A Magickal Herball Compleat.pdf - Magicka School

with the individual. Others explain the effect of a plant as opening up passageways
or doorways to enhanced perceptions, revelations and visions. Often this is seen
as being achieved through the stimulation and awakening of the fabled Third Eye,
which allows those that can see through it to comprehend reality as it truly is.
However, today, for those brought up in a scientific culture, such notions can be
difficult to sustain, but this does not mean that magickal interpretations of the
effects of flora have completely disappeared. Many who use plants for their mind
altering qualities claim that the drugs present stimulate or depress certain areas of
the brain giving it access to higher levels of reality or the possibilities of extended
functionality.
Visions and Delirium Around the World
Perhaps the most famous and widely utilised plant in a magickal and religious
context is Amanita muscaria, present for thousands of years during ceremonies and
spell workings of Hindu and Greek culture to the Aztecs and Incas of South
America. It may have been the key ingredient of the Divine Soma of Ancient India
[12], which was drunk in religious rituals. For Hindus, Soma was a lunar
underworld deity, often shown as a bull or bird and occasionally as an embryo.
The waxing Moon symbolised his recreation where he was ready to be drunk
again. The effects of this mysterious liquid are written of in the Rigveda:
a ápma sómam amt abhmâganma jyótir ávidma devân
c kim nnám asmân krnavad ártih kím u dhrtír amrta mártyasya
We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods
discovered.
Now what may foeman's malice do to harm us? What, O Immortal, mortal man's
deception? [13]
Here it is obvious that not only is the plant the embodiment of a god but allows
an individual to attain knowledge of the Divine.
Fly agaric was also popular among Shamans and tribes people of Northern
Europe to induce trance states. Interestingly, the active ingredient of the plant is
present in the urine of those who have ingested it and the toxins partially absorbed
by their bodies [14]. As a result it was often a safer option to drink the urine of the
Shaman, especially, apparently, in Siberia. Further, the red and white colour of the
plant’s caps and the fact that it was eaten in Lapland may have impacted on the
Santa Claus legends, which puts the jolly present-giving saint in a whole new light.
For the Ancient Greeks the plant may have been used during the rights of
Dionysus [15] and there is also a body of literature that conjectures that sex and
magic mushrooms may have been influential in the development of Christianity
[16]. These opinions are, however, little more than guesswork, and in the case of
the latter widely dismissed.
Better evidence exists for its use in South American cultures where Amanita
muscaria and other funghi from the genii Psilocybe, Paneolus, Conocybe and Stropharia
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