the blood of Christ’ because supposedly it grows only where a drop of Christ’s blood has fallen. They say that the land in this region is ‘living’ because it will produce the mushroom, whereas the hot dry country where the mushroom will not grow is called ‘dead’.
~ Miss Pike to Gordon Wasson, Mushrooms, Russia and History, Pg. 242
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. IX, pg. 80:
The prime example of the relation between the serpent and the mushroom is, of course, in the Garden of Eden story of the Old Testament. The cunning reptile prevails upon Eve and her husband to eat of the tree, whose fruit “made them as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:4). The whole Eden story is mushroom-based mythology, not least in the identity of the “tree” as the sacred fungus, as we shall see.(19) Even as late as the thirteenth-century some recollection of the old tradition was known among Christians, to judge from a fresco painted on the wall of a ruined church in Plaincourault in France (pl. 2). There the Amanita muscaria is gloriously portrayed, entwined with a serpent, whilst Eve stands by holding her belly. (20)
