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Amanita as the blood of Christ that
cancels guilt
Amanita/leprosy/birch connection
It is
amusing to watch Protestant theologians try to make sense out of the blood of
Christ by which we are saved, while avoiding Catholic supernaturalism. They miss "the third alternative"
-- the blood is Amanita-water. However,
it's too simplistic to stop at that equation.
http://www.christinyou.net/bloodchrst.html
- The Blood of Christ - A study of the meaning of the "blood of
Christ," pointing out the many mystical meanings that have been used to
explain such. James Fowler, 1999.
"The
blood of Christ has always been an important concept to Christian people ... as
with any object of belief, there are those who take the object and ascribe to
it meaning that it was never intended to possess. Some Christians have done
that with the blood of Christ, giving it magical and mystical significance that
the Scriptures do not ascribe to it. ... The efficacy of the blood of Jesus is
to be understood by the fact that Jesus gave up His physical and material
life-blood in obedience unto death (Philippians 2:8). By His death on the cross
(physical and spiritual) the death-penalty is paid. We are thereby redeemed and
reconciled to God in order to partake of Christ's spiritual life. This is not a
partaking of His material, liquid blood running through our veins, but His Spirit
within our spirit ... There is no Scriptural reason to believe that there is a
bowl of the liquid blood of Jesus in heaven. Nor is there reason to believe
that there is a fountain filled with Jesus' blood wherein all Christians are
baptized in the flood of a blood-bath."
The
coherent and sensible interpretation of the blood of Christ is that it
represents:
o A comparison with being washed in the
blood/life of the slain Mithraic bull (who is astrological determinism) in
order to gain his vitality and rise above him, like eating a captured warrior.
o A contrast with the psychological economy of
the Jews who had to purchase clearance of sins through paying their produce
(the coin of the day). They had to buy
clearance of transgressions through blood sacrifice. (This economy of moral transgression cleansing was profitable for
the priestly monopoly. The underclass
couldn't afford to pay for these costly guilt-clearing sacrifices, so they
became "the lost".)
o The pressed juice from dried amanita.
o The transcended and killed will -- in a
comparison with the eagle-torn liver (will) of prometheus.
Amanita is
a large part of the sensible explanation, but to make sense of the meaning of
the mythic frameworks, we need more philosophical decoding than only saying
that "blood really means Amanita."
Closer would be the formula that such Soma is the "blood of
Jesus" which "forgives" -- that is, clears, cancels, and renders
inapplicable -- our delusional conception of moral agency, metaphysical
freedom, and the culpability of sin".
These
ideas can be connected: entheogens, orthodox Christian terminology, the will,
time, and self-control. Some theorists
connect entheogens and Christianity, but we really need to bring a simple
philosophical systematic metaphysics into the picture as well.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia mentions the Mithraic virtue-giving (I would say
sin-cancelling) property of Haoma (Vedic "Soma"), which Wasson and
Heinrich propose is Amanita-water.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10402a.htm
- "The [Mithraic] fathers conducted the worship. The chief of the fathers,
a sort of pope, who always lived at Rome, was called "Pater Patrum"
or Pater Patratus." The members below the degree of pater called one
another "brother," and social distinctions were forgotten in Mithraic
unity. The ceremonies of initiation for each degree must have been elaborate,
but they are only vaguely known -- lustrations and bathings, branding with
red-hot metal, anointing with honey, and others.
A sacred
meal was celebrated of bread and haoma juice for which in the West wine was
substituted. This meal was supposed to give the participants super-natural
virtue. The Mithraists worshipped in caves, of which a large number have been
found.
There were
five at Ostia alone, but they were small and could perhaps hold at most 200
persons. In the apse of the cave stood the stone representation of Mithra
slaying the bull, a piece of sculpture usually of mediocre artistic merit and
always made after the same Pergamean model. The light usually fell through
openings in the top as the caves were near the surface of the ground. A hideous
monstrosity representing Kronos was also shown."
Mithraism
provided a sanctifying cleansing through washing in the bull's blood, right
next to the use of Haoma, which according to the entheogen scholars is murky
bloody-looking water. This idea,
combined with the Jewish idea of buying clearance of transgressions through
sacrificial animals. Prometheus also
spilled his blood willingly for the benefit of humanity, when the eagle sent by
Zeus bit at his side, killing his liver/will.
These
common ideas of the era led into the idea of being cleared of sin through the
blood of Christ, while preserving the inner-circle Amanita meaning, in which
the entheogen reveals the idea of moral culpability being an untenable and
incoherent assumption, thus cancelling culpability for sin.
Notice the
mention of Kronos, god of time, as a monster.
We are mystically killed by the power of time. There is no time for metaphysical freedom. In the mystic altered state, time, change,
and metaphysical freedom are called into doubt together, as a system.
Time looks
frozen, and metaphysical freedom looks absent, and change looks illusory or
frozen -- that is, it is very common to perceive these factors in this
way. That is not to say the mind must
always perceive these ideas, or that the ideas are known to be true because
they are perceived in a vivid and disruptive way.
Interpretive
principle: All miracle stories in the scriptures are connected to physical
qualities of psychoactive plants or their hosts, or to experiential phenomena
of the mystic altered state.
Solved
puzzle: Belief in the godman returns sight to the blind.
Solved
puzzle: Belief in the godman raises the dead back to life.
Solved
puzzle: Belief in the godman heals the paralyzed.
Puzzle:
The godman heals the lepers.
The birch
-- what species? -- is host to Amanita.
Some
species have peeling bark.
http://www.birch-tree.com/2-birch-tree.htm
Especially
http://www.birch-tree.com/species-heritage.htm
-- Salmon-colored bark that peels; lighter in color than the native river birch
In the
same state of perceptual distortion that makes the ground and walls wave, skin
appears to move around.
Clark
wrote, and I agree:
>If the
godman is the fly agaric, he himself is leprous: the "leprous" white
white patches that adhere to the cap. It only takes knowing or believing that
it is not a real illness to "cure" it. Also, "washing" will
wash off the "leprosy," that is, the veil remnants (white patches),
as happened to the leper who bathed according to Jesus' instructions.
http://www.geocities.com/cknoettg420/amanitax.html
>I have
been handed my first resounding psychedelic defeat.
Defeat of
ego-control is victory of enlightenment.
>I
decided 10 hours ago to take 12g of A. Muscaria (9:06 PM). Here's what I
remember: exactly 2 hours after I took the 12g, I got very sleepy and nauseous.
... I fell into a deep sleep at 11:13PM. ... The trip was so intense that I
thought it was a dream. A voice from one of the A. Muscaria trip reports I read
said "Within is contained heaven and hell." I was then transported to
hell --
>a huge
spinning vortex overtook my entire visual field. The stuff in my room, and my
very flesh was sucked into a black hole. It was physically very painful. I
really thought I had died in my sleep and that I was really in hell.
>I
remember vomitting, but I thought it was just a dream. All I know is that at
3:09A (six hours after ingesting), I realized that I was not really dead and
that somehow I was leaning against my bedroom door. I was still tripping, but I
was quickly coming down. Here's what I saw: vomit on my floor, and all my
things were scattered around my room. My chair was knocked down and it looked
like a hurricane had come through my room.
Classic
control-loss vortex. Listen to Bryan
Ferry's song Hurricane on the album Siren.
I've written about the control vortex, but I'm not finding a
concentrated article about it at my site.
http://www.egodeath.com/mcpnotes.htm#locositds
I have
been considering a room-scrambling control-seizure doll as the emblem of
cybernetic ego-death. Your experience
may be classic. Note that the concept
of physical control-loss is relevant and enlightening; physically acting out
control-loss is irrelevant.
>I have
no recollection of physically doing any of this to my room. But the best was
yet to come. I stumbled off to look into the mirror -- I now have a knot on my
head the size of Ft. Knox, the skin on my head was broken in two places (I was
just slightly short of a concussion). My chest is bruised. My left arm is
bleeding. My right knee and ankle are in incredible pain right now.
>I
basically went on a rampage
an Amanita
berserker
>while
sleeping/tripping and I look like someone kicked my ass bad. I thought that all
this commotion must have awoken the parents. I went to my mom's room and told
her that I had an intense dream, that I had convulsed
like
having a self-control seizure
>during
the dream, and know I was all fucked up. I look so bad right now, that my mom
was crying. My room looks like a war zone. For the first time, a psychedelic
has literally kicked my ass. I will never take A. Muscaria again. Word of
advice: don't go to sleep unless you have a tripping partner. I have learned a
valuable lesson that I should have been able to learn without such extreme
measures. A. Muscaria is some powerful shit.
>PS: I
have seriously reconsidered my Amanita Muscaria experience. Sure it was scary,
and sure I got hurt under the circumstances. But I'm starting to integrate the
experience now, and I don't think of it as such a bad one anymore. My flesh was
ripped off of me, and my skeleton was revealed.
I would be
interested to know if the theory I have assembled is relevant and helps
integrate your experience.
>This
is what shamans tend to experience on A. Muscaria. It is part of the death and
ressurection initiation, and it is also a way of purifying oneself. I have
several skeletons and skeletal images from Guatemala that have roots in Mayan
mysticism. Besides, I read the various trip reports on the net: A. Muscaria
isn't exactly supposed to be a party. I count it now among my 5 mystical
experiences, and I am already starting to see ways in which I can grow from the
experience. Keep you posted!
>I
forgot to mention a very important part of the trip. While in the vortex, I saw
a small black thing that looked like a deodorant cap. I tried to crawl inside
of it (small as it was), and I was somehow succesful. Inside the "black
hole" was just more of the same vortex.
Control-vortex
as cave of Mithras? I've always
pictured touching or approaching or hugging the vortex, but not *entering* or
being in the vortex -- just being inside the peak window (as a time period)
while encountering the control-vortex.
I have imagined entering it, rather than physically entering it. God is said to speak from inside the
whirlwind.
>>You
mentioned Amanita, but I found here that these can be toxic and kill you:
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxicagents/amanita/amanita.html#symptoms
I'm
strictly talking about Amanita Muscaria; the Fly Agaric mushroom, which is not
fatally toxic, despite what pop books such as by DK Publishing casually
indicate. The Erowid site is the
authority on visionary plants and chemicals.
The books say it's crucial to know your mushrooms, but then usually give
incorrect information about the toxicity of Amanita Muscaria, which is only "toxic"
in a mild sense: producing nausea and an ego death experience.
http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas.shtml
The body
of Christ, bread of heaven, the shiny golden metallic Holy Grail made of
neither bone nor metal nor wood.
http://www.egodeath.com/driedamanitaphotos.htm
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