Fabulous cross cultural write up! Thank you for the reminder that "Christmas" AKA Solstice has been celebrated by rituals around the world since time immemorial.
Thank you Christi! 💝 It’s wild how we’ve culturally erased the link between pagan traditions and religious ones. And how we’ve turned mystical wisdom into commercial holidays!
Oh these are great! I love the Santo Tomas festival!
One Christmas at dinner I told my sister about the mushroom connection and she almost dropped her fork. I’d also read the aminita muscaria represented a sort of immaculate conception because mushrooms grew without the need of seeds but it was the dew from the pine trees which fertilized the mushroom. So the tinsel we put on Christmas trees is meant to represent - errr - magical semen. (Don’t tell the kids).
I’m not sure if it’s much of a shamanic legend, but perhaps a forgotten practice. Shamans worldwide have been known to ingest psychedelics to enter trances/ altered states and share their findings - and many groups (as the senses recs suggest) celebrate the solstice as an important time.. so there’s likely a connection between the two. I’m not sure it’s the tale we want to tell children though 😅 so we might have dimmed it down and commercialized it to fit our culture.
Fabulous cross cultural write up! Thank you for the reminder that "Christmas" AKA Solstice has been celebrated by rituals around the world since time immemorial.
Thank you Christi! 💝 It’s wild how we’ve culturally erased the link between pagan traditions and religious ones. And how we’ve turned mystical wisdom into commercial holidays!
Oh these are great! I love the Santo Tomas festival!
One Christmas at dinner I told my sister about the mushroom connection and she almost dropped her fork. I’d also read the aminita muscaria represented a sort of immaculate conception because mushrooms grew without the need of seeds but it was the dew from the pine trees which fertilized the mushroom. So the tinsel we put on Christmas trees is meant to represent - errr - magical semen. (Don’t tell the kids).
Interesting leap. One wonders whether Santa Claus as shaman's flying activities also date back to shamanic legend?
I’m not sure if it’s much of a shamanic legend, but perhaps a forgotten practice. Shamans worldwide have been known to ingest psychedelics to enter trances/ altered states and share their findings - and many groups (as the senses recs suggest) celebrate the solstice as an important time.. so there’s likely a connection between the two. I’m not sure it’s the tale we want to tell children though 😅 so we might have dimmed it down and commercialized it to fit our culture.
Wow! 🙀
Wow. Thank you.
Christmas will never be the same! 🍄