Chapter Five : Holiday Symbolism
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Thomas 113 .. .The kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.
Figure 47- Easter card
The gnome is often associated with the mushroom and the hare with eggs (and mushrooms as well). It seems odd not to question why we use a hare to symbolize eggs at Easter when hares do not lay eggs. Even stranger still would be to not question why we include eggs in the Easter celebration. Traditionally, the brownish hare symbolized fertility and the brownish Amanita pantherina mushrooms. The fiery red phoenix symbolized the bright red Amanita muscaria249 and, as we discussed earlier, the first stage of the mushroom's growth cycle is this egg shape. The tradition of Easter egg hunting found its way into modem times because our ancestors provided their children with baskets and sent them into the woods to look underneath the trees and shrubbery for the sacred sacrament: the often egg-shaped mushroom used in many tribal rituals.
The symbolism of the egg is important to mythology. The sun represented a great yolk inside the "cosmic egg." In a theory of creation found in India, Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, and among the modern Polynesians and Finns, the whole universe came from a cosmic egg. In the version known at Memphis, in Egypt, Ptah (the opener) broke the egg from which the sun and moon came forth. 250 "' Ernest Busenbark
Figure 48 - Speculum Veritatis, 17th century. Apostolic Vatican Library, Cod. Lat. 7286 249 Sec Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, by Heinrich, 2002, pg. 148, 175-76; The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, by Allegro, 1970, pg. 95. 250 Symbols. Sex, and the Stars, by Busenbark, 1949, pg. I 0 I.
Astrotheolot-,ry & Shamanism- Christianity's Pagan Roots