Santa’s Magic By Carisa Rowe
Before you read this article, Google “old school Christmas cards”. Use retro, vintage, or even Victorian as descriptors. In fact, Google “Victorian Christmas cards” because – well, I don’t wanna spoil your trip. When you return from your journey through the Christmas Absurdia, I’d like to call your attention to a theme you may not have noticed. When I close my eyes and imagine one of these relics of Christmas past – a card lovingly stowed in my grandmother’s memories box, I picture a rosy-cheeked Santa, standing to the left of his cart and reindeer. In the background, snow covered spruce and pine trees line the horizon. In the glow of the vignette, woodland animals like frolic. On this card, and many others like it, scattered in the sparkling frost are small, red mounds flecked with white specks . Closer inspection reveals these mounds to be mushrooms – Amanita muscaria to be accurate. The realization recalls the assorted mercury glass ornaments familiar to my childhood. The red and white mushrooms are recognizable to folks familiar with entheogens and hallucinogens and their image is the one most associated with psychedelic mushrooms. A sudden memory of dangling fungus ornament, with hundreds of colored lights glinting off its metallic finish, drives my curiosity to uncover the relationship between hallucinogenic mushrooms and jolly, ole St. Nick. Psychedelic Santa isn’t all that far-fetched considering the guy believes reindeer can fly. The legend of Santa Claus has been traced back nearly eighteen centuries to a monk known as St. Nicholas who lived in what is now Turkey. Saint Nicholas of Myra was a benevolent monk who traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick, all the while gifting his inherited wealth as he went. St. Nicholas’ legend stretched across countries and continents for centuries. Each rendition of the revered do-gooder evolved with the retelling of his great works until the legend of St. Nicholas eventually landed in New York, New York in the 1770s with Dutch immigrants who had gathered to honor “Sinter Klaas”. Saint Nicholas was an early Christian bishop and is often depicted with short hair and a low beard, wearing ceremonial robes and habit, adorned with crosses. As the lore of the Grecian saint was adopted throughout Europe, the visage of the philanthrope evolved to the fur-flocked, bearded hippie we all know and love. When Christianity spread into northern Europe and the arctic circle, crusaders were forced to adapt their stories and legends to align with the deeply engrained pagan beliefs and practices of these regions. Much of the traditions we uphold in modern Christmas celebrations are continuations of pagan practices that were adopted by early Christians in order to integrate their faith with resistant civilizations throughout Nordic and tribal civilizations in Europe. The most familiar décor in modern Christmas harkens on pagan beliefs about nature, winter, the sun, and the moon. In particular, the practices that integrate parts of the hardy natural world into everyday life are of note. Guided by shamans and sages, northern Europeans of the era honored nature, the moon, and the sun with traditions surrounding winter solstice. Modern Christmas practices include evolutions of these Saturnalia celebrations. Feasting and gift-giving in these cultures lasted for days and combatted the harsh winter nights with community gatherings and rituals believed to please the g-d so that it would renew the cycle and bring bountiful agriculture in the coming seasons. Wreaths of evergreen are a tribute of Yule to show the promise of spring. In fact, the integration of much of the plant symbology familiar to Christmas comes from these Scandinavian and Germanic civilizations. Decorating evergreens, Yule logs, holly, and mistletoe are all relics of winter solstice celebrations. It reasons then that the small red and white mushrooms that have inconspicuously appeared in Christmas imagery for centuries must also hold some relevance to the etymology of Christmas – and Santa Claus.
Carisa Rowe is:
A commercial cultivator A writer An event producer A processor & consultant She serves as VP of Oklahoma Womxn Cann Association (OWxCA) Carisa loves two outstanding teenagers, a gaggle of dogs, and dancing. Instagram @groovygrower thatgroovygrower@gmail.com,
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