5. Other books by John A. Rush
Witchcraft and Sorcery: An Anthropological Perspective of the Occult
The Way We Communicate
Clinical Anthropology: An Application of Anthropological Concepts
within Clinical Settings
Stress and Emotional Health: Applications of Clinical Anthropology
Spiritual Tattoo: A Cultural History of Tattooing, Piercing,
Scarification, Branding, and Implants
The Twelve Gates: A Spiritual Passage through the Egyptian Book of
the Dead
Failed God: Fractured Myth in a Fragile World
6. The Mushroom in Christian Art
The Identity of Jesus in the Development of Christianity
John A. Rush
Foreword by Martin W. Ball, PhD
North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California
9. Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Chapter One. The Quest for Jesus
Chapter Two. Early Christian Art, 200 CE to 1000 CE
Chapter Three. Middle Christian Art, 1000 CE to 1550 CE
Chapter Four. Late Christian Art, 1550 CE to the Present
Chapter Five. Review
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
All images can be viewed at www.clinicalanthropology.com
10. Foreword
When Dr. John Rush published his book Failed God, he mentioned
in a personal conversation that he had asked several Christian art
historians about the curious presence of mushrooms in Christian art.
The response he was given by all he asked was the same: there
were no mushrooms in Christian art. Dr. Rush’s latest book, The
Mushroom in Christian Art: The Identity of Jesus in the Development
of Christianity, proves this statement to be profoundly mistaken.
While some of the mushrooms presented here are open to
interpretation, there are more than enough unambiguous examples
to demand an explanation. For many, the explanation will be
shocking, but as with any theory, it is its ability to account for the
data that matters most, not whether it fits one’s preconceived notions
or long-held beliefs.
The explanation that Dr. Rush provides is not necessarily new, as
it has been with us since at least the time of John Marco Allegro’s
work, but it gains tremendous support due to his original research
and his meticulous analysis of Christian art. The explanation for the
preponderance of mushrooms in Christian art hinges on the very
identity of Christianity’s central figure: Jesus Christ. In The
Mushroom in Christian Art, Dr. Rush provides a compelling argument
that Jesus was never an actual, historical person, but rather was
understood by early Christians to literally be the mystical experience
occasioned by the ingestion of entheogenic and psychedelic plants
and fungi. Quite simply, Jesus is the mushroom experience, and this
fact is depicted in several stylized, and sometimes literal, ways in
Christian art.
Such an interpretation does not come from the analysis of a few,
anomalous pieces of Christian art. Rather, Dr. Rush documents
consistent iconographic and stylistic features of Christian art that are
unique to the religious art of their time periods (and that do not
appear in secular art), which both openly and covertly represent
mushrooms and entheogenic experiences. Along with analysis of the
art, Dr. Rush carefully reads Christian documents and texts in
11. combination with shifting dogmas and political realities to see how
the myth of Jesus as a person became a reality for Christians while
the truth of the “real” Jesus and the genuine sacrament of
entheogenic substances was secreted away into esoteric rituals for
elite initiates.
As enthnobotanical research progresses, and the body of
scholarship on the “foods of the Gods” grows, it is becoming ever
more apparent that entheogenic substances have played a far more
central role in most religious traditions than most modern believers
are ready to accept. The more we learn about religion in the ancient
world, the more connections we find to ingestion of special
substances that help bring initiates into direct contact with “the
sacred,” however that is conceived or characterized. With so much
demonization of “drugs” in the modern world, many find the
connection between psychedelics and religion to be bordering on
blasphemy, if not worse. Yet these are modern attitudes and should
not be projected onto humanity’s past, where psychedelic
substances played a central role in virtually all major religions, and
continue to do so today in countless indigenous traditions and
cultures.
Dr. Rush’s analysis of Christianity as being entheogen-based
actually serves to bring greater relevance and meaning to the
Christian religion. On the one hand, we have a clearly irrational faith-
based system of mythological thinking, one based on archaic
projections of a divine judge and savior, that has little relevance to
the modern world. On the other hand, we have a tradition of direct
experience of union with the divine where the mythology and
imagery are not to be taken literally, but personally and spiritually.
One is a dogmatic belief system that engenders violence, fear,
competition, and a life-denying wish for the apocalyptic “End Times,”
and the other is an experiential practice of coming to know the
genuine nature of God through embracing the infinite power of life
that exists within each individual and can be accessed through
entheogenic sacraments. The contrast is stark and compelling. What
if, at the heart of Christianity, there is a very different message for
humanity?
12. Part of Dr. Rush’s critique of Christianity as it is commonly
practiced today is that it has opted for an irrational belief in
mythology over actual spiritual experience. In his words, it has been
constructed as a political, as opposed to spiritual, system. This shift,
Dr. Rush claims, can be seen in the art. The earliest Christian art
never depicted Jesus, and it wasn’t until Jesus was declared fully
God and fully Human by decree that we start to see actual images of
“Jesus Christ” in the art. Yet even then, the mushrooms and iconic
representations of the mushroom experience remain concealed
within the art, right up to the present time. The Hand of God reaches
down from the sky, bringing mushrooms. Adam and Eve eat of the
forbidden fruit, clearly in the form of mushrooms. Red disks with
white spots, curiously reminiscent of the distinctive cap of the
Amanita muscaria mushroom, abound throughout the art. Even the
folds of clothing show curious mushroom shapes contained within
them. This is not accidental, for the iconic style remains consistent
over centuries.
Anyone who would want to disagree with Dr. Rush’s analysis of
the true identity of Jesus will have to account for all of these
mushrooms. With Rush, the theory is clear and unambiguous: the
mushrooms are in the art because the mushroom experience was
the central mystery of Christianity. When this theory is kept in mind,
the art clearly makes a great deal of sense and allows for a
provocative reading of the images. Because the evidence is clearly
there, the raw data, any theory of Christian art must take account of
these iconographic motifs. To put it bluntly, if mushrooms and the
mystical experiences they help one to access are not a part of
Christianity, then why are they clearly a part of the art?
In debunking the mythology of Christianity, Dr. Rush is not simply
attempting to render Christianity irrelevant. Rather, he is calling our
attention to the very real experience of the “Energy that Informs All,”
as he tends to describe God, that can occur with the use of
entheogenic sacraments. Dr. Rush recognizes the value and
significance of direct spiritual experience and the role that it can play
in helping individuals live more peaceful and personally fulfilling
lives. This is what he sees as the central teaching and message of
Christianity: just be a decent person. Accomplishing that takes work,
13. but if he is correct in his analysis, then Christian artwork can
meaningfully be seen as symbolic representations of this personal
process of self-discovery and connection to the Energy that Informs
All. In our modern world of physics and astronomy and our wealth of
knowledge about the universe, an ancient myth of a righteous judge
in the sky no longer serves us. But connection to the Energy that
Informs All does, and it is this, as experienced through the use of
entheogens, that just might save Christianity from complete
degeneration into an irrelevant mythical dogma.
Martin W. Ball, PhD, author of Being Human: An Entheological
Guide to God, Evolution, and the Fractal Energetic Nature of
Reality
14. Preface
In any murder case, detectives, in line with other specialists driven
by scientific methodology, gather evidence and offer opinions
regarding the identity of the corpse, the cause of death, the motive,
and the person or persons responsible for the crime. Speculation is
often welcome, especially in difficult cases, but is never considered
truth until evidence presents itself. This is called forensics.
Examination often involves bank accounts, political connections,
botanical materials, and artifacts, for example art in its many forms,
often useful in determining motive or the course of events leading to
the crime.
A crime has been committed: a prophet has been murdered. This
work represents an analysis of the crime in order to determine the
identity of the corpse and the circumstances surrounding his murder.
We know for sure that this was not the act of a single person but
was, instead, a conspiracy resulting in arrest, confirmation,
condemnation, torture, and humiliation ending in the prophet’s ritual
killing through crucifixion. The evidence presented in the pages and
images to follow (view all images at www.clinicalanthropology.com)
reveals the identity of the prophet, Jesus, but it also instructs as to
the construction of the Catholic cult and the motives behind Jesus’s
betrayal and eventual murder.
In Chapter One, I define the nature of Christian art, establish the
identity of Jesus, and expose the motive and those responsible for
his death. Cult development is also considered, as well as diversity
and opposing philosophies, and why these different Christianities
were often antagonist toward one another. I also consider which
groups came under persecution and how this was minimized through
connections to the politic after 312 CE; this link resulted in special
privileges (tax exemption) and eventual landholdings and wealth for
the Catholic Church, a strong motive for murder. It is only after 325
CE that the story line for Jesus (and a face) was constructed, agreed
upon, and made historical fact through papal decree. This homogeny
extended past written word and Church ritual, resulting in standard
15. visual representations generally called icons expressed in mosaics,
illuminated manuscripts, wall paintings, and stained glass. The art
historians have carefully examined this art and point to the various
motifs, styles, colors, and interpretations, yet one motif is lacking in
the texts. That motif is the mushroom, and because it has been
overlooked or ignored, I present a mushroom typology, give
examples, apply alternative interpretations, and reveal the ritual
nature of the original Christian cults, rites, and rituals considered
bizarre by liberal pagan standards of the time.
Chapter Two is a close look at the different Christian art forms
from c. 200 CE to 1000 CE. The mushroom is very much apparent
but is disguised in many ways. We will also notice how the art
becomes more and more sophisticated with the addition of new
elements and players, layering the original storyline yet keeping the
ground-floor symbols (bread, fish, lamb, Good Shepherd, vine,
anchor/cross) intact. These are the original determinatives for Jesus,
a botanical personification; to remove or change the symbols would
abort their power.
Chapter Three covers the time period from 1000 CE to 1550 CE.
This art expressed in stained glass, mosaics, and illuminated
manuscripts is much more sophisticated; there is also an elaboration
of the storyline. With a more open attitude in the court—with
romantic love, knightly honor, and individualism—the mushroom and
its analogues are quite evident. From 1350 to 1500 CE we encounter
global cooling, plague, and witch hunts, while at the same time the
art maintains its consistency.
Chapter Four takes us from 1550 CE to the present. This art
maintains the style developed from 1000 to 1550 CE, complete with
mushrooms and mushroom motifs, but moves away from the once-
popular apocalyptic themes.
Chapter Five offers a review of motifs and interpretations. The
identity of Jesus is established; his method of teaching human
decency is revealed. His murder was a conspiracy, the motives
traceable to political connections and wealth. Jesus’s murder also
served to smother his original meanings and methods, his path to
human decency, self-responsibility, and a spiritual life, and replace
16. them, through mythic layering proffered as historical fact, with an
oppressive political system.
I also reflect on what inspired these artists to create these
masterpieces, and we learn they are inspired by God. This
inspiration allows them to go beyond space and time and on return
to code the celestial world in their art. Some of my conclusions and
interpretations may not be correct, but the mushroom needs to be
satisfactorily explained and factored into the spiritual meaning to
which the Christian art points. All images can be viewed online at
www.clinicalanthropology.com.
I have many people to thank for the content of this work. These
include Martin Ball, Wolfgang Bauer, Chris Bennett, Jan Irvin, Carl
Ruck, and many, many others who offered their time and comments;
all have contributed to solving this murder case. I would also like to
thank the staff at North Atlantic Books—Emily Boyd (project
director), Suzanne Albertson (cover design), Paula Morrison (art
director), Minda Armstrong (production manager), Paul McCurdy
(copyeditor), and Richard Grossinger (publisher) for his interest and
support in this project. I would also like to thank Debora Norton
Streadwick for editing, Aaron Welton for formatting, Jan Irvin for
editing and technical comments, and my wife, Katie, for her help and
encouragement during the research and writing of this work.
John A. Rush
December 20, 2010
17. M
Chapter One
The Quest for Jesus
ushrooms are found in all Christian art, including that which
references the other side, the geography of the damned. The
negative mushroom variously called Satan, the devil, Beelzebub,
and so on is the antithesis of Jesus (life) often displayed as a small
skull (death) beneath the cross on Golgotha, the Hill of Skulls, or as
a fly crawling up the leg of Jesus. In another sense, the devil
represents a demonizing of the older traditions (called pagan) and
their rites and rituals surrounding communion with their gods and
goddesses. In the Christian condition Christ requires Satan, or he
has nothing to do. In the field of time, with God’s manifestation, the
universe splits into paired opposites, and without Satan there can be
no Jesus, for without evil/death there can be no references for
good/life. Jesus, for example, descends into hell and returns, a story
elaborated in later Christian writings not included in the Bible. What
is the meaning of such a mythical act—that is, descent into hell and
return—and how is this act, or any Christian act depicted in the art,
connected to mushrooms? This is the mystery unveiled in this book.
The meanings and rituals I describe are my opinions, and although
shared by many, some of the details and conclusions are debatable.
After all, we are dealing with mystery societies and cults, and they all
have secrets. But this does not mean we should withhold these
opinions and the evidence to support them.
The Celts, Greeks, and Romans loved their gods, imagined their
existence through powers of nature (lightning, earthquakes), the
stars and planets in the heavens, or perhaps misinterpretations of
fossil animal bones (Mayor 2001), and personified them. As
discussed elsewhere (Rush 2008), what helped to make this realm
tangible included mind-altering substances and the experiences
reported by poets, soothsayers, sages, rabbis, and priests, whose
myths and messages wrapped around prophecy, politics, or both.
Soothsayers, prophets, oracles, and priests are always connected to
courts—for political reasons—as third-party conduits to the
18. netherworld to help kings make decisions, for which, of course, they
didn’t have to take responsibility. Their portal to the gods was
likewise coded in their art forms and referenced as the Golden
Fleece, Avalon (Golden Apple), and other metaphors of the
mushroom experience (see Ruck et al. 2001, 2007; Ruck 2006). But
Christian art has a special character to it. As Yazykova and Luka
(2007, 13) comment,
Whereas a picture can be called a window into the world around
us, an icon is a window into the invisible world. It does not show
things that people are familiar with in their everyday lives, but
reveals the Kingdom to come. Icons began to be painted in
order to show this other world, the new heaven and the new
earth, where Christ’s victory is complete, the victory of good
over evil, where life conquers death. So the realistic or, rather,
naturalistic method of depicting is not suitable for the icon. It
requires symbols and signs in which the image of the Kingdom
to come can be divined. Representations were originally
conceived of as symbolical.
The authors go on to say,
Icons are images of eternity, so everything in them is different,
including space and time. The logic of the earthly world does not
extend to icons, a fact stressed by reverse perspective. A great
deal has been written about reverse perspective, the structure of
the icon’s space in which there is no single point on the horizon
where all lines meet, and in which objects get larger, rather than
smaller, as they recede into the distance. The name for this
device, reverse perspective, arose by analogy with direct
perspective, the basis of the realistic picture. (Yazykova and
Luka 2007, 14; emphasis added)
As we will see, in some cases reverse perspective may not be
reverse perspective at all. Temple (2001, 3–4; emphasis added),
speaking of icons and Christian origins, states,
19. The ideas offered in this book are founded on the understanding
that the deepest meaning of the Christian story lies in a spiritual
rather than an historical interpretation and that the ultimate
encounter with the mysteries of the Gospels is not to be sought
in historical time but at the present moment.
Doctrinal theology places a different emphasis, stressing that
Christianity is an “historical religion” and that the “faith” of
Christians is founded on the “facts” of the life of Christ. But since
the earliest times there had been an understanding that the
literal events of scripture concealed deeply mysterious, hidden
meanings that could reveal spiritual realities of a higher level
than were perceived in the ordinary world. A tradition of
interpretation grew up around this understanding that often
appeared to contradict the literal sense of the Gospels. Actually,
the meanings are complementary but on different levels.
…
Our psyches have many levels varying from what goes on just
below the surface through to deeper and deeper levels.
Generally we know very little about these deeper parts of
ourselves which we call the subconscious. This term is exactly
the right one since most of what passes deep down in us takes
place below the horizon of our consciousness. In our day
science has recognized the importance of these unknown areas
of psychology but makes no investigation of them unless we are
ill. But, according to some traditional schools of thought, there is
a further and infinitely more important aspect of the unknown in
us which can be called higher mind or super-consciousness.
Modern science does not accept this concept though in
medieval theology it was recognized under such terms as
“divine love” or the “Holy Ghost” and, even in antiquity, it was
understood that such a higher possibility for man could only be
reached through a voyage of discovery into the unknown parts
of himself which normally are hidden from the threshold of
consciousness; hence the Socratic “Know thyself.”
What is being said is that icons stand for something not seen but
alluded to in the art; their design is to touch that hidden part of us,
20. that higher mind. In this sense a tree is not a tree, a rock is not a
rock, a mushroom is not a mushroom, a halo is not a halo, a cross is
not a cross, and all church vestments, as well as paraphernalia (e.g.,
thuribles, or incense burners), are rendered in their spiritual form,
just as hell is likewise metaphorical. These are divine
representations of the code to which they point and should not be
taken literally. As Temple states, orthodox Christianity would have us
read these images as lessons in history; as we will see, however, the
true, original meaning of Christian art had little to do with secular
history except, perhaps, as psychological protection against current
political events—these were tough times.
Icons, and the motifs within, are symbolic of the divine (God,
Christ, Jesus, higher mind, energy); the rocks, dove, cross, blood,
nimbus, and so on represent this other world. A graphic depiction
(Plate 1: 1) of this is Castiglione’s Christ on the Cross Embraces St.
Bernard (c. 1642 CE), in which Christ, who obviously cannot give
breast milk (secular life) as can Mother Mary, gives Bernard his
blood instead (spiritual life). This is birth or life through the Father,
the second birth, and life everlasting. Thus blood is not blood, and
maintaining this reasoning, Jesus is not Jesus (Christ is not Christ).
The total picture has an entirely different meaning than a crazed
vampiric saint drinking blood to sustain his physical life. This picture
speaks to life, death, and eternal life (resurrection) in some spiritual
geography; this is accomplished through Christ, through his blood,
sweat, tears, or the holes in his hands, feet, and side. Most clergy,
however, have encouraged parishioners to see icons on one level:
the level presented as historical fact rather than the mystery or
deeper meaning lying in back of the images, hidden from view. Only
a foolish magician reveals his tricks to the audience, and the trick in
Christianity is uncovering that which is hidden from view, the
“mystery.”
The Mushroom Is the Message
Mushrooms, however, are somewhat different from other motifs,
such as Mother Mary breast-feeding Jesus, Jesus in the presence of
21. John the Baptist, or Jesus on the cross at Golgotha. Mushrooms,
instead, fit into another category of divine, one closest to the code
(God); and because they are usually hidden in the art, they represent
the secret, the mystery of Christianity, and, in another sense, the
mystery that unlocks the subconscious mind. The value of this motif
is its visible invisibility, in the same manner as we sense God’s
presence, but that energy is unseen, lying in back of our
experiences. The deity hides in the bushes, the hems and sleeves of
alb, cape, dalmatic, or at the end of a stole often popping out at us
(gestalt) as we focus on these innocent features. He is there in the
clouds, fire, blood, dove, book, vase, and angel. The mushroom is
God’s signature, for it is God who inspires, working through the artist
to create these images of the other side, that mystical hidden world.
Mushrooms are often alluded to as manna although manna can
represent a multitude of things, but never something secular. Manna
appears to relate to some power or energy attributed to objects,
people, or ingested substances that brought illumination to an
individual or group usually in the sense of knowledge (prophecy),
enlightenment (insight), or rules and regulations. In the vast majority
of the cases where this reference is used, it is most likely that manna
is a noncaloric, mind-altering substance, a gateway to God’s place
(see Merkur 2000). Manna is a generic term in the same way that
the mushroom image, in my opinion, is generic for a wide variety of
both plants and fungi hidden between the lines in the Bible, the
Zohar, and other apocrypha, as well as in more contemporary
legends (also see Ruck et al. 2007; Bennett and McQueen 2001). If
this is the case, and I believe it is, then a closer study of the art might
reveal combinations of ingredients, preparations, and warnings
hidden within.
As the reader will gradually see, it is all about the mushroom and
the original rituals that centered on locating, preparing, and
consuming the Eucharist, rituals that morphed from agricultural and
plant veneration rites that predate Christianity by at least eight
thousand years. Plant veneration through mythic themes and ritual
performance emerged among early agricultural people along the
Tigris-Euphrates and Nile Rivers around ten thousand years ago,
and instead of giving up their old hunting and gathering myths, they
22. simply transformed them to fit the major food source—plants. Some
plants and fungi (ritual plants) would be connected to certain rituals
while those used as a food source for humans and animals would be
associated with others. There is a vocabulary used in the Old and
New Testaments, Pistis Sophia, the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, and
other Apocrypha, the Dead Sea scrolls, the Zohar, the Talmud, and
other sources that alerts the reader to these original rituals and
experiences wrapped around story lines; snapshots of this story line
are rendered visually as icons. There are words or phrases (e.g.,
“spirit” and “hand of God”) that perhaps signal the initial effects of the
substance or the experience in some way. These are visually
rendered as a hand emerging from a cloud or a dove or rays of light
descending. The halo or nimbus, on the other hand, indicates that
the individual is experiencing the divine. In other words, the halo
means that this saint, angel, and so on is with God eternally through
the mushroom path.
The mushroom’s meaning is its mind-altering effect and the
potential insights and knowledge it brings. It, Jesus, takes you to
God’s place, and because it can take you there it must be God as
well; the mushroom is a manifestation of God, his first-level
terrestrial manifestation, as we will see in Chapter Three. While the
experience is represented by the halo, and certainly by the presence
of angels who amplify the message as they are always connected to
ecstasy, they all speak to the experience of the divine. This is the
Trinity, with Father (God), Son (God as messenger or guide
referenced as a hand and/or ray of light, dove, lamb, fish, or Jesus),
and Holy Ghost or the experience of the Divine, or that which
connects the spiritual and fleshly realms. This is the generic trinity,
out of which the Catholic Church emerged after 325 CE; this is the
bottom line, the ground floor upon which Christianity was built. We
can argue about the details, of how many groups existed initially,
what they were called, the names of the cult leaders and where they
came from, but Christianity could not work and take hold unless it
was able to attach itself to the politic and accommodate a variety of
viewpoints as to the nature of God. Unity demands a metaphor all
can live by. The elegant mental gymnastics, the Trinity, allowed
diverse groups to unite but still hold to their reported experiences
23. with the mushroom—at least until the Church was stable and
powerful enough to do serious housecleaning, for there can only be
one celestial truth.
Time in a Bottle
One might wonder, then, how far back in time the personification or
coding for the mushroom extends. Can it be found in Paleolithic art,
for example? As Smith (2006, 7) comments,
To this I need only add every religion—and indeed every
civilization, for civilizations flow like tidal waves from implosions
that set them in motion. These implosions are Revelations. The
word Revelation derives etymologically from re-velum, the
drawing back of a veil as in the morning we draw back the
curtains to let in the light of day. And that is precisely what
entheogenic alterations of brain chemistry do—they let in the
light of the Infinite, Perfect Reality.
However, despite the importance of Revelation, they are also
limited, for like the tidal waves they set in motion, the power of
tidal waves diminishes as they proceed. This is where sacred
plants become important. To switch metaphors, they are like
telephone poles that restore wires to their original heights.
The point is that inspiration, coming from dreams prompted by
illness or psychotic breaks, prompts cultures to action. But these
sources are sometimes unavailable when beliefs need reinforcement
or in times of crisis, which direction to turn at the fork in the road, or
when injury, illness, or death confronts the group’s survival. This is
where mind-altering plants and fungi offer a continual connection to
that other side. It seems, as Smith suggests, that these sacred
plants and fungi have been part of humankind’s survival for a long,
long time and probably extend back to the earliest fantasies of a
supernatural world, an imagined otherworldly geography, that can be
visited or contacted, perhaps manipulated, or even put on “equal
24. terms” through what we today call “science.” It would seem
reasonable that these beliefs and behaviors manifest at a point
where natural phenomena (lightning, rain, etc.), dreams
(spontaneous or from fever and illness), or experiences with mind-
altering plants can be articulated (advent of language or a
protolanguage—perhaps two million years ago), shared,
categorized, and modified through storytelling and myth,
accompanied by ritual support or expression. The caves in France
and Spain take us back at least to thirty-three thousand years ago
and provide a glimpse of shaman artists’ efforts to capture and
naturalistically render the animals in their world over a course of
thousands of years. The major images are mammoths, big cats,
bears, red deer, elk, and so on—anything but plants and fungi. There
are suggestions they used some method of reaching ecstasy at
Lascaux, France (a shaman, rendered spiritually in trance, lying next
to a wounded buffalo—Plate 2: 19b), dated to approximately
nineteen KYA (thousand years ago) and at Les Trios Frères (Plate 2:
19b—The Sorcerer of Trios Frères, France, a composite image of a
shaman in an animal suit, fifteen KYA). If mushrooms have been so
important over the millennia, why is it that only animals, and some
abstract designs, were rendered? The answer has to do with the
practicality of sustaining life (hunter-gatherers) and a philosophy
directed toward the main animal of subsistence and appeasing or
looking after ancestors, our original gods and goddesses. Their
experience with mind-altering substances would reflect their world as
they understood it. They believed that powerful forces controlled
nature, but they, through experience, developed their own sense of
control through rites, rituals, and technology. Mind-altering
substances were more like tools or conduits to the other side, or the
realm of the ancestors and gods. That is to say, they provided a
means to get there. In the iconography connected to the Fairy World
in the West we have imps and other forest spirits sitting on
mushrooms. Perhaps these hunter-gatherers did the same, but such
images, mushrooms with elves casually sitting on top, are not to be
found thus far in the caves in France and Spain. Images of plants
and fungi do show up in African rock art and date to later time
periods. On either continent they may, indeed, have been
25. personified; they certainly would have been categorized and named
and provided a mythic history of origin. At the very least certain
plants and fungi were conduits. Temperature fluctuations over
periods of time would also suggest that certain species came and
went as well, but they abound in nature.
In any case, one interpretation of the bear cults in Europe is the
bear as the original shaman, the animal master. Those ancient
humans, those brave people, went down in those dangerous caves
in the winter and probably talked to the hibernating bears, asking
them to deliver messages of reverence to the animals on the other
side so they would come back for another meal. Women must have
played an important role in these dangerous rituals because they
most directly represent fertility and life. Women represent the
mystery of life and death, and the so-called Venus figures, those
pudgy figurines emphasizing the female hips and breasts, dating to
that same time period, may have been intimately connected to those
rites. As Ruck (2006, 23) observes regarding the Willendorf figurine
(Plate 4: 1), dated to twenty-five KYA,
The figurine depicts a grossly pregnant female, with rounded
head devoid of facial features, but covered on its upper surface
with knobby excrescences, seven mystical concentric circles of
plaited hair, making the over-size head into the mushroom’s cap
with its characteristic scabs. The figurine’s steatopygia
personifies the bulbous base. The strangely segmented and
handless slender arms, extraordinary in a figure so corpulent,
suggest the mushroom’s dentate annulus ring, the remnant of
the ruptured membrane that covered the gills on the bottom side
of the cap, hanging down upon its stipe. The figurine is tinted
with red ochre to match the characteristic color of the fly-agaric.
Such a figurine merely translates into a solid object the same
theme of anthropomorphized mushrooms amply preserved in
prehistoric petroglyphs.
I like Ruck’s interpretation, and he may be correct. A more
cautious interpretation is that the artist could not see her own face
26. when she carved this—this isn’t about the artist; this is about fertility.
Moreover, it appears the head is looking downward at that which
brings forth life; her pendulant breasts and corpulent body represent
life (she is pregnant), and having extra adipose tissue perhaps
represents survival over the winter. This full figure, common in
Europe and North America, most likely derives from numerous
selective pressures, one being sexual selection for a body designed
for food/survival over the winter months. Not mentioned by Ruck,
she does not have feet (the artist would not be able to see her feet in
a standing position). Moreover, I don’t think these people had
reached the philosophical complexity as suggested in his analysis,
for these people were into practical matters, not complex philosophy.
It would also seem reasonable that such symbolic complexity would
show up in the cave paintings but, for the most part, what is
rendered is naturalistic. Such abstractions, in my opinion, show up
after 15,000 BCE with the Sorcerer of Trios Frères (see Plate 2:
19b) mentioned earlier, many thousands of years after the carving of
this figurine. Here we see the shaman, the animal master becoming
the animals (rather than simple reverence), traveling to the other
side to ensure the animals’ return, ask for guidance, and so on. This
“movement” from one side (social) to the other (supernatural), an
abstraction, implies transformation perhaps through an entheogenic
experience, images we don’t encounter prior to nineteen to
seventeen KYA. In any case, Rusk has opened an interesting
possibility when decoding those Venus figures.
Thousands of years pass (30,000 BCE to 3500 BCE), complete
with crises after crises prompting different technologies and social
developments, as well as different worldviews. The myths change
from struggle with nature (killing monsters), to mastery or control
over it (agriculture, animal husbandry, metallurgy, and science, all
manipulating nature), complete with different cosmological (origins)
and theistic (nature of the gods) mythic themes, which are likewise
supported by and reinforced through experiences with mind-altering
substances. There can be no doubt about this. Mythic themes
become more elaborate, reflecting the governing body, and along
with sanctifying animals they personified and sanctified the god or
goddess who stood behind the agricultural crops and seasonal
27. variations, for example Demeter for grain or Dionysus for grapes, or
Re as the sun god bringing life during his daily journey through the
sky.
From a practical sense, for our Paleolithic hunters, mind-altering
plants and fungi would be a means to an end, that is, communing
with the other side to obtain food, cure, and so on. In contrast, in
Christianity the mushroom (knowledge) is an end in itself; that is to
say, the mushroom is the deity, and when you consume it you are
with the deity: “I and the father are one.” In my opinion, the
Paleolithic hunters’ experience with the mushroom and other mind-
altering substances would match their needs and observations of the
world. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, mushrooms and other
mind-altering plants didn’t cause lightning, produce the cold winters,
or control ferocious predators eating one’s friends and relatives.
Cause was mysterious, and these plants offered a portal to that
mystery; they were not the mystery. In Christianity the mushroom is
personified and is the mystery, and this personification, the mystery,
is coded in all Christian art.
In our time and place magic mushrooms aren’t people or gods, at
least for reasonable, logical people, although they may aid in
accessing our subconscious mind, the motherboard standing in back
of our experiences. Simply put, mushrooms alter brain chemistry and
thus our experiences or interpretations of events unfolding around us
or our reinterpretations of past stored memories, which often leads to
unexpected connections between ideas. Perhaps they even open us
to shared memories of others. We can understand, however, how
ancient Egyptians, Hindus, Hebrews, and Christians came to
interpret the mushroom as a god or portal to the godhead. We read
of the Exodus in the Old Testament and of resurrection in a “new
heaven,” indicating a preoccupation of getting from one place to
another, of change from one state of being to one more joyous and
permanent. That place is God’s place, the “land of milk and honey,”
the “promised land.” These ancient people did not understand
neurochemistry, nor did they understand the chemicals in cannabis,
Amanita muscaria, henbane, or psilocybin and how alterations in
brain chemistry can lead to alterations in perception and experiences
considered to have actually happened or to have come from
28. heavenly agencies. For some classic discussions about such
experiences see Masters and Houston (1966). How then do we get
from mushrooms to Jesus?
Mushrooms and Politics
There is absolutely no historical visibility for Jesus outside the
constructed stories as rendered in the Bible, Gnostic texts, and other
Apocrypha, as well as the metamyths or stories written to explain or
spin earlier stories. Some have argued that there are a number of
historical figures who likewise have no visibility—for example,
Socrates, known only through the accounts of Plato and other of his
students—but this is a very poor analogy. Socrates never claimed to
be God; Plato never claimed Socrates was a god; nor did any of his
friends make such claims. He is not involved in physical healing,
saving sinners, or dying and resurrecting. Whether Socrates, or
Jesus for that matter, ever existed is immaterial, for it is what they
said and did that counts. One is to have faith in the existence of a
corporeal form called Jesus and faith that the story of his dying and
resurrecting is historical fact. For fundamentalists, what Jesus said is
in many respects less important than his existence in history as a
living human being who died to save us from sin.
From a psychological point of view I understand why many people
want to push mind-altering substances to the side in favor of
believing that our neurons—our brains alone, without chemical
stimulation—came up with the story lines and symbols in Judaism
and Christianity and perhaps a great deal of our scientific
knowledge. Somehow admitting the importance of plants and fungi
lessens our humanity. Remember that you cannot solve a problem
using the mental set that caused it. A problem can only be solved
when considered from different perspectives, but oftentimes repair
requires fresh information not available “locally” (this is the basic
message in all hero myths; see Campbell 1973). One path (certainly
not the only way) for generating new ideas is with mind-altering
substances or leaving one’s bounded mental space, journeying to
another, and returning with the boon. With these plants and fungi a
29. person did not have to wait for fever, near-death experiences, or
dreams with important revelations to spontaneously occur. Mind-
altering substances would offer a predictable and calculated method
of reaching the other side. This is a common shamanic enterprise
and a very dangerous enterprise, making it all the more powerful and
potentially rewarding. Many times, however, the insights obtained
during this perilous adventure, this death and rebirth, outweigh the
negative. As an example, the Kamsa Indians of the Colombian
Andes use Iochroma fuchsioides, a datura-type plant, only when
they are having difficulty diagnosing a patient. Apparently the
shaman is sick for several days after ingesting its roots, leaves, or
fruits. Anything that aids our problem-solving abilities is a valuable
resource. It is closely guarded, however, and used only by a few.
Many of the drug laws in the West are patterned on these
restrictions, and although antiquated, they do imply that plants and
potions not authorized are dangerous to the power structure. To
more fully appreciate Christian art, and to help explain the history
surrounding the style and development of icons, magic mushrooms
and other substances should be included in the analysis.
The Visible, Invisible Mushroom
Our first step, then, will be to analyze Christian art for its content and
accompanying interpretations by priests and scholars. Our second
step will be to access whether or not the mushroom was, indeed, an
important feature in Christian art. It has many disguises, and thus we
need to build a mushroom typology.
A third step is to offer another interpretation of the art as well as
the original nature of what we know today as Christianity and how,
by the mid-fourth century, it returned to a type of reformed Judaism
solidifying and refining story lines, rites, rituals, and art, and then
maturing in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Everything in Christian art is a reflection of God, and the closest
worldly condition is the mushroom. The mushroom stands just
outside the deity, the singularity, with one foot half in and half out,
30. half in this world and half in the other. We read in the Zohar the
“secret of secrets”:
Out of the scorching noon of Isaac, out of the dregs of wine, a
fungus emerged, a cluster, male and female together, red as a
rose, expanding in many directions and paths. The male is
called Sama’el, his female always included with him. Just as it is
on the side of holiness, so it is on the other side: male and
female embracing one another. The male of Sama’el is called
Serpent, woman of Whoredom, end of all Flesh, End of Days.
Two evil spirits joined together: the spirit of the male is subtle;
the spirit of the female is diffused in many ways and paths but
joined to the spirit of the male. (Matt 1983, 77; emphasis added;
I thank Chris Bennett for this reference and others regarding the
Zohar)
This brief passage is an addition to Genesis 28:10, or Jacob’s
journey, and is a description of Amanita muscaria, both male and
female, half and half, both in and out, or in another sense positive
and negative depending on the deity being contacted. In the
Christian condition I call this half-in-and-half-out state the
hokeypokey motif. Sometimes the hokeypokey is displayed as
Christ’s backside sitting in heaven on a bench, while his toes rest on
the border of the surrounding areola. In other cases there is one foot
in and one foot out (see Plate 1: 2a and 2b). Christ sits or stands in
the doorway separating this world and the other. The negative
reference to Sama’el and Serpent is a reflection of similar
substances for contacting pagan deities or those discarded by the
Jews between 586 and 500 BCE. Sama’el likewise becomes Gabriel
in Islam, and in Surah 2:247 (also see Hughes 1994, 564) he is
referred to as “the prophet,” perhaps connecting him to the Teacher
of Righteousness (Amanita muscaria) of the Jewish and Christian
traditions. This is highly suggestive of a direct connection between
Muhammad and Amanita.
Pointing is an important clue in Christian art. In Plate 1: 2b Father
and Son, with the Holy Ghost (dove) above, are joined in the
31. hokeypokey. God on the right is resting his right arm against the
globe-cross while pointing to the mushroom motif created by Jesus’s
cape and knee/leg. (You may not immediately accept this as a
mushroom, but look at this image again once you finish Chapter
Four.) Also notice the seraphs in the border, all of which have wings
folded in such a way as to resemble an Amanita mushroom cap with
their faces representing the stalk. (Again withhold judgment until you
finish Chapter Four.)
In John 20:24–27 we read,
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with
them when Jesus came.
The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the
Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the
print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and
stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my
hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be
not faithless, but believing.
What Thomas “touches,” or experiences, is the resurrected God,
the mushroom, bread, or manna with Jesus’s face on it, with the
stalk removed and the exposed hole, or indentation in the
mushroom’s base (the way or path), revealed. Thomas putting his
hand in Jesus’s side means entering into Jesus, and the only way
you can do that is through communion or consumption of Jesus, the
mushroom. Within the Doubting Thomas story, graphically illustrated
at St. Mark’s in Venice (see Chapter Three), are three layers of the
Christian myth. The first is the exoteric layer; that is to say, one is to
interpret this as historical fact, that Thomas doubts the resurrection,
puts his hand into Jesus’s side, and becomes a believer, more or
less like a pathologist examining a corpse—in this case the corpse
(Jesus) has resurrected.
32. The next layer is more spiritual; one cannot experience Jesus until
you accept, surrender (don’t fight against the experience), or go into
him. The third layer is the botanical, experiential layer where you
enter through consumption of Christ, the Eucharist, manna, or bread.
In Plate 1: 2c we see Doubting Thomas again, but this time with
the Virgin Mary. We see the Virgin handing her belt to St. Thomas
(Dormition of the Virgin, Balamand Monastery, Lebanon, c. 1750
CE). There is an interesting story behind this icon. To prove her
Assumption, Mary throws down her chastity belt as proof of both
assumption and virginity but also the tie to her carnal nature.
Because people don’t have sex in heaven (there is no flesh), she
has no need to protect herself from carnal desires. This isn’t about
carnal things but instead is a reference to the spiritual world; casting
aside the belt is a statement of release from her fleshly body. Here
we see Mary doing the hokeypokey in its full meaning, one foot in
this world, and one foot out. To tell a story like this is like watching a
play, where someone comes in doubting the fantastic and
outrageous story line, but proof is made available—in the icon. The
areola in which Mary is half in and half out, I am informed, is the
underside of a mushroom cap and/or a vagina.
Not all portrayals of Christ in Majesty clearly show the hokeypokey
and instead present a simple front view, but because the areola is
open, at least half of what we see is out (revealed) while the other
half is in. This is the primary condition, before the singularity splits—
existing and not existing, or its visible invisibility. Part of this
metaphor of invisibility comes with hiding the mushroom within the
icon. As the reader will see, it is all about the mushroom, and the first
rituals connected to this tradition were probably botanical metaphors
that over time evolved into the elaborate story line, as is the case
with all myths as social circumstances alter and decay. These layers
move farther and farther away from the original reference points
regarding the nature and use of the mushroom—how to find,
prepare, and consume. As an example, there are several depictions
after 1100 CE of Mary nursing Jesus (Plate 3: 58), and this certainly
has its appeal. It is rather earthy and natural, although very few
people ever saw these images because they were part, in most
cases, of very expensive cathedral or palace paintings or
33. manuscripts. This, taken literally, is a woman nursing a child, but it is
also Mary nursing Jesus, the central player in the story. So now this
is a story about Jesus and not about a woman nursing a child. But its
original reference, in my opinion, was a botanical recognition that
Mary is the root of a pine tree (St. Anne) and Jesus, the mushroom
(Amanita muscaria), is nourished from the roots (Mary). The tree and
roots, then, are equally revered (see Rush 2008). In Plate 3: 57 we
see one image of breast-feeding that is somewhat anatomically
correct (Nursing Madonna, Ambrogio Lorenzetti—image on left),
while there are other images that show the breast in an anatomically
impossible position (Plate 3: 57, image on right), as well as being
capped by the Amanita muscaria. Just as Isis in the Egyptian
tradition is the throne upon which the pharaoh sits (Horus, the god of
light, the Holy Spirit), so Mary (the root) is the throne upon which
Jesus sits. This, I believe, is a possible esoteric, third-level
(botanical) meaning connected to rites and rituals honoring Mother
Mary and Infant Jesus in the Church.
From another perspective, Mary is the model for female energy,
and she comes in many shapes and sizes. Mary Magdalene
represents the sensual (sexual) Mary or Hathor in the Egyptian
tradition (see Plate 2: 17), while the Virgin Mary is the asexual,
nurturing Mary (Plate 1: 3) or Isis, and the Madonna is the all-giving,
all-accepting martyr who knows it’s going to happen, and weeps and
mourns forevermore because it is all about her; martyrs think this
way. Also note the mushrooms as curls in Jesus’s hair. Mary
Magdalene, I might add, is possibly the first disciple and apostle, for
if she was a real person, she was said to be closest to Jesus (or
John the Baptist). What is the meaning standing behind the image?
Certainly we are told to see this as historical, that Jesus and Mother
Mary were real people, “and to prove it, here is a picture of Mary
nursing Jesus.” The art represents proof of story, and just as the
ancient Egyptians believed images they carved and painted in their
tombs would come alive after proper rituals were spoken, so too the
Christian clerics and artists. The artists and priests believed, just as
they do today, that the visual and literary art was inspired by God
and therefore it must be historically true.
34. On another level is the philosophy of nurturing others, knowing
thyself and loving thy enemy because you are your own worst
enemy, and so on. This, in my opinion, is the most important level for
it brings out our humanity. More recent philosophical abandonment
suggests that the breast is the Church nursing humankind. This is
how myth is layered over time and then converted into historical fact
by papal decree, with the original meaning blurred under centuries of
rhetoric and debate as to the nature of God.
The primary level, in my opinion, is the life cycle of the mushroom,
from conception, to consumption, and then return. The Christian
story line and rituals it supports pay homage to this life cycle
because the mushroom was that which the Jews and early
Christians considered a manifestation of God and/or the conduit to
God. The Stations of the Cross may be a layered rendition of those
early rituals just as the Catholic Mass is a reflection of the original
content where the priest offers ritual purification, praises the deity,
engages communion, and then opens the ritual to the congregation.
These ancient people living a long, long time ago believed their god
resided in mushrooms and plants—this is called animism, and the
Stations may represent part of the life cycle of the mushroom, which
became an initiation ritual for the new disciple and then the
priesthood. As the Church developed more and more economic
power and influence, they were able—by controlling the media, so to
speak—to proffer their layered story line as historical fact. Political
parties do the same thing in our own time.
The secret in the Christian tradition is to look beyond any
suggested history, and it is here at the esoteric levels that we will
discover the keepers of the keys and the true mystery. In time these
secret rituals were known to only a few, but never forgotten nor
abandoned as reflected in the Catholic Mass. Many of these artists,
unknown to us by name, were priests or devote people who
understood the symbols and the rituals to which they pointed. I
believe the earliest rituals connected to what is now called
Christianity and coded in the art involve locating, sacrificing, drying,
and consuming the sacred flesh, the flesh of God. This may seem
absurd by today’s standards, so absurd that the reader may wish to
dismiss the idea straight away, but, as we will see, other scholars
35. report that pagan groups thought the early Christians quite bizarre,
with absurd rituals. For the pagans, Christians were strange people,
and it could not have been simply because they thought there was
only one god; this was a very old idea. No, it would have been how
they expressed their beliefs and devotion to the deity. The pagans
had standard ways of devotion including sacrifices, dances, orgies,
meditation, begging the deities, and so on, so whatever the
Christians were doing did not fit pagan expectations, and that
strangeness is possibly coded for us in the Stations of the Cross.
There are many combinations and resulting interpretations of the
symbols in Christian art. The reader will agree, however, that no
matter what the symbol, it points to Jesus or Christ, the anointed
one. From images of the Virgin Mary, to St. Paul, and even the
Whore of Babylon in Revelation, the central figure in the story is
Jesus. All Christian stories radiate toward or away from him.
Results of Research
Our analysis quickly reveals that Jesus was a mushroom usually of
the Amanita species, most commonly muscaria, and the experts can
argue the details. Psilocybin species abound as well, and cannabis
has been used as a medicinal in the Middle East and many areas of
the world for thousands of years. Keep in mind that for thousands of
years, medicine and curing have been intertwined with spiritual
beliefs and practices, and mind-altering substances played a
significant role as they still do today. When illness is mythologized as
caused and cured by supernatural agencies, then magical rituals are
applied. At most hospitals today you can see a psychiatrist, obtain a
prescription for Prozac or another mind-altering drug, and then say
hello to the Catholic priest next door who is chanting to a cancer
patient numbed by morphine or Demerol coursing through his veins.
Do not be surprised, then, if a tradition (early Christianity) based on
healing self and society through human decency includes mind-
altering substances in its healing rites and rituals.
36. Closely connected to Jesus are apostles, twelve in number, who
may also represent mind-altering substances, combinations,
processing recipes, and certainly astrological and astronomical
calculations mixed into the story line. Again, once it is admitted that
mushrooms are part of this art, if not its center, the meanings of
these images and early Christian development are open to
reinterpretation. Certainly twelve suggests that our mythic hero
Jesus is a sun god, as is Horus in the Egyptian tradition, with twelve
representing the cycle of the sun on its yearly round through the
constellations or zodiac. The months or seasons of the year also
played a part in locating and harvesting the food of God.
In some of the art the mushroom is quite evident, while in others it
is represented by analogues and adjectives, for example, halos,
crosses, bread, books, wounds, and blood—all of which come in
different configurations and inform about a condition, emotional
state, or specific characteristic. At other times it is hidden in a busy
border or the folds of a bishop’s robe, and sometimes the
mushrooms are upside down. The different analogues (i.e., bread,
book, fish, cloak, throne, bench, blood, tree, book, or foot stool) are
no different from adjectives or determinatives connected to specific
gods, goddesses, scribes, doctors, and priests in ancient Egypt.
Every one of these Christian symbols is likewise a determinative, in
the generic sense, because it points to Jesus. For example, Isis, the
model for the Madonna figure in the Catholic tradition, is represented
with a throne on her head. She is the throne upon which the pharaoh
sits, just as Mary is the throne upon which Jesus sits. There are
some scholars who would like to believe that Mother Mary is pristine,
unblemished by a pantheistic past, and, instead, historical fact, but
this can’t possibly be the case. This duality, this Mary-Jesus icon,
has its deepest roots, I believe, in ancient Egypt with Isis and Horus,
the Holy Ghost (see Murdock 2009), although there are other
possibilities.
Pagan and Christian Images
37. The original meeting places of John the Baptist (used herein as a
generic for some cult leader) were probably the desert or designated
sacred groves, and this makes sense if the original rituals involved
locating, collecting, and consuming the sacred flesh. John the
Baptist comes out of the wilderness with a message for humankind
(Matthew 3:1–3):
And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the
wilderness of Judaea, saying,
Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet,
saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye
ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
The meanings are diverse; many cry in the wilderness seeking
direction, answers, or both. The Baptist had his revelation in the
wilderness, and this is where he would have taken his original
disciples. Taking initiates to unfamiliar surroundings creates
disorientation and dependence for direction and is ground zero for
instilling doctrine and communion with God. Going into those caves
or a more recent cathedral has a similar effect. Although meeting
somewhat in secrecy, the rites and rituals must have been seen by
individuals accidently or out of curiosity, and, of course, there are
always dropouts (apostates) who inform of cult activities. In this
geography art is in the landscape, the rocks, trees, plants, and fungi,
as we will see when we encounter St. Apollinaris in Chapter Two.
Eventually these early groups were forced to engage their rituals
inside where the geography can be more adequately guarded. I am
told that the origins of Christian art most probably represent a
borrowing of images found in homes or meeting places originally
connected to polytheistic traditions or art as decoration, for example,
vines and grapes, fish, anchor, lamb, and so on. Only much later did
they take on the layered meaning that passes as Christianity today
(see Finney 1999).
Unlike today, the original Christians of c. 50 CE did not have
designated churches, and usually met in secret, we are told, and that
38. does seem to be a reasonable conclusion. Why? From studies of
modern cults we can suggest the makeup of the early cult members
and the antagonistic position in which they find themselves once
they become apostates (defectors) from an established cult.
Apostasy in Islam, for example, is seen as so divisive and offensive
to il-Liah (Allah) that it requires a death sentence. Apostates are
outsiders, and in order to remain outsiders they have to believe and
behave in some contrary way from the abandoned group.
Membership, in some manner, has to be displayed even with
ritualized covert signals—for example, a specific handshake or
phrase, or even drawing half of a fish in the sand. The structural
process of cults (and all groups) also informs why, in a short period
of time, groups fracture and split. Catholicism, as we know it today,
was the answer to some of the splitting and fracturing. By gathering
allies through philosophical compromise and guaranteed access to
the politic, they united their story line and invented their origins and
history.
Many of the very earliest Christians, those following John the
Baptist or someone like him (or even a small group of Essenes
perhaps including Mary Magdalene), were apostate Jews
marginalized by their families, rejected, and sick, broken physically
and emotionally. Some certainly were pagan. A charismatic leader
shows up with a message that fits some psychological need, and
people willingly join and become loyal followers. These people
function as important reference points because they have close
contact with the leader; they are the first-level initiates and are
accorded an important status. Some of the original Christian cult
leaders most assuredly were Jews who had broken away from the
strict teaching of the various Jewish sects; perhaps they didn’t like
paying the temple tax or all the rules that separate people. Some cult
leaders were likely Egyptian priests plying their trade far from their
native land. No matter, John the Baptist, as was the case in many of
these cults, offered something, a baptism with fire, a cleansing that
made tangible that which was excluded from the masses in the
Jewish tradition sometime after 560 BCE. He didn’t offer “thou shalt
nots,” but stories encouraging people to think. Most of the original
Christians obviously knew the mystery that connected the individual
39. to the godhead and were undercutting the authority of the rabbis,
their first political move; they were getting rid of the middleman and
going straight to God’s house. These experiences were still available
through the pagan cults, but the pagans had different reference
points, which many of the early Christians strongly opposed. They
obviously had very different rituals, and it is likely that the early
Christian reference point, the mushroom, the center of worship,
would have seemed as ridiculous as pagans worshipping a grape.
For those early Christians, God and the mushroom were one and the
same. Thus, this system began, as all cults begin, more or less
secretly, for only committed and deserving applicants get to
experience the godhead. The “mystery” is the bait, as referenced in
the parables, and understanding the mystery leads to communion
with the deity through God’s flesh, the Holy Mushroom.
Communion with the mushroom is emotionally charged; the
experiences provided would validate the other side, that place of
God. In Catholicism today, First Communion occurs around age 12,
but instead of the original mushroom, the initiate is cheated with a
counterfeit Eucharist, a wheat wafer and ritual, and often walks away
wondering, “Is that all there is?” This would not have been the case
in those original groups many centuries ago. Remember that the
Eucharist is at the center of Roman Catholicism, and identifying the
Eucharist is to uncover the mystery.
Much has been written about the earliest Christian art, or what
survives of it, and it is possible that it goes back to the time of John
the Baptist or the base camp(s) from which Catholicism eventually
arose. All is impermanent, all is illusion; walls fall down, buildings are
destroyed or vandalized, paint fades, and so on, so we cannot with
much assuredness talk about the earliest Christian renderings, but
we can speculate that what does survive is probably indicative of a
time period with certain common secular images (fish, vine, anchor,
lamb, bread, Good Shepherd). Remember, when cults emerge they
have to significantly alter the referential symbols of the old group or
abandon them for others. One would be hard-pressed to find a
mushroom per se in the earliest Christian art for several reasons,
one of which was persecution and the desecration of images. Also
remember that a number of substances were used perhaps by
40. different groups, sort of proprietary potions, so which one would you
render? You need a generalization that at first is coded within
common images (fish, vine, anchor, etc.) and in time is more openly
displayed but hidden at the same time.
We are told that the Christians up until the time of Constantine and
Theodosius were persecuted and at times thereafter. There are
scenes and poetic images of Christians thrown to lions, picked on by
the pagans or Jews, and martyred—powerful images representing
the reenactment of Christ’s crucifixion. And, yes, Christians were
persecuted, but that persecution is more than likely an exaggeration
to make a political point; martyrdom appeals to the hero in us all.
One also gets the picture of the good Christian willingly dragged
away, praying to God, with a smile on his face and a song in his
heart, knowing the cause is great and Jesus is more important than
life because he is life. Then there is the image of people about to be
devoured by lions; they start singing and the heavens open up,
swallow the bodies, and the lions go hungry. The Christians were not
persecuted any more or less than anyone else. In fact the term
Christian (follower of the anointed one, perhaps crazed one?) might
have been, in many cases, a generic term, applied to anyone acting
outside of social norms. I have more to say about this issue shortly.
This is the appeal to pity, and the early Church fathers, certainly after
the Council of Trullo (692 CE) and the Seventh Ecumenical Council
(787 CE), very well understood how to portray the story line of Jesus
in standard iconography. Not only did they have to standardize the
rites and rituals, but they also had to standardize the icons (and
other forms of religious art) and the elements contained within. There
were rules and regulations; this was serious business not much
different from the hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt. But the rules would
change over time with some image elements left out or substituted,
where one element can have a more prominent meaning for the
clergy commissioning the work. But make no mistake: there is
wonderful consistency in Christian art even as it alters to fit the
sociopolitical mood.
41. Persecution and Group Dynamics
People are usually persecuted when they are seen as a threat to the
power structure or when they present themselves in a manner
culturally defined as deviant. What were the early Christians doing
that brought them to the public eye? Were they not paying proper
respect to Mercury, Diana, or one of the other deities at
celebrations? Were the pagans oppressive in their approach to the
gods of other traditions? There is no evidence for this and, instead,
pagan traditions tend to be inclusive in the sense of allowing worship
or meditation on a wide variety of deities. There are household,
patron, temple, and state deities; no one would judge a person’s
particular dedication (as long as there was respect for the ruler or
authority); no one would think it peculiar. Some scholars feel the
persecution occurred because Christians wouldn’t worship the state
god or the ruler, but the more I ponder this, the more I think it
propaganda. In our own time, when you are stopped for a traffic
violation, it is best to bow before authority and cooperate; if you
don’t, you can get thrown to the metaphorical lions.
One gets the impression that there are all these dumb country
bumpkins running around willing to go to their deaths in the name of
Christ or Christianity. Perhaps this is true. In our own day we see
homicide bombers who believe they will be reassembled and sitting
next to the very large knee of Allah in heaven, with seventy-two
virgins taking care of their every need, and, of course, a cooler full of
beer close by. It is more than likely that many of those murdered
were overnight Christian converts, those being destructive
(proselytizing, destroying idols), or simply ratted on by rival groups.
Christianity, by its very nature, is divisive, and the statement
attributed to Jesus (Matthew 10:34), “Think not that I came to send
peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword,” clearly
points to this clash between philosophies. It may have been only the
initial followers of John the Baptist, after he was murdered, who
tended to become a nuisance, telling people they had the true god,
getting disruptive, and so on. They are stereotyped as disruptive or
insane, even thought possessed by evil spirits, and then perhaps
targets of ridicule and worse. How did this persecution come about?
42. Here is my best guess. I believe that there were numerous cults and
cult leaders, going around healing the sick and performing other
miracles. To me it seems reasonable that a primary group came from
the Essenes, but if not, their writings were certainly given a great
deal of attention. I speculate that there was John the Baptist (or
whoever), who touched off this peculiar form of Judaism, and he
knew the ritual procedures and how to direct the experience; he was
a priest physician, a shaman. I am sure by the time of the Baptist’s
murder he had trained—and this is important—some of his loyal
followers in proper ritual procedure as any shaman would do. It is
imperative to train others, or the tradition goes extinct with the death
of the leader. My position is that the Baptist was running encounter-
type groups using very powerful mind-altering substances. As a
priest of the Essenes he would have been trained in this, but of
course unlike the Essenes, all are part of the communion; all are
invited into the mystery. He cast out demons and promised hope in a
better place, here and now and in the hereafter. But then he leaves
the scene, or people learn the mystery and leave the group (Acts
8:18, perhaps Simon the Sorcerer would be a reflection of this?). In
either case you then have novices leading the groups, and when a
person has a “breakthrough” or comes to illumination, a great deal of
emotion, body movement, babbling, and crying can and usually
occurs. If this is not rapidly restrained, redirected, retranslated, or
given new meaning defined by the goals of the ritual, individuals can
become emotionally distraught and act in peculiar ways.
Participants also become very dependent on group leaders for
direction, and after John the Baptist left the scene, some left that
original group to begin anew. If the leaders of new groups were
untrained or incompetent, losing control of a group could draw a
great deal of attention. People withering on the road releasing
demons could be quite disconcerting to some, or clearing demons
from pagan temples could be seen as going too far. To avoid trouble
some of the leaders realized that exacting, repeatable rituals were
required, but by this time the damage had already occurred; that is,
fear of these “strange people and rituals,” leading to gossip and
rumor, spread far and wide, finally resulting in persecution. The
original rituals most probably had to do with gathering, drying, and
43. consuming the mushrooms (see below), for the mushroom is God
and needs proper respect and preparation. As time went on, rituals
became more and more complex and layered, including relationship
parables, participation in God’s house, going to hell and returning,
and so on. Hell, by the way, is metaphoric of a place of
transformation, of morphing from one mental state to another, from
ignorance to illumination, or from flesh to spirit.
Let’s also consider the economic side of this, for these cult leaders
wanted converts because it is the converts who provide, in one form
or another, the lifestyle of the leader. These are the sideshow
barkers and stage evangelists who, for two bits, take you inside the
tent to another fantastic world of miraculous healing, demons,
deities, and other oddities. But they also redistribute food and
services, helping people in need, and with the gift of food comes
obligation to the group and group leader. We see this in modern
political groups where gifts are given to senators and representatives
with an expectation of votes for a particular agenda.
Borrowing from Jewish and certainly Egyptian rituals (see Roberts
2008; Murdock 2009), early Christians realized that there had to be
several key elements or stages through which the initiate would pass
(also see Rush 1999):
Ritual Initiation —> Ritual Small Talk/Warm-Up/Parables
—>
Ritual Proper (i.e., noncaloric communal meal) —>
Ritual Moves toward Completion —> Signal of Ritual
Termination —>
Social Reintegration (i.e., debriefing, caloric meal)
This is standard ritual process found in Eastern, Western, and
shamanic traditions; what differs is the content (variations in ritual
performance and symbolic meaning). Without considering group
dynamics, especially in such emotionally charged settings, it would
be easy to devalue the fact that people had powerful experiences
under the influence of potent mind-altering plants and fungi. This is
how the “Doubting Thomas types” were turned from skeptics to
believers (see Chapter Three), but only if they were worthy of the
44. experience determined through the test of the parable. They
released their “demons” (anger, frustrations, “disease”) and, let’s say,
more enthusiastically shared their “good news,” their salvation, with
others. I’m sure this took many forms, including destroying pagan
idols and actively proselytizing (in some cases) to feed the cult
leader’s coffers. Proselytizing (getting converts) can be socially
disruptive and likewise leads to persecution.
Perhaps it was the Jews, the Essenes, who stirred up trouble
because the Baptist had defected. Perhaps they started the gossip
and rumor. Then again, which groups were getting into the most
trouble? Certainly not all Christian groups (Jesus Cults, Christ Cults,
Gnostics, etc.) came to public notice. There are many facets to the
very early construction of this system known as Christianity, but
mind-altering substances undoubtedly played a major part in the
beginning and then in the esoteric rites of the developing priesthood
as they slowly excluded most and ordained few as “frequent flyers”
to do God’s work.
A common idea about Christianity is that it began as a small group
that grew and grew, maintaining homogeneity until the split with
Greek Orthodoxy and then again with the Reformation, and so on,
but it is much more complicated. The Catholic Church has fought
such splits and splintering (heresies) since its conception. In any
case, the loaves and fishes story is an example, where Jesus starts
out with a “few good men” and finds himself, in a comparatively short
period of time, having to feed the ever growing crowd of men,
women, and children, sort of the anointed Pied Piper. The picture is
painted of Jesus in a boat or on a hilltop speaking to the multitudes;
this is certainly a theatrical image. Group dynamics, however, might
help to explain how these groups were organized and why there was
such diversity.
In the early stages of Christianity, especially after the death of
John the Baptist, one could prophesize an adaptive radiation, to use
a term from genetics, or the spawning of numerous groups in the
name of the Baptist in some areas, Esau or Jesus in others, with
Christ and Gnostic cults in still others. There were certainly groups in
existence before those that eventually merged with the Christian
45. cults stemming from the Zoroastrians and possibly apostate priests
from Egypt. But all these groups—if the members stayed together
long enough and new members were added—would eventually
encounter an unexpected problem. The group leader can only pay
attention (devote time, train, reinforce goals and rules) to a small
number of people, and when those numbers get upwards of fifty to
sixty members, a great deal of tension is generated—people start to
feel left out because their personal relationship with the leader is
watered down by the needs of others. Most of those early followers,
keep in mind, were very needy people. With larger numbers,
individuals get lost and out of touch, and cells generate independent
ideas and/or deviant behavior; stress increases. When this happens
you either change the way those sixty or so individuals are
organized, or the group will fracture. We keep track of people with
computers, phones, and written lists, but that wasn’t available in
those days, and it is difficult to keep track of sixty people; it is also
difficult to keep track of rights and obligations, and people feel
slighted or cheated.
Early Christianity was emotionally driven, and it centered on
acceptance of the individual if he or she showed merit, with initiation
accomplished through the communal, noncaloric meal. Not everyone
was eligible; there are always tests. Some of the early examples of
these tests are the parables, and there seems to be a prejudice here
in that stupid people are not open to enlightenment, which is
adequately expressed in Pistis Sophia. Many of these early cults
appealed to the elite. These were small group events and certainly
not tent evangelism, with very personal and moving experiences with
the sacrament, the mushroom, opening the door to knowledge
(gnosis) and the individual’s connectedness to God, the universe,
and how he or she lived life. These first groups might be seen as
early encounter groups where people came and asked questions of
a teacher, rabbi, or priest and the answers, told in riddles or
parables, were the sermon before the communal meal. This would
have a calming, inward-directed effect, thus establishing a proper
mind-set for an experience hitched to a parable. This is why the
Gospel of Thomas and the theorized Gospel of Q are without story
line; Christianity, initially at least, was a spiritual experience one
46. person had with God, and the original spiritual guide was John the
Baptist (or surely someone like him). The mushroom experience was
directed by parable, a story with many levels of meaning just as
encountered in Christian art; a story line about life, living as a decent
human being, and dying with the promise of resurrection in some
positive spiritual geography. That’s what it was all about; all the rest
is filler and, in my opinion, perversion. Why was that a threat to the
authorities? Those in power could see early on that a universal cry
for human decency would call for a collapse of the power structure. If
you remember the 1960s in America, you can understand this all too
well: “Make love, not war!” Our government saw this as a real threat,
that is, people dictating to the government, which, of course, is how it
should be. That cry for human decency is getting louder and louder
in our own time. Human decency cannot, however, be forced on
people; nor is it the product of some sociopolitical type (Marxist,
socialist, capitalist, fascist, Christian, Islamic, etc.). Human decency
begins with the individual and matures with emotional responsibility
and self-responsible behavior. The step after that is the right to
question the motives and actions of those in authority—in other
words, free speech. Without free speech and the right to question
everything, respectfully of course, we end up with systems like
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other forms of fascism or “bullyism.”
Not everyone took in the body of Christ (in most groups) during
every meeting, and those others, those “designated drivers,” acted
as guards to avoid interruption of cult process. Some provided food,
acted as witnesses or assistants, and with the guidance of the
teacher, those seeking the experience were introduced to their
demons (rebuked), cleansed or purified, and then introduced to God.
What was lacking in many groups were goals, organization, and
defined ritual (see the Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Philip),
although these can manifest in groups rapidly through a combination
of implied and explicit rules (see Rush 1996, 1999). Implied rules are
those where someone does something, and if the behavior is
allowed or useful, it could become part of an individual’s or group’s
ritual repertoire. Again, the “original” Christian group (or groups) was
probably made up of no more than sixty individuals or perhaps even
half that. When the group leader dies, the group fractures, and if the
47. original or splinter groups are to survive, they have to become
internally political, with one category of people (religious clerics)
telling another category of people (disciples or novices) what to do
and when. There has to be a story line justifying this division of labor,
and it must include a story line about a third person, the grandmaster
(John, God, Jesus) who brought us to light. Once the story line is in
place, a philosophy can evolve explaining this, that, and other things,
but this philosophy allows one group to discuss its beliefs with
another, which can lead to clarification, compromise, and uniting of
groups; it also lead to hostilities. All one has to do is look at the
behavior of the Church for most of its existence; it has been a
continual fight against heresy, for there can be only one truth, and
with political power the Church could enforce its truth and stamp out
the competition. In any case, this brings us the hierarchy and the
more formal initiation of the priesthood. There could be no
priesthood while John the Baptist was alive, only trained assistants,
and these are the ones who became the “twelve” apostles, although
there might have been only two or three properly trained. Why no
priesthood? Priests are a political statement, and originally it was up
to each person to be his or her own priest and church. We read in
Matthew 6:1–6:
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be
seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in
heaven.
When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They
have received their reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth:
that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father who seeth in
secret shall recompense thee.
And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they
love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of
48. the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have received their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and
having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy
Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
Jesus says it plainly; you don’t need a church, and by virtue of
that, you don’t need a priest. This was a personal experience as it
only can be. You are the priest and the church—and this, in my
opinion, was the original intent. It had nothing to do with money or
the bureaucratic theocracy emerging between 200 and 600 CE.
What Jesus had to offer was a personal experience with God, which
was suppressed, yet handed over to ordained individuals. The
ancient Egyptians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Hebrews did the same
exact thing, although some scholars believe they abandoned these
substances and the secrets were forgotten. Secrets and mysteries
do not vanish; they are always coded in myth in its various
presentations (oral, written, visual). These are the secret secrets,
known only to a few, but those few are enough to carry this tradition
through the ages. Altering one’s consciousness appears to be a
universal need, and outlawing mind-altering substances forces them
underground, and, at the same time, imbues them with power
because they are forbidden and therefore dangerous. What
traditions do is change their preferences for mind-altering
substances over time, perhaps because of the particular experience
provided, perhaps availability, or celestial decree. Sometimes they
change the name and further obscure its true nature, as in the Hindu
tradition; sometimes harsh and irrational laws are instituted because
a government fears losing control, and the substances are
demonized. But even those scholars who believe these plants, fungi,
and potions were abandoned do admit they were there initially, and
for the early Christians these plants and potions were God, the
Mystery.
Christianity begins with the ordaining of priests who represent a
clear division between rulers and ruled. This also signals the end of
the communal meal for all and the beginning of the counterfeit,
49. substitute wheat wafer, while the esoteric rites of the priesthood
retained the true body of Christ. Without changing how members are
organized and establishing ritual procedure, groups fracture and
form other groups, and in a short time these new groups likewise
fracture, and so on, and in many instances these groups would be
antagonistic toward one another. Within a relatively short period of
time, say a hundred years, there were probably fifty or sixty separate
groups (or more) with limited membership within a limited geography
calling themselves a variety of names designed to separate
themselves from others. Today there are approximately 1,500
different groups on the planet calling themselves Christians, or
groups connected in some way to that original group led by someone
between 10 BCE and 40 CE, in a different culture, at a different time,
in a place far, far away.
Bullies and Group Formation
Bullies abound in this world; they bring people to action (if only to
remove the bully from the landscape), and they tell us about the
worst side of our humanity. Bullies undoubtedly took over many of
these groups, as evidenced by the likes of Brigham Young, and
certainly the leaders at the compounds at Waco (Seventh-Day
Adventists) and Eldorado, Texas (Mormon). The Catholic Church,
with the help of Constantine (322 CE) and then Theodosius (378
CE), emerged through the thoughts and actions of ruthless bullies,
who were able to put aside philosophical differences in order to
obtain political power. Catholicism did not evolve out of love,
kindness, respectfulness, or integrity and a view to a just society;
these stories are the Church embracing itself. Bullies are at the base
of the Christian family tree, a tree that evolved, perhaps unwittingly,
as a challenge to the politic. This is Jesse with a tree growing from
his side, and on its first branches is a thug, a voyeur, King David
(Isaiah 11:1–4):
And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and
a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.
50. And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.
And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not
judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing
of his ears;
but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with
equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he
slay the wicked.
This mythic tree expressed in the visual arts varies in character
complexity but always includes David and Mary and/or Jesus (or a
mushroom, as we will see) at the top. This is the tree of life, where
we go from self-centered terrestrial bullyism (David) to knowledge
and the celestial world (Jesus).
We can only speculate about some of these early groups, many of
which went underground surfacing as other things. Many went
extinct, as cults usually don’t survive past the death of the leader,
especially if the group is in its early stages of development. One
could expect, then, that the death of John the Baptist, Jesus, or
whoever signals the end of that stage and a movement backward, in
some groups, toward Reform Judaism. Why? To stay intact, groups
require explicit rules and roles, and it is much easier to reinstitute
celestial rules and roles of the past than to invent new ones. Any
group that does not establish appropriate story line, rules, roles,
rituals, and methods of financing cult activities that outlive the leader
will splinter or fracture shortly after the leader’s death. The reason for
this is simple: the followers have become dependent, and they may
not desire to pass on this dependency to another disciple unless that
person has proven him- or herself worthy through recognized
appointment, dedication, or perhaps a charismatic presence. Recall
how David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel
in Waco, Texas, alienated many group members when he joined and
was rapidly given access to the pulpit (probably because he was
having celestial sex with Lois Roden, who was then running the
51. show). Koresh labeled himself “prophet,” a claim many did not
accept; nor did they acknowledge his new revelation. If you look at
the history of this Seventh-Day Adventist splinter group, you can
appreciate all the elements of cult formation, fracture, and
reemergence. People join these systems in waves and often defer to
the “elders,” but usually not to fellow disciples; this is our small-group
nature in action. So, you have two, perhaps three trained assistants,
the Baptist dies, these two or three vie for power, and the group
fractures. Each offshoot develops more or less different
interpretations of the mushroom experience as they drift farther and
farther apart in their theology. Until a dogma takes hold, there can
only be individual truth, not group consensus. The baptism of Jesus
is the beginning of the New Christianity and signals the death of the
original group’s leader (mythic or otherwise) and the beginning of a
standard story line and associated rituals. I question the dates
assigned to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (50–70
CE), for surely additions, much of the story line for Jesus, for
example, crept in between 312 and 325 CE and after the Council of
Nicaea. Other portions of the New Testament, First and Second
Corinthians, and the Acts of the Apostles, were, in my opinion,
likewise constructed, reconstructed, or reworked around this time
(325 CE) and attributed to Paul, the “lesser apostle,” another likely
mythic biblical personality perhaps based in part on Saul in the Old
Testament. Paul is the vicious counterpart of Doubting Thomas, with
the former persecuting Christians but then having his revelation on
the Road to Damascus, while Thomas has spiritual doubt yet
submits to the experience. Both are dissuaded from disbelief by
magical events, with Paul’s contact spontaneous, while Thomas
seeks the experience. The message I get from this is don’t judge
(Paul), and doubt is okay, but check things out, seek and ye shall
find (Thomas). The other more contemporary message is you can’t
escape the truth; you seek it or it slaps you in the face and blinds
you for three days on your Road to Damascus.
Christian Images and Idolatry
52. The issue of idolatry stems from the Second Commandment of the
Old Testament, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” By 800 CE
the Jews had worked around this by defining an idol as having three
dimensions, thus allowing two-dimensional images and opening
another modality for instructing in God’s word. This led to the
production of hand-copied manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, all or in
part, called Tanakh. This art is interesting in that it unites Islamic
design with Christian art style.
The earliest Christian images predating Tanakh by many hundreds
of years did not, for the most part, represent a problem of idolatry
because the art was simply part of meeting places, or so we are told,
and this assumption seems reasonable. The art or images were
already in existence, and not originally created as symbolic of Jesus
or for purpose of worship, and this also seems reasonable. Over
time, however, these images were reinterpreted and added onto,
possibly for purposes of idol worship as some have suggested, but
also as images for teaching (see Tyrwhitt 2004). Remember that you
have to teach people to worship—how to lower your head, what to
say—and what better way to do this than with some of the greatest
artwork ever created. When the story line of the priest comes with
visuals, as any good teacher knows (and the Jews discovered),
another sense modality is evoked, leading to a more uniform
interpretation and thus belief in the associated magical events. When
everyone around you has the same beliefs and images, they must
be true, or at least they are less likely to be questioned. The art
made the life and times of Jesus real and uniform, and it certainly
created images for meditation and/or worship. Religious art
(iconography) is a specialty, and just as only a priest can give
communion, not just anyone is allowed to place these Christian
images in a church, basilica, or cathedral or to repair older works.
This is all proprietary, magical, secretive stuff, and the artist must
show up with specific credentials. As Pickstone (2005, 65–66)
comments,
For 1,000 years of European and colonial history, the Christian
churches were the major patrons (at times, the only patrons) of
the arts, defining their subject matter and style to such an extent
53. that during this period the two might have appeared
coterminous. It is only relatively recently that the arts have
regained their autonomy and separate identity.
Other groups considered any image idolatry, in the Old Testament
sense, and still others avoided images realizing that one’s
relationship to God is personal and cannot be rendered in rainbow
colors. Jesus was an experience and not a specific image of
anything or any single individual. In fact, Jesus might have been
experienced as a voice or even “a presence,” and not as a visual
image at all. In the beginning stages, all these cults used various
substances to commune with the other side, as per the original
group(s). Those groups that established ritual and procedure, and
restricted the real sacrament to the clergy, survived to gain political
acceptance and then the right to practice openly. The mushroom
experience had to be guided or directed to avoid contrary messages
sent from God. Restricting the real communion to the clergy required
at least two interpretations of the art, exoteric (common) and esoteric
(priesthood). The art likewise justified or sanctified the existence of
the Church and priests. They needed images and story lines about
miraculous people, worthy of God’s blessing, the martyrs—the
priests, cardinals, bishops, popes, and eventually the image of
Jesus. With a fictitious history (see The Golden Legend) and
beautiful art, they could point back to the precedents of their
existence, a celestial history portrayed as historical fact.
The iconoclasts could not totally avoid the visual image, for as
they told their stories, a personal god was imagined no different from
that generated by reading pornographic novels so popular over the
past few hundred years. This is what has been called verbal idolatry
coded in the image-evoking biblical stories. Those rejecting images
(iconoclasts) were probably the most secretive and closer to the
Jewish tradition in terms of rules and regulations. The iconoclasts
may represent the earlier tradition from which the iconophiles later
departed, again indicating that there were many very different
Christianities existing at the same time (just as there are today), all
of which, in my opinion, radiate out from a cult movement (or several
such movements) that appealed to the down and out and offered,
