Red Cap

[constantine]

The realm of legend, folk tale, and myth serves as a backdrop for the human experience. They reveal within them man’s emergence from the dim forest of his past into the familiar realm of civilization. The journey down this path is revealed in both our collective consciousness and unconsciousness through legend and myth, and because of this they are recognizable and relevant.
By the time a folk tale enters the literate era, its form is captured, and its permutations are largely in step with the prevailing attitudes of the culture and society that embraces it; thus different forms proliferate on a regional basis. But regardless of its form and interpretation, by the time the tale is written down it can be vastly different than its preliterate form and function. A tale could originally be allegorical in nature, and through time the allegorical elements can be taken literally; thus the “accepted” versions of the story can be totally different from its original intent and purpose. One may assume that original intent and purpose is largely a matter of speculation, and that we have no way of ascertaining what they may be without a written format; but there are several avenues available for those interested enough to do so. Before getting into this aspect however, we might be better served by examining the variants of the tale in question – Little Red Riding Hood.

The earliest version (printed) of Little Red Riding Hood was published in 1697 by Charles Perrault. Entitled “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge” (the Little Red Cap), it was part of a compilation of folk tales under the title of “Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose.” As the title indicates, the tales in Perrault’s compilation are vehicles for moral lesions designed for children. Almost all of the subsequent variations of “Little Red Riding Hood” to this day are of this order. This is not surprising; the trend towards urbanization in Western Europe presented a new backdrop for old moral concerns. The dangers were amplified due to the changes in society. One didn’t know everybody; people were transient; the community became a community of strangers, of potential danger. And though the stories’ setting may appear to be primeval, the audience certainly was not. However, these stories did not originate in an urban setting, nor are we to find their origin in the urban, or even in the transition from agrarian to urban. They belong to the folk traditions of the Indo-European peoples from whom our (Western) languages derive, and quite possibly before that.
In Robert Graves provocative work, “The Greek Myths”, Graves examines the myths from the view of their being accounts of the religious struggle between the patriarchal religious system and social structure of the Indo-Aryan invaders (from the Caucasus region) and the matriarchal religious and social structure of the indigenous society of mainland Greece. He points out that though language and ideas change through time, a culture’s names for objects in the natural world (flora, fauna, geographical features, etc.) remain entrenched. The language of religious ritual and symbology are also conservative, and resistant to linguistic change. In pre-literate, Neolithic Europe clans (kinship-based social groups) were totemic. They would develop a system of religious ritual that would attempt to explain their origin and relationship to the environment. The rituals incorporate their world view, and develop into a corpus of stories that are passed on orally, or in other artistic mediums such as dance, music, sculpture, painting, weaving and embroidery, architectural design, and so on. They evolve with time and circumstance; new elements are introduced – variants develop. The process is the same in literate societies. The key elements of the story tend to remain the same, but external influences such as an invading or migratory population will either erase the pre-existing corpus or assimilate and incorporate it into their own religious and artistic expression, as in the case of the Greeks.
In the preface to the later editions of Graves’ “The Greek Myths”, Graves acknowledges the influence of the research of noted ethnomycologist, R. Gordon Wasson, upon Graves’ perspective and interpretive assessment of Indo-European mythology. Wasson applied his knowledge of ethnomycology to unravel the mystery of Soma – the Indo-Aryan god who was god, man, and plant. This was a problem that had engaged and stymied researchers of various disciplines. Wasson, in examining the ancient Indo-Aryan texts, proposed that Soma was the mushroom, amanita muscaria, a psychotropic mushroom that grows in a symbiotic relationship to the roots of birch trees and several varieties of pine in northern temperate Eurasia. The textual references and descriptions of both Soma’s attributes and the preparation procedure fit the amanita muscaria perfectly.
The Indo-Aryans lived within the birch line of the Northern Temperate Zone and apparently knew of the mushroom’s effects. A religious cult grew around its usage, and this cult and knowledge were brought with them in their incursions into new territories. One group of Aryans descended upon the Indus River Valley civilization and overran it. Theirs is the source of the Avestan, RigVeda, and Mahabarata corpus of religious tales and beliefs. Another segment of the Aryan people, at around the same time, descended into the Balkan Peninsula and assimilated the matriarchal, indigenous population (Carians?) and their beliefs into their own. This developed into the Mycenean civilization of Bronze Age Greece. The city name, Mycenae, has its root in the word for mushroom – myco.
Graves, in his later life, collaborated and corresponded with Wasson. In the afore mentioned preface, there is a drawing of an artifact (a coin if I remember correctly) with Dionysius, a god of Indo-Aryan origin, holding an amanita muscaria.
The amanita muscaria has a white outer layer that, upon the mushroom growing, breaks apart to reveal a golden to bright red inner surface. White flecks from the outer layer stud the red surface. It is revealing to note that the heralds, or familiars, of Dionysius are the spotted leopard, the white-spotted red lynx, and the white-dappled red fawn. If we view the myths surrounding Dionysius from this perspective, different elements become more understandable. The maenads, the female devotees of the Dionysian cult, were fabled to have ripped off the heads of their victims in a state of religious ecstasy during their forest rituals. This, Graves believes, is allegorical; the ‘head’ was the head of the amanita which induces a profound psychedelic state and increased physical strength. The word ambrosia, the food of the gods, was an acronym for the amanita muscaria. Wasson discovered a similar cultural pattern in the Mexican-Amerindian cultures involving the usage and deification of the mushroom psilocybin.
The use of amanita muscaria was monopolized by the shamans of different Indo-European cults and peoples. It’s debilitating effects upon the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system became apparent after prolonged usage. After a while,
a taboo was placed on its consumption and other “sacraments” were used as substitutes (wine, marijuana, etc.) Eventually the original sacrament was forgotten to be later revealed by Wasson and other researchers in the 20th century. John Allegro, a linguist commissioned by the Jordanian government to decipher the Dead Sea Scrolls, wrote several volumes based on his research. In his book entitled “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross’, Allegro explores the origins of Christianity and other Near Eastern religions and their derivation from earlier existing mushroom cults. The influence of psychotropia has had a profound and lasting effect on culture that lasts even to this day.
I would be both suspicious and dubious of all this if not for a number of compelling reasons. First and foremost being the proliferation of the amanita muscaria’s image in popular culture. You’ll find it on bookcovers, in illustrations, clothing, mass media – literally everywhere. The mushroom is reasonably rare; I doubt if the people responsible for the images have any idea that it is the amanita muscaria that they are portraying. It is also interesting to note that European cultures are split into mycophiles and mycophobes on a regional basis, as if reflecting the influence of a taboo. In Yeats’ study of Irish folklore he tells of red capped elves who dance in a ring. The amanita grows in a ring around birches and pines. In fact, there are countless references to mushrooms in European legends; they are usually couched in negative nomenclature in some cultures, and positive nomenclature in others. Red capped gnomes, elves, children (Little Red Riding Hood), and (dare I say it) Santa Claus are possible derivations of a mushroom-based allegorical system of Eurasian origin. The tribes of Siberia used to eat amanitas; reindeer favor them as well. In fact, it is dangerous to urinate in Siberian villages that use the amanita due to the reindeer rushing up on you to consume the urine. The amanita's psychoactive chemical, muscinol, becomes a metabolite in urine, and is less nauseating in this form. This is substantiated by direct observation, and is recorded in ancient Aryan texts.
At any rate, I am not saying that “Little Red Riding Hood” is a personification of the amanita muscaria; the tale as we know it is a moral fable, but its roots in imagery and origin could very possibly be the red-capped, amanita muscaria.

[Lightning Rod]

interesting theory, constantine

here is my contribution to Mushroom Lore

My reference is to the cubensis shroom however, not the amanita. Cubensis are milder and they are purple and not red.

[Doreen Peri]

Ahh! You write prose too?

Very cool!

Well written and interesting, Dino.

[Lightning Rod]

and I couldn't resist this:

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WZUfsmwaNoA&hl ... ram><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WZUfsmwaNoA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

[constantine]

great song clay. thanks for hooking me up. i've always had a place in my heart for sam the sham; his wooly bully is one of my favorite numbers.
yeah doreen, i like writing prose, but poetry takes most of my time and effort. at school, prose is the order of the day. this was an essay for eng comp 3. we watched a musical - in the woods - or something of that order, and had a free hand in how we wanted to write about it. this was the result. they say write what you know about - so i did.

[Arcadia]

I´ve read what you say here somewhere else already, but I have to say that the analogy of Caperucita Roja with the hongo is new for me. Also the etimologhy of Micenas... so wasn´t it mice the origin? and ambrosía... cool!. Thanks!!!!!!!!

[constantine]

ethnomycological research has come into its own recently largely due to wasson's pioneering efforts. it makes sense - if i was traipsing around the paleolithic eurasian forests and came across the red cap i would probably eat it - hallucinate like crazy - and think that i entered the kingdom of the gods. word spread - fast. how else could one explain it at that time? thanks arcadia for reading it. the sources i based this on are worth checking out.