Have you ever asked how a Scandawegian legend involving pine trees and reindeer got spliced with a myth from the deserts of north Africa ?

And why did we never question such cultural appropriation ?

And then centuries after the mass genocide of endless people’s around the world, it got repackaged, into the biggest commercial consumerfest the planet has ever seen.

Nature will never look the same again…

But I digress again... back to this article.

We already did the African side of this cultural mashup in the last article, so this time, let's look at the fluffy cartoon character of Santa Claus.

He’s somewhere between most modern children’s wish-bringer, and the biggest feeder of land-fills across the planet.
But few know that he's actually a very profound player in ancient shamanism...

Medicine Men

Back in the days of old, information, healing, and conflict resolution was in the hands of a special person in each community. The 'medicine man' - as we might call him - was not only a herbalist, a good listener, and agony aunt.

He was the person sought to uncover the subtle roots of difficulties within the community, and required a particular kind of sensitivity to the human condition, the universe at large, and the 'spiritual' realms of existence - those that were beyond the agricultural understanding of the average villager.

We might, these days, associate this role within our own cultural history with concepts of wizardry - derived from the root word 'wisdom' - the domain of the wise. And of course their female counterpart - witches - and we all know what happens to wise women in history.

Medicine Women

Incidentally, I use the male pronoun 'he' throughout this article, only because the focus is upon Santa - a clearly male character in our story - but as we'll see, it is a cultural bias, not a historical fact... Without the patriarchal lens we see that most of the wisdom-bringers across all cultures were women - for solid neurological / emotional / nourishing reasons. With time, the insecure male psyche needed to denigrate, denounce and demolish their status, and ultimately replace them with male figures - but that is outside the scope of this article.

Either way, as a part of their training as a medicine bringer, the ritualised use of particular plants was commonplace, to develop and enhance that kind of consciousness - to journey into the underworld and come back with understandings that normal thinking cannot produce.

While this medicine culture was the norm across the world, in Lapland there live the Evenki - reindeer herders from Siberia - from which the much misused word ‘Shaman’ actually derives, and where the roots of our Santa Claus figure begins.

And one of the most common plants to use for their rituals was Amanita Muscaria - the Fly Agaric mushroom.

Notably, this big, broad-caped fungus is bright red, with white trim...

Starting to feel the first connection ? Big, round, red and white - remind you of anyone ?

However, there are a couple of stages in the preparation of this mushroom, before it can be used, which further enhance its psyche-altering effects.

The first stage is to uproot them, and hang them to dry in the pine trees under which they grow, thus preserving them for later use throughout the year.

A Xmas tree with brightly coloured balbals hanging in it ? You getting the scene ?

Once there were enough of them to make use of, they would be collected in a big sack and lugged back home.

If it was a particularly wet winter, then they would rot while hanging in the tree, so instead, they would dry them indoors.

Hung in stockings either side of the fireplace (!!!!)

The next stage is to feed them to your reindeer, as these animals have an uncanny ability to process the poisons, and then urinate out the psychotropic elements in an active and safe form.

Enter reindeer as major players as the vehicles in this traveller’s story.

And finally, once all is prepared, the shaman drinks the brew, and his journey starts...

To aid his journey to the outer realms, a fir tree brought into this yurt, tall enough to stick up through the roof. It is said that his spirit climbs up through the smokehole of the yurt, and he returns bearing the knowledge of his experience.

In other words, he comes down the chimney and lays the gifts of his journey under the tree.

These Evenki peoples live close to the North Pole, giving Santa his legendary home.
Looking up through the branches of his tree, at its peak would be the North Star - right at the top of the tree - imagine that !

So, we have a better picture of the event.

These original santas sum it up nicely...

And this is not the only legend from ancient times that include such references to mythic places and magical substances... All of which involve returning to the normal world with additional knowledge or ‘special powers’ with which to serve the community they come from.

In fact, history, across the planet, is littered with them...

Flying Carpets

In Africa, we have legends of the Arabian Nights, involving travel on flying carpets - a ludicrous, Disney-like scene... until we understand that the red dye used in those carpets (the base colour for those rugs is always red) is made by soaking a particular root - Syrian Rue - which just happens to be a powerful neurotransmitter modulator - causing deep states of meditation, in which powerful realisations, physical healings & psychological enhancements are common place. These pre-Islamic cultures were the dominion of the Sufi’s ; great explorers in the emotional / sexual / consciousness states of being, later demonised by the religion that now dominates the area.

When the powerful chemistry of this Syrian root is mixed with others, we get various concoctions know in the Asian continent as Soma - which is often cited as the father of Hinduism, and its subsequent spin-offs like Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, etc. These cultures, resplendent in meditation practices these days, deny all use of such enhancing substances, yet quietly understand their role as catalysts in their history .

Plus the ritualised use of brews such Ayahuaska, Datura, Bobinsana, and Kambo from the Amazon, are still with us, and modern scientific research is seeing fundamental benefits to the their use. Our own homeland mushrooms are being clinically trailed as a major solution to depression and PTSD (far more successful and reliable than current pharmaceuticals), and then there is the renaissance we are seeing in the sacred plants of North America, after their legalisation in the US found them to be safe and beneficial.

A little closer to home, if you're a fan of the romantic poets (such as Coleridge, Crabbe, Quincey, etc), or indeed the intricacies of Sherlock Homes, you are inadvertently celebrating the brain-enhancing actions of Opium - so freely available across Asia and in cafes across Europe, until it's prohibition after WW1, ending the great 'binge years', in which you could send our boys in the trenches a hamper of Opium, syringes, Heroin, Cocaine, all available at the local chemist.

Of course, we sniff at such things these days, but whether we like it or not, these plants formed a massive part of our cultural history.

Everything from the literary classics, to Lewis Carol's blue caterpillar, sitting atop that Fly Agaric mushroom smoking his bong, all the way down to poor old Santa himself - who is the most celebrated, venerated and family-friendly of all the medicine carriers across history !

And that may be why he doesn't touch the sherry and mince pies we leave him !

He does like the singing though...

Whatever it is you choose to believe about this global event, have the most fun you can have.

If it is about family connection, then wishing you methods of deep, nourishing connect.
If it is Christian event, then sending time in contemplation of what he actually said & sacrificed.
If it is more of a Solstice event, then deep dreamings to you, for your coming year.