Amanita muscaria and Santa

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There are more than a few well-researched books, articles, and websites that have done a great job of uncovering some truths that have been buried for many years now.  One of the most curious ones is the Amanita muscaria mushroom and its relation to Christmas.  A couple of those books have become standards now; books such as James Arthur's "Mushrooms and Mankind" as well as "Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy" Clark Heinrich, but little has been said about the Amanita mushroom as it relates specifically to the Christmas tradition.

One of the latest books, which actually has an accompanying DVD is called "The Pharmacratic Inquisition".  The amount of solid evidence is matched only by the amount of speculation that is contained within the pages of the book, but the research they've done regarding the original Christmas Mushroom is unparalleled.  One of the most controversial arguments they make is that the story of Jesus and and all related Christian traditions emanated from just two original sources: astrology and shamanism.

Many of the information and arguments presented are thanks to John Allegro. Not many know who he is, but Allegro was one of the original and most respected translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls (ancient Christian texts found near the Dead Sea in the middle of the 20th century). The only problem, though, was that John wasn't a Christian, and therefore did not inject a Christian bias and agenda into his translations, which resulted in translations that were far too close to the truth for the comfort of the Catholic Church. The result was the radical claim that Jesus was actually a psychoactive mushroom and that this psychoactive mushroom may have been Amanita muscaria. The more research Allegro did on the the subject, the more convinced he was that the true meaning of Jesus, Christmas, and the Amanita mushroom were purposely hidden throughout history.

This also made him an easy target for critics and the Catholic Church, and the moment these claims started to surface, so did the machinery to discredit this brilliant researcher and scholar.

There are a number of indisputable facts such as how Amanita muscaria has a long history of use among northern European and Siberian shamans. In fact, knowledge of the powerful psychoactive properties have been well-documented, and there are still mushroom cults that exist in that very region today.

Back to the Amanita mushroom and Christmas...  In the Pharmacratic Inquisition, Santa Claus is actually a shaman; something that might seem ridiculous until one examines the eveidence that abouds in relation to this idea.  In northern European shamanism, the shaman was responsible for harvesting the Amanita muscaria mushroom.  There's evidence that he would dry his amanitas, taken from the base of a conifer tree, in the tree itself!  Since the harvest is in the fall and it can take some time to dry the amanitas, this could be the first evidence of a Christmas tree with ornaments of Amanita muscaria on it!

Once the Amanitas were properly dried, the shaman would reportedly gather up his harvest in a sack that looks surprisingly similar to the iconic Santa sack filled with presents for good boys and girls.  He (or she) would then visit the yurts within his community in order to bring gifts of these sacred mushrooms to to his people, entering through the smoke hole at the top of the yurts.

Oh, and by the way; these northern Europeans also happened to be reindeer herders.  Oddly enough, it wasn't just the shamans who were privy to the entheogenic value of these sacred mushrooms; their reindeer would actually seek them out in the snow, year after year.  Once consumed, there was a noticable effect on the reindeer...some of them would stumble around or fall over, and a few would go into a deep sleep.  But, none of the reindeer were ever harmed, and those same reindeer the next day or next year, would seek out those same mushroom patches again.

So, shamanic reindeer herders who were vastly familiar with the Amanita muscaria mushroom, engaging in a ceremony each year around Christmastime, with Amanitas hanging in the evergreen trees, with reindeer stumbling around, and a shaman in a red suit and a big burlap sack sharing them with his people by climbing down their smoke holes at the top of their yurts...hmmm.

As Martin W. Ball, Ph. D says: "Ultimately, the Pharmacratic Inquisition challenges many of the assumptions and beliefs we may have about Christianity and its central figures, providing provocative evidence that things are not as they seem within this tradition. If true, the question then becomes: does the Catholic Church still use amanita mushrooms secretly within the confines of the Vatican? Have they really been withholding this fundamental truth for two millennia, or have even they come to believe the myths that were created to both communicate and conceal the true identity of Jesus Christ? Watch this film and make up your own mind."

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