THE TOLIMAS AND THE MUSHROOM: MICOLATRY IN PREHISPANIC COLOMBIA

THE TOLIMAS AND THE MUSHROOM: MICOLATRY IN PREHISPANIC COLOMBIA

“Rationalize values it’s so easy to succeed Keeping your eyes on the prize excess, success Camped outside laisser-faire People understand me there Don’t talk to me we’ll get along just fine Blowin’ out your mores Henry ford tradition preys on Idle minds left the emergency brake on too long Underneath the city lies the ruins of mankind The excavation was a financial success With artifacts of gold The arrowheads went straight to the Smithsonian The rest was melted down and sold Substantial gains Minimal losses are tolerable As long as the machine keeps running on Cannibals Functioning on pheromones Rational thought lost to instinctual“

– Dig a song by the punk band NOFX

“Las representaciones de hongos se encuentran en casi todos los sistemas de expresión estéticos de las culturas prehispánicas americanas y han sido descritos o referenciados en diversas publicaciones (Caso 1963; Wasson 1983; Anders 1992; Schultes – Hofmann 1993; Velandia 2005) como figuraciones de hongos alucinógenos o que, al ingerirse, producen efectos psicotrópicos. Dichas representaciones de hongos, hacen parte del complejo de prácticas que definen la actividad e los chamanes y por tanto, tienen una profunda vinculación con todos los demás elementos del imaginario prehispánico.”

– Micolatría en la Iconografía Prehispánica de América del Sur

por Cesar Velandia, Leidy Galindo y Katherine Matheus

Dedicated to Carl Henrik Langebaek, Luis Fernando Pineda and Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff. and the Department of Anthropology of Universidad de los Andes.  Many thanks also to Andrés Dario Salazar Fierro and the Department of Sociology of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Absolute thanks!
This article was originally published in spanish in the blog:
https://lostolimasyloshongos.wordpress.com/

Special thanks for Julie Geanakakis for helping me with the translation. 

I. INTRODUCTION

The extermination carried out by the Spanish in the present American lands left irreparable gaps (in cultural/mycological knowledge/wisdom) for the indigenous studies that are carried out today. In addition to looting and ethnic annihilation, the conquerors managed in many cases to eliminate all vestiges of ancient pre-Hispanic cultures that would allow us to learn a little about our past.

Thanks to the work of the chroniclers of the Indies, certain information of ethnological and ethnographic value was preserved and today it can be a source of consultation for researchers. It's important to consider that many of these writings were made for specific purposes to please the Spanish crown and the information was deliberately manipulated in favor of private interests.

The absolute truth cannot be known.

In addition to the written sources, we have archeology as a study tool that allows us to approach ancient cultures through detailed analysis of gold-smithing, architecture, and ceramics, among other expressions typical of the societies that preceded us.

This approach to cultures for which we lack information and not much documentation was preserved is valuable.

In the present writing, some pieces belonging to the Tolima collection of the Bogotá Museo del Oro will be analyzed, identifying possible relationships between this pre-Hispanic indigenous culture and hallucinogenic or sacred mushrooms.

The use of entheogens to reach religious ecstasy and communicate with deities was common in the ancient indigenous tribes of pre-Hispanic Colombia and is a practice that still continues.

A mushroom cult practiced by the Tolimas  is what this document suggests.

  

II. PLANES OR SHAMANS TRANSFORMED INTO FANTASTIC WING ANIMALS?

The first pieces that we find in the Tolima collection that are exposed in the Museo del Oro have been a mystery to researchers who have tried to interpret them in the past. They are very famous pieces and some of similar characteristics are scattered in other museums and private collections around Colombia and the world.

The first thing that strikes you is that these pieces are in the Tolima collection of the Museo del Oro while in other places, such as on the Wikipedia page, they are cataloged as Quimbaya Artifacts.

Sticking to the cataloging of these pieces in the Museo del Oro we will refer to them as Tolima Artifacts. We are not going to go into details to determine which specific pre-Hispanic indigenous culture these pieces belong to, although in the author's opinion, they most certainly do belong to the pre-Columbian cultures of Tolima and the cataloging of the Museo del Oro is correct.

These pieces have been interpreted in the past as airplanes and even scale models were made. Also, of course, they have been interpreted as animals, fish and birds. They attract attention for the delicacy of their ornaments and the well executed details.

The interpretation of the figures as airplanes even reached the point that in the 90’s, certain scale replicas were created that flew. This interpretation is also considered absurd. It is also preferred to admit that they are birds. That interpretation is not so far-fetched. Birds in many ways inspired man's planes and desires to fly. The fact that these figures are totally aerodynamic does not mean that the indigenous people knew aeronautical science but these pieces are of a unique aerodynamic perfection.

This article proposes a new interpretation around the subject. These pieces represent shamans who, after having ingested psilocybin mushrooms, have become fantastic flying animals.

When carefully observing the pieces, a mushroom is clearly seen in one of them. It is in what appears to be the head of the fantastic winged being.

When examining the other pieces in the museum that represent fantastic flying animals, we realize that there are several that, if they do not suggest the mushroom, we find the fleur de lis, which could also be a way to stylize the mushroom.

Carl de Borhegyi is the authority around the Fleur-de-lis and its relations to mushroom cults in Prehispanic América.

This remains a  deep mystery and the exercise of this document is to make an interpretation of the ancient Tolima culture after examining its goldsmithing.

We leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Perhaps in a few years, new discoveries will allow us to understand what these wonderful pieces really represent.

An examination of the pieces found in other museums around the world and private collections will give us new clues as well.

III. MUSHROOM HEADS

Exploring the Tolima collection at the Gold Museum, one of the recurring motifs is that of the figures presenting a mushroom-shaped head. There are some that the shape of the mushroom is really very simple and others where the details have been much more elaborated in the piece.

There are numerous figures belonging to the Tolima collection that have the head in the shape of a mushroom. They could be interpreted as shamans under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms.

However, there are some curious figures that do not have a mushroom head. Rather these heads look like a lily flower.

There is a piece that attracts attention because it seems to represent a group of men with a mushroom-shaped head led in what appears to be the representation of a spiritual ceremony by the predominant figure of a man who has a shaped head in what we suggest could be a fleur de lis.

One of the most famous pieces of the Gold Museum is the Pectoral in the form of a Jaguar Man from the Tolima. One of the flagship pieces of the Museum. It represents a shaman transformed into a Jaguar. His head is shaped like a mushroom. He is dressed in feline’s fur. The totemic relationships between mushrooms, shamans and jaguars must be studied. It is said that among the current indigenous people of the Cofan tribe there are shamans who, after ingesting magic mushrooms, transform into Jaguars. The myths and legends of the Uitotos also suggest the use of mushrooms and have several stories where the Jaguar is one of the characters with great prominence in their stories. All this adds to the mystery.

IV. MUSHROOM OR PENIS? SHAMANS TRANSFORMED INTO FANTASTIC BEINGS WITH CHARACTERISTICS OF JAGUARS AND BATS.To finish this little writing about the Tolimas and the mushrooms, the following pieces will be analyzed.

These pieces apparently represent shamans transformed into fantastic winged beings. They have been interpreted as a mix between jaguars and bats.

It´s important to remember the cult professed by the Tayronas to the bats and the jaguar also present in many other Colombian indigenous tribes. We also find this cult among the Tolimas. They represented in their goldsmithing these winged animals with nocturnal habits and feline characteristics. The ancient Mayans had Camazots as their bat god and practiced cults around the Jaguar figure.

I have already spoken in this writing about the possibility of transformation of the Tolima shamans into winged fantastic beings after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms.

In the article: “Micolatría en la Iconografía Prehispánica de América del Sur” written by Cesar Velandia, Leidy Galindo, and Katherine Mateus; the authors write the following:

“Regarding the specific meaning of the relationship between fungal figurations and genital representations of snakes and alligators, we cannot directly infer anything. Such a meaning is only possible in the context of American mythology, for which we have made some timid approximations. To say something else, a lot of research is needed. ”

This relationship can be established also with other animals.

I quote this passage from such excellent research remembering that, in one of my visits to the Museo del Oro, one of the guides commented that some researchers had interpreted the bottom of these pieces as the penises of these fantastic beings.

It is important to note here the fact that the urine of a person who has ingested the Fly Agaric mushroom will possess characteristics of a unique hallucinogenic potency. Amanita muscaria is a very toxic mushroom that can cause nausea, among other discomforts, to the person who has consumed it. Urine does not have these negative effects of the mushroom.

A fertility cult where a fungal sacrament was used among the ancient indigenous people of Tolima cannot be ruled out. Many mushrooms resemble a penis and it is no secret that young, phallic shaped Psilocybe sp. mushrooms may contain higher concentrations of psilocybin.

There are several fungi that look like penises. There is even a genus of fungi called Phallus to which the mushroom known by the popular name of Wedding Veil belongs.

The question is still a mystery.

These pieces when turned represent mushrooms.

Even these pieces could be seen from a position that would not correspond to the correct one intended by the godlsmithing artists when originally conceived. Speaking in one of my visits with one of the guides of the Museo del Oro, this happens in some pieces and it is not known for sure in what position they were meant to have been observed.

V. CONCLUSION

The previous analysis suggests that the ancient indigenous cultures of Tolima had knowledge and participated in cults where psilocybin mushrooms were used. The peasants of the current department of Tolima are the cultural heirs of the ancient indigenous people. Witchcraft practices are very common in the region. The Pijaos tribe still survive. The spanish chronicler Fray Pedro Simón tells us that the name of the tribe means "witches".

Reports from the area from a confident, trustworthy source indicate that current peasants use psilocybin mushrooms belonging to different species that do not correspond to the classic Psilocybe cubensis.

More research in this regard is necessary.

There are  some reports of Psilocybe cubensis and Gymopilus sp. growing in Tolima.

The truth is a total mystery.

More research must be done

END

JUAN CAMILO RODRIGUEZ MARTINEZ

_____________________________________

Recommended lectures:

“Antiguos Pectorales de Oro: Representaciones de Hongos?” Richard Evans Schultes y Alex Bright

Boletin Cultural y Bibliografico 1985

“Ancient gold pectorals from Colombia: mushroom effigies?”  Schultes, R.E. and A. Bright.
Leaflet from Botanical Museum Harvard University, Cambridge, MA  1979

___________________

“Micolatría en la Iconografía Prehispánica de América del Sur”,  César Velandia, Leidy Galindo and Katherine Mateus, 2008

__________________________________

“Goldwork and Shamanism: An Iconographic Study of the Gold Museum of the Banco de la Republica. Colombia”, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff ,2005

___________________________________

“Medicina y magia en el Sur del Tolima”

Hortensia Estrada Ramirez, Instituto Caro y Cuervo,  2014