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Psychotropic Mushrooms and the Alteration of Consciousness, I: the Ascent of Psilocybian Mushroom Consciousness

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Psychotropic Mushrooms and the Alteration of Consciousness, I: the Ascent of Psilocybian Mushroom Consciousness J. AL TERE-O STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Vol. 3(1),1977-78 PSYCHOTROPIC MUSHROOMS AND THE ALTERATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, I: THE ASCENT OF PSILOCYBIAN MUSHROOM CONSCIOUSNESS STEVEN HAYDEN POLLOCK University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio ABSTRACT Psilocybian mushroom consciousness is considered initially from a historical perspective in Mesoamerica, which includes a resume of events leading to the discovery of modern Mexican sacred mushroom rites. The subsequent course of psychotropic mushroom use in Mexico is documented and its spread to other areas of Latin America described. Attention is then focused on Australia, where magic fungus ingestion reached epidemic proportions and incited strong governmental attempts to curb the phenomenon. The surge of psilocybian mushroom awareness in Canada and the United States is explored along with the ecological relationship between these fungi and man.Finally, the recent impact of psilocybian mushrooms on mycophobia is noted. Prelude This article is the first of a series that will focus on psychotropic mushrooms as they relate to the alteration of consciousness. Future communications will be directed to such aspects as a consideration of the psychoactive Amanitas with their intriguing but relatively little studied properties and an in depth look at psilocybian psychopharmacognosy. Psilocybian mushrooms are sporophores of fungi which biosynthesize the psychopharmacologically active compound psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine). Psilocin is usually stored in the mushrooms as the phosphate derivative psilocybin (4-phos- phoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), and indeed "psilocybin" is the vernacular name by which most people know these mushrooms. But let's reflect way back, aeons ago, to some remote period in man's evolutionary history. It is not known when Homo sapiens first began to consume mushrooms as 15 16 / STEVEN HAYDEN POLLOCK part of an omnivorous diet, but an important lesson in survival was forth- coming. Primitive man had to become selective in mycophagy, for some mushrooms nourished his body while others violently poisoned his protoplasm. Still others unleashed profound effects on man's burgeoning consciousness, transporting his psyche to extraordinary experiential realms. The impact of these psychotropic mycoflora, with their great ability to induce visionary experiences, at the very least may have contributed to the formulation of religious ideas by primitive peoples [1] and probably served as a powerful impetus in the development of man's higher consciousness. Psychotropic Mushroom Use in Mexico SACRED MUSHROOM USE IN PRECONQUEST TIMES Aztec (Mexica), Mixtec, Nahua, Maya, and to a lesser extent Otomi and Tarascan civilizations painted written records of their respective cultures on paper made from fig tree bark or on strips of scraped deerskin [2]. These codices, containing pictographic writing, ideographic symbols, and phonetic characters, comprise along with various other archaeological remains the main source of information about the life of these ancient indigenous Mesoamerican peoples. With the discovery of contemporary mushroom rites in Mexico, mushrooms portrayed in the codices assume spiritual Significance. The Vindobonensis, the most beautiful and important Mixtec codex, has obvious mushroom motifs, some in juxtaposition with maguey plants (Agave species) from which the indigenous fermented beverage pulque is made. An interpretation from this codex is that the important mythological deity Quetzalcoatl gave sacred mushrooms to man as food for psychogenic development just as he gave maize to man to sustain his corporeal existence [3]. It is noteworthy that a Mexican sacred mushroom, Psilocybe caerulescens Murrill, commonly grows in corn fields, and vital for growth of both maize and mushrooms is rain. Tlaloc, a deity of water in all its forms, was thus a principal part of the ancient Mexican pantheon. Teotihuacan was an early religious center in the Valley of Mexico and frescoes have been found in the ruins depicting mushrooms. For instance, the fresco of Tepantitla ' from the epoch of Teotihuacan III (300-600 A.D.) represents Tlaloc making rain with an inflorescence of mushrooms nearby [4]. The Aztecs were one of the great civilizations of Mesoamerica in preconquest times. They were astute botanists and made use of a multitude of psychoactive plants. Especially important to these Nahuatl speaking peoples 1 A simulated reconstruction of this pre-Toltec fresco as envisioned by an artist is on a wall of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. PSILOCYBIAN MUSHROOM CONSCIOUSNESS / 17 were the intoxicating teonaruicatl ("God's mushrooms" or more figuratively "God's flesh"). The 16th Century Aztec Codex Magliabecchiano clearly portrays a scene in which a man who is partaking of mushrooms sits before a cluster of the sacred fungi with a demon behind him. These mushrooms were employed at the coronation festival of Moctezuma II in 1502 and as part of a show of good will were even offered to strangers allowed to attend the extravaganza. In 1519 Cortes conquered the Aztecs and an official province of the Spanish Inquisition was established in Mexico in 154l. Although the missionary Fray Bernadino de Sahagun was sufficiently interested in native beliefs, customs, and traditions to write a His to ria de las Casas de Nueva Espana (the "Florentine Codex"), Franciscan clergy with a general disregard for native heritage ardently began to convert the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples to Christianity. Festivals involving consumption of sacred mushrooms nevertheless apparently continued for awhile, commencing at night out on the plains and avoiding inspection by outsiders [5]. With severe religious persecution including a ruthless auto-de-fe in 1574, it is no wonder that surviving mushroom cults subsided into obscurity, not to be rediscovered until the Twentieth Century. ANCESTRAL MUSHROOM CULT PROBABLY OCCURRED AMONG THE MAYA There is no telling how much information about Maya culture was forever lost as a result of religious persecution during the Spanish Inquisition, but it appears to be considerable. Fray Diego de Landa conducted an infamous auto-de-fe in Mani, Yucutan in 1562 in which he set ablaze or otherwise destroyed with fervor Maya manuscripts, signs and scrolls of hieroglyphs, alters, and allegedly thousands of idols. This zealous prelate later wrote a Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, which presents information about the Maya and has served as a "Maya Rosetta Stone" for glyph decipherment of the three Maya codices which are known to have survived the conflagration: the Codex Paris, the Dresdensis, and the Tro-Cortesianus (Codex Madrid). In addition, a copy of part of the Madrid Codex has been discovered and designated the "Galindo Codex" [6]. Curiously, there are glyphs in the "Galindo Codex" which do not correspond to the appropriate pages of the Madrid Codex and vice versa. Although psilocybian mushroom motifs have not been observed in Maya codices, a symbol which looks somewhat like a large mushroom with stylized wart-like protuberances is prominently featured in the Madrid Codex and "Galindo Codex" and a similar one occurs in the Dresden Codex.Lowy [7] has suggested that these symbols represent the fly-agaric, Amanita muscaria (1. per Fr.) Hooker, which is a common mushroom in the Guatemalan highlands, and that they may reflect past religious use of this fungus. 18 / STEVEN HAYDEN POLLOCK ~;" Figure 1. An "early preclassic" mushroom stone from the collection of R. G. Wasson as rendered by Robin Klause. Despite the scant mushroom imagery noted in surviving Maya codices, unique archaeological evidence exists which strongly suggests that an ancestral mushroom cult once flourished in the culture of the highland Maya. Mushroom stone artifacts (Figure 1) have been found in the highlands of Guatemala, San Salvador, and Tabasco and Veracruz in Mexico. Many of these appear to have been sculptured in the "middle pre classic" period (ca. 1000-300 B.C.) and some have been dated back even to the middle of the "early preclassic" period (ca. 2000-1000 B.C.) [4, 8, 9]. The quality of mushroom stone sculpturing degenerated after the "middle preclassic" period and by the end of the "late classic" period (ca. 600-900 A.D.) production of these stones ceased. The stipe of a mushroom stone frequently contains a human effigy or portrays an animal such as the jaguar or toad. Some of these effigies provide still further clues that sacred mushrooms may have been utilized by the Maya. In Mexico a practice typically employed for preparation of sacred morning glory seeds (ololiuhqui) has been observed by Wasson in which a virgin sometimes grinds Psilocybe mexicana Heim on a metate and water is added prior to consumption [10]. There happens to be a mushroom stone which displays a young woman kneeling before a metate; another depicts a reclining human head in which the "face is striking because of its trance-like expression and the suggestion cannot escape us that the subject may be dreaming or hallucinating" [9]. PSILOCYBIAN MUSHROOM CONSCIOUSNESS / 19 It is intriguing that no contemporary mushroom cult has been found among the Maya, but Guzman has recently discovered four new presumably psycho- tropic species of Psilocybe in one valley of tropical rain forest in Veracruz [11] . This is an important, unprecedented find. All the indigenous Psilocybes previously described from Mexico are known to occur only in the mountains at much higher elevations, and this valley happens
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