Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
1–10 of 110 posts
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#2The premise doesn’t even make sense, the tree of knowledge is a Bad Thing in the Genesis story. Even if it was a magic mushroom, how could you possibly come to the conclusion that it’s being depicted in a positive light?
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#3The serpent wrapped around the tree indicates that this is to represent the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, not the Tree of Life. So, even if this were depicting hallucinogenic mushrooms, if anything it would mean that Christians viewed them as forbidden.
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#4I guess I've never given much credence to this theory. Why would they beat around the bush and use symbols and other words for it. Why wouldn't they just say "eat this mushroom"? Was there even a stigma against it back then?
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#5The premise doesn’t even make sense, the tree of knowledge is a Bad Thing in the Genesis story. Even if it was a magic mushroom, how could you possibly come to the conclusion that it’s being depicted in a positive light?
Knowledge of good and evil is a "Good Thing", and one interpretation of the reason God put the tree in reach of Adam and Eve is that he wanted them to eventually partake of its fruit, but they did it early and without whatever other prep was necessary. Think of it as a child slowly learning concepts instead of being immediately presented with complex knowledge and not having the necessary foundation to process it. Not sure about the positive light depiction, but I could see hallucinogenics being viewed as something that expands your knowledge/mind especially since people report out of body experiences when using them.
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#6The premise doesn’t even make sense, the tree of knowledge is a Bad Thing in the Genesis story. Even if it was a magic mushroom, how could you possibly come to the conclusion that it’s being depicted in a positive light?
> the tree of knowledge is a Bad Thing in the Genesis story
Not at all. I'm certain that it differs between faiths, but in mine (Judaism), the tree of knowledge was not A Bad Thing.
Eating the forbidden fruit / fruit of knowledge exposed Adam and Eve to evil things; tarnishing their purity. After they ate the fruit, they awakened. They desired to wear clothes, possess things, have children, etc.
What we learn from this is that knowledge is not good or bad; it's how we use it that makes the difference. And from the standpoint of an "awakening" and mystical experience, the connection to psilocybin deserves further study.
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#7The premise doesn’t even make sense, the tree of knowledge is a Bad Thing in the Genesis story. Even if it was a magic mushroom, how could you possibly come to the conclusion that it’s being depicted in a positive light?
The Tree of Knowledge is not the “bad thing” (sin is a better vocabulary choice) in the book of Genesis. The sin is the defiance of God’s instruction by Adam and Eve avoiding the fruit from the Tree of Life.
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#8The premise doesn’t even make sense, the tree of knowledge is a Bad Thing in the Genesis story. Even if it was a magic mushroom, how could you possibly come to the conclusion that it’s being depicted in a positive light?
Knowledge of good and evil is a "Good Thing", and one interpretation of the reason God put the tree in reach of Adam and Eve is that he wanted them to eventually partake of its fruit, but they did it early and without whatever other prep was necessary. Think of it as a child slowly learning concepts instead of being immediately presented with complex knowledge and not having the necessary foundation to process it. No…
Ditto. Also in traditional doctrine it was good because the fall led to jesus. Look up felix culpa on wikipedia. As for the mushrooms, it's not as if medieval clergy didn't have a good time.
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#9I’ve long been thinking about how things like this are in the Bible:
> They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel ... Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.
— Ezekiel 1:15
And I’ve been thinking, that these kinds of things could have their explanation in people having ingested plants or been stung by insects or something, that altered their perceptions of reality. Or even maybe just hallucinating because of hunger, or from having been born with a brain that was producing these types of hallucinations on its own.
Re: Does this medieval fresco show a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Garden of Eden?
#10There are several problems with this article. To start with, it mixes up the Tree of Life[1] and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil[2].
Second, the Genesis story is Jewish, and predates Christianity by at least five if not ten centuries. And most importantly, early Christians were Jews first. Post-Pauline times, pagan or Gentiles in the Roman empire did join the growing movement that was soon to be called Christianity, but they were weren't dragging in any pagan rituals they may have had prior to their conversion. Three hundred years later, with the conversion of Constantine and the co-optation of Christianity for Roman imperial designs, certain pagan rituals and practices were papered over with Christian beliefs (cf Easter, Christmas), but not the other way around.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life_(biblical)
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_the_knowledge_of_good_...