by Jan Irvin
Pg. 253, Ch. IX, endnote #20:
Despite rejection of identity of the subject (“rightly or wrongly”) as being a mushroom by R. G. Wasson: “for almost a half-century mycologists have been under a misapprehension on this matter” (qu. Ramsbottom op. cit. pg. 48) [actually printed in the second edition, 1954]
Ramsbottom pg. 48:
Not in 1st (1953) edition.
The 2nd (1954) edition states on pg. 48:
Addendum: “Rightly or wrongly, we are going to reject the Plaincourault fresco as representing a mushroom. This fresco gives us a stylized motif in Byzantine and Romanesque art of which hundreds of examples are well known to art historians, and on which the German art historians bestow, for convenience in discussion, the name Pilzbaum. It is an iconograph representing the Palestinian tree that was supposed to bear the fruit that tempted Eve, whose hands are held in the posture of modesty traditional for the occasion. For almost a half century mycologists have been under a misapprehension on this matter. We studied the fresco in situ in 1952.” – Wasson, private letter of December 21, 1953
Facing page 34 next to the Plaincourault image it says:
“Fresco from disused church at Plaincourault (Indre, France) dating from 1291, showing Amanita muscaria as the tree of good and evil.”
Ramsbottom’s additional commentary on the active chemicals of Amanita muscaria, pg. 46-47:
The Fly-Agaric is one of the easiest fungi to recognise and to describe. Consequently its poisonous properties were early known, though doubtless it had attributed to it powers beyond its possession. In a fresco in a ruined chapel at Plaincourault (Indre, France), dating from 1291, a branched specimen is painted to represent the tree of good and evil (Pl. Ib, pg. 34). Presumably it was the artist’s conception of the essence of evil made more terrible by enlargement and proliferation. The serpent is shown winding round the stem, offering the traditional apple to Eve, who, apparently having eaten of the “tree,” is shown in an attitude which suggests that she is “suffering from colic rather than from shame.” [pain in the abdomen from (in this case) muscaria usage, a well-known side effect.]
The poisons of the Fly-Agaric have been studied for well over a century. In 1869 Schmeideberg and Koppe isolated muscarine, which they thought was the essential constituent. It is present in variable but always very small amounts. There has been much research on its constitution, but it is usually regarded as having an aldehyde base: its formula is probably C8-H19-NO3. Its physiological effects are well known–abundant sweating and salivation, augmented intestinal peristalsis, colic, diarrhoea, pupils contracted, myosis, slowing down and finally stopping the heart–but they are not those of Amanita muscaria poisoning. As the experiments were carried out with synthetic muscarine (isomuscarine) it is usual to distinguish that in the fungus as mycetomuscarine. Schmeideberg himself found that the muscarine he isolated would not kill flies, and moreover, realised that it could not be the cause of the observed symptoms. […] If muscarine is eliminated the fungus still retains its poisonous properties practically unaltered. These are so similar to those caused by deadly nightshade (Belladonna, atropine) that it is assumed to be of the same nature and called mycetoatropine although its chemical structure is not yet ascertained…
Commentary
We’ve already discussed at length how Allegro used Wasson’s comment “rightly or wrongly,” above.
Allegro’s primary error here was not citing endnote #20 as being from the second (January 1954) edition of Ramsbottom’s book, rather than the first (October 1953) edition.
We see Ramsbottom making a similar mistake as Puharich (below), though he clearly states that the “chemical structure is not yet ascertained…” However, here, Allegro cites only page 48, and not page 47, which contains Ramsbottom’s light information regarding the chemical analysis of Amanita muscaria and more discussion on the Plaincourault fresco. We can properly assume that Allegro had read page 47 because he cites this area of the book heavily, and Ramsbottom’s commentary of the Plaincourault fresco starts on the facing page, pg. 46. Regardless, as I’ll show, Allegro took the blame for something that we now know was unclear in four of the major publications he cited—Ramsbottom, Puharich, Graves and Schultes.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. X, pg. 89:
In fact, there was a more clinical reason for the Bacchic lethargy. The poisons contained in the cap of the Amanita muscaria promote periods of intense excitement, accompanied by delirium, hallucinations, and great animation, but these are followed by periods of deep depression. To quote one witness to Amanita muscaria intoxication: “The person intoxicated by Fly-Agaric (a popular name for the Amanita muscaria) sits quietly rocking from side to side, not even taking part in the conversation with his family. Suddenly his eyes dilate, he begins to gesticulate convulsively, converses with persons whom he imagines he sees, sings and dances. Then an interval of rest sets in again.” (27)
Ch. X, Pg. 256, endnote #27:
Waldemar I. Jochelsen [sic], qu. Ramsbottom op. cit. pp. 45ff.; cp. Jochelsen [sic], Jesup N. Pacific Expedition Series vol. IX: The Yukaghir and Yukaghirized Fungus [sic] (American Museum of Natural History), N.Y., 1926
Ramsbottom pg. 45-6:
The Koryak are most passionate consumers of the poisonous crimson fly-agaric, even more so than the related Kamchadal and Chukchee, probably because the fungus is most common in their territory,” and a very profitable trade results from gathering and drying it. “The Koryak do not eat the fly-agaric fresh. The poison is then more effective, and kills more speedily. The Koryak say that three fresh fungi suffice to kill a person. Accordingly, fly-agaric is dried in the sun or over the hearth after it has been gathered. It is eaten by men only; at least, I never saw a woman drugged by it. The method of using it varies*. As far as I could see […] the men, before eating it, first let the women chew it, and then swallow it […] the alkaloid of fly-agaric produces intoxication, hallucinations, and delirium. Light forms of intoxication are accompanied by a certain degree of animation and some spontaneity of movements. Many shamans, previous to their séances, eat fly-agaric in order to get into ecstatic states. […] Under strong intoxication, the senses become deranged; surrounding objects appear either very large or very small, hallucinations set in, spontaneous movements, and convulsions. So far as I could observe, attacks of great animation alternate with moments of deep depression. The person intoxicated by fly-agaric sits quietly rocking from side to side, even taking part in the conversation with his family. Suddenly his eyes dilate, he begins to gesticulate convulsively, converses with persons whom he imagines he sees, sings, and dances. Then an interval of rest sets in again. However, to keep up the intoxication, additional doses of fungi are necessary. Finally a deep slumber results, which is followed by headache, sensations of nausea, and an impulse to repeat the intoxication. […] There is reason to think that the effect of fly-agaric would be stronger were not its alkaloid quickly taken out of the organism with the urine. The Koryak know this by experience, and the urine of persons intoxicated with fly-agaric is not wasted. The drunkard himself drinks it to prolong his hallucinations, or he offers it to others as a treat. According to the Koryak, the urine of one intoxicated by fly-agaric has an intoxicating effect like the fungus, though not to so great a degree. […] From three to ten dried fungi can be eaten without deadly effect.
* M. Enderli who accompanied the expedition, describes how a woman sat between her husband and his friend and chewed the fungus, then rolled it between her hands into small “sausages” which the men then thrust to the back of the throat. The Fly-Agaric has a burning and sickly taste, and readily causes vomiting, which would interfere with the men’s enjoyment.
Jochelson: “The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus,” Vol. IX of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. P. 419:
They [the Yukagir.-RGW] do not eat mushrooms regarding them as unclean food growing from dogs’ urine. However, according to traditions, they used to intoxicate th
emselves with the poisonous fly-agaric, which is still eaten by the Koryak and Chukchee. The Yukaghir call mushrooms can-pai, i.e., tree girl.
Commentary
Jochelson’s accounts would, for Allegro, arguably provide additional historical references to the Amanita’s effects in its natural environment. This could be the reason Allegro chose these accounts over the more modern chemical analysis. Ramsbottom mentions “Vikings sought its [A. muscaria] aid to go berserk,” and the way in which he quotes Jochelson on the mushroom’s effects could be interpreted to support the berserker rage theme. Wasson later attacks this in Soma, though the entire issue still appears to be under debate (below). Allegro was criticized for citing a professional mycologist, Ramsbottom, who had not tried the A. muscaria himself, and based his descriptions of its effects on Jochelson’s report. Why did Wasson blame Allegro for both Ramsbottom’s and Jochelson’s conclusions? In addition, Ramsbottom misspelled Jochelson as ‘Jochelsen’. Allegro copied Ramsbottom’s spelling error and further misspelled Tungus as ‘Fungus’.
The entirety of Jochelson’s references to the fly-agaric is included in the exhibits in Wasson’s Soma, beginning pg. 265. The majority of the material is on the Koryak, cited from: “The Koryak: Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. A publication of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Vol. VI, Part. 1. Religion and Myth, New York, 1905. Part II. Material Culture and Social Organization of the Koryak, 1908. pp. 582-584.”
Three sentences regarding the Amanita are all we find cited from: “The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus. Vol. IX of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. p. 419.” As Wasson states: “We reprint in full what they had to say about the fly-agaric habit […] – RGW” pg. 265.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. XIV, pg. 125:
We can now see that it is, in fact, a descriptive title of the sacred mushroom, the Semitic word being a transliteration of the Greek panthēr, our “panther”. The reference is to the markings of the animal’s coat, described by Pliny as “small spots like eyes on a light ground”. The ancient botanists must have used the name of the animal for the fungus, just as today the near-relative of the Amanita muscaria, Amanita pantherina, is so named among modern mycologists. (32)
Ch. XIV, Pg. 277, endnote #32:
“Amanita pantherina is very similar (to Am. Muscaria) in its effects and its chemistry. It somewhat resembles the Fly-Agaric, but has a brownish grey or brown cap, darker in the centre, with white spots and striated margin. It grows principally in woods, in summer and autumn” (J. Ramsbottom, op. cit. p. 48. Cp. Pl NHXXII93: “…there is a dry sort, similar to the genuine (mushroom) which shows as it were white spots on the top, standing out of its outer coat”).
Ramsbottom pg. 48:
Amanita pantherina is very similar in its effects and in its chemistry.*
It somewhat resembles the Fly-Agaric, but has a brownish grey or brown cap, darker in the centre, with white spots and a striated margin. It grows principally in woods, in summer and autumn. In some German books this fungus is given as edible owing to confusion with Amanita spissa, which differs in the cap being smoky brown and having smaller, less well-defined warts, sometimes even a powdery covering, and in the stem being slightly striate above the ring and the bulbous base being obconic and rooting.
The real danger, however, is that Amanita pantherina should be mistaken for the much commoner well-known edible species Amanita rubescens, the Blusher, which appears from late summer throughout the autumn. In this species that cap is more reddish brown and the warts are usually less distinct. It is a most variable fungus and both size and appearance seem to be definitely related to the conditions of growth: when growing in dry places it is small, firm and compact, and the warts are well defined; in moist places it is large, lax and soft, and the covering of the cap shows as grey patches, or may even be absent owing to rain washing it off or the cap slipping through the volva. The specific epithet refers to the flesh turning pink when broken. This may take a considerable time in more compact specimens, but in lax ones it can usually be noted as pink spots on the gills, or these may become wholly coloured with age. Further, if the base of the stem is maggot-ridden it will be found to be already pink; many species are liable to be infected with fly maggots, but A. rubescens seems particularly prone to attack.
* It is used in Japan for killing flies and has a popular name, “Hayetoritake,” denoting this.
Pliny: XXII 93, Ch.46 (alternative translation by John Bostock):
Some of the poisonous mushrooms are easily known, being of a rank, unwholesome look, light red without and livid within, with the clefts considerably enlarged, and a pale, sickly margin to the head. These characteristics, however, are not presented by others of the poisonous kinds; but being dry to all appearance and strongly resembling the genuine ones, they present white spots upon the head, on the surface of the outer coat. The earth, in fact, first produces the uterus or receptacle for the mushroom, and then the mushroom within, like the yolk in the egg. Nor is this envelope less conducive to the nutrition of the young mushroom [than is the albumen of the egg to that of the chicken.] Bursting forth from the envelope at the moment of its first appearance, as it gradually increases it becomes transformed into a substantial stalk; it is but very rarely, too, that we find two growing from a single foot-stalk. The generative principle of the mushroom is in the slime and the fermenting juices of the damp earth, or of the roots of most of the glandiferous trees. It appears at first in the shape of a sort of viscous foam, and then assumes a more substantial but membranous form, after which, as already stated, the young mushroom appears.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. XVII, pg. 170:
These “loaves” are simply a further instance of the atoning gifts spoken of by the ancient botanists as “cakes”, or “loaves”, or “honey-combs” to fill the hole vacated in the ground by the Holy Plant, and more precisely described by Josephus as the Mandrake’s “equivalent” necessary for a safe removal of that plant by the Dead Sea. All refer to the mushroom itself by allusion to the characteristic “bun”-shape of the all-important cap containing the drug. When dried and skewered for preservation these fungus “lozenges” were represented by the dehydrated (“massoth”) loaves of the “unleavened bread” of the Israelites’ Passover food, probably related linguistically if not materially with the mazönes of the Dionysiac “cake” feasts. (94)
Ch. XVII, Pg. 299, endnote #94:
[…] Cp. P1 NHXXII98: ‘Hog fungi are hung up to dry, skewered on a rush”; Ramsbottom op. cit. pp. 45f.: “Fly Agaric is dried in the sun or over the hearth after it has been gathered”. Cp. II Kgs 23:9 for the cultic eating of מצןת at high places; here a misunderstanding or interpretation of an original פטריןת ‘mushrooms’?
Pliny: XXII 98, Ch. 47 (alternative translation by John Bostock):
All the poisonous fungi are of a livid colour; and the degree of similarity borne by the sap of the tree itself to that of the fig will afford an additional indication whether they are venomous or not. We have already mentioned various remedies for the poison of fungi, and shall have occasion to make mention of others; but in the meantime, it will be as well to observe that they themselves also have some medicinal uses. Glaucias [p. 4431] is of opinion that mushrooms are good for the stomach. The suilli [swine mushrooms] are dried and strung upon a rush, as we see done with those brought from Bithynia. They are employed as a remedy for the fluxes known as “rheumatismi,” and for excrescences of the fundament, which they diminish and gradually consume. They are used, also, for freckles and spots on women’s faces. A wash, too, is made of them, as is done with lead, for maladies of the eyes. Steeped in water, they are applied topically to foul ulcers, eruptions of the head, and bites inflicted by dogs.
Ramsbottom pg. 45-6: The Koryak say that three fresh fungi suffice to kill a person. Accordingly, fly-agaric is dried in the sun or over the hearth after it has been gathered. [Same as a
bove]
II Kings 23:9: Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. XVIII, pg. 178:
The Phalloidic species, like the Stink-horn, Phallus impudicus, rises some three inches in half an hour, and the whole erection is complete in one and a half hours. (5)
Ch. XVIII, pg. 301, endnote #5:
Ramsbottom, op. cit. p. 180
Ramsbottom pg. 179-180:
(*Bulliard (1784) says that the egg always bursts with great force and explodes at times with a noise like a pistol shot; and that if enclosed in a glass or earthenware vessel which it completely fills shatters it.)
[…] The emergence of the fruit-body is very rapid, about 3 in. in half an hour; under a bell-jar it is often complete in an hour and a half. That it is expansion, which is remarkable, and not growth, which would be inconceivable, is clear if an unexpanded egg is cut lengthwise: this shows the cap fully formed, but the base of the stem extremely short and compact.
Citations to R. Gordon Wasson
Ch. V, Pg. 229, ft. #15
Ch. V, Pg. 229, ft. #16
Ch. IX, Pg. 253, ft. #20 (cited from Ramsbottom)
From The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
Ch. V, Pg. 39:
As we have said, the first step to discovering the nature of vegetation stories and the particular plant or tree that was originally involved is to decipher the proper names. However, in the case of plants regarded as especially powerful or “magic” like the mushroom, additional problems face the enquirer. The strange shapes and manner of growth of the fungus, along with its poisonous reputation, combined to evoke feelings of awe and dread in the minds of simple folk. Indeed, there must be few people even today who do not sense some half-fearful fascination at the sight of the mushroom, and shrink from taking it into their hands. Since certain of the species contain drugs with marked hallucinatory properties, (15)
