Psychedelic Mushroom Trees in Christian Art? Critical Assessments

                                                                            J. R. Irvin,   The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity   (Appendix by Jack Herer; Grand Terrace, CA: Gnostic Media, 2008), plate 33. Those advancing the theory that early and medieval Christian art was intentionally filled with hidden images of psychedelic mushrooms are often shown to be disturbingly ill informed with regard to what is actually being portrayed in the pictures they adduce as evidence for their theory. As one reads the adventurous and idiosyncratic texts of these authors it quickly becomes apparent that very often little or no effort has been expended on undertaking the serious study of the norms and symbolism of Christian iconography. Rather the impression is given that the wr...

Beastiary, MS. Bodl. 602,  fol. 27v . PDF of this article T he image above is from a 13th century bestiary in Oxford's Bodleian Library (MS. Bodl. 602, fol. 27v). A completely fanciful interpretation of this picture was advanced by Bennett et al.  1995 , which was in turn uncritically repeated and expanded upon by subsequent PMTs (Psychedelic Mushroom in Christian Art Theorists), all of whom imagined it came from a 14th alchemical text and none of whom knew it was actually from a 13th century bestiary.    Medieval bestiaries describe what was believed to be the peculiar behaviors and characteristics of different animals along with their typological or symbolic significance.  They are rooted in a Greek work known as the Physiologus , which is sometimes attributed to the 4th century Greek father Epiphanius of Salamis, but perhaps dates back as early as the end of the 2nd century AD.   In the present article we shall first describe what the pic...