FANE--A sanctuary without walls in which the Sacred Mushroom is closely allied with our species in space and time.
PSILOCYBE--PSI can be pronounced either as the SI in SIMPLE or as the SI in SIMON. The LO sounds like the French le as in Le Champignon. CYBE in Psilocybe rhymes with CYB in CYBERNAUT.
VICTORIA--Victoria is named no doubt after a long lived and fecund British Queen to memorialize victory over the Western Shore.
We now return our souls to the creator, as we stand on the edge of eternal darkness. Let our chant fill the void in order that others may know. In the land of the night the ship of the sun is drawn by the grateful dead.-- Egyptian Book of the Dead(?)
Also the name of a melodious, late twentieth century cult.
The sacrament is the living key to the religious experience: expansion of consciousness. The sacred mushrooms are holy scripture, a gnosis beyond words into the sphere of truth beyond the noise of verbal teaching, experiential, revealed to one in the state of being illumined by their grace. The sacrament is a wonder of inquiring mind, the edible TAO, the Dharma Jewel, Manna on the Path, the True Host. The observance of The Fane is the self evident faith born of experience in the beneficient grace of the sacrament and its use to aid understanding and love for those prepared to walk the path.
The sacred mushroom has been employed in religious rites since ancient times among the Mazatec, Chinantec, Chatino, Mixe, Zapatec, Mixtec of Oaxaca, Nahua and the Tarascona of Michoacan among others.
MUSHROOM--The sacred mushroom comes in a variety of shapes and grows in a wide variety of habitats. It occurs primarily among the genera Panaeolus, and Psilocybe, but also appears among Conocybe, Gymnopilus, and Inocybe. There are innumerable clans within these genera including Psilocybe (Stropharia) Cubensis, Psilocybe Azurescens, Psilocybe Semilanceata, Psilocybe Cyanescens, Psilocybe Mexicana, Psilocybe Caerulescens, Panaeolus (Copelandia) Cyanescens, and Panaeolus Subalteatus among others .
GNOSIS--Gnosis involves direct "knowledge" and experience of the sacred beyond the limitations of the senses and psychic states. It does not rely exclusively on faith, belief or study of sacred texts. The call to gnosis is an awakening to a hidden knowledge. In many systems this awakening is facilitated by a Great Revealer.
"El honguillo viene por si mismo, no se sabe de donde,As reported in The Road To Eleusis, the muleteer Victor Hernandez spoke the above to Gordon Wasson in answer to the question as to why the sacred mushrooms were called (7)ntil(1)-xi(3)-tjo(3) in Mazatec. Xi-tjo means "that which springs or leaps forth" and Nti is a term of affection and respect.
como el viento que viene sin saber de donde ni porque."(The little mushroom comes of itself, no one knows whence, like the wind that comes we know not whence nor why.)
Psilocybe (Stropharia)Cubensis-- Also known as San Isidro, Lord of Field and Pasture. The Mazatecs call him the Sacred Dung Mushroom. Isidore fruits singly or in small groups on dung in rich pasture soil from Spring through Fall. Isidore makes his home in the tropics and subtropics of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, Southeastern United States, South America, Southeastern Asia and Australia. He has also been spotted in other diverse climatic zones pontificating from many a mason jar or aquarium. Isidore is one of the easiest mushrooms to cultivate making him a welcome companion and teacher to the questing mycologist.
Psilocybe Azurescens-- Also known as Flying Saucer Mushroom is one of the most potent psilocybe species with a very strong blueing reaction in which the flesh becomes indigo black. This species has a strong association with dune grasses, Ammophila maritima in particular, but has also been seen growing on outdoor beds of deciduous wood chips from California to Vermont.
Psilocybe Semilanceata-- Also known as Liberty Cap named after the Phrygian headgear worn by certain liberators during the French revolution. It grows in north temperate areas and is quite plentiful on the Emerald Isles of Ireland where it is commonly referred to as Pookie. It also grows in England as well as northwest U.S. and British Columbia and has been reported in the northeastern U.S., St. Petersburg, other parts of Europe, South Africa, Chile, northern India, Australia, and Tasmania. It fruits in grass particularly in sedge grass in the damp portions of fields during the Fall but does not grow on dung like its cousin Isidore.
Panaeolus (Copelandia) Cyanescens--Copelandia occurs on soil and dung in Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, Central America, Brazil, the Philipines and Eastern Australia. It is cultivated on cow and buffalo dung on Bali.
Psilocybe Mexicana--Reported to grow in limestone regions at elevations between 4,500 and 5,500 feet in southern Mexico and Guatemala. It fruits from June until October and is found among moss or herbs along roadsides, humid meadows, cornfields, and also in the neighborhood of deciduous forests. Psilocybe Mexicana was collected along with other species by the Wassons and French mycologist Roger Heim during several field trips to Mexico around 1958. Heim's assistant Roger Cailleux managed to grow this and other species in the laboratory. Professor Heim sent the dried specimens to Albert Hofmann and his colleagues Arthur Bracke and Hans Kobel who successfully extracted and subsequently identified the chemical psychedelics, psilocyn and psilocybin, at the Sandoz laboratories in Switzerland.
Psilocybe Caerulescens--Also referred to as the Landslide mushroom. Gordon Wasson's first ingestion of the sacred mushroom consisted of Psilocybe Caerulescens received at a velada conducted by Maria Sabina in Huatla de Jimenenez, Mexico on the night of June 29/30, 1955. The Landslide Mushroom can be found in late spring and summer on disturbed land throughout central Mexico. It is also reported in Venezuela and Brazil.
Psilocybe Cyanescens--Also referred to as Wavy Cap or Blue Foot. This mushroom is commonly found in the fall to early winter on wood chip mulch in the Pacific Northwest. It is also found in the United Kingdom and across temperate Europe.
Panaeolus Subalteatus--This mushroom grows throughout North America on dung and well manured grounds in the Spring through the Fall. The cap has a cinnamon brown band around the edge. It has a blackish purple sporeprint. It is widely distributed in North America, South America, Europe, middle Siberia, Africa, and the Hawaiian archipelago.
Now in the olden days of King Arthur,
In th' olde dayes of the kyng arthour,Of whom the Britons speak with great honour,
Of which that britons speken greet honour,All this wide land was land of faery.
Al was this land fulfild of fayerye.The elf-queen, with her jolly company,
The elf-queene, with hir joly compaignye,Danced oftentimes on many a green mead;
Daunced ful ofte in many a grene mede.This was the old opinion, as I read.
This was the olde opinion, as I rede;I speak of many hundred years ago;
I speke of manye hundred yeres ago.But now no man can see the elves, you know.
But now kan no man se none elves mo,For now the so-great charity and prayers
For now the grete charitee and prayersOf limiters and other holy friars
Of lymytours and othere hooly freres,That do infest each land and every stream
That serchen every lond and every streem,As thick as motes are in a bright sunbeam,
As thikke as motes in the sonne-beem,Blessing halls, chambers, kitchens, ladies' bowers,
Blessynge halles, chambres, kichenes, boures,Cities and towns and castles and high towers,
Citees, burghes, castels, hye toures,Manors and barns and stables, aye and dairies-
Thropes, bernes, shipnes, dayeryes --This causes it that there are now no fairies.
This maketh that ther ben no fayeryes.For where was wont to walk full many an elf,
For ther as wont to walken was an elf,Right there walks now the limiter himself
Ther walketh now the lymytour hymselfIn noons and afternoons and in mornings,
In undermeles and in morwenynges,Saying his matins and such holy things,
And seyth his matyns and his hooly thyngesAs he goes round his district in his gown.
As he gooth in his lymytacioun.(From THE TALE OF THE WIFE OF BATH (857-877) in CANTERBURY TALES by Geoffrey Chaucer-(ca. 1343-1400)
GRAIN--Some clans belonging to the tribe of the fungal Sacrament grow on grain. Mycophiles are mushrooming everywhere.
GREAT MYSTERY-- Who are we? Why are we here? Why must we die? Why is there something instead of nothing? Who knows?
What is Self and Other, What is Real and Unreal, What is Emptiness and Fullness, What is Spirit, Mind, or God? Who knows?
There is no difference in principle between sharpening perception with an external instrument, such as a microscope, and sharpening it with an internal instrument such as one of these [...chemicals]. If they are an affront to the dignity of the mind, the microscope is an affront to the dignity of the eye and the telephone to the dignity of the ear. Strictly speaking, [these substances] do not impart wisdom at all, any more than the microscope alone gives knowledge. They provide the raw materials of wisdom, and are useful to the extent that the individual can integrate what they reveal into the whole pattern of his behavior and the whole system of his knowledge.--from Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts
There was neither the Nonexistent nor the Existent then
Naasad aasiin, no sad aasiit tadaaniim
There was neither Space nor the Heaven beyond
Naasiid rajo no viomaa paro yat.
What hid all? and Where? and Who watched over It?
Kim aavariivah? Kuha? Kasya sharmann?
Was there the Deep unfathomable, profound?
Ambah kim aasiid, gahanam gabhiiram?There was neither death nor immortality then
Na mrtyur aasiid, amrtam na tarhii.
Nor was there the appearance of either night or day
Na ratriaa ahna aasiit praketah.
That one breathed, windless, on its own
Aaniid avaatam svadhayaa tad ekam
Other than that there was nothing beyond
Tasmaad dhaanyan na parah kim canaasa.In the beginning darkness was hidden by darkness
Tama aasiit tamasaa guulham agre;
All was undifferentiated flow
Apraketam salilam sarvam aa idam.
That One, emergent, wrapped in Void
Tuchyenaabhu apihitam yad aasiit,
Came into existence through self focused energy
Tapasas tan mahinaajaayataikam.In the beginning, Desire, the first seed of Mind, arose in That.
Kaamas tad agre sam avartataadhi,
Manaso retah prathamam yad aasiit.
Sages searching the Heart with Mind
Hrdi pratiishyaa kavayo maniishaa.
Found the bond of the Existent in the Nonexistent.
Sato bandhum asati nir avindanWho really knows? Who will proclaim it?
Ko addha veda? Ka iha pra vocat,
How was it produced? How did it emanate?
Kuta aajaataa, kuta iyam visrshtih?
The gods appeared afterwards:
Arvaag devaa asya visarjanena:
Who then knows how it all came into being?
Athaa ko veda yata aababhuuva?Rig Veda Hymn X.129--Stanzas I, II, III, IV, and V
The WASSONS-- Valentina Pavlovna (died 1958) and Gordon (1898-1986), the Parents of Ethnomycology, began their lifelong mushroom studies on their honeymoon in August, 1927, in the Catskill Mountains. While on a walk together, Valentina Pavlovna, who was born in Russia and therefore a Mycophile, spotted a cluster of edible mushrooms and darted off the path in great delight to pick them. Gordon, a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant and therefore a Mycophobe, watched in horror as his new bride gathered these "repellent" fungi. Their theory of mycophyllic and mycophobic cultures grew out of this incident and is described in their masterwork, Mushrooms, Russia, and History (Pantheon Books, New York, 1957). This work also describes their "rediscovery" at another time and place of the sacred mushroom gnosis hidden from western eyes for centuries.
Spirit--
The work of the ear ends with hearing, the work of the eye ends with seeing, the work of the mind ends with ideas, whereas the Spirit is an emptiness yielding to all things.-Chuang Tzu
