SOMA AND THE MUISCAS: THE COLOMBIAN MUSHROOM CULTS (REVISITED)

“Certainly Colombia should be included in the field. Work should start seriously in the Museo del Oro. Since the authorities are naturally and rightly alert to the possibilities of theft in the Museo del Oro, anyone who goes down there should be well introduced. Armed, for example, with a letter from Professor Richard Evans Schultes…”

 – Ethnomycology: Discoveries About Amanita muscaria Point to Fresh Perspectives

ROBERT GORDON WASSON

SOMA AND THE MUISCAS: THE COLOMBIAN MUSHROOM CULTS

Special gratitude with John W. Allen...

To the Wassons and their legacy… Albert Hofmann… Richard Evans Schultes, John Allegro  and Carl Ruck … I’ve got the blues and of course the red one.
Special Thanks to my family and God… Love them… I love you Leito, Guillo, Maria and Juan Diego. Clark Heinrich… Thanks for the Inspiration amigo…
Kind regards to Karyn Weese,  Jose Rozo Gauta, Mariana Escribano, Luis Fernando Pineda, Juan Diego Ramirez, Andres Dario Salazar Fierro, Chris Casuse, Charles Hayes, P.D. Newman and Dick Khan… Thanks to Dave Dictor and the band Millions of Dead Cops… The classic punk act…

Note: This was originally published in Spanish as Soma y los Muiscas: Los Cultos de los Hongos en Colombia. This was published back in 2017 in the
blog: https://elmisteriodeloshongosencolombia.wordpress.com/2017/12/27/somaylosmuiscas/  This was writen from an amateur perspective. This little writing was shown many years later to legendary mycologist John W. Allen and inspired a totally new document that soon will be released. A total new paper on its own in which John W. Allen contributions are impeccable. He is the true legend. The Data provided by him regarding mesoamerican prehispanic indigenous cultures its truly deep and interesting. I can only thank John W. Allen for the time spent correcting the errors of this manuscript. Many years have passed since this was published in the blog. In 2018 a Psilocybe caerulescens was reported in Bogotá. My city. On the year 2019 on a business trip done by  myself I reported a  Gymnopilus aweruginosus-luteofolius in Paipa, Boyaca.  A psilocybin producer mushroom. In Ancient Muisca territories. Time will tell but I ended up concluding myself Muiscas used the sacred mushrooms... I leave the errors of this original and invite everyone to read this Amateur writing and the paper that soon will be released...

INTRO…

Mushrooms have always fascinated humans always. They were present in fairy tales, and nowadays you can see them all around the scenarios generated for the 3D children movies. Poets and painters have long fallen in love with the charm of the mushroom and its iconography; it’s present in our wildest dreams, and in the shape of atomic bombs explosions. The use of the mushroom as an entheogen is one of themes that researchers from the recent times have tried to explain from different points of views. The works of Robert Gordon Wasson, Robert Graves, Clark Heinrich and many others have set the basis for a question that seems to open more doors, and answers that transform themselves into other questions. It’s like a spiral without an end, and the allegory is beautiful. Still, at the beginnings of the 20th century few people from the Western culture where were not aware of the use of the psychedelic mushrooms.

The secret was revealed by Richard Evans Schultes who traveled to Mexico and discovered the lost identity of the teonanacatl. In those times Robert Gordon Wasson assisted the velada with Maria Sabina, and what was maintained for a long time under an underground veil, became one of the most common intoxicants of the hippie culture. It’s very important to state that in the correct hands a sacred plant acquires its shamanic properties, but in the wrong hands is just a drug. How a secret was maintained for so much time undiscovered generates lots of questions.? The conquistadores tried to destroy and hide all evidence of a mushroom cult in America but time eventually revealed the lost secret. Today, researchers are aware mushroom cults were celebrated in the lands of Mexico. Research on the subject has advanced further and the latest discoveries talk about mushroom cults that  were held in countries such as Siberia, Greece, Japan and the exotic islands of Hawaii. The Amanita muscaria cult traced and detected by Robert Gordon Wasson on in the Ojibway tribe in North America is remarkable.

My country, Colombia, is well known worldwide because of the multiple ancient native indigenous tribes that still live in the national territory. The variety of entheogens used all around the country is innumerable. From coca, tobacco, brugmansias, yopo to ayahuasca, the list is wide and long.

The Amazonas jungle keeps a big pharmacopeia, waiting to be studied. Anyway, the use of the mushroom has been denied by every Colombian native Indian. They don’t like to talk about the subject and are very seldom with the theme. In 1979 Richard Evans Schultes and A. Bright published back in 1979 what I consider the first document suggesting the presence of a mushroom cult in Colombia. The name of the article is: ‘Ancient Gold Pectorals from Colombia: Mushroom Effigies?’ The authors observed pieces held in the Museo del Oro in Bogota, Colombia. The goldsmith art from the ancient Colombian native tribes suggest the use of mushrooms. It’s clear.

Also, a complete study of myths and oral traditions from Colombia gives the evidence of an ancient use of a fungal sacrament. Huitoto indigenous tribe legends and myths  are a good example. Maybe the actual Colombian Indians don’t remember the use of a magic mushroom, but the memory is preserved in magic fruits and thunder staffs present in legends around cultural heroes. For example the Muisca tribe are the indigenous ancestors of the actual habitants of the city of Bogota and its surroundings. The word for mushroom in Muisca is HUA. Mariana Escribano (an authority in Muisca language) tells us that the meaning or ethymology for the word HUA is: “Window to the invisible”. So it’s evident that the ancient Muiscas knew the secret. Probably the first attack from the conquistadores on the Indians was a religious attack, and a prohibition was set up around the entheogen use. Further research must be done around the theme. It’s important to note the similarities between the mushroom velada hosted by Maria Sabina, and the actual ayahuasca ceremonies celebrated in Colombia. The religious sincretism is a common element present in both practices. There are more questions than answers and the mystery is increasing each day. A mysterious piece exposed in the Museo del Oro in Bogota, Colombia suggests the presence of Mithraism but as it was written before further research must be done in the subject with the assistance of an specialist.

My last travels and field work have thrown more light around the subject. I can assure as sure as I can be, that a fungal sacrament was used by ancient Colombians,  as Richard Evans Schultes once suggested. Mushroom cults were dispersed worldwide. It’s important to study these issues for a better understanding of ourselves in the spiritual clash that is striking the world right now. The indigenous mushroom cult was transferred from the Indians to the peasants and they managed to keep the secret and pass it to us. Eleusis was never lost.FEW WORDS

Few words had have been written around the subject of mushrooms and South American indigenous tribes. In Colombia, and South America in general, the great number of different tribes constitutes an eternal question and contantly adds to the mystery; because there are no answers. Colombian authorities from the academy are not willing to give a try to approach this theme, and will deny the possible use of mushrooms by the ancient South American Indians by reducing it the subject to mere drugs. The descendants of the ancient indigenous tribes do not want to help at all and would deny instantly the mushroom use even if they are specialists in DMT brews and coca leaf preparations.

That is really a problem. No one is willing to find a solution to an ancient mystery, so it’s the task of this Bogota punk rocker to give it a try. As I wrote in the introduction, new evidence suggests the use of mushrooms by the ancient Colombians. Gaston Guzman’sllittle known work in my country was remarkable. He identified lots of psilocybe mushroom species endemic from my country.

One example is the mushroom Psilocybe bispora. Even more. This new mushroom, discovered for the science in Colombia by Gaston Guzman in 2007, grows over the grounds of the Nageia rospigliosii forests. This is an endemic Colombian and South American pine that once grew all over the country, and has been the victim of extermination. In ancient times, my country was full of this these lovely pines. Today there are resisting spots, like the forests in Antioquia visited by Gaston Guzman, but the endemic pines number has decreased alarmingly. I suggest that there was not only a mushroom cult practiced by ancient South American tribes, but even more that there was also a pine cult celebrated in the Americas like our brothers in Europe and in other parts of the planet.

By the year 2004 almost 27 different species of mushroom of the psilocybe type where reported in Colombia. With the passing of time, the number of endemic Colombian psilocybin species increases and the sighting of familiar species to the ancient Mexicans has also resumed. In Manizales, Colombia, Psilocybe zapotecorum had been collected. Myself had spotted the semilanceata or one very similar in appearance (weird, this mushroom being from Europe), and the beautiful Mexicana.

I had probed the Muisca mushroom cult by a complete study done by with the aid of Carl Ruck and Clark Heinrich. New evidence and study of pieces of the Museo del Oro in Bogota suggest the that the mushroom cults where not only practiced by the Muiscas, but also by the Tayronas and the Tolimas.

At this point I would like to thank Clark Heinrich  for helping me understanding the Amanita muscaria mushroom. My idea of an Amanita Mushroom Cult in the Muiscas would not have been developed without the encouragement of this wonderful human being, researcher and tomato lover.

The tribes in question which I suggest practiced a mushroom cult are the Tayronas, the Muiscas and the Panches or Tolimas. I will call the last ones Tolimas for the sake of confusion.  There is evidence from seeing the pieces of goldsmithing belonging to this particular tribes in the Museo del Oro, being the Tolima ones being the most powerful and less least stylized of all, while the Tayronas show the most artistic progress to the top.
The Quimbayas where another colombian indigenous tribe that could be potential mushroom users but I leave the subject for another paper.

The interest thing is that languages spoken by Tayronas and Muiscas  were part of the the Chibchan family of languages which originated in today’s Costa Rica-Panama border. The language spoken by the Tolimas belongs to the Cariban languages or that is is one of the suggestions by researchers, but it seems possible some of the cults practiced by the Chibchan people eventually arrived in peoples established in the south of Colombia. So Therefore I suggest the mushroom cult entered Colombia from the north, but no final word should be said around these themes cause the ancient tribes of Peru like the Moches where mushroom users indeed, so the cults also could come from the south.

They could had even originated here in Colombia... Every possibility should be considered.

So indeed many mushroom cults indeed spread from one place to another, but certainly where were originated also at different spots in different space-times in the history of humanity. In Colombia, I believe the cults originated by Mexico and the coasts of Peru; but that’s not the subject of this paper. Let’s continue to the next chapter.

 THE MAN-BATS

Studying the mysterious artifacts of the Museo del Oro, the fungal enthusiast will instantly be amazed for the strong resemblance that some pieces take from the mushrooms. It’s a work that must be done, at its many left to be done deserves far more study.

In my personal researches, I have tracked the mushroom cults in the Muisca, Tayrona and Tolima tribes. An amazing recurrent motive in the Museo del Oro pieces is the one related to the Man-Bat.

The most well- known Men-Bats are from the Tayrona. Studying the Tayrona pieces the stylized mushrooms over the heads of the shamans are instantly recognized. The shaman pieces also suggests that are carrying some type of mushrooms in their hands. Anyway, the Tayrona are the most stylized of the Men-Bats. Of course, the earlier representations suggest the mushrooms even more evidently that the latter ones. Also, the golden hat actually used by the Tayrona Man-Bat shamans shows mushrooms.

We must acknowledge that the Koguis, one of the most well- known Colombian indigenous tribes, are descendants of the Tayronas and they will deny any use of the inhebriating mushrooms even if the famous colombian anthropologist Reichel-Dolmatoff documented the use of mushrooms in this tribe. Now l Lets continue.

Looking all over the Muisca Men-Bats, their heads strongly suggest the pileus motive. All the Muisca Men-Bats are mushroom heads. Reading the researchs of the eminent Jose Rozo Gauta (an authority on the Muisca culture) he suggested that these Muisca Men-Bats where were wide users of entheogens, but he did not dare to suggest what type of entheogens this Men-Bats they may have used.

When I suggested him the sacred mushrooms he agreed.

Muiscas shamans used a wide variety of entheogens. The principal entheogens of the Muiscas where the Brugmansias.

From the artistic representations in the Museo de Oro, one can infere that one of the entheogens in question was of a fungal nature. I would dare to suggest we are talking of mushrooms of the psilocybin type without discarding the possibility that the ancient Muiscas knew about Amanita muscaria, but I will leave this theme for another chapter concentrating in this one around the Men-Bats mystery.

Reading Jose Rozo Gauta, one learns that these Muisca Men-Bats  were Chthonic beings that lived in caves and moved in the night. It is well known that the Muisca priesthood was trained in the night, and that the candidates where prohibited to look to at the light or have interactions with women. They where called the Chyquys . They lived in the caves for years and were literally night beings until their preparation was over. The Mamos (Tthe actual Kogui priests, descendants of the ancient Tayronas) are similarly prepared before they can attain the title of priests. They cannot see the light or have interactions with women for many years. By the way, in his book Goldwork and Shamanism published in the late 1980s, the author Reichel-Dolmatoff (the famous Colombian anthropology godfather), annotated noted the actual use of magic mushrooms by the Kogui priesthood in their initiation ceremony.

Muisca Men-Bat Shamans

Now let’s move further south to the Panches or Tolimas. The artistic representations of these part of Colombia are the most evidently regarding a mushroom use. The Men-Bats of the Tolimas also represent Jaguars. It is a curious motive related to the shamans, totems and the stuff I had been researching lately. It’s amazing how the north Manbat shaman starts to turn into a Jaguar in the south, while retaining its bat properties. Superantural creatures. When you turn the Tolima pieces upside down, the mushrooms are evident. And the Tolima mushroom-head shows the mushroom in all its splendor.

At this point would be important to note that there is a rumour regarding the Cofan indians. The Cofans are a tribe that still habits in part of colombian  south territory. Rumour says some of their shamans transform theirselves into jaguars after the ingestion of magic mushrooms. More research must be done around this rumour.

 Its important to note that the first suggestion made by researchers around the Tolima pieces was the idea that they are representing a penis, but the Tolima mushroom head leaves no doubt is a mushroom we are talking about. Maybe both. Why not? A mushroom-falic fertility cult?

My hypothesis in the way of turning itself to a theory is that the mushroom cult was carried away by the Tayrona Men-Bat shamans all over my country. It’s a daring supposition to assume the cult was diffused by the ancient Tayronas to the rest of the Colombian territory, but it makes a little sense when you see that the Muiscas, and Tayronas spoke languages that belonged to the same Chibchan languages family. It’s not crazy to assume this Man-Bat shamans arrived in the south of Colombia sharing this ancient knowledge. Even if the Muiscas and the Panches were at war almost all the time, this these Men-Bat shamans could be a group of anarchists also. A secret society. The Tayrona priesthood.

A remarkable and repetitive artistic detail represented in the Tayrona gold pieces ckept in Museo del Oro is the fFleur de lis. The fleur-de-lis was a common artistic representation used by the Tayronas. Carl de Borhegyi’s researchs around the subject are is very interesting and he is the authority regarding this particular theme. Indeed, a fleur-de-lis, mushroom, bat cult was practiced by the Tayronas. A cult that points to Mesoamerica as its origin. More inquiries must be done. The fleur-de-lis motif was not used only by the Tayronas in the prehispanic Colombia, but that research belongs to another paper.

Curious? Ahh. The Men-Bat theme should be tracked in further researches on Mexico, Central-America and why not even in North America?. The presence of the bat in myths and legends all over America is a work left undone that will add new insights to the future research.

To end with, in today’s Colombian state of  Tolima, an ancient dwelling place of the Panches or Tolimas, there is lots of witchcraft still going on these days. I have a friend and very trusty informant that told me once that a Tolima sorcerer gave him in some kind of witchcraft ceremony a number of mushrooms of the psilocybe genus, different from the familiar Cubensis from the  cow.

I had told earlier that Gaston Guzman identified Ppsilocybin mushrooms endemic o Colombia and that in later years Mexican species well known from a long time ago had been spotted and identified in my country.

The evidence is out there and points as clearly to an ancient mushroom cult dispersed all over the Colombian territory. It is evident that the ancient Tolima shamans bequeathed their medicinal plants and mushroom knowledge to the actual witchcraft peasants that live in Tolima these days. Lots of anthropologic studies have been done in therecent years regarding the witchcraft theme in Tolima, and this will also bring new perspectives for the mushroom mystery studies in my country Colombia.

And that indeed the Tolima Museo del Oro pieces are living testimonies of an ancient mushroom cult practiced in the past.

A new field of operations is opening in the entheobotanic studies. I can’t stop thinking of how the Ancient Greek kids grew up listening the to stories of Hercules and Perseus, and I grew up listening the to stories of Batman and Superman. How entheogens, superpower, superheroes and shamans relate to each other. The relationships of ancient myths with comic books, and how comic books this these days offer a new mythos for the actual younger generations. How the shamans and superheroes fight  against the menaces that defy the peace of the community.

All this these themes must be developed in further researchs. Meanwhile it is important to remember both the Men-Bats from the past, and the importance of Batman for today’s kids.

The fact that cultural ancient heroes and myths have influenced the comic books culture of today is a true fact that needs no discussion.

Photos of the Tayrona, Muisca and Tolima Men-Bats are attached to this paper. Let us continue to the next chapter, in which the theme discussed will be the actual Colombian peasants and their knowledge regarding the ancient mushroom cults.

1. THE ACTUAL PEASANTS AND THE MUSHROOM: THE VILLA DE LEYVA CASE.

More or less from about three hours in by bus from Bogota, and two hours by car, there is the colonial town and municipality of Villa de Leyva. Founded in 1572 with the name Villa de Santa María de Leyva. It’s located in the Boyacá department in Colombia. Villa de Leyva is well known in the Bogota underground as the place to go for the mushrooms.

More or less About 40 years ago, people started to go to Villa de Leyva for the magic mushrooms. It could be more time ago. The peasantry received these travelers that where were searching for the familiar Psilocybe cubensis. The rumor spread, and with the passing of time more and more people started to go to Villa de Leyva for the magic mushrooms. Villa de Leyva is a well- known place around the world. The Werner Herzog movie Cobra Negra was shot in Villa de Leyva. Some parts of it anyway. That’s another great story. The visit of Kinski and Herzog to Colombia.

The architecture of Villa de Leyva is remarkable, and the fresh air that you breathe walking its colonial streets literally transport you through time.

There is a well -known lady and inhabitant of the surroundings of Villa de Leyva. Leaving the colonial town after more or less 2 two hours of walking, there are the Periquera Falls. Very near the falls lives Doña G… She is an old lady that is always willing to help the campers and travelers. In my opinion, she is like our Maria Sabina. Over time I had have become a very close friend of hers, and she had has told me and assured me that she has never had eaten the mushroom but she is in love with it. She mastered the techniques of mushroom drying better than any college student or academic mycologist, and in our conversations I  always get a spot of knowledge. I remember the last time I brought anAmanita muscaria to G’s house and after she saw it looking me to in the eyes she said to me: “Esa es mas brava.” Literally “That’s more ferocious.”

With the passage of time and the spreading of the rumor the use of psilocybin cow mushrooms in Villa de Leyva and its surroundings is no more a secret. The possession of mushroom now is punished by the law and of course their traffic. Also the peasants are aware of the great price a foreigner traveler is willing to pay for the precious mushrooms. G… is different. She is just in love with the mushroom. More than anyone G… is a living testimony of the Muisca myths. The Muiscas are the ancestors of the actual habitants of Cundinamarca and Boyaca and part of Santander, departments in Colombia.

The technique of leaving the mushrooms in the roofs on baskets is mastered by G… with a unique talent. When I find my mushrooms I always go to G’s house and give her one of my best mushrooms findings of the day, and she celebrates it with a smile and tells me that she has lots of friends and that she will give it to one of them.

G… is a very good informant except when her sons and grandchildrens are near. Instantly she will fall in a deep silence and will divert the attention of the conversation to anything that has nothing to do with the mushrooms.

Indeed there are many peasants familiar and friendly with the mushrooms but indeed the mycophobia is extended everywhere, and you have to be very careful because they can call you the cops; and you don’t want to be busted by the police on a psilocybin trip.

Stories of suicides, murders and bad use of mushrooms are told often so the camping has been prohibited in the last years. I’m lucky to have made some friends in there and well, the kids always find their ways to make their  mushroom camping trips in the Christmas seasons and other vacations. But of course travelling to the zone in normal seasons is notas easy as it was years before. Peasants complain because the kids will damage the fences when picking the mushrooms, or even because the trips sometimes turn into sexual orgies that to the traditional peasant are disrespectful.

Doña G is a very respected person. I can spend hours and hours talking with her about mushrooms and for me she is an authority.

As I had have told you Villa de Leyva has become famous and the police are very suspicious with any kids who arrive at the bus terminal, so there are other towns near Villa de Leyva and the Periquera Falls that are the new destinations for the mushroom seekers. Arcabuco and Gachantiva are two towns near the Periquera Falls and for the traveler is safer to arrive there instead of Villa de Leyva.

By the way, the peasants of Arcabuco are mushroom specialists. The edible mushroom industry there is promising. Studies had been done around mushrooms and Arcabuco peasants.

Some years before ago I published in a independent way a book called Los Preludios de la Supersticion Muisca. It’s a book in which I reconstruct the Muisca myths cycle suggesting the possibility of a mushroom cult. Near Periquera Falls between the mountains lies the Iguaque Lake. It’s the Muisca Garden of Eden. Legend says that the goddess Bachue sprung from the lake waters with a d3-year-old kid on his handschild. She constructed the first house and raised her son until he turned into a man, and become her husband. All the Muiscas where born from this couple and the first Muisca town was founded: Chiquiza, also called San Pedro de Iguaque. The goddess taught all the laws to the Muisca people and returned with ther husband to the lake, into which they disappeared in the form of snakes.
The name of the goddess Bachue translated from the Muisca language to the spanish means “Worthy Breast”. It could be a fungal reference to a sacred mushroom.

This famous and fundamental myth of the Muisca tribe is now a theme of anthropologist books and Oral oral traditions put into the text by historians and researchers (myself one of them.). , It is still a living story in Villa de Leyva. Doña G… told me the narration story last year when I visited her into her house. Near Doña G…’s house there are some caves in which the Men-’Bats I talked of before lwere initiated and lived. The caves of the Indian and of the Fetus. Years ago, you could enter these caves freely but in the last few years they had have been sealed for preservation because of the vandalism perpetrated to the sites by irresponsible travelers. The cave of the Indian has rock art in it done by the ancient Muiscas.

There is another important spot. Around 10 or 20 km from la Periquera Fall, reaching Villa  de Leyva and then walking like more or less 2 hours to the desert zones you find Infiernito. It was a Muisca Astronomical Observatory in which fertility rites where done. There are lots of stones that resemble penis and I identify them as Mushroom stones. It’s what I like to call the Colombian Stonehenge. They also said it was a temple dedicated to the sun.

INFIERNITO-Image retrieved from Wikipedia

If my suspicions are right: the caves, the Muiscas astronomical observatory Infiernito with its penis-’mushroom stones, and the lake with the goddess myth , and even the Periquera Falls. Sum all the parts and you have a result. All this was part of a religious Muisca complex. And even more. Furthermore, I suggest the use of a fungal entheogen endemic to this these lands, as a sacrament in the fertility cults. An endemic mushroom of the genus psilocybe was used by the Muiscas,  and I suggest  that the Muisca priesthood owned the knowledge-

Its important to note that some researchers assure the Infiernito astronomical complex was build by a culture that preceded the Muiscas. Probably the Herrera. This is the most probable origin of the complex.

A last word around Doña G… From Since ancient times the Muiscas (And today the peasants) had prepared two fermented drinks called Chicha and Guarapo, fermented beverages derived from the maize and other sources. The South American Muiscas where acknowledged of the fungal processes in the fermentation of their alcoholic drinks. Doña G… still masters this technic and her Guarapo is the true Chicha from the Muisca times. The original word that Muiscas gave to the fermented drinks was fapqua. The language spoken by the Muiscas was the Muysccubun.

In the fapqua word you can find the "ua" sound that resembles the hua word for mushroom.

On anthropological studies done in the 80s of the past century there was a tradition of witchcraft documented in Villa de Leyva and its proximities.
Could Doña G… be one of the last remnants of this ancient female witchcraft tradition?

I had talked already of Gaston Guzman, of the endemic species of psilocybin in Colombia. I’ve been travelling the Villa de Leyva and Arcabuco surroundings areas looking for an endemic psilocybin mushrooms. I have not being been successful in it yet, but I’m pretty sure the answers lies there waiting to be found. or maybe it was solved already by Gaston Guzman. Im not a skilled mycologist. In the process perhaps. And well today A friend of mine wrote to me that while talking to some Colombian peasants today they told him of an endemic psilocybin species growing on the oaks.

In my last travels a mushroom very similar to the Gymnopilus junonius was spotted. More research must be done.

Researchers would be surprised because of at the biodiversity of Colombia. In the endemic Romeron pine forests, Gaston Guzman identified the Psilocybe bispora. Gaston Guzman was also responsible for identifiying an endemic psilocybin South American species from the highland moor,. Psilocybe columbiana.

The surroundings of Villa de Leyva are highland moor.

The goldsmithing evidence is remarkable in the Museo del Oro. Personally I am convinced that the Muiscas used the psilocybin mushrooms and that there was an extended knowledge of the use of it all over the territory; but a new question opens in my mind.

Were Amanita species the SOMA used by the Muiscas? In the actual Villa de Leyva and its surroundings lots of species of mushrooms grow. Different colors, shapes and forms. It’s a real mushroom land. The seekers of mushrooms where only paying attention to the Psilocybe cubensis. But in the zone lots of Amanita muscaria grow and the Amanita A. muscaria season is in Christmas.

In the last years the Amanita muscaria has gained popularity amongst the Bogota youth, and now its seeked after with enthusiasm even if it has been growing around Bogota from a very long time. You wont believe but might be surprised to know that my city Bogota is surrounded by mountains, and they are full of Amanita muscaria.

I just remember A trustworethy friend of mine told me he saw P. semilanceata in the Bogota Mountains. Another friend has seen the P. Zapotecorum in Manizales. Lots of Sightings of psilocybin mushrooms different from the P. Cubensis had have increased over the years and this is a perfect example that there is lots of work to be done.

Mexico would be a good example to follow regarding the identification of endemic species.

In the next chapter and for the sake of focus I will center my arguments around the Soma Amanita use in the Muisca tribe.
SOMA Amanita AND THE MUISCAS

Amanita muscaria. Dos bellos ejemplares de Villa de Leyva.

There is no mystery that the Ancient indigenous tribes of America used the psilocybin mushrooms this regarding primarily from the Mexican tribes. Which tribes in America used the psilocybin mushrooms is not the matter of this paper or of this chapter. Here we are going to center in the fabulous mushroom of the fairy tales. The read head with the white spots over it. Amanita muscaria.

Much has been written about Amanita, and it’s possible identity as a candidate for the soma. Wasson remarkable book Soma Divine Mushroom of Immortality for me is the best research to the date regarding the elusive identity of the mysterious plant used and celebrated by the ancient vedic poets.

Many years has have passed since that book was originally published. An Amanita mushroom cult has been detected in North America and in recent years the variety of the North American Amanita muscaria has been identified as different than her European sister. Research suggest that the european one is more potent than the american but another possible explication assures that it depend more in the location where is found. all this regarding with the altitude.

Any suggestion of an Amanita muscaria use regarding the Colombian ancient tribes is instantly dismissed by both the Academy and actual Colombian Indians. The argument is that the conquerors bring with them the foreign pines and species of trees, and of course the Amanita.A similar argument was exposed used regarding the psilocybin mushrooms and the cows that arrived with the Spanish and later European invasion.

Clark Heinrich thinks the Amanita muscaria is a cosmopolitan mushroom present in many parts of the world.

There is an endemic tree from Colombia: Quercus humboldtii. Its called, the Colombian oak. There is a mushroom of the genus Amanita called the Amanita flavoconia. Regarding this Amanita Flavoconia mushrooms tTwo variants of Amanita flavoconia  were collected from Colombian oak forests: A. flavoconiavar. sinapicolor and A. flavoconia  var. inquinata. Varieties endemic from Colombia.

I’m aware this A. flavoconia is not entheogenic but more research must be done. Anyway However its appearance resembles the A. Muscaria, so the South American indigenous tribes at least had the iconography of the Fly Agaric.

I am familiar with the new interpretations of the ancient Mexican writing of the Popol Vuh and the suggestions in the book that Amanita muscaria was used by ancient Mexicans.

The Huichol of Mexico call the Amanita muscaria wolf-plant.

I had seen Codex from the ancient Mexicans despicting the Amanita muscaria only to be seen by the initiated. Let me use the term in these sentence. Amanita muscaria give as a clue to follow inthrough Siberia, Usa and Mexico. Add to that all the vedic traditions and European folklore and fairty tales. This only gives a beautiful charm to the mystery that I do not need to to resolve at all but enjoy in all its delight.

There are lots of stories regarding the Muiscas, Villa de Leyva and its surroundings. I’ve heard wondrous stories of the ancient inhabitants of Atlantis who visited this these lands before the Spaniards. Similar stories ive heard about Vikings, Chinese and Egyptians. But In my last trip one of my bemushroomed partners and one of the best mushroom hunters I’ve ever met in my life start talking about the Hindu people. It’s a curious story.  There is also UFO activity reported in these lands. Lot of it.

Bochica was a Muisca cultural heroe. The stories of Bochica are still remembered. Some say he arrived in a spacecraft. Its one of the versions. One of the leyends around Bochica tells us that the Muiscas forgot the old teachings of Bachue entering in a period of debauchery. The evil goddess Huitaca had corrupted the old laws, and the god Chibchacum, enraged because of the new attitudes of the Muisca people who had forgotten the old gods and teachings, decided to exterminate them by flooding the Muisca territories. Bochica faces Huitaca and transforms her in an owl, some other versions tell us he turned her into the moon, Later he defeats Chibchacum and punish him to carry the world over his shoulders. The last act in this adventure of Bochica tells us that he appears over a rainbow carrying in his hand his magical staff that turns into a thunder. The thunder strikes all over the rocks that are containing the waters and causing the flood. This is how the famous Salto del Tequendama Fall was created. Its located near the city of Bogota. The Muiscas celebrate the victory of Bochica and he reminds them standing on the rainbow not to forget the ancient laws. Thats how Bochica saved the Muiscas from extermination. This is the deluge myth version of the Muiscas.

A version tells us that Bochica dissapeared from the Earth leaving a footprint in a rock. Same as Mithras.

Its the right moment to make some relations between ancient european myths and prehispanic indigenous oral traditions in America. The ancient europeans believed in a god named Odin. which had two ravens in his shoulders. The Muiscas believed in the god Chiminigagua which also had two black birds in his shoulders. One of the foundational myths of the Muisca people tells us that in the beggining was total darkness and Chiminigagua appeared. Then two birds (Some version identify them like ravens) sprung from the shoulders of Chiminigagua and one flyed to the left and the other to the right. From  their beaks light started to flow and the universe was created while they flyed to later dissapear without leaving trace.

Odin had a son. Thor. His story has been an inspiration to a famous comic book. He was the god of thunder and was armed with a magical hammer: Mjolnir. The Mjolnir is the same thunder and could only be used by Thor. Could it be the Mjolnir represent the entheogen? Remembering Carl Rucks ideas the entheogens in the right hands are sacraments. Could this represent the ancient european shamans that mastered the secrets of the mushrooms? The Muisca heroe and god Bochica also was armed with a Thunder.

The popular believe that where a thunder strikes an Amanita muscaria grows is extended all over many ancient cultures all over the world. The believe that mushrooms will appear after the rains is very popular. Lastest research tells us that electric activity has something to do regarding the fungal activity.

The pagans in ancient europe after being pursued by the church encoded their secrets around entheogens in their oral traditions. The Grimm brothers fairy tales are a perfect example. In the prehispanic indigenous oral traditions this lore has been preserved also by narrative resources like magical fruits and staffs.

Some say Bochica was a viking. Others tells us he was some kind of asiatic religious leader. And there is even a version that portrays him like an ancient jew prophet. Its a mystery. Also the Muisca goddes Huitaca reminds us of the greek Hecate. The similarity of the name of both goddess is remarkable. Both related to witchcraft and moon cults. Research suggest Hecate was a goddess worshipped long before the Greek culture was established (Robert Graves).

Also Chibchacum was portrayed by the Muiscas as a blue giant. It remembers the ancient greek god Atlas and another ancient deity from India both punished to carry the world in their shoulders. When Chibchacum is tired and changes the planet from shoulder to shoulder an earthquake happens. Could Chimbchacum be interpreted as a mushroom of the psilocybe type?

Anyway the Amanita muscaria grows a lot in Villa de Leyva and its surroundings the same way as the Psilocybe cubensis. It’s very easy to find them but the month of December to me is the best for picking both the Amanitas and the Psilocybes. As I had written before is a mushroom zone in which lots of work must to be done. I have seen something similar to the Psilocybe mexicana growing in those fields (But this information has to be proben... I could be wrong) and I’m pretty convinced some of the endemic mushrooms encountered by Gaston Guzman are also to be found by the skilled researcher in the Villa de Leyva-Arcabuco surroundings.

The idea of Christmas origin in a mushroom cult is  a common one in last studies done by researchers. Santa Claus interpreted as an Amanita Muscaria shaman and the christmas gifts representing simbolically the magic mushrooms under the pine is a well known interpretation. This deserves more attention. Reindeers go crazy for the fly agaric.

In the summer season you twon’t find mushrooms.

No record of Amanita use has been recorded or suggested ever in the ancient tribes of Colombia but I suspect they kept the secret very good. I won’t assure such an idea but I had the intuition that the an Amanita muscaria var. ‘South America’ is still there to be studied and identified.

There is one curious piece that  is now held in a Cleveland museum . It’s a Muisca gold pendant that symbolizes a bird but to me is the Colombian goldsmithing piece thatresembles more an Amanita muscaria. It´s worth noting here the fact that the Psilocybe mexicana was called by the ancients Nize, or ‘little birds, a suggestive term. Also the Amanita muscaria was known in the old word as Ravens bread.

Muisca Pendant In Cleveland Museum that looks like Amanita muscaria

This really opens more questions than answers. I will attach the photo of the Cleveland piece at the end of this paper along with the Men-Bat from the Colombian goldsmithing.

In my personal experience I think the Amanita muscaria found in Villa de Leyva is very powerful. Cooked on a peasant’s traditional oven it will turn from red to orange and all her magic properties will start to flow. Doing a little ball of it and swallowing whole was my experience with some fresh milk and maryjane.

Its well know that  the magic properties of the Amanita muscaria will increase after eating it, in the urine produced by the intoxicated body that consumed the entheogen.

One of the most potent experiences in my life.

I leave the question open: Did the Muiscas used the Amanita muscaria? I would dare to answer the question with a yes and leave it to time to give me the reason or indulge me for such a lousy statement.

EPILOGUE

Some conclusionshave been put to the paper. Schultes identified the Zenu and Quimbaya cultures as mushroom users in his famous paper. I added to this picture the Muiscas, the Tayronas and the Tolimas. Something makes sense in all of this, because the languages spoken by the Tayrona and Muisca tribes belong to the Chibchan families stock.

There is a possibility that the Zenu culture teached the goldsmithing techniques to the Muiscas. Why not also knowledge around mushrooms?

As in all societies  the use of mushrooms probably become part of the elite priesthood long before the arrival of the Spaniards, but the persecution  of the religious practices of the natives turned the used of the mushroom into a complete mystery.

As I wrote before, more research must be done. Talking one day of with Carl de Borhegyi he sent me a picture of a goldmisthing piece of the Malagana culture recently discovered in 1992 despicting a mushroom. Ive seen the piece in the museum. This culture was located in Valle del Cauca. By coincidence I was studying a piece of the Calima Culture. The mushroom is really evident in this Calima piece I was checking at the moment. The Calima was a colombian prehispanic indigenous culture located also In in Valle del Cauca. I  looked at the possible mushroom in the figure and it makes sense with the information provided by de Bohergy and the Malaganas.

On the groundbreaking article: “Micolatría en la Iconografía Prehispánica de América del Sur”, published back in 2008 by the authors César Velandia, Leidy Galindo and Katherine Mateus; one of the pieces analyzed is Malagana. This article was shared to me not so long ago.

Also there is a mysterious archeological site called San Agustin to the south of the department of Huila. These people disappeared without trace. It’s a mystery. They left many statues. Some friends have told me they suspect  as this tribe to have been mushroom users. A hippie that has travelled to the zone many times told me that he was convinced that one of the statues in San Agustin was really a mushroom shaman with the entheogen in his hand. Entering the Museo del Oro in Bogota, there is a San Agustin statue that suggests the same.

It’s curious but San Agustin is in the department of Huila. Huila is in the from south of Tolima department, and Valle del Cauca is to the west of Tolima. Cundinamarca and Boyaca are to the north east of Tolima. Santander is to the north of Boyaca. The Tayronaslived on the north coast, to far awayfrom this zones.

My theory is that the mushroom cult entered Colombia from the north. The Men-Bats dispersed the mushroom cult all over the territory from the Tayronas to the Zenu, Quimbayas, Muiscas, Tolimas, to the Valle del Cauca and also Huila, disappearing without trace in the jungles of the south. No final word should be said.   This theory can be feasible without discarding another mushroom cult that emerged from Peru.

Why not both cults? A research around lunar myths and solar myths around the world must be done. Could there have been a war between the Sungod and the Moongoddess? That’s another story waiting to be written. Could be the Amanita mushroom be related to the sun myths and the Ppsilocybin mushrooms to the moon myths? It’s just a supposition. An speculative fiction.

It’s just an idea. But this idea covers all the Chibchan language tribes, also including the cults identified by Schultes and the Colombian pine forest of Antioquia in which Gaston Guzman discovered the Psilocybe bispora. I have a friend. He is a very popular indigenous leader. He is a Muisca. A very trustful person and wonderful human being. He once told me the Muiscas used some kind of ointment made from the Amanita muscaria mushroom. He called the medicine Manita. Manita sounds like Amanita and is a diminutive of “a hand”: Little hand. It’s the only living testimony of a member of a Colombian indigAmanita muscaria. I’ll keep his name in secret for the sake of mystery. No spacetime evidence regarding the use of Amanita by the Muiscas and Amanita has been ever recorded, and he refused to speak more about the theme, excusing himself that he did not knew no more.

In the department of Santander use of Amanita muscaria as insecticide has been reported. They put the Amanita Muscaria cap in a bowl full of water and the flies will fall  unconscious to finally die drowned in the liquid.

The colombian indigenous tribe Emberá-Chamí still performs a mushroom velada. It should be documented.

A last observation. The most famous piece in the Museo del Oro collection is the Muisca raft. Needs no presentation. In it the investure of the Muisca chief or Zipa is represented.  Some say this coronation took place in the sacred Lake of Guatavita. Other versions tells us that it was located in the Lake of Siecha. Its the origin of the El Dorado legend. In the proximities of both lakes Amanita Muscaria is very popular. Legend tells us that the Zipa before been crowned covered himself in gold dust to later submerge in the lake on a sacred ceremony.

In the Muisca raft you can see the Zipa accompanied probably with his favourite warriors and some members of the priestly caste of the Muiscas: The Chyquys.  There are some elements carried in the raft that past researchers had interpreted as banners of some type. I would dare to suggest we are talking of magic mushrooms.

THE END.

JUAN CAMILO RODRIGUEZ MARTINEZ

Bogota Colombia. South America._________________________________________________

References… Bibliography Recomended Lectures:

ANCIENT GOLD PECTORALS FROM COLOMBIA: MUSHROOM EFFIGIES? Richard Evans Schultes and Alec Bright. Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University. Vol. 27, No. 5/6 (May-June 1979), pp. 113-141

Wasson, R. Gordon. The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. (Reprint by City Lights, 2012.)
Wasson, R. Gordon, et al. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. New York: Harcourt, 1978.
Wasson, R. Gordon. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. 1968.

Wasson, R. Gordon, Stella Kramrisch, Jonathan Ott, and Carl A. P. Ruck. Persephone’s Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

The Hidden World: Survival of Pagan Shamanic Themes in European Fairytales, with Blaise Daniel Staples, José Alfredo González Celdrán and Mark Alwin Hoffman (2007)

The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, with Clark Heinrich and Blaise Daniel Staples (2000)

Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras: The Drug Cult that civilized Europe

Carl Ruck, Mark Hofmann, Jose Alfredo Gonzales Celdran

City Lights

Mushroom Myth and Imagery in Hawai’i: Evidence for an Indigenous Cult

by Mark Hoffman

The Entheogenic Review

Antiguos Pectorales de Oro: Representaciones de Hongos?

Richard Evans Schultes y Alex Bright

Boletin Cultural y Bibliografico 1985

“Micolatría en la Iconografía Prehispánica de América del Sur”, published back in 2008 by the authors César Velandia, Leidy Galindo and Katherine Mateus


Guzmán G., A. E., Franco-Molano & F. Ramírez-Guillén: New section and new species of a bluing Psilocybe (Fungi, Basidiomycotina, Agaricales) from Colombia. Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc.

2007

Tripping: An Anthology of True Life Psychedelic Adventures

Charles Hayes

Penguin Compass

2000

DMT & MY OCCULT MIND

Dick Khan

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (February 17, 2017

Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy

Clark Heinrich

Park Street Press

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A study of the nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of Near East

John Allegro

Gnostic Media Research and Publishing

La Civilizacion Chibcha

Miguel Triana

Biblioteca Banco Popular

Cinco Mitos de la Literatura Oral Mhuysca o Chibcha

Mariana Escribano

Semper Ediciones

Los Chibchas Antes de la Conquista Española

Vicente Restrepo

Biblioteca Banco Popular

The Secret Drugs of Buddhism

Mike Crowley

Psychedelic Press

Terence Mckenna

Foods of the Gods

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge – A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution. New York: Bantam. 1992.

ETHNOBOTANY : Evolution of a Discipline

edited by Richard Evans Schultes and Siri von Reis

Dioscorides 1995

Alchemically Stoned: The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry

PD NEWMAN

The Laudable Pursuit

2017

Los Kogi: Una tribu indígena de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Vol 1 y 2. 1950 y 1951. (Bogotá: Iqueima, 1951; segunda edición Procultura, 1985) Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff

Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff

Goldwork and Shamanism: An Iconographic Study of the Gold

Museum of the Banco de la Republica, Colombia

Alimentacion y Medicina entre los Muiscas

Jose Rozo Gauta

Bogota Ediciones Naldi 1998

Note:

Los Preludios de la Supersticion Muisca by Juan Camilo Rodriguez Martinez. My book is

independently published on Amazon) its like a manuscript i hope it gets released on the proper way.

This it the data in the Amazon page. Paperback: 142 pages

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 3 edition (July 19, 2017)
• Language: Spanish