SOMA AND THE TAYRONAS: A MUSHROOM, FLEUR DE LIS, BAT CULT IN A PREHISPANIC INDIGENOUS TRIBE OF COLOMBIA IN SOUTH AMERICA. (REVISITED)
Dedicated to Chris Casuse, Charles Hayes and Clark Heinrich...
“Amarillo, me tienes en los bolsillos
Morado, ya me olvidé del pasado
En rojo, por que me sangran los ojos de llorarte
Cuando no estás a mi lado
Celeste, cuésteme lo que me cueste
Dorado, por que no pienso perderte
Tu amor es un arcoiris de colores
Y me muero por tenerte.”
Amarillo by Shakira in her album El Dorado.
“Between the Kogui there is a myth that speaks about the fight between two shamans, one of them is defeated and turned into a skeleton. The victorious shaman “blows” the bones and makes his adversary resurrect.
In the Sierra Nevada, the shamanic learning lasts eighteen years , distributed in two periods of nine years that symbolize a slow gestation in which the apprentice lives in solitude, under severe privations that include food, sleep, sex and some more. The extasis is produced by the ingestions of certain mushrooms and other hallucinogens; the culminating fase of the esoteric teaching reaches its point when the neophyte believes he is hearing supernatural voices that speak to him from an obscure corner of the enclosure”.
From the book by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Goldwork and Shamanism: An Iconographic Study of the Gold Museum of the Banco de la Republica, Colombia
SOMA AND THE TAYRONAS: A MUSHROOM, FLEUR DE LIS, BAT CULT IN A
PREHISPANIC INDIGENOUS TRIBE OF COLOMBIA IN SOUTH AMERICA. (REVISITED)
1. THE TAYRONA MUSHROOM STONES.
The Tayronas where a tribe that lived in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and its surroundings on the actual territory of Colombia. The subject of these paper is to continue what it was researched on a previous paper published by the name SOMA AND THE MUISCAS: THE COLOMBIAN MUSHROOM CULTS. In this previous paper I exposed the colombian mushroom mystery. I´ve recommend to read SOMA AND THE MUISCAS before the reader continues the reading of these paper.
I will continue the exposition with the analysis of two curious pieces found in the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia. The first figure is very curious. It shows one of the Man-Bat-Shamans sitting over the top of a mushroom. While his head is also a mushroom and inside his mushroom- head you can see another mushroom guarded in the middle of two mushrrom shaped-birds. There is a curious and beautiful detail. The border that is adorning the scene of the birds with the mushroom in the middle and that also makes of border of the mushroomhead of the shaman shows what looks like the white spots of the Amanita muscaria.
But to be sincere I think this image is a message from the past. In recent years, scientific research has given evidence of the benefits of psilocybin mushrooms. How they connect both brain hemispheres and reset it. So I think the image refers to a man-bat shaman under the effects of psilocybin mushrooms. Anyway this observations are just a suggestion but of course we are looking a to a mushroom bat shaman of the Tayronas.
There had been found a considerable number of mushroomstones in Central America. This Mushroom stone belongs to the Tayrona tribe in Colombia, South America.
In the museum there is only another piece similar to this. Its beautiful also. When you look at it the mushroomhead detail is evident even if it has not so many details like the previous one described, the border still resembles the Amanita Muscaria white spots and also there is some kind of circular ornament in the middle of the mushroom head that suggests a mushroom.
So we have two types of representations of the man-bat mushroom shamans. They remember the goldsmithing pieces analyzed in SOMA AND THE MUISCAS. Of the Tayrona artistic representations the ones made of gold survived in quantity more than the ones made of stone. The vandalism of the conquerors surely sought to preserve the gold and destroy other pieces that did not represent to them any economic value.
So its the case that only two mushroom-stones in the whole museum complex that belong to the Tayrona tribe where preserved for destruction. The two only colombian mushroom stones to my knowledge. Its important to note that museum has in the Tayrona a musical instrument that also resembles a mushroom.
There is another stone piece in the museum also that belongs to the Tayronas. It lacks the details and ornaments to classify it as a mushroom-stone.
Lets pass to the next chapter where we will discuss the Fleur de Lis representations of the Tayronas.
2. THE TAYRONA FLEUR DE LIS REPRESENTATIONS
In the previous paper: SOMA AND THE MUISCAS. I mentioned the presence of Fleur de Lis motives in prehispanic indigenous art of Colombia. The authority in these theme is Carl de Borhegyi. I think he is the first researcher to point out that mesoamericans hold a traidition regarding to Fleur de Lis. Citing Borhegyi´s essay THE RETURN OF LORD QUETZALCOATL i found this passage worthy of quoting: “ In both hemispheres the Fleur de lis symbol is associated with divine rulership, linked to mythological deities in the guise of a serpent, feline, and bird, associated with a Tree of Life, it's forbidden fruit, and a trinity of creator gods. In Mesoamerica, as in the Old World, the royal line of the king was considered to be of divine origin, linked to the Tree of Life. Descendants of the Mesoamerican god-king Quetzalcoatl, and thus all Mesoamerican kings or rulers, were also identified with the trefoil, or Fleur de lis symbol.”
The magic mushroom could possibly be the forbidden fruit Borhegyi is speaking about?
The porpuse of this paper is not to try to decode the symbolisms of Fleur the Lis. For these I would recommend to consult the wonderful work of Borhegyi that can be found in the website:
http://www.mushroomstone.com/somaintheamericas.htm
I just want to point out the presence of Fleur de Lis motives in the Tayrona art on prehispanic Colombia. Also, before I continue, its important to clarify a few points. In SOMA AND THE MUISCAS I talked about the Chibchan family language that migrated from Mesoamerica and spread to the south reaching the territories of Colombia. There is a version that assures the Tayrona are of mesoamerican origin and also that they are filiated to the Muiscas. Its important to point out that the natives of this area had other believing.
So this makes a connection between Mesoamerica, the Tayrona tribe in the north of Colombia and the Muiscas I spoke in SOMA AND THE MUISCAS.
Last research assures the language that the Muiscas spoke had no relations with the Chibchan family language but I think this information is not correct in its entirety. There is a possibility that the Muiscas are the mix of a migration of a Tayrona invasion that hybridized with another tribe that already inhabited the inlands of Colombia. The Mesoamerican migration that originated the Tayronas reached the territories of the north of Colombia and while they established and originated the Tayronas culture some others keep their migrations to the south finding an old established culture (today called by the researchers Herrera) and this mix originated the Muiscas.But who knows? This is not the purpose of this paper.
Anyway I do believe there is a connection between the Pre-Inca cultures and the Herreras.
I would love to also point out I like to use the term SOMA to refer to the Amanita Muscaria because it was popularized by the great researcher Robert Gordon Wasson. These does not mean that I think that people of India or Aryans reached America in prehispanic times. There is gossip and researchers that have theories of egyptians and other cultures that arrived to prehispanic Colombia and thats a fact. And last research suggest that probably chinese people arrived to Colombia long before Colombus but who knows?. I would also don´t know what the original SOMA was but a mushroom is a good candidate.
Lets continue... Anyway.
Even if the Muisca language is not chibchan related the Tayrona was indeed. A posible explanation is that the Muisca language is a language that mixes the Chibchan language features with the language the Herrera spoke. I will leave this riddle to ethymologists. What I can assure you is that a Bat cult arrived from Mesoamerica along with a mushroom and a Fleur de Lis cult.
And there are no doubts the Muisca language has some Chibchan features in its constitution and to the author of this article it belongs to Chibcha Linguistic Family.
The Muysccubin was the language spoken by the Muiscas. It can have traces of Preincan cultures too.
A friend of mine informed me that some of the languages spoken to this day in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the places in which the Tayronas inhabited resemble the Muysccubun.
Next I will expose some curious pieces of the Museo del Oro in Bogota that show Fleur de Lis. All this belong to the Tayrona culture. Other prehispanic tribes in Colombia also casted the Fleur de Lis symbol in their goldsmithing but for the sake of focus I will center in the Tayronas.
The first piece shows a bird. For the common people it looks like like a plain bird but if you look its details it looks like a Fleur de Lis. If we only had this piece there would not be more clues for identifying this piece with a Fleur de Lis. Colombian researchers assure there a few vegetable representations if even none regarding colombian prehispanic goldsmithing. So the average colombian researchers always speak of this piece as a bird. Of course I see a bird but also there is an encoded Fleur de Lis.
When we take a look to the second piece there is no doubt the Tayronas had a cult or something related to the Fleur de Lis. This beautiful piece of goldsmithing art of the Tayronas shows a mushroom head manbat shaman performing some kind of entheogenic ceremony. When you see the chest of the shaman you can see a Fleur de Lis. There are two strange supernatural lizard looking beings under the table also (toadstools?). Also 4 round circles that look like mushroom caps adorn the piece that in the whole looks also like a flying bat. He is holding in his hands something that looks like two mushrooms or two glasses full of fungal sacraments. I suggest.
Now the third piece is very similar to the second showing a mushroom head manbat shaman in some kind of trance. The whole piece is a flying bat too. His mushroom head also shows the gills of the mushrooms. Also it has some decorative dots that suggest the Amanita Muscaria white spots.
I suggest Tayrona Man-Bats lore around the mushrooms originated in Mesoamerica consisted in both Psilocybe and Amanita muscaria mushrooms. They perpetrated a cult that arrived to this lands. And as in Mesoamerica Amanita muscaria mushroom where at disposition for prehispanic Colombian Shamans. All this cult related to the Fleur de lis.
The last piece im analyzing is made of mud or clay. That is not important. It looks likea gathering of manbat shamans. They are all crowned with Fleur-de lis motives. A gathering of Man-Bat shamans.
If Bohergyi is right and the ancient Mesoamericans professed some kind of worship to the Fleur de Lis symbol is not a risk to assure this cult arrived to prehispanic Colombia with the migration. I think the origin of the Tayrona Bat, Mushroom, Fleur de Lis cult is in Mesoamerica and this manbat shamans spread all around the prehispanic colombian territory sharing their entheogenic knowledge with other tribes that did not even belong to the chibchan family. Research around the mesoamerican god Camazots will give new insights to the case.
Its also probable that the Herrera people. The original dwellers of the lands that would become known as the Muisca territories worshipped a lunar goddess and where ruled by a queen. In this cultural hybridization the Tayronas bring with them a solar deity and all this originated the Muisca pantheon but more research must be done on the subject.
All this is just an assumption.
To end this chapter 3 bat figures done by the Tayronas are exposed to the reader. The first is totally stylized. The second one show us some features of a Man-bat shaman despicted in its interior and the last one is true to reality.
An upside bat can be seen.
3. THREE TAYRONA CURIOUS PIECES IN THE MUSEO DEL ORO
There are three curious pieces of the Tayrona goldsmithing art that deserve to be analyzed. In the present chapter will proceed to do the task.
The first image shows what I think is a gold pendant with two birds and between the space what it seems to be a mushroom. When we turn upside down this figure it also shows a mushroom cap. It even resembles the Amanita muscaria cap.
It would be important to note out at this moment that the Amanita muscaria has been refered in many cultures around the world as "Raven´s Bread".
The second image its the most intriguing in the whole museum to me. Its beautiful pectoral. Its an scene that shows two birds and what in the middle seems to be a sun emerging from the underground. If my suspicions are right this sun looking detail is the sun and the mushroom at the same time.
This piece has some features that resemble Mithraism. Its very important to make out the observation and point out the connection. The scene also shows some decorative mushrooms that elude to an experience with an entheogen.
The reader must remember something at this point...
When we analyzed in the first chapter of this paper the first mushroom stone, it shows a mushroom manbat shaman sitting on a mushroom. His head is a mushroom and inside his head are two mushroom-shaped birds that are guarding a mushroom. The mushroom stone gives us the botanical identity of what this circle in the middle of the birds really means in this mysterious gold pendant: A mushroom.
It could also be a representation of the pineal gland.
As suggested this particular piece have some features that resemble Mithraism. Of course there where no Mithraism and Freemasons in the ancient Tayrona times but the Sol Invictus symbolism as the two birds that remember Castor and Pollux suggest a secret society of some kind... Im not very versed on this themes so I would leave the question to be solved to futher researcher specialized in the theme.
Anyway Ive heard of a roman sword that was found in the north of America and the Father Crespi story. Many mysteries unsolved. Further research must be done.
If you look carefully at the piece it resembles a Father Crespi artifacts found in Tayos Cave in Ecuador. The father Crespi piece shows two feline type animals (Probably Jaguars) while the Tayrona piece shows two birds. A sun is in the middle. There is a pyramid.
Something important to mention is while in the mushroom stone and in the pendant the birds are looking to each other on the pectoral the birds are giving each other their backs.
Could it be possibly to track the Manbat Shamans origin in a secret society of some type?
Its evident the sun represents the Amanita Muscaria mushroom and that the ancient Tayronas performed some kind of cult that involved fungal sacraments, bats and the fleur de lis symbol.
There has been suggested a filiation between de Tayronas and the Muiscas. There is Muisca myth
that deserves to be related at this point. In the beggining was total darkness and Tchyminigagua appeared. From the shoulders of Tchyminigagua two crows where born. They started to fly. One to the left and the other to the right. While the birds waved their wings light started to flow from their beacks. Thats how light appeared in the cosmos and the way the whole Universe was created.
There is an evident artistic connection between Muiscas and Tayronas. You can see here two pectorals. The first one is Muisca and the second one is Tayrona. I really do believe the Tayrona was made first. I think the Tayrona culture as stipulated did influence the Muisca artistic and mushroom traditions.
Probably the Tayrona Shamans of the North got access to the Amanita muscaria while traveling the Colombian country. Specificallty in Muisca territories.
A Whole Mushroom cult complex.
A beautiful myth with lots of versions. This is just a resume. And this gives a lot of clues around the pieces already analyzed in this text. Its probable in ancient prehispanic times there was a contact between Tayronas and Muiscas. And I would dare to say the Tayrona Gold Pendant represents also the Muisca Myth of Tchyminigagua and the two crows.
Its important to note also this myth resembles the european myth of Odin. Odin has two black bird standing in his shoulders.
For a finish to the actual chapter the third curious piece shows a beautiful Tayrona pendant that also shows the form of a mushroom. In this case it could be a Panaeolus or a Psilocybe.
Mushrooms of this type had been reported to the north of Colombia.
Just to support the case.
Lots of this pendants are at display in Museo del Oro in Bogotá. Its not crazy to stipulate the Tayronas where a mushroom culture.
4. A MUISCA LEGEND OF THE BAT
At this point I want to relate an old Muisca legend regarding bats. The story goes as follows. Taking a car from Bogotá without leaving the Department of Cundinamarca. Taking a car from Bogotá on one of the roads that lead to Girardot very close to the well-known restaurant Where Otavio for his delicious preparations is the municipality of Tena. Nearby is the lagoon of Pedro Palo surrounded by exotic flora and fauna. Many paranormal stories are told that have happened in the immediate vicinity of the lagoon. And they are known by the inhabitants of the town. Many years before the Spanish conquerors arrived the Muiscas told this story that began with the adventures of a beautiful pregnant girl on the shore of the lagoon. He was probably picking flowers and decorating his hair. When suddenly she saw a beautiful toad of bright colors that caught his attention. When she had this vision she was seduced to catch the animal. For the Muiscas, frogs, toads, and snakes were sacred. It was simple taboo to kill them. The girl trying this prohibited action is punished by a thunderbolt that suddenly falls from the sky and kills her. She is instantly dead. When the toad sees what is happening, it takes the newly born child in its hands before its mother died and conduces him to the bottom of the lagoon. There he educates and nurtures him. The child grows up learning the secrets of music and eventually becomes a flute master. The boy spent its time around the lagoon playing the flute. The people of the indigenous Muisca town who were very close to the lagoon the same way as this days is located the municipality. where surprised and curious to know what was the origin of a such beautiful musi. The boy by that time was already a teenager about to become a man. The towns people finally discover the secret and take the boy to live with them. There he learns the truth. Kana the god of Thunder had murdered his mother. He decides to take revenge for what happened and through three balls of magic thread he manages to ascend to the kingdom of heaven. When the god Kana has gone hunting he manages to enter the house of this. In the sunset just before nightfall Kana returns home and greets his wife and children. He sits for dinner. Probably with the hunt. Maybe a deer. Through the magical artifice of becoming a bat the boy has hidden himself on the dark side of the roof of the house. He hung on the ceiling holding his feet in the usual manner of bats. At some point of distraction the bat poisons Kana's food by killing it instantly. Then he murders all members of Kana's family except his youngest son, who is a baby. He proceeds to return with the son of Kana to the earth transformed back into his human shape. He is already a man. Time began to pass and the rains stopped all over the place. The lightning and thunders were gone. A drought season started all over the zone. Upon realizing the consequences of his actions, the protagonist of this story goes to the lagoon and throws the child into its waters. A supernatural light surrounds the place and there is a new god of Thunder in the sky. Instantly it starts to rain. The thunderbolts make their appearance again. The next morning all of the frogs and toads around the lagoon begin to sing placidly. The croaking of the toads fills the place like a wonderful melody. The toads make their appearance all over the place just like mushrooms after the rains. Near Girardot the had been found some species of the Panaeolus sp. More research must be done. To the north is the Department of Tolima. Lots of Fungal activity in Tolima and its Prehispanic tribes often represented Man-bats and Man-Jaguars in their goldsmithing work.
This particular legend has suggestive elements that point out to fungi. The rains. Toads and frogs. Also the thunderbolts.This can give us clues around a mushroom cult practiced by the Muiscas. Before the role of the spore was discovered in the reproduction of fungi, it was believed that these were generated by rainfall and lightning strikes after storms. In English the word Toadstool is a common designation for Amanita muscaria. Translated to Spanish literally: El Taburete del sapo. The chair of the toad.
5. FLEUR DE LIS REPRESENTATIONS IN THE MUSEO DEL ORO IN BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA
As complement to the exposed information, and motivation to future investigation; In this chapter, some of the pieces that are in the Museo del Oro, that suggest representations of the Flor de Lis will be exhibited.
The first piece in the analysis is spectacular. A species of fantastic bird is observed carrying the Fleur de Lis in its beak. The round shaped mushroom forms resemble the Amanita muscaria. This one belongs to the Muisca culture.
The following are from the Tumaco culture. What seems to be a stamp to print your textile confections although I could not say what its function is a Fleur de Lis. The ecstatic-faced shaman wears an ornament reminiscent of the Flor de Lis on his head. They can also represent entheogenic mushrooms. In your stomach a circular ornament surrounded by dots may symbolize the psychedelic fungus.
Next we see a group of mushroom heads led by someone who looks like their head is a Fleur de Lis. This is in all likelihood of the Prehispanic Tolima Indigenous Cultures.
To end this small exhibition we present a breastplate. It is part of the type of pieces analyzed by Schultes and Bright in his famous writing: "Ancient Gold pectorals of Colombia: Mushroom effigies?". Article that proposes the use of entheogenic fungi in the indigenous communities of Pre-Hispanic Colombia.
You can see the flying mushroom shaman. Two mushroom canopies can be observed. Fleur de lis representations are sprouting from them.
I think they are of the Psilocybe genus.
In conversations with different members of the Arhuaco tribe they told me about the presence of fungi in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Reports from these reliable informants included reports of Amanita muscaria and Psilocybes. Used according to spiritual ailment and the need of the moment. This must be verified by proper scientific studies in the zone. Two words where given to me. Also several ways to write them. Here I transcribe an example:
Ka´gu Zitii to designate the Amanita muscaria.
Ka´gu Chakiru to refer to the mushrooms belonging to the genus psilocybe. The Arhuacos claim to be descendants of the Tayrona. There is no doubt that sacred mushrooms had been used in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and territories nearby to it since ancient times. Mushroom cults in today's Colombia are still celebrated. Recent information ensures that the Embera-chamii ethnic group performs a ceremony that differs from those performed by Maria Sabina in México. The Embera-chamii velada is not permeated by Catholic elements. It lacks the religious syncretism present in the mexican mushroom veladas. There are also reports regarding the Uitoto. The myths and legends of the Uitoto have characteristics that clearly suggest a use of sacred mushrooms. Psilocybe caerulescens, Psilocybe hoogshagenii, and Psilocybe muliercula had been reported in the Putumayo zone. There is gossip around use of mushrooms belonging to the Psilocybe genus in Putumayo by indigenous tribes. All this must be documented and investigated. JUAN CAMILO RODRIGUEZ MARTINEZ ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SPANISH. JANUARY 23 OF 2018 in the
blog: https://somaylostayronas.wordpress.com/2018/01/23/somaylostayronas/
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