I can't imagine why she would publish false information, but I guess maybe-possibly-potentially she did this to further an agenda of some sort? I haven't read much of her work as I'm not Wiccan, but it's enough to know she and people like Koetting (A grim-dark edgy emo occult author who charges like 800$ for his books) are to be avoided like the plague.

Any other books I could suggest?

• Call of the Horned Piper by Nigel A. Jackson Is a great read if you're interested in "traditional craft". He details the making of several important witching tools, from the stave (A staff of sorts, usually forked at the top) to the besom (a broom) to the athame (A Ritual Knife) and a bunch of other things.
  
  
• Treading the Mill I have not yet gotten my hands on this, but I see it often enough in trad. circles and even other authors recommend it so much for beginners, it's worth including.
  
  
• The Devil's Dozen: 13 Craft Rites of the Old One by Gemma Gary Gemma Gary is a highly respected author in the field of trad craft and Ye Olde British/Celtic traditions. Her books are eloquent, delightful, and historically sound, and honestly I consider her fairly unmatched in the field of British craft. I don't know if I would necessarily suggest her as the first author you should read, but she's definitely good and you should check out her works if you have the chance.
  
  
• Animal Speak by Ted Andrews A book on animals and the spirits of animals, it's a good solid read especially for beginning work with animal spirits and familiars. Once again, if you're into that.
  
  
• Sarah Anne Lawless's Blog - If you want to do some reading on the subject of Trad Craft, Sarah Lawless's blog is a good source. I believe her blog also has a list of recommended books for beginners too, if you want to check that out. :)
  
  I have other suggestions as well, but they're much more specified to trad craft, like Liber Nox, The Visions of Isobel Gowdie, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, or New World Witchery's Blog, but I think you've got a good handle so far!
  
  Good luck on your path. :)
  
  
  

It depends on what you're drawn to. Are you more interested in interpretation of story for your own personal growth? Or interpretation of films? Or are you looking to create stories?

The best books I know on this subject at least on interpretive myth include:

• Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (sure it's about women's stories which can dissuade some younger men learning about this subject but it's seriously one of the best books on how to interpret a myth out there)
  
• The Hero Within by Carol S. Pearson. This is more if you're trying to find your own personal mythology for instance.
  
• The Water of Life by Michael Meade is tremendous. He does amazing events around the United States and gives good performances as well as talks and storytelling online via his non-profit Mosaic Voices.
  
• To learn more about interpretation and ways to interact with your unconscious, I'd recommend many of Robert A. Johnson's books specifically Inner Work however Transformations of Masculine Consciousness, He, She, We and Living with the Heavenly Goddess are good too depending on what topic you're interested in.
  
• For storytelling, I'd recommend the book Healing Hearts Communities which consists of a collection of stories which are appropriate to use for a variety of modern requirements. So you have stories talking about addiction or violence etc.
  
  In my experience, after Campbell people usually begin to drift toward what their personal myths are. So you have some people who get really into film and get caught on Vogler or Bonnet's work, others who want to go help returning veterans and end up getting really into Odysseus in America. Or people begin focusing on different cultures and religions and move from there.

YES! I studied Irish mythology in University, so here a few of my favorite texts :)

The Tain is a lovely translation of the Tain Bo Cuailnge ^(sounds like "toy'n bo cool") which is the primary source of written mythology. It's dense.

Over Nine Waves is also, in my opinion, an imperative supplementary text on the myths and legends as well. It feels less academic.

The Lore of Ireland is just that - a book of Irish lore.

As for Samhain ^(I can't figure out how to properly give you a "sounds like" since I don't have little phoneme symbols - but basically like "sahwin") itself, I'm not sure whether holidays are out-right discussed in these texts. I will say, if you do find it - it'll be mostly in lore as opposed to myth or legend. Most Celtic holidays are focused on the changing of the seasons (like all holidays, really) and their connection to the Land of Eternal Youth (Tir na nOg - you can actually pronounce this one like you might expect it to be said) and the Tuatha De Danann ^(sub a "w" for the "th").

If you're looking specifically for myths dealing with faeries, they'll also be in lore. Myths/legends usually refer to the great heroes like Cuchulain ^("cuh-cul-lin") (there's a statue of him in the post office of downtown Dublin in honor of the Easter Uprising during the Irish revolution! Probably one of, if not the, most important myth/legend. In the war between gods and man, he almost single-handidly defeated Madb ^("mave") and her sons in a battle that last weeks/months/yeards depending the variation. He tied himself to a post as he was dying in order to look like he was still alive and held off attacks until crows landed on his shoulders and started eating his body. Basically. It's way better than my telling lol..) and gods and the cycles of power over the land itself.

Okay, fine, I'm done. Sorry for being so long-winded!

Oh! If you're looking for less heady material, I would also recommend Lady Gregory and Yeats. They were mythology nerds and wrote tons of plays/poems/retellings. L.Gregory's Grania is my favorite retelling of Grania and Diarmuid! I actually got a tattoo of one of the lines from the play in Ireland the first time I visited :)

Happy reading!

For the Ismaili side, I'd recommend Assassins Legends and The Eagle's Nest (pretty much anything by Farhad Daftary is a good read). For the non-Ismaili side, there's lots of stuff but I'd actually recommend Alamut. It's a novel, but Bartol spent a decade researching the subject and the result is a really compelling look into how this could happen.

In context, you have to remember that Ismailis were stuck between Seljuks and Crusaders (both of which hated them) and no longer had a serviceable army to protect. So these lone assassins probably sounded like a great idea, regardless of what the leaders said.

That's it for Assassin Stuff. The rest is on the blind faith question...

One of the things that drew me back to Ismailism is that Hazar Imam has always encouraged us to think critically, even about his faramin (it's like page 2 of Precious Gems). Rationality, critical thinking, and the application of a personal intellect are (and always have been) tenets of Ismailism: followers of Jafar alSadiq were known as the "People of the Truth"; Hassan Sabbah (founder of the Assassins) famously asserted that "nothing is true"; and for most (if not all) Ismaili philosophers, the the soul is the intellect. That's how I keep my faith: "I think therefore I am Ismaili", "seeking knowledge is an act of worship", etc.

However, there's this subset of Ismailis that take the Pir's (or worse, the Quran's) words at face value; there are still Ismailis that deify the Imam. Some of the stories in this sub criticise that belief-set, and rightfully so: it's stupid. But I ain't about that life, y'all ain't about that life, and (importantly) Hazar Imam ain't about that life, at least not on the surface. There is the argument that he's encouraging these beliefs by not countering-them outright (like he hasn't encouraged dasond, but he also hasn't stopped it, y'know). But when you're trying to keep the faith of 20 million people, certain secessions have to be made.

The question I'd really like an answer to is: out of everything that Hazar Imam is doing, how much is meant to carry on the Tariqa (knowledge leads to divinity, etc) and how much is just to appease his followers? Because he needs us as much as we need him.

I hope that answers your question. If not, I totally don't mind getting into specifics.

...know what it takes to go through the design process of creating your own 'professional' looking book covers.

Speaking as a cover designer, here's a number of elements where I see a lot of amateurs messing up:

Failing to research their genre niche to see what the covers of the top-selling books look like. Book buyers use the covers to guess at what the book will contain, to narrow down their choices. There are far too many books available to expect that readers will read the description of every single result of their search on whatever platform they're searching on, so you need to signal genre, sub-genre, and mood loudly enough that it jumps out as someone's eye is scanning over a batch of 1.5" tall covers that are all competing for attention.

What signals those things, and what things readers are looking for, changes subtly over time, so you need to keep an eye out. I designed the house look for the Zoe Chant shifter romance books (I don't do all the covers; many of the authors do their own) and while we've kept the same overall look, when Zoe Chant first published the idea was to play up the cozy qualities in the books. As action romance has gotten more popular in the past few years, the challenge now is to play up the dramatic tension without signalling "alphahole" because the Zoe Chant niche is focused on ultimately kind heroes. This mostly involves a lot of dramatic lighting, and in recent months a lot more glowy elements to pull focus. The books are the same sort that have been published all along, we're just focusing on different aspects now.

Yes, there are always books that break the mold of current design and sell a ton, and thus set new fashions that everyone else chases. Your book will not be the one that does that.

Leaving large flat areas of color in the design. This also fits in with researching covers in your niche: large flat areas of color are common in non-fiction, but not so much in fiction. At the very least, fill in that empty blackness with a texture or with words. If you have a background in graphic design and understand how to use negative space properly, go for it, but if you don't, then I wouldn't attempt it.

Failing to give the focal point of the design a 'pop'. 'Pop' means to stand out. You can do this with color, composition, negative space, light glows, etc., and you should use more than one thing. It should be immediately apparent what the focal point is, because you have less than one second to grab the reader's eye and make them interested. The more experienced you are, the more subtle you can go--I love the cover for Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House, where the broken-up letterforms cause you to look twice and realize it's a snake doing that.

Failing to take lighting on the stock photos into account. If you grab two stock photos and montage them into a picture, they need to have complementary lighting. You can't have one high-key (bright, few shadows) and one low-key (dark, dramatic), and if you have the lighting in each photo coming from a different direction, you need to account for it in the rest of the picture because the two pictures will never blend properly if you don't. Yup, even in photomontages that aren't supposed to look like one photo: we are used to consistent lighting schemes in real life, and inconsistency draws the attention in a bad way because the brain goes "Something is wrong here."

Slapping the text on as an afterthought. The best cover designs involve the text from the very beginning, and make sure the composition includes the text. Ninth House above is a very obvious (and also very trendy right now) example.

(Also note that while Ninth House technically has large flat areas of black in the artwork, the title covers it up.)

Being afraid to put text on top of the artwork. Too many amateurs either make or buy a nice picture, and then go "I can't hide this picture!" and scrunch the title waaaaay down at the bottom and put their name waaaay up at the top. Ideally, you should have researched what your genre's conventions are--note that most trad publishers often put the text smack on top of the artwork, even interacting with it--and worked with the artist to develop a composition that takes the text into account. Barring that, put the full artwork on your website where your fans can see it (and maybe buy prints from your artist, or you if you licensed the copyright), and just slap that title on top.

Joe Abercrombie can get away with breaking this rule because he's Joe Abercrombie (and because the positive shape of the helmet POINTS AT THE TITLE, and because his name is BRIGHT RED and focus-pulling, and because the lighting on the helment is dark at the bottom and light at the top--three things that drive the eye to Abercrombie's name, which is the focal point).

Using default Photoshop text effects. Do not use anything more than a subtle drop shadow if you're new to this. Most text effects just look muddy at Amazon search results size, and are terrible anyway. If you find yourself looking at your title on the cover in a flat color and thinking, "This looks boring. I should jazz it up," then it means you are using the wrong font. It's still going to look wrong once you put a pillow emboss and outer glow on it. Go look at creativemarket.com, filter by price range, and invest in a (READABLE) font that is more interesting than Arial or Times New Roman or whatever you were using that came default with your computer.

Not making their author name big enough. You shouldn't go as big as Robert Jordan's name if you're not as big as Robert Jordan, but when your name is tiny, it looks like you're apologizing for having dared write the book.

Speaking of Jordan, I love these current covers. This is what you do if you can't bear to cover the artwork: you frame it, and you pull colors for the frame and the text from the artwork, and you incorporate interesting shapes into the frame. As a not-well-known author, you'd put the title into text the size of Jordan's name and put your name into the smaller text, and in the case of these covers, the frame would draw attention to your name, so the text could be smaller. (Although for an unknown author who wanted a similar cover, I'd put the series name into the frame, make the title large, and put the author name across the top.)

I would say that the ancient Greeks have more psychoanalytical texts and are perceived as more psychoanalytical than other ancient civilizations because they have more texts that survive about these subjects. Something we can thank Aristotle, Hippocrates, Homer, and Hesiod for amongst many other Greek authors since they wrote about very human themes that were present in ancient Greek mythology as well as their own writing. Homer’s epics are a set of volumes that are very psychoanalytical and explore ideas like Achilles not willing to fight even though he is the best fighter, why Agamemnon needs to over perform Achilles in his mind, the need for Menelaus to prove himself to everyone, Nestor showing how to deal with old age, the power of deceit over humans in Odysseus’ return journey, and Odysseus’ everlasting want to go home even though he could have anything with Circle and Calypso. These are some of psychoanalytical themes that came up more in Greek texts although they could have easily came up just as often in the texts of other ancient civilizations. But even though the Greeks had more of these surviving psychoanalytical texts, there were definitely some in the other ancient cultures.

I would say that Egypt’s middle kingdom texts like the Tale of Sinuhe, The Shipwrecked Sailor, and the various texts about the Egyptian gods are similar to the ancient Greek texts but do not go into as much depth. One of the psychoanalytical themes from Egyptian texts is something close to the Oedipus complex. In Egyptian mythology, Set kills his brother Osiris so he can marry his sister, Isis and rule Egypt because he is jealous of Osiris. Then, Isis’ extreme love for Osiris caused Isis to risk her own life to revive Osiris who is cut into pieces all over Egypt, which is similar to Odysseus loving Penelope after all of his crazy adventures. Then, The Tale of Sinuhe has elements of cultural exceptionalism that Sinuhe displays when he wants to be buried in Egypt, even though he leads a small kingdom in ancient Syria after he was exiled. The Shipwrecked Sailor then deals with how commoners will be perceived by their leaders and how they should act themselves when they have power. So the Egyptians where definitely thinking about the human psyche and using the personification of the gods to display them. The other ancient group of civilizations that did this was the ancient Mesopotamians who had a pantheon with gods and a set of stories about them that made them seem very human.

The Enuma Elish is the Mesopotamia creation myth that has the gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia creating the world but after they do that, they struggle for power over the other gods. First, Anu competes for power than others until Marduk eventually convinces the other deities that he will be a righteous leader after he defeats Tiamat. So in this myth, there is that psychoanalytical idea of why other powerful figures will give their power of freedom to one other figure along with the human idea of jealously. Then, there is The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is just full of psychoanalytical data and examples that explains the human mind. The epic explains the idea of what a human’s legacy should with Gilgamesh constantly asking what type of king he should be all throughout the story. Next, the epic shows how humans deal with rejection when Ishtar is rejected by Gilgamesh when she wants to marry him. Then, the book deals with the idea of hubris, a very Greek theme, and its negative consequences when Gilgamesh loses his best friend, Enkidu, and when his city is nearly destroyed by the Bull of Heaven. Additionally, scenes with Gilgamesh and Enkidu show how homosexuality and ideas of intense friendship influence and affect the human psyche. Theses are themes that are present in the epic once Gilgamesh meets Enkidu until Gilgamesh is crying while Enkidu dies in his arms. Then the epic tackles the ideas of what it means to be civilized, a theme that always comes up when the Greeks talk about their barbarian neighbors. It is seen that in the epic that it is the seduction by Shamhat, or sex, and the consumption of bread and beer that make Enkidu civilized. Then there is that idea of immortality that Gilgamesh wanted to have on earth and that Achilles wanted in the minds of people, at least until he got to Hades. Gilgamesh after defeating the Bull of Heaven goes on a guest to find a flower that can give him immortality on earth. And once he finds it, the moment he relaxes in a hot spring, a serpent eats it so he can’t eat it himself. Initially, this made Gilgamesh very disappointed but he learned the lesson of Achilles through this unfortunate event. He learned that through good treatment of his people as king and as a righteous military leader that protects his kingdom of Uruk, he will gain immortality in people’s minds even after he dies. This was the same mindset Achilles had when he was trying to sack Troy before he was killed by Paris via an arrow to the heel.

In sum, I would say that the Greeks were only more psychoanalytical because they lived in a better time to be writing about things like human emotions and interactions and had more surviving texts from their time. I only say this because the ancient epics and texts even before Homer’s time make it clear that the ancients were thinking about how the human psyche changed and trying to explain its fluctuations. One good example of this is Ben Foster’s From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia, which is a compilation of texts of the Mesopotamians just trying to explain the human body and the world around them in various ways. But for further reading into how the human psyche is reflected in ancient texts and mythology would start with Samuel Noah Kramer’s Mythologies of the Ancient World. It is a pretty good overview of the mythology of ancient civilizations and the human elements that may be in their stories. Plus it is a newer book so it will have an updated interpretation of ancient world mythology.

It's the Winter Solstice, so that's probably why your searching isn't turning up anything. You are so thoughtful to do this for her! What to get her obviously depends on her personality and interests, so if you could tell us a little bit more about her in general that would probably help.

Not knowing what kind of things she already has does make it difficult to recommend things, but I'm going to link you some books that are of general interest but not the kind of thing that most folks already have in a basic library, if that makes sense.

The Return of the Light and In the Light of the Moon are two charming little books full of stories from around the world about the Winter Solstice and the full moon, respectively.

The Charge of the Goddess - The Poetry of Doreen Valiente is a small volume of poetry by one of the most influential women in Wicca.

The Circle Within is a thoughtful, down-to-earth guide for better incorporating Wicca into one's daily life. Very helpful.

The Earth Path is perfect for the ecologically-minded. It shows witches how to really get out in nature and experience it.

A Book of Pagan Prayer is a plain little book packed with a huge variety of prayers and information on creating them.

Ah, for science! Yes, that's the reason I used to buy them, it was for research :)

If you plan on the kind of science I think you're implying, be sure to heat treat them first. Heat causes a chemical reaction which decarboxylates the ibotenic acid that's present, converting it to muscimol in the fruitbody. Muscimol is the active component and is a fairly safe and entertaining way to spend the day. Ibotenic acid is not good for you so it is really an advisable idea to heat it. Every Fly Agaric I ever bought from a vendor was heat treated for this very reason, there is a HUGE difference between heat treated Fly Agarics and ones that are not.

The pioneering mycologist Gordon Wasson recommended roasting them over a flame, and traditionally they have been treated by stringing them up and letting sunlight do its thing on them. Apparently the UV rays help with the process, as does the CO2 in campfires. Many believe that the process can be done with baking and boiling as well, but my chemist friend insists this is not very effective. Here's a good bit of info, and if you feel like it try reading Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, a book that explores the entire twelve thousand year history of this mushroom, all the way back to the holy texts of one of humanity's first religions, where monks would write about the best way to prepare the mushroom in order to merge with the mind of God. Easily one of the most fascinating books I have ever read.

Well muffins you’re right. I saw someone else mention it so I thought there was (on mobile so can’t see it directly)

Here’s a general list. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3421.The_Best_Pagan_Books

For something beyond 101, you might like http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/michael-lloyd/bull-of-heaven-the-mythic-life-of-eddie-buczynski-and-the-rise-of-the-new-york-pagan/paperback/product-20287061.html. A friend wrote this and spent over a decade interviewing people and gathering information. It’s beefy but if you’re curious about the NY pagan scene and gay culture in the 70s and 80s it’s definitely worth checking.

I’m into Celtic stuff, if you are too you may dig The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom. I’ve read a few books by Caitlin and/or John Matthews, and I dig their scholarship.

I would also suggest going super old school and seek out sources of myth. If you’re into Celtic/Welsh seek out books that deal with 11-13 century myth. Some stuff was being rewritten with Christian themes around then but you can still find interesting symbolism and nuggets to meditate on. You can find copies of The Mabinogion and Lady Gregory's Complete Irish Mythology is also good to start on. Also don’t forget to check poetry. W.B. Yates touched on lots of pagan themes and so did his contemporaries

For reading material in general you may find you’ll have to look more and more into other sections of literature than the pagan section. The modern movement didn’t really get going since the 70s, and with so much to cover there’s just not a whole heck of a lot of books out there that go deep beyond the 101 stuff

Oh and one more thing. This is more of a hint. Get your favorite pagan books and look who they source. You’ll find lots of reading material that way.

I hope that helps

I'm a pretty well-confirmed athiest at this point. I tend to view the current manifestations of religion as following in a long tradition of mythmaking by human cultures.

With that in mind, you might look into some psychology in addition to your religious research. I'm a writer, which is how I came by Jung and Campbell and Booker -- but I think the idea of underlying patterns of thought that guide our own mythmaking is of broader use than simply helping me understand storytelling better.

I've read the following, and suggest you do as well!

Jung

The Basic Writings of CG Jung

Man and His Symbols

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

Psychology and Religion

Campbell

The Hero With A Thousand Faces

The Masks of God (Vols. 1 - 3)

Myths to Live By

Booker

The Seven Basic Plots

There are a lot more, but those are the ones I'd start with. As an undergrad, I majored in English and Rhetoric, and minored in both Religion and Poetry -- this cultural storytelling stuff is important to me.

As a library science graduate student, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that you can get all of these books from your local library -- and can enlist the aid of the reference desk in finding more material for your research. Believe me, there's nothing a reference worker likes more than an interesting topic -- i.e. something that doesn't involve directing people to the bathroom, or helping people find books on filing their taxes. We're trained to help with real research! Use us!

You should try low doses of psilocybin mushrooms and work your way up as you become more comfortable; you'll definitely appreciate it. When I say low, I mean .25g, .5g, etc; continue until you sense that level of detachment you don't desire.

I also suggest reading Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, by Clark Heinrich, and Food of the Gods, by Terrence McKenna(almost all his books are related and interesting, but this one is most relevant). I recommend these two because they deal with the influence of mushrooms, not exclusively psilocybin, on religion(theoretical, of course). The first, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, completely captivated me and initially inspired my entire interest in Philosophy, Religion, and drugs.

edit: I'd also like to point out that freaking out once due to smoking too much doesn't necessarily mean that you always will, it's purely psychological and you just have to be comfortable and feel safe.

Start with Farhad Daftary's The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis (I. B. Tauris, 1995) if you want a solid introduction. Another really excellent book on them is Marshall Hodgson's book The Secret Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizari Ismai'lis Against the Islamic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).

Lewis' work is out of date, but Hodgson's is still quite relevant. I am pasting below the entry from Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd Ed., which was written by Lewis. It has some good introductory information and does have a few relevant bibliographic items listed. I would just post the link, but it is behind a proxy.

> Ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya, a name given in mediaeval times to the followers in Syria of the Nizārī branch of the Ismāʿīlī sect. The name was carried from Syria to Europe by the Crusaders, and occurs in a variety of forms in the Western literature of the Crusades, as well as in Greek and Hebrew texts. In the form 'assassin' it eventually found its way into French and English usage, with corresponding forms in Italian, Spanish and other languages. At first the word seems to have been used in the sense of devotee or zealot, thus corresponding to fidāʾī [q.v.]. As early as the 12th century Provençal poets compare themselves to Assassins in their self-sacrificing devotion to their ladies (F. M. Chambers, The troubadours and the Assassins, in Modern Language Notes, lxiv (1949), 245 ff.; D. Scheludko, Über die arabischen Lehnwörter im Altprovenzalischen, in Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, xlvii (1927), 423). But soon it was the murderous tactics of the Nizārīs, rather than their selfless devotion, that fascinated European visitors to the East, and gave the word a new meaning. From being the name of a mysterious sect in Syria, assassin becomes a common noun meaning murderer. It is already used by Dante ('lo perfido assassin ...', Inferno, xix, 49-50), and is explained by his commentator Francesco da Buti, in the second half of the 14th century, as 'one who kills another for money'.
>
> During the 17th and 18th centuries the name assassin—and the sect that first bore it—received a good deal of attention from European scholars, who produced a number of theories, mostly fantastic, to explain its origin and significance. The mystery was finally solved by Silvestre de Sacy in his Mémoire sur la dynastie des Assassins et sur l'origine de leur nom, read to the Institut in 1809 and published in the Mémoires de l'Institut Royal, iv (1818), 1-85 (= Mémoires d'histoire et de littérature orientales, Paris 1818, 322-403). Using Arabic manuscript sources, notably the chronicle of AbūS̲h̲āma, he examines and rejects previous explanations, and shows that the word assassin is connected with the Arabicḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ [q.v.]. He suggests that the variant forms Assassini, Assissini, Heyssisini etc. in the Crusading sources come from alternative Arabic forms ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ī (pl. ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya or has̲h̲īs̲h̲iyyīn) and ḥas̲h̲s̲h̲ās̲h̲ (pl. ḥas̲h̲s̲h̲ās̲h̲īn). In confirmation of this he was able to produce several Arabic texts in which the sectaries are called ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ī, but none in which they are called ḥas̲h̲s̲h̲ās̲h̲. Since then, the form ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ī has been amply confirmed by new texts that have come to light—but there is still, as far as is known, no text in which the sectaries are called ḥas̲h̲s̲h̲ās̲h̲. It would therefore seem that this part of S. de Sacy's explanation must be abandoned, and all the European variants derived from the Arabicḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ī.
>
> This revision raises again the question of the meaning of the term. Ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ is of course the Arabic name of Indian hemp—cannabis sativa—and ḥas̲h̲s̲h̲ās̲h̲ is the common word for a hashish-taker. De Sacy, while not accepting the opinion held by many later writers that the assassins were so called because they were addicts, nevertheless explains the name as due to the secret use of hashish by the leaders of the sect, to give their emissaries a foretaste of the delights of paradise that awaited them on the completion of their missions. He links this interpretation with the story told by Marco Polo, and found also in other eastern and western sources, of the secret 'gardens of paradise' into which the drugged devotees were introduced (Marco Polo, edd. A. C. Moule and P. Pelliot, London 1938, i, 40 ff.; cf. Arnold of Lübeck, Chronicon Slavorum, iv, 16; J. von Hammer, Sur le paradis du Vieux de la Montagne, in Fundgruben des Orients, iii (1813), 201-6—citing an Arabic romance, in which the drug used is called Band̲j̲). This story is early; the oldest version of it, that of Arnold of Lübeck, must date from the end of the 12th century. Their chief, he says, himself gives them daggers which are, so to speak, consecrated to this task, and then “et tunc poculo eos quodam, quo in extasim vel amentiam rapiantur, inebriat, et eis magicis suis quedam sompnia in fantastica, gaudiis et deliciis, immo nugis plena, ostendit, et hec eternaliter pro tali opere eos habere contendit” (Monumenta Germaniae historica, xxi, Hanover 1869, 179). This story, which may well be the earliest account of hashish dreams, is repeated with variants by later writers. It is, however, almost certainly a popular tale, perhaps even a result rather than a cause of the name ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya. The use and effects of hashish were known at the time, and were no secret; the use of the drug by the sectaries, with or without secret gardens, is attested neither by Ismāʿīlī nor by serious Sunnī authors. Even the name ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya is local to Syria (cf. Houtsma, Recueil, i, 195; Ibn Muyassar, Annales, 68) and probably abusive. It was never used by contemporaries of the Persian or any other non-Syrian Ismāʿīlīs; even in Syria it was not used by the Ismāʿīlīs; themselves (except in a polemic tract issued by the FāṭimidCaliph al-Āmir against his Nizārī opponents—A. A. A. Fyzee, al-Hidāyatu 'l-āmirīya, London-Bombay 1938, 27), and only occasionally even by non-Ismāʿīlī writers. Thus Maḳrīzī, in a fairly lengthy discussion of the origins and use of hashish, mentions a Persian mulḥid (probably an Ismāʿīlī) who came to Cairo at about the end of the 8th century A.H. and prepared and sold his own mixture of hashish—but does not call the Ismāʿīlīs ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya, or mention any special connexion between the sect and the drug (Ḵh̲iṭaṭ, Būlāḳ, ii, 126-9). Ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲ī would thus appear to have been a local Syrian epithet for the Ismāʿīlīs, probably a term of contempt—a criticism of their behaviour rather than a description of their practices.
>
> (B. Lewis)
>
> Bibliography
>
> B. Lewis, The sources for the history of the Syrian assassins, in Speculum, xxvii (1952), 475-89
>
> idem, The Ismāʿīlites and the Assassins, in A history of the Crusades, editor-in-chief K. M. Setton, i, The first hundred years, ed. M. W. Baldwin, Philadelphia 1955, 99-132
>
> M. G. S. Hodgson, The Order of Assassins, The Hague 1955, espec. 133-7. For the history of the sect see ismāʿīliyya and nizārīs.
>
> [The entry 'Ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya' was originally published in print in 1966 (fascicule 43-46, pp. 267-268).]
>
>[Print Version: Volume III, page 267, column 2]
>
> Citation:
>
> Lewis, B. "Ḥas̲h̲īs̲h̲iyya." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman; , Th. Bianquis; , C.E. Bosworth; , E. van Donzel; and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2011. Brill Online.

How much of my response did you read? I thought I made it clear that 1) I am not the author 2) I don't think these similarities definitively prove anything 3) I make no claims, I simply take issue with your "rebuttal" which accuses the blogger of "grasping at straws."

Again, my point is this: parallels are being drawn between diverse cultures and civilizations on account of similar symbolic imagery all the time. This doesn't prove anything as far as the Book of Mormon is concerned, but connections are there and some may be worth exploring for other reasons.

Scholarship:

For starters, I already referenced the mythologist, Joseph Campbell. In "The Mythic Image," Campbell briefly examines parallels between this "Rattlesnake Disc" and Tibetan imagery.

Amira E. Sonbol is a professor of Islamic history at Georgetown. She wrote a book called, "Beyond the Exotic: Women's Histories in Islamic Societies" where she links the Hamsa to the Hand of Fatima, to the Mano Pantea (which I referenced before) and other ancient representations of the symbol from remote cultures.

Charles Orser explored the connections between the Spanish "figa," Victorian good luck fists, and plantation slave charms... arguing that they are likely descendants of the hamsa or Hand of Fatima.

Dagmar Painter, the curator of Gallery Al Quds at the Jerusalem Fund in Washington DC, has discussed hand iconography in the Middle East and even in Native American cultures. See a video of her discussing these links.

Again, this doesn't prove anything. But given some of the examples I provided above, I think it's safe to say that your dismissal is too heavy-handed. So the hand in the "Rattlesnake Disc" doesn't hold the Eye in its palm... The Mano Pantea often doesn't hold the Eye at all... the Figa is merely a fist, and the hamsa (which is undoubtedly an earlier form of the Hand of Fatima), often looks nothing like a hand... but by your standards and lack of expertise, these connections would be disregarded on grounds of "pseudoscience."

From my experience one of the best ways to proceed with books is to actually leave behind the new age section. That could be because I'm focusing a lot of personal research on reconstructionism, but I am finding some amazing resources that come from more academic and historical works. The two I just got are The Year in Ireland and Healing Theads after seeing them recommended from a site I've found to be very reliable. Neither are meant specifically for the pagan crowd and both authors have a good amount of research to back up their books.

If there is something in particular you are interested in, it's best to get more specific. There are books and historical accounts of specific pantheons, herbalism, folklore, etc.

Oh man. Where do I begin?

It started with Edward Feser. Then Aquinas.

I recently compiled my 'short list' of books that were foundational for a Master's:

Start here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764807188/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019925995X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then go here:

https://www.amazon.com/Story-Christianity-Vol-Church-Reformation/dp/006185588X

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061855898/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=T5D86TV1MTCSQAYZ4GHR

G.K. Chesterton is always a good supplement (Heretics and Orthodoxy):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ALKPW4S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Bible Study:

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Testament-Anchor-Reference-Library/dp/0385247672/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477868333&sr=1-1&keywords=raymond+brown

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585169420/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809147807/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Jewish perspective on NT): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195297709/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After you've gotten through these (or maybe interspersed), get into de Chardin -- but be careful, because he toes the line into heresy with the noosphere stuff.

Then, start reading the theoretical physicist priests in our faith, Stanley Jaki, for example.

And this. This.

Finally, try to muddle through Spitzer. These guys have more smarts in their little finger than I will ever have.

Edit: I refreshed the thread and saw that you've already found Feser. Excellent. Are you familiar with John C. Wright as well? Sci-fi-writer-former-atheist-now-traditionalist-Catholic.

I'm interested in any science + metaphysics books you've come across too. . .

Okay so:

Read our FAQ first if you haven't. This will help orient you to our site here.

Read through Seeking. While you already have an interest on a cultural background, it is useful to explore more information for someone getting into Pagan religious practice.

I really recommend picking up a copy of John Michael Greer's A World Full of Gods: An Inquiry Into Polytheism, where you can find it used cheaply. If you're coming from a non-polytheistic background it helps orient you towards that.

Now, the next question is: which Celtic religion? This is a lot more nuanced than people think. What I'm going to do is assume that you mean Gaelic/Irish Celtic, because that's what most people who aren't in relevant fields of study think of when they think of Celtic. Assuming you meant Irish, the following are useful sources that are all pretty standard and good:

• Tairis Gaelic polytheism site
  
  
• Gaol Naofa's site
  
  
• Mythic Ireland by Michael Dames
  
  
• The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher
  
  
• Celtic Goddesses by Miranda Green
  
  
• Gods of the Celts by Miranda Green
  
  
• Celtic Mythology by Proinsias MacCana
  
  All of these are pretty standard for initial inquiry.
  
  If I assumed wrong, and you're interested in the other two big Celtic traditions that are out there (Brythonic and Gaulish), I'll dig sources up for those, too.
  

Yes! Bonfires figure prominently in many Irish calendrical observances, though particularly with the midsummer fires of St John's Eve (the centrality of fire-customs being well-illustrated by the Irish nomenclature: Oiche an teine chnáimh or Teine Féil' Eóin). A fine resource on the subject would be Kevin Danaher's The Year in Ireland, which features an extensive chapter on Midsummer, from which I can briefly excerpt:

>The midsummer ceremonies were almost all connected with the Midsummer fire, and in the greater part of Ireland were observed on 23 June, the eve of the feast of St John the Baptist.

>It is clear that a distinction can be made between two fire traditions. On the one hand a large communal fire lit by the inhabitants of the whole townland or village, or of several townlands or even of the whole parish. Such communal fires were lit, in the past, in places in every county in Ireland.

>On the other hand there were small fires lit by the members of each household, or on each farm at which ceremonies, to be describe below, were performed for the benefit of that particular household or farm. These, two, were lit in most parts of Ireland, but were, at least in recent tradition, not as widely known as the large communal fires...

>...In general it may be said that the large communal fires were mainly celebrated noisily by music, dancing, singing and similar merrymaking, with other ceremonies as a preliminary or a sequel, while the family fire was a quiet affair in which the protective ceremonies were the main concern of those present, and the only merrymaking was the playing of the younger children about the small fire.^1

There is also material from the National Folklore Collection regarding Midsummer, Bonfire Night, and St John's Eve available on Duchas. With Lá Fhéile Eoin approaching there is also likely to be material on the subject posted on the NFC Twitter so I recommend following them in the days to come.

**

^^1 ^(Kevin Danaher. The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs*. Dublin: Mercier Press, 1972. pp.137-139)

I think it's because people run from their old faith, they don't want to understand it. When I look back I'm sure I wasn't really a believer at no point, I simply did what my parents wanted me to (going to church etc) and made the best of it, I had a lot of fun being a ministrant, found a lot of friends blahblah. But I never really believed those things. So I never even had to start asking my faith. Then we had religious courses at high school, and the teachers taught us mostly christianity, the other religions were only shortly mentioned and treated like potentionally dangerous cults. That was a rebelious time in my life, so I started to look into different religions and ask the teachers questions. Needless to say, I wasn't very popular with our religious teachers. But it was growth, as you put it.

The most objective sources I would recommend you are not Hitchens or Dawkins, those are biased. Try to look up books on comparative religion. I'd highly recommend the four volume History of Religious Ideas by Mircea Eliade, or Masks of God by Joseph Campbell. And you might want to read a history of the Catholic Church, it's always good to know one's history.

What you're talking about is more or less in line with a psychoanalytic / Jungian interpretation. There's a lot of history and some disagreement^1, but generally the idea is that religion was instituted to codify morality into an easy-to-digest way (ie, making up stories that teach us how to behave morally) and to give a general model of human behavior and interaction, a sort of primitive social science.

I'm coming mostly from Carl Jung (Text 1 / Text 2 / Wiki), Jacques Lacan (Text / Wiki), Joseph Campbell (Text / Wiki), and Erich Fromm (Text / Wiki), but these anthologies give a decent scope of study: Ways of Being Religious and Religion, Society and Psychoanalysis.

There's also an entire sub-genre of what amount to self-help books based on mythology, interpreting myths to teach you how to be a better person: Myths to Live By, Iron John.


^1 One of the big disagreements between Freud and Jung was the role of religion in the mind of a subject. Freud believed it was a fantasy we use to bolster our own sense of importance and impart some sense of order onto the world that isn't there. Jung believed, while that may be true of fundamentalists or the neurotic/pathological, generally speaking it was a positive thing, that it created or strengthened social bonds, that it taught us things about ourselves and humanity.

I third this. I'm Irish and all I have from my school days are a few words, and the following sentences: "An bhfuil cead agam dul go dti an leithreas?" & "Ba bhrea liom cupán tae!" (Can I go to the toilet? & I'd love a cup of tea!").

If you want to incorporate Gaelic elements, I would recommend focusing on mythology, and instead of the language, maybe use a few words here and there. Check out the writings of W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory also - they wrote during the Irish Literary Revival, and you get a real feeling of "Irishness" from that period.

Here are a few books to check out:
Writings on Irish Folklore, Legend and Myth (Yeats)

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, Edited by W.B.Yeats, Social Science, Folklore & Mythology

A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend & Folklore: Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (Yeats & Gregory)

Lady Gregory's Complete Irish Mythology

Biddy Early: The Wise Woman of Clare (Biddy was a real woman, with lots of magical stories surrounding her. Apparently she could foresee things, and cure anything - all with her bottle. Even if not for world-building, I'd recommend this).

Inventing Ireland: The Literature of a Modern Nation: Literature of the Modern Nation by Declan Kiberd.

This is from the book "Magic mushrooms in religion and alchemy" By Clark Heinrich. I'll let folks decide for themselves about his credibility, but I will say that (having read the book) he seems like a level headed and intelligent guy. Had to post this just because of the large discussion the topic started here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Psychonaut/comments/2g3or2/ram_dass_gives_his_guru_lsd/

I thoroughly recommend the book, by the way! One of the most interesting and perspective changing books I have come across. Will make you want to eat amanitas.

A great intro to Irish mythology and legend is "Over Nine Waves" by Marie Heaney.

It gives a great overview of the mythological cycle, the Fenian cycle and the Ulster cycle, as well as some legends of the Irish saints. Basically your best starting point to know the major characters and myths before delving into the more minute details in the epics and dryer texts.

This is a great read. I own it myself and go back to it about once a month, the author is also super nice.

Oh yeah, read this a few years back:

https://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Burial-Death-Folklore-Reality/dp/0300048599

Fascinating stuff and amazing the number of ways you could be considered a vampire.

I'm far from an expert on this, but I recall from a Russian folktale class I once took that many of the saints of Eastern Orthodoxy more or less supplanted the traditional pagan gods, even in legend. If anyone wants to do further reading, we were using this book by Linda Ivanits as one of our textbooks.

Here's an interesting excerpt from the book about the "double faith" they practiced by merging Christianity with pagan traditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdhKHI1iz3s Awesome stop-motion animation, whether you know Russian or not.
Maybe this book would be interesting to you: http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Folk-Belief-Linda-Ivanits/dp/0873328892

Took a class on Russian mythology, folk tales, and whatnot in college. Dug up the old syllabus, and found some book titles for you:

Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksander Afanasev

Russian Folk Belief by Linda Ivanits

First is a compilation of folk tales, fairy tales, and myths, collected from across Russia and most of them are pretty entertaining. Second is a more academic look at Russian folk tales.

Not sure if this is really what you are looking for, but hopefully it will point you in the direction you wanna go.

A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend & Folklore is a collection of W.B. Yeates' Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry and Lady Gregory's Cuchulain of Muirthemne, been recommended to me a few times but I haven't started it yet. Heard it's pretty definitive though.

I bet you would like this a lot - there's actually a subset of researchers that are convinced that Christianity was actually a mushroom cult and that Jesus himself was a hypoallergenic hallucinogenic mushroom - that's stretching it way too far but either way there are references in the bible to hallucinogen use which the book points out.

Anyways, these potent little suckers grow all over that region and John was exiled to Patmos, where he wrote Revelations. Presumably he did some foraging. The thing seriously reads like a trip report on erowid, haha. I heard this theory first on a BBC 4 program about Revelations, then on a podcast (I believe it was Reasonable Doubts), and I have come across it a number of times since.

EDIT: Struckthrough, spellcheck sucks sometimes

> On Asatru.

You could start as I did; I read one of those "Everything you need to know about..." books on Paganism. It spoke of beliefs, rituals, codes, dogma (if any), and had a broad overview of the myths. From there I just continued reading which is the most important thing. One book doesn't cut it. It should be an ongoing education.

This book is by far my favourite I own and show it to anyone interested.

And if you find it difficult to get immersed into the myths, read This originally written as a children's book, it's become a very popular Norse Mythology read.

And since you asked, here is my shop.

I recommend this book for a good treatment of Irish mythology, found it in Charlie Bryne's in Galway years ago: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Over-Nine-Waves-Irish-Legends/dp/057117518X

This is a great book about the Mystery Religions: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mysteries-Papers-Eranos-Yearbooks/dp/0691018235

The book I'm reading right now, entitled The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks may interest you.

It's actually a kind of ritual that started thousands of years ago. Joseph Campbell wrote (among other great works) Primitive Mythology and Oriental Mythology which show a development from simple religion to more complex ones.

If I remember correctly, for a long while, most cultures valued the goddess who was represented by the moon's cyclical change. Their leader was also cyclical, a king who would rule for a season and then be ritually slaughtered. Then, they developed into a more patriarchal sun worship. In this case, the ruler was also a god. They began to make a play of the slaughter. The God-King Pharoah would make a pilgrimage leading up to his death and would disappear into a temple to be killed..... but he would return instead with permission from the underworld to return to life and continue ruling.

It was a pageant way before Jesus ever got involved.

• Note: I highly recommend reading the books. I actually read them quite a while ago and may have gotten some of the details out of order or slightly wrong.

Ronald Hutton's Blood and Mistletoe

Really anything by Philip Carr-Gomm

A often-overlooked author, John Matthews. He has lots of books on Celtic shamanism and Druidry. A Celtic Reader, Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom, The Bardic Source Book, The Druid Source Book, and The Song of Taliesin: Stories and Poems from the Book of Broceliande just to name a few.

Also, if you haven't, you should read The Mabinogion for it's worth of Welsh mythology. I like the Jeffrey Gantz translation, but it's missing what I consider a crucial story prevalent to modern Druidry, the story of Ceridwen and Taliesin. You can find it in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation though, which is the original translation from Welsh to English.

Oh, and Joanna van der Hoeven's The Awen Alone. and I haven't read this one yet, but I read the author's other book, Zen Druidry. Both are short books packed with a ton of information, and the former is about practicing Druidry solitarily, something with which many of us here (and maybe especially you at the moment) can connect.

https://www.amazon.com/Masks-Misrule-Horned-Cult-Europe/dp/1898307679


https://www.amazon.com/Horned-Piper-Nigel-Aldcroft-Jackson/dp/1898307091

Good place to start.

First off, not a plant! Is fungus.

Heat is the key to converting the ibotenic acid into muscimol. The difference, allegedly, is a nausea/coma vs a religious experience. Not deadly, though is a bit of a risk. Legend has it the heat of your body's metabolism is enough to make that conversion, and has been theorized as the method by which Jesus Christ turned water into wine, as well as raised Lazarus from the dead (wasn't dead, just prepared his mushrooms wrong). "Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy" by Clark Heinrich is an interesting read, definitely recommended before attempting this mysterious fungi.

this one? Campbell was wrapping up an illustrated multi volume encyclopedia of world religions when he died. I wonder if that's part of it or some sort of conciliatory annotation.

Yeah I got ahold of ebert on borgface and he responded two weeks later and lol because I was asking him if his talks were available anywhere in one place. He answered the important question but forgot to answer that one and I didn't want to ask him again so thanks!!

I would recommend looking at some of Dr. Clarissa Pinola Estes' work (author of "Women Who Run With Wolves"), in particular her "Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype" series like "Mother Night". I'm in the process of reading through her material now, she's a Jungian, and covers a lot about this this archetype and more.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0345396812

The only thing I would suggest, as you are doing your research, not to take too much of a black or white view. Figures such as Baba Yaga may be terrifying, but she represents more than just "devouring mother" or "destruction". The witch represents also things such as creation, intuition, crossroads, and magic.

Relevant: Vampires, Burial, and Death. It's a book about the actual origins of vampire myths. TL;DR Sometimes corpses don't decay like you'd expect. And if a lot of people are dying in your village, and you've never heard of the germ theory of disease, vampires are a reasonable explanation.

I learned quite a bit from the Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom by Caitlin and John Matthews.

Check out the book Over the Nine Waves

Nnnn . . . anna u nīpu. Krasskova and Kaldera do refer to "Northern Tradition" more broadly as a "Paganism" and describe it as a polytheistic system.

The "Northern Tradition Shamanism" abutu is mostly Kaldera's, though Krasskova has contributed here and there, if I recall correctly. Same situation with the "Neolithic Shamanism" abutu.

Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics https://www.amazon.com/dp/090779162X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_QJ4EDbB3R1DCY

Secret Drugs of Buddhism https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692652817/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_wK4EDb733CREK

Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness https://www.amazon.com/dp/1579511414/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_CM4EDb7WCZCJJ

The Effluents of Deity: Alchemy and Psychoactive Sacraments in Medieval and Renaissance Art https://www.amazon.com/dp/161163041X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_PN4EDbMCDQ1CQ

Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy https://www.amazon.com/dp/0892819979/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_gO4EDb3KYSGN5

The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist https://www.amazon.com/dp/089089924X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_FO4EDbH0C12RD

Krishna in the Sky with Diamonds: The Bhagavad Gita as Psychedelic Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00770DJRW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_2Q4EDb7AEKZ2F

No, it wasn't just about getting high. Look into R. Gordon Wasson, there's also books on the subject that draw parallels between religious visions and the psychedelic experience throughout history.
Mushrooms and Mankind: The Impact of Mushrooms on Human Consciousness and Religion

Some speculate that Norse berserkers used "magic mushrooms".

>Berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources. Most historians believe that berserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think that they might have consumed drugged foods.
>
> . . .
>
>Modern scholars believe certain examples of berserker rage to have been induced voluntarily by the consumption of drugs such as the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly Amanita, or massive amounts of alcohol. While such practices would fit in with ritual usages, other explanations for the berserker's madness have been put forward, including self-induced hysteria, epilepsy, mental illness or genetic flaws

The notion that A. muscaria was used to produce their berserker rages was first suggested by the Swedish professor Samuel Ödman, who based his theories on reports about the use of fly agaric among Siberian shamans, in 1784, though there is nothing in the old sagas suggesting that was the source for their battle frenzy, so many dispute the idea.

In The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross: A study of the nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the ancient Near East, the author, John Allegro, speculates that Christianity was founded on a secret Jewish mushroom cult. John Charles King disputes that assertion in A Christian View of the Mushroom Myth.

There's also Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy in which the
author, Clark Heinrich, states ancient cultures used them in rituals meant to bring them into direct contact with the divine and links them to to the symbols of ancient Judaism, Christianity, and the Grail myths. He argues that miraculous stories such as the burning bush of Moses and the raising of Lazarus from the dead can be attributed to the use of such mushrooms.