The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center - Shroomery

The Mushrooms of Language
good things of God there are. What beautiful colors I see." Nevertheless, the I am the one who speaks
enunciates an action and a function, weighted with an importance and efficacity which I am the one who
sees, hardly more than an interjection of amazement, totally lacks.
"I am he who speaks. I am he who speaks. I am he who speaks with the mountains, with the largest
mountains. Speaks with the mountains, says. Speaks with the stones, says. Speaks with the atmosphere,
says. Speaks with the spirit of the day." For the Mazatecs, the mountains are where the powers are, their
summits, their ranges, radiating with electricity in the night, their peaks and their edges oscillating on the
horizons of lightning. To speak with is to be in contact with, in communication with, in conversation with
the animate spirit of the inanimate, with the material and the immaterial. To speak with is to be spoken to.
By a conversion of his being, the shaman has become a transmitter and receiver of messages.
"I am the dry lightning, says. I am the lightning of the comet, says. I am the dangerous lightning, says. I
am the big lightning, says. I am the lightning of rocky places, says. I am the light of the dawn, the light of
day, says." He identifies himself with the elements, with the crackle of electricity; superhuman and
elemental himself, his words flash from him like lightning. Sparks fly between the synaptic connections
of the nerves. He is illuminated with light. He is luminous. He is force, light, and rhythmic, dynamic
speech.
The world created by the woman's words, articulating her experience, was a feminine, maternal, domestic
one; the masculine discourse of the shaman evokes the natural, ontological world. "She is beseeching for
you, this poor and humble woman," said the to the exclusion of all others, that has led them to be called
hallucinogenic, without any attempt having been made to distinguish fantasy from intuition. The Mazatec
shaman, however, instead of keeping silent and dreaming, as one would expect him to do if the
experience were merely imaginative, talks. There are times when in the midst of his ecstasy, whistling and
whirling about, he exclaims: "Look at how beautiful we're seeing!"-astonished by the illuminations and
patterns he is perceiving-"Look at how beautiful we're seeing. Look at how many good things of God
there are. What beautiful colors I see." Nevertheless, the I am the one who speaks enunciates an action
and a function, weighted with an importance and efficacity which I am the one who sees, hardly more
than an interjection of amazement, totally lacks.
"I am he who speaks. I am he who speaks. I am he who speaks with the mountains, with the largest
mountains. Speaks with the mountains, says. Speaks with the stones, says. Speaks with the atmosphere,
says. Speaks with the spirit of the day." For the Mazatecs, the mountains are where the powers are, their
summits, their ranges, radiating with electricity in the night, their peaks and their edges oscillating on the
horizons of lightning. To speak with is to be in contact with, in communication with, in conversation with
the animate spirit of the inanimate, with the material and the immaterial. To speak with is to be spoken to.
By a conversion of his being, the shaman has become a transmitter and receiver of messages.
"I am the dry lightning, says. I am the lightning of the comet, says. I am the dangerous lightning, says. J
am the big lightning, says. I am the lightning of rocky places, says. I am the light of the dawn, the light of
day, says." He identifies himself with the elements, with the crackle of electricity; superhuman and
elemental himself, his words flash from him like lightning. Sparks fly between the synaptic connections
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