Part 1 - Shamans and Shrooms of a four-part series on Mushrooms - Mystic, Magic and Mealtime
This series is inspired by Karmen Perez-Pineda, Founder of Cats with a Heart who will be interviewed in Part 3
Pt1:
Brief intro into the series
Mushroom synopsis
Ethnomycology & Shamanism & Cave Art
Aboriginal Gwion Gwion, Australia
Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria
Pegtymel Petroglyphs in Far East Siberia in Russia
Mesoamerican society
María Sabina
Pt2: (Coming soon)
Mushroom symbolism and folklore plus culinary traditions and their magical properties
Pt3: (Coming soon)
Interview with Karmen Perez-Pineda of Cats with a Heart about her amazing socially responsible initiative. Mushroom tips and health benefits. A look at psychedelics and psychiatry with Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind: The new science of psychedelics. Plus the past and present female pioneers of psychiatry and psilocybin research.
Pt4: (Coming soon)
Some of my favourite artworks featuring mushrooms by artists including Ming dynasty Chinese artist Qiu Yang, Chinese-Canadian artist Xiaojing Yan, Beatrix Potter and Elsie Wakefield, Yayoi Kusama, Wangechi Mutu and more. Series conclusions.
Mushroom head’ depiction shared by Sandawe (A) and Bradshaw (B) cultures. Extant Sandawe shamans testify that this depiction represents the subjective experience of a trance under the influence of magic mushrooms (Psilocybe spp.). We can validly assume that these identical icons have the same meaning in the Bradshaw culture, even though it is extinct, without extant human witnesses. (Via: Jack Pettigrew)
Tassili mushroom figure Matalem-Amazar
Set of anthropomorphs with mushrooms engraved on the rocks of the Pegtymel river (reworked from the reliefs present in Dikov, 1971) (Via: Samorini.it)
Set of anthropomorphs with mushrooms engraved on the rocks of the Pegtymel river (reworked from the reliefs present in Dikov, 1971) (Via: Samorini.it)
Mesoamerican mushroom stone figures
Moche civilisation ceramic mushroom figure. Museo Arqueologico Rafae Larco Herrera, Lima
A pre-Columbian ceramic Moche portrait vessel from Peru wearing a headdress encoded with two Amanita muscaria mushrooms, together with a mushroom-shaped axe. The Moche culture reigned on the north coast of Peru from 100À600 AD. (Source: László Makra)
Close to Villar del Humo in Spain is the Selva Pascuala, a prehistoric rock mural dating to 6000 years ago showing that psilocybin mushrooms were used in religious rituals.
Maria Sabina - The Great Curandera
(22 July 1894 – 22 November 1985)
From Huautla de Jiminez, Oaxaca, Mexico
Photograph taken by Don Juan Peralta. Photo taken during Juan Carlos Rangel’s visit to Huautla Oaxaca, place of origin of Maria Sabina. Published on his blog: http://caminosdemexico.blogspot.com/
Maria Sabina in the R. Gordon Wasson article Seeking the Magic Mushroom - Life magazine article 1957
Maria Sabina in the R. Gordon Wasson article Seeking the Magic Mushroom - Life magazine article 1957