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Amanita Muscaria as the God/ Plant Soma of the Rigveda |
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Written by Michael S. Smith
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Tuesday, 12 August 1997 |
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Page 2 of 3
An indication that Soma might be the red Amanita is that Soma is described as being like the sun. He (Soma) has clothed himself with the fire-bursts of the sun... (Mandala IX 17). Even before it has fully opened the Amanita can remind one easily of the sun, its white spots seen as the orbs rays. Mandala IX 86 states that Soma envelopes himself all around with the rays of the sun... Soma has even been compared to the brilliance of lightning (Mandala IX 22), causing the poet to declare, make me burn like fire started by friction (Mandala VIII 48 ). W.L. Reese, in his Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, states that Agni (Soma) represents the trinity of earthly fire, lightning, and sun. In this extended sense he was the mediator between the gods and man. As in many other cultures it seems possible that a hallucinogen, in this case Amanita muscaria, was the doorway to entering the realm of the gods.
A common metaphor for Soma is the bull, the Rigveda's symbol of strength. He (Soma) bellows, terrifying bull... the hide is of bull, the dress of sheep (Mandala IX 70). In Mandala IX 97 we find a reference to the red bull. Might we assume that the skin of the mushroom represents the red hide of the bull, while the woolly spots represent the dress of sheep? Many references to a cows udder can also be found in the Rigveda. Since Soma was milked of its juice it seems possible that the Amanita itself could be this udder. This becomes all the more plausible if one has seen an immature Amanita. No doubt to a poetically inspired mind the Amanita could suggest a cows udder. Even the stalk, or amsu, is likened to a teat. When the swollen amsu were milked like cows with full udders... (Mandala VIII 9).
What is also interesting is that the milk of Soma is described as a tawny yellow color, a color much closer to cows milk, and to the expressed juice of an Amanita, than would be the green juice of a chlorophyll producing plant.
Another interesting reference is to Soma's being a single eye. Quickened by the seven minds, he (Soma) has encouraged the rivers free of grief, which have strengthened his single eye (Mandala IX 9). And in Mandala IX 97, Soma who has for eye the sun. Though further evidence suggesting that the Amanita is the single eye is lacking Wasson simply asks us to examine an Amanita and inquire if a creeping vine or Rhubarb could fulfill the concept of the single eye so fittingly as the red capped Amanita. Another Mandala about the eye helps bring together the many metaphors descriptive of Soma.
“I have drunk the navel (Soma) into the navel (stomach) for our sake.”
Indeed, the eye is altogether with the sun. I have milked the child of the wise (Mandala IX 10). In this quote we can see the many metaphors at play, the navel, a word with an archaic history in many cultures and which often has the dual meaning of a mushroom, the eye, which can signify both its shape and its power to open up ones sight, the sun, of which the red cap could represent, and the milking, which is what was done with Soma and which fits into the udder concept of Soma.
The most interesting, and probably the strongest supporting evidence that Amanita muscaria is the divine Soma is the mentioning in the Rigveda of there being two forms of Soma. With those two forms which stand facing us, O Soma, thou reignest over all things (Mandala IX 66). Wasson in his studies of Amanita use in other cultures also came across two forms of Amanita. The first being the expressed juice of a fresh or re-hydrated mushroom, and the second being the urine of those who have drunk the juice. The best example of urine drinking after the ingestion of Amanita mushrooms comes from Filip Johann von Strahlenberg's studies of the Siberian Koryak tribe in the early 1700's. Strahlenberg states that when the Koryak,“make a feast, they pour water upon some of these mushrooms, and boil them. They then drink the liquor, which intoxicates them; the poorer sort, who cannot afford to lay in a store of these mushrooms, post themselves, on these occasions, round the huts of the rich, and watch for the opportunity of the guest coming down to make water; and then hold a wooden bowl to receive the urine, which they drink off greedily, as having still some virtue of the mushroom in it, and by this way they also get drunk.”
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