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Tiny Moons

Punk is a language. It is a language spoken in images and aesthetic. When someone appears punk or declares themselves a punk they are speaking a language that designates them as anti-corporate and anti-consumerist. Their aesthetic yells loudly that they prefer taking direct action to solve problems. By walking their path they represent underground music, minimalism, an appreciation for satire, zines, and an ideological bricolage. The punk speaks with her body. It states that their body is a symbol against consumerism and corporate greed. The punk speaks with her choice of community, which is anti-racist and made up of all socioeconomic classes. With her there is the opportunity of shelter and support. She is an authentic and active member of her community. The mycomage shares these views (views demonized by colonialism) and mycomagery is one method through which the punk can protect her community and unearth the golden treasure of a world born from her values.

Our spirit-form for this entry of the Myconomicon is Tremella fuciformis. She is known by the common names of snow fungus, white witches butter, white fungus, silver fungus, white tree ear, white jelly fungus, silver tree-ear, white jelly-leaf, white brain jelly fungus, Poor Man’s Bird’s Nest, bai mu er (white wood child [er is a diminutive meaning child or denoting something small]) and yin er (moon child or tiny moon) in Chinese, hakumokuji (shoe spirit) or shiro kikurage (white ear jelly), or baekmoki (cute white fluff) in Korean. In traditional Chinese medicine this diminutive spirit moistens dry coughs and hydrates the skin (Wang et al, 59-60). The Tiny Moon is found in forests from South America and as far north as North Carolina. It haunts the woods of Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Outside of being used as an ingredient for Chinese Medicine formulations, it is most often consumed in a dessert soup called Luk Mei in the Cantonese dialect, otherwise known as Snow Fungus Soup:

Ingredients:

Red Dates 6-8 pcs

Snow Fungus 25-30 g

Wolf berries /Goji 10 g

Rock sugar 30 g

Water 1500 ml Dried Longan (optional)

Directions: Wash & soak the snow fungus in cold water till it becomes soft and translucent (around 2-3 hrs). Change the water once or twice. Drain, cut off the stem (hard yellowish part) and cut into smaller pieces. Wash the Goji berries. Wash the red dates and remove the seeds and cut into half. Boil the water and put in the ingredients. Boil for 40 mins. Add the goji berries & rock sugar during last 10 mins. Serve warm or chilled. (Retrieved from https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/snow-fungus)

In the East, specifically China, Yin Er was first described in Tongjiang County of Sichuan province and cultivation began in China as early as 1894. It is also reported that in 1914 an article entitled ‘Research on the Tonic Tremella fuciformis’ was published by Wu Bingxin in the Journal of Natural History. It is cited as the first scientific study of our spirit-forms morphology, taxonomy, and microscopic properties (Wang et al, 2015). Aside from these formal citations, anecdotal statements report that the Moon Child has been known for thousands of years in China.

In the West, the first description of Tremella fuciformis was made by the English cryptogamist (cryptogamae is the study of non-seed bearing plants) Miles Joseph Berkeley, working off of the 1856 collections of the Victorian Era explorer/botanist Richard Spruce. The Journal of the Linnean Society records a manifestation of our Tiny Moons in Cuba in their 1869 edition. The 1856 discovery was again reported in the 1908 edition of Hooker’s Journal of Botany (Ghosh et al, 457). In 1939 the Japanese Mycologist and the curator of the mycological herbarium at the National Science Museum in Tokyo from 1946 to 1972, Yosio Kobayasi, described a mushroom similar to Tremella fuciformis, but having dark spines on its surface. Further research revealed that these were two entities - Tremella fuciformis parasitized by Ceratocystis fungus. A fungi known for decimating mango, rubber, eucalyptus, and coffee plantations; a curious occurrence as our Moon Children are themselves parasites (Retrieved from https://gyaanipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tremella_fuciformis).

As with all of our mycospirits, Snow Fungus possess a wealth of wondrous and documented properties. It is said to be an anti-sarcomic (a sarcoma is a tissue cancer), an anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, it possess moisture-preserving properties, protection against radiation, senile degradation, and the visible effects of aging (Ghosh et al, 457). It is the Moon Child’s ability to slow aging and allow one to retain the relative beauty of youth that is perhaps her most famous magical power. It is reported that one Lady Yang Guifei, one of the mythical ‘Four Beauties’ of Ancient China, used silver ear fungus in her daily beauty routine (Retrieved from https://www.celestialpeach.com/blog/chinese-vegan-101-snow-fungus).

Lady Yang was fathered by the census taker Yang Xuanyan in Chengdu, Sichuan not far from Tongjiang County where Tremella fuciformis was first officially described. At fourteen she was married to Li Mao, the Prince of Shou and son of Emperor Xuanzong. Following the death of the Emperors favorite consort and mother of Li Mao, the Emperor took a strong liking to his son’s wife. He ordered Lady Yang, then known as Princess of Shou, to become a Taoist Nun. It was during this brief period that she was known by the name of Taizhen, which can be translated as ‘energy,’ ‘helper,’ or ’stimulator.’ Her time in the convent was brief, however, and she soon rejoined the palace as Emperor Xuanzong’s new consort.

Lady Yang lived in an era where larger figures were preferred in China and she possessed a full-body figure herself. She also disagreed with the emperor openly on well-documented occasions and was then typically sent to live outside of the palace but only until the Emperor, who could not be happy without her, came to her apologizing for his actions. Lady Yang is the archetype of a powerful and adored full-bodied woman. She is the patron saint of the inherent power of body-positivity.

Lychee is documented as her favorite fruit and is her preferred offering when one is attempting to communicate with her spirit. Her connection to our Moon Children, Tremella fuciformis, and their preference to be paired with sweets, make lychee and white jelly fungus an excellent magical pairing. If one is inclined to take a pilgrimage to make the ghost of Lady Yang offerings of white jelly fungus and lychee. Accompanying the offering with the following tribute will only increase the chances of your tribute being heard:

“Her hair like a cloud, her face like a flower,

A gold hair-pin adorning her tresses.

Behind the warm lotus-flower curtain,

They took their pleasures in the spring night.

Regretting only the spring nights were too short;

Rising only when the sun was high;

He stopped attending court sessions In the early morning.

Constantly she amused and feasted with him,

Accompanying him on his spring outings,

Spending all the nights with him.

Though many beauties were in the palace,

More than three thousand of them,

All his favors were centered upon her" (Bai, 2010)

the outline of her right hand still exists at the site of Xi’an Palace carved into a large stone. This site is located in the city of Xi’an, formerly known as Chang’an, in North Central China. The site of Xi’an has been continuously occupied since the Neolithic period, making it a natural conduit for drawing on ancestral and spiritual power from that time period.

For many a trip to North Central China is likely not going to be a reality for some time, there are other ways to commune with the ghost of Lady Yang. Her story is the inspiration for The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji is cited by many as the world’s first novel. A number of films and Noh theater plays have been staged based on the details of her life, including the 2017 movie ‘The Legend of the Demon Cat,’ that includes a faithful reproduction of the scenario that finally led to Lady Yang’s execution at the hands of the besotted Emperor.

The Tiny Moon Fungus, our children of the wood, contain polysaccharides that possess immunomodulatory, hypoglycemic, and antineoplastic (antineoplastic drugs are also known as anticancer, chemotherapy, or cytotoxic drugs) molecules. Their mycomedicinals are particularly adept at controlling inflammation caused by reactive oxygen molecules that are the result of cell respiration and metabolism. These ROS (reactive oxygen species) attack macrophages (mobile white blood cells typically found in the area of an infection) and limit their efficacy. Our tiny lobed spirits not only improve the health of macrophages but increase the speed at which one can heal from and infection as a secondary effect (Ruan et al, 6). Shirokikurage reduces cholesterol and triglycerides, increases HDL cholesterol (a feat typically reserved for niacin therapy, exercise, or pharmaceuticals) and controls blood glucose levels in individuals with Diabetes mellitus 1 (Bach et al, 590).

One of the most important effects of communing with and consuming Tremella fuciformis is the impact it has been recorded to have on Alzheimer’s disease - a plague that causes dementia in over 5 million Americans currently and is projected to impact 16 million Americans in the next thirty years (Retrieved from https://www.alzheimers.net/resources/alzheimers-statistics/). Tremella fuciformis possesses neurotrophic molecules (NTFs). NTFs are a family of biomolecules that are peptides (two or more amino acids linked in a chain) or small proteins that support the growth, survival, and differentiation of developing and mature neurons.) One study on the neurotrophic molecules in silver tree ear used 10g of dried fruiting body dissolved in a volume of distilled water and simmered at 212°F for 12 hours to produce 1.5 grams of extract. This extract was administered to PC12h cells (cells used in laboratories that mimic and share properties of our nervous system and neural net) and exhibited a significant increase in neurite (projections from the cell body of a neuron) growth and differentiation. This is similar to the effects that the well known nuerotrophic herb Gardenia has, but at 2% of the concentration required from Gardenia jasminoides (Park et al, 11-13). To frame the effect that this property of Tremella fuciformis has on the human body, we can look to the Yueji pill, a traditional Chinese Medicine formula specifically used for mood disorders. The Yueji pill is said to have rapid antidepressant effects and it is safe to assume that a hot water infusion of our Tiny Moon Fungus would do the same. Further, in addition to its general beautifying and moisturizing effect on skin, T. fuciformis also increases the speed and efficacy of wound healing. Just 10μl of a solution containing 0.1mg purified polysaccharides per milliliter significantly increased the re-epithelialisation (Epithelialization is a process where epithelial cells migrate upwards and repair the wounded area) and the secretion of cytokines (small secreted proteins released by cells have a specific effect on the interactions and communications between cells) in wounds (Khamalue et al, 93-97). Tremella fuciformis extracts are employed in topical skin care products used to treat neurodermatitis (a condition characterized by chronic itching and scaling) and sclerodermatitis (hardening or thickening of the skin) (Wu et al, 2). Hot water extracts can also inhibit melanin formation and lighten the color of the skin (Wu et al, 6).

The Moon Children are therefore restorers and preservers of youth, healers of lacerations, increasers of intelligence and happiness, allies of the diabetic and glucose intolerant, and warriors against infections and reduced immunity. Many (or all) pharmaceutical formulae designed to do these same things merely treat symptoms without intervening in the cause of the disease. Acting as a witness only without intervening in some way only serves to prolong an inevitable degradation or death. Only a careful assessment of an attack or aggression and a subsequent intervention (verbal, physical, or chemical) can begin to reverse the processes of age, time, and oppression. The Moon Child is the physiological Viruspunk. She works through a bricolage of mycomedicinal effects. She speaks through the beautification of the body. She stands in opposition of the greed of the medical-industrial complex. She supports the mycomage that cultivates her and shelters the magic-user from the ravages of radiation, highly-processed foods, and other hazards more likely in the path of those existing in lower socioeconomic classes. The Tiny Moons of the Wood shelter and support their patrons, taking direct action in the areas that they can be of insistence. They are not content to witness the process of death, or to cover it with the silk cloth of symptomatic resolutions. Tremella fuciformis intervenes and in that action she embodies the path of the Viruspunk. She doesn’t just witness or document, she acts.

Our tiny many-lobed brain jellies are as Lovecraftian an entity as nature produces. They are, along with their body-positive patron the Ghost of Lady Yang, a living embodiment of the punk aesthetic. Jeers Blumritt in a 2017 essay entitled ‘Sci-Fi Punk’ states that:

“Whereas in cyberpunk, artificial intelligence raises the question of what the mind is, biopunk plays with the clockwork of life to question what human nature would mean if pushed to its edge. Writers like Octavia Butler have often used biopunk to criticize the biopolitical reality of contemporary society — namely, how a closer look at gender and race reveal the seemingly biological determinants to be less ‘scientific’ than culturally constructed.” (Retrieved from https://thenewinquiry.com/biopunk-subverting-biopolitics/)

Biopunk is a slightly older and more general term that describes the recently activated Viruspunk movement. Whereas the Biopunk rebelled against narratives of biological determinism, the Viruspunk actively fights against a biological entity, the political machinations that support the spread of this malefic spirit, and the inevitable network of institutional inequities that place women, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC in harms way well before white communities and in particular, white males. Lady Yang, the consort, the full-bodied Red Goddess, stands in opposition of her Emperor, but also in support of him. She is his foundation and he is obsessed with her. Similarly, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women are the foundation of our global society. The Emperor seeks to control everything, it is what brings him joy. Lady Yang does not allow herself to be controlled, but still contributes in ways that aid and support the communities and social structure she lives within. While the Viruspunk is against being controlled, she does not stand in the way of society and communities functioning and prospering. Diabetes medicines like Metformin control the amount of sugar in the blood, but do not heal the causes of the high blood sugar like high cholesterol and triglycerides. T. fuciformis witnesses the damage, takes stock, and intervenes by not just alleviating the symptoms, but healing the cause of the disease. Chemotherapy drugs address the symptoms of the treatment. Snow Fungus improves the immune system, limits the damage of radiation, and addresses the cause of the cancer itself.

Lady Yang as the body-positive sex worker sleeps in the same bed as the archetype of Imperialism and works her magic to heal the body of her nation.

A number of avenues have been explored in the cultivation of our spirit-form. China has the longest and still current obsession with the raising of this spirit. Spore inoculation directly onto suitable wood substrates was only 30% effective (Wang et al, 341). Potato Dextrose Agar has been successfully employed to begin the growth of spores yielding a culture sufficient for inoculating pasteurized sorghum seed substrate in as little as 8 days (Bach et al, 585). Other artificial inoculation methods include a spore suspension created by soaking fresh fruiting bodies in water, powdered spawn was pioneered in 1923 in China, and sawdust spawn made from infected wood has also been employed (Wang et al, 342). It wasn’t until T. fuciformis’ parasitic relationship with the ascomycete fungi (sac fungi; similar to morels, brewer’s yeast, and dead man’s fingers), Annulohypoxylon acheri, was discovered that large scale repeatable results at cultivation become possible. By far the best record of the cultivation of Tremella fuciformis is offered in the brief article ‘Mixed-culture Cultivation of Tremella fuciformis on Synthetic Logs’, for in it are precise details on how to inoculate one’s substrate with Annulohypoxylon so that T. fuciformis has the proper amount of nutrients required to form a fruiting body. This method has been employed in China since the late 1970s. She offers three precise formulations for substrate:

“Supplemented Sawdust-bran Substrate A:

sawdust, hardwood 70 kg

rice or wheat bran 19 kg

gypsum or lime 1 kg

sucrose 1 kg

water, approximately 140 kg

Supplemented Sawdust-bran Substrate B:

sawdust, hardwood 77 kg

bran 18 kg

sucrose 1 kg

gypsum 1.5 kg

calcium superphosphate 1 kg

soybean powder 1.5 kg

water 140 kg

Supplemented Cotton-seed Hull and Bran Substrate:

cotton-seed hull 100 kg

bran 25 kg

soybean powder 3 kg

sucrose 1.5 kg

calcium superphosphate 1.5 kg

water 120-140 kg” (Chen, 1)

Further, Chen states that both T. fuciformis and its parasitized Annulohypoxylon should be located together in the wild, collected, and both strains used in conjunction. She states that pairing the two in the lab is largely unsuccessful. Once the pair are found, the pristine Lady Yang and her blackened smutty Emporer, they are to be cultivated in as intimate a manner as possible. Again, from her paper:

“Production of the mixed mother culture requires that T. fuciformis be started first, then [Annulohypoxylon] is added into the same test tube. T. fuciformis is not fastidious and can be cultured on most laboratory media. First, subculture T. fuciformis into the desired number of agar slants. Incubate at 25oC. When the colony of T. fuciformis reaches 1 cm in diameter, inoculate a minute amount (a few hypha) of [Annulohypoxylon] into each of the tubes to create a mixed culture (T. fuciformis: [Annulohypoxylon] = 1000:1 approximately). When these two fungi have grown together, the mixed cultures are ready to be sold as mother-culture spawn or used to produce the primary spawn. Alternatively, [Annulohypoxylon] can be started in the test tube first. After the [Annulohypoxylon] mycelia has become established, yeast-like conidia of T. fuciformis, in massive amounts, can then be smeared onto the substrate surface. A larger Tremella to [Annulohypoxylon] ratio is required in this approach… Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti produced the mixed mother culture spawn of Yin Er (T. fuciformis) by using liquid cultures. 24 drops of [Annulohypoxylon] were added to 2 liters of T. fuciformis (liquid or submerged fermentation).” (Chen, 1)

The immunomodulatory powers of Shirokikurage, and indeed most mycospirits we have encountered in our research, are a direct vector into the biopolitical role of the Viruspunk. Thoughts from ‘The Biopolitics of COVID-19: Learning from the Virus’ help to illustrate this point. Early in the article the author lays out the biopolitical role of the immune system:

"During and after the AIDS crisis, many writers expanded on and radicalized Foucault’s hypotheses by exploring the relationship of immunity and biopolitics. The Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito analyzed the links between the political notion of community and the biomedical and epidemiological notion of immunity. The two terms share a common root, the Latin munus, the duty (tax, tribute, gift) someone must pay to be part of the community. The community is cum (with) munus: a human group connected by common law and reciprocal obligation. The noun immunitas is a privative word that stems from the negation of munus. In Roman law, immunity was a privilege that released someone from the obligations shared by all. He who had been exempted was immunized. He who had been de-munized, conversely, had been stripped of all community privileges after having been deemed a threat to the community. Esposito emphasizes that all biopolitics is immunological: Biopolitics implies a hierarchy with the immunized at the top and the de-munized, who will be excluded from any act of immunological protection, at the bottom. That is the paradox of biopolitics: All protective acts include an immunitary definition of community in which the collective grants itself the power to decide to sacrifice a part of the population in order to maintain its own sovereignty."

Immunity is a privilege, those without immunity become demonized. Take our current debate over the wearing of masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. Who are those that don’t wear masks, how do they appear? They flash through Twitter feeds as entitled white men and women, refusing to succumb to the ‘authority’ of the mask. But what is really going on here? They view their (wrongly) supposed immunity as a privilege of their station and they demonize the rest of us that wear masks. Wearing a mask in their lens is a symbol of being de-munized, of not possessing the same privilege as they do. The anti-mask sentiment is a bright neon sign screaming ‘I possess white privilege.’

Another salient point from this article that exemplifies the Viruspunk comes from the section entitled ‘The Soft Prison: Welcome to the Telerepublic of Your Home’:

“One of the fundamental biopolitical… characterizing the Covid-19 crisis is that the domestic space, and not traditional institutions of social confinement and normalization (hospital, factory, prison, school, etc.), now appears as the new center of production, consumption, and political control. The home is no longer only the place where the body is confined, as was the case under plague management. The private residence has now become the center of the economy of tele-consumption and tele-production… It is precisely because our bodies are the new enclaves of biopower and because our apartments are the new cells of biovigilance that it is more urgent than ever to invent new strategies of cognitive emancipation and resistance, to set in motion new forms of antagonism... to invent new strategies of cognitive emancipation and resistance.”

Early on in the crisis there was (and is) a battlecry against the confinement to one’s home. Those same individuals that felt their privilege was being infringed upon by the masses of the demonized did not want to stay in their homes any more than they wanted to wear a mask while out of them. The Viruspunk embraces the home, places wards above the doors and windows, erects an altar to Saint Rocco, and enforces a ‘Helms Deep’ of biovigilance in which she can cultivate her own biopower. The home is now the center of the economy and the corporate/industrial oligarchs know this and are flooding the media channels with gas lighting propaganda. This newspeak seeks to make you feel guilty for working from home, to demonize the bartender or service worker who, without a viable profession, dives deep into her work as an art director and organizer finding new avenues of success. The home is the new center of the economy and the biovigilent Viruspunk now holds the power over those that would feign to be ‘immunized’ and demand that we all return to our proper places within their world order. They would have us separated, individualistic, objective. They fear that we become, even in our isolated states, communal, socialistic, and subjective. This argument is strengthened in this final quote from ‘The Biopolitics of COVID-19’:

“Contrary to what one might imagine, our health will not come from a border or separation, but only from a new understanding of community with all living creatures, a new sharing with other beings on the planet… The Covid-19 event and its consequences summon us to once and for all go beyond the violence with which we have defined our social immunity. Healing and rehabilitation cannot be a simple negative gesture of social retreat, of the immunological closing of the community. Healing and care can only stem from a process of political transformation. Healing as a society would mean inventing a new community beyond the identity and border politics with which we have produced sovereignty until now… To stay alive, to maintain life as a planet, in the face of the virus… means implementing new structural forms of global cooperation. Just as the virus mutates, if we want to resist submission, we must also mutate… In order to exist, their organic bodies are hidden behind an indefinite series of semio-technical mediations, an array of cybernetic prostheses that work like digital masks… They are not physical agents but rather tele-producers…” (Retrieved from https://biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2020/05/04/the-biopolitics-of-covid-19)

The Viruspunk is the future and in the metaphorical death of the old society which held us hostage we emerge as a new one, freer, fighting-mad, and fearless. If we were all still in offices, factories, and kitchens and not out from under the watchful eye of management, would Black Lives Matter have grown to such great and mighty power? If the Viruspunk was not protected by her wards and her tele-protheses and given time to heal and reflect, would she have sent that email to management, started that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group using social shadow IT with like-minded coworkers? Would she have had the time to march, to pull down statues, and to paint the streets yellow with the symbols of the BLM brand? As COVID-19 has forced us inside and behind masks we have found a freedom we have never known.

To reiterate:

“All protective acts include an immunitary definition of community in which the collective grants itself the power to decide to sacrifice a part of the population in order to maintain its own sovereignty.”

The Emperor sacrifices Lady Yang, or rather, she sacrifices herself for the Emperor, so that his kingdom can be maintained and the siege against it end. The Legend of the Demon Cat tells this story. We watch her feign death and be buried alive. At first, she appears to be the one that is used for the Emperor to maintain sovereignty. On the branch, Annulohypoxylon grows and spreads its rotting smut. Yin Er takes root, and from the blackened fungus emerges a pristine, white-as-snow, ghost — our Moon Child, our Lady Yang. The imperial worldview and colonizing machinations are the one sacrificed to the immortal beauty of the Viruspunk.

The sigil of our Tiny Moon reflects its deep connection to our present state of shifting immunity. It can be used in conjunction with the fruiting body of Tremella fuciformis to embolden one’s own body-positivity and to bring the youth you feel inside back out. It is a perfect ward to place above the windows and doors of your home when one is practicing biovigilence, strengthening one’s position as a tele-producer, and centering the economy in the home.

The Tiny Moon, our fluffy woodland sprite, and her sigil can be used if you are suffering from diabetes or cancer, in particular skin cancers. Her fruiting body is easily attained at Asian grocery stores and hot water infusions are proven to produce radiant healing effects on the skin. She and her patron, Lady Yang, love sweets — especially Lychee. Enjoy some of this desert fruit with them both while focusing on this sigil to lift the mood, which is a healing act we all need now as we continue our progression down this dark and brambled path into bright clearing, an era ruled by punk ideologies.

Sigil courtesy of Ghostly Harmless’ Sigilizer

Mushroom Images

Annulohypoxylon from Kurt Miller

T. fuciformis on Annulhypoxylon retrieved from http://www.indianamushrooms.com

Tremella fuciformis from aarongunnar

References

1) Bach E E, Costa S G, Oliveira H A, Silva J A, da Silva K M, de Marco R M, Bach E M, and Wadt N S Y (2015) Use of polysaccharide extracted from Tremella fuciformis berk for control diabetes induced in rats. Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture (27, 7) pp 585-591.

2) Bai, J. (2010). Chang hen ge =: Song of everlasting sorrow. Shanghai: Shanghai people's fine arts publishing house

3) Blumritt J (2017) Sci-Fi Punk. Biopunk: Subervting Politics. Retrieved from https://thenewinquiry.com/biopunk-subverting-biopolitics/

4) Chen A W (2000) Mixed-culture Cultivation of Tremella fuciformis on Synthetic Logs. Saming Mycological Institute. pp 1-3

5) Chen K, Wang H, Chen H, Li Y, Yeung A, Huang X, Sometani S, Zhang Y, Qin H, Abe H, Zhang R, Liu H, and Yumemakura B (2019) Yao mao chuan =: Legend of the demon cat.

6) Ghosh S K, Mitra S, Mukherjee S (2016) Study of Jelly Mushroom - Tremella fucicormis in 24- Parganas (N), West Bengal, India. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Science (10, 12) pp 457-461

7) Gyaanipedia (2020) Tremella fucimormis. Retrieved from https://gyaanipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tremella_fuciformis

8) Health Benefits Times (2020) Health benefits of Snow Fungus. Retrieved from https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/snow-fungus/

9) Khamlue R, Naksupan N, Ounaroon A, and Saelim N (2012) Skin Wound Healing Promoting Effect of Polysaccharides Extracts from Tremella fuciformis and Auricularia auricula on the ex-vivo Porcine Skin Wound Healing Model. 2012 4th International Conference on Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering (43, 20) pp 93-99

10) Lau J (2019) Chinese Vegan Guide to Snow Fungus. Retrieved from https://www.celestialpeach.com/blog/chinese-vegan-101-snow-fungus

11) Park K J, Lee S Y, Kim Y S, Yamazaki M, Chiba K, and Ha Y C (2007) The Neuroprotective and Neurotrophic Effects of Tremella fuciformis in PC12h Cells. Mycobiology (35, 1) pp 11-16

12) Preciado P B (2020) The Biopolitics of COVID-19: Learning from the Virus. Retrieved from https://biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2020/05/04/the-biopolitics-of-covid-19/

13) Ruan Y, Li H, Pu L, Shen T, and Jin Z (2018) Tremella fuciformis Polysaccharides Attenuate Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Macrophages through miR-155. Analytical Cellular Pathology. pp 1-10.

14) Wang R, Cao H, Zhang J (2015) Scientific Explorations of the Snow Fungus (Tremella fuciformis Berk.) in Republican China: A Brief Review. Indian Journal of History of Science pp 340-344

15) Wang, Y., Sheir, W., & Ono, M. (2010). Ancient wisdom, modern kitchen: Recipes from the East for health, healing, and long life. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong. [https://amzn.to/3i3LaFU]

16) Wu Y, Choi M H, Li J, Yang H, and Shin H J (2016) Mushroom Cosmetics: The Present and Future. Cosmetics (3,22) pp 1-13

Monstrum and Aglæca

“Take what is here and discover the rest…’ Simon

Portals, gates, windows, doors, and thresholds are of primary importance to the Lovecraftian Magic-User. The same holds true when undertaking Simonomicon Workings. As is stated early in the text:

“The key to one gate lies in mastering the one before it…” (Simon, XLII)

The first technique to master is acceptance, an acceptance of chaos. Simonomicon Workings are core chaos magic praxis in that they are a lesson in the rejection of dogma, the acceptance of alternative forms of evidence, and the embrace of syncretic forms. This is eluded to in the grimoirist’s introduction when it is stated that:

“Meditations upon the various Things mentioned in the Mythos will permit the scholar to draw his own conclusions [about their origin and correspondences].” (Simon, XLVII)

The proper Simonomicon Working methodology includes the exploration of archetypes and meditation or active imagination sessions on the spirit-forms and entities which lie within the grimoire to discover those archetypal qualities not apparent in the research. Only through these sessions (as opposed to sorting through volumes of occult lore) will their true natures be revealed to the Lovecraftian Magician. And with the knowledge of their true nature comes the opening of the gates of power that they guard. As an example of the expansion of archetypes as a foundation for the practice of active imagination let us examine the Sumerian night sky as it is reflected in the Simonomicon. The constellation of Aries is known as ‘Agru Xubur.’ This could be translated as ‘The Place Above’ [related to ‘super’] or ‘The Great Mother’. Ummu Xubur is the chaos-dragon Tiamat. Agru means field or ground in Latin. This is likely a description of Summerland, some other holy place, or merely a representation of Tiamat in the night sky). The constellation of Taurus is known as Kingu, a term that describes the unskilled laborer as well as the name of the son and lover of Tiamat. Unskilled labor is the most put-upon labor group today as it was then. When examining this cosmogony one can see all individuals in the ‘gig’ economy, farm labor, immigrant labor, etc. and their subsequent torture and neglect by the plaguemongers during the 2020 pandemic as a continuation of persecution of Marduk of the human race. Humans were formed from the clay of the earth and the blood of Kingu and were thus looked upon as slave labor by Marduk. Marduk, the hero of the Babylonian cosmogony, is the patron of the colonialist and the oligarch — when ‘evil’ is named in the Simonomicon, this is the sphere to which it references). The archetypes of the spirit-forms of the Simonomicon are in the process of revealing themselves to the 21st century human. It is their time, again. As is stated by the grimoirist:

“The method of the [Simonomicon] concerns deep, primeval forces that seem to pre-exist the normal archetypal images of the Tarot trumps…” (Simon, LXII)

We know for the Lovecraftian Magic project that every entity in Lovecraft’s fiction can be mapped to the web of the Tarot, but this statement is nonetheless pertinent. It points to a pre-modern, pre-historical consciousness — that of Ötzi the Iceman and the painters of Leang Timpuseng. The spirit-forms in the Simonomicon are a direct line to the unknowable fear and reverence felt by pre-historical humans and other hominids as they explored the world they were born. Simonomicon Workings are the process of discovering this pre-historical consciousness via the knowledge laid out for us in the grimoire. This work is necessarily incomplete — as are all the grimoires in Lovecraftian Magic — for the research of magic and spirit-forms are an inseparable component of our praxis. Simon lays out this path at the very onset of his work:

“if I do not finish this task, take what is here and discover the rest, for time is short and mankind does not know nor understand the evil that awaits it, from every open side, from every open Gate, from every broken barrier, from every mindless acolyte at the altars of madness.” (Simon, 5)

‘Take what is here and discover the rest…’ is the first fundamental premise of the Simonomicon — an invitation to the chaos magician to discover through dreaming, divination, and spirit-contact new chapters to the imaginal grimoire. This is in fact how all grimoires have been created since humans began to write down the magic they have wrought. The second pillar of Simonomicon Workings is the magic-users opposition to Marduk. Those beings that critics of this work state are ‘fictional’ (whatever fiction is, it is not unreal) are only as yet undiscovered. Their mystery is intentional for they are an:

“Ancient Race of… demons… that seek revenge… the Elder Gods… the race of Marduk…” (Simon, 6)

Marduk is the god of the city of Babylon and his the deity the architects of the Tower of Babel sought as they built. He holds a snake and a spade. Kings, the ruling class, were expected to be initiated by contact with Marduk — he is the first God of the Imperial Class and the Elder Gods are his progeny. When Marduk is defeated, cities fall and empires crumble. This is the role of the Viruspunk, the dismantling of these structures, the toppling of statues, the erasing of empire and the reconstruction — to paraphrase Gordon White and Miguel Connor, to get to the Solarpunk era we must travel through Cyberpunk. This intermediary stage, the fog between these two eras, is the sphere of the Viruspunk and biopolitics.Foucault describes biopolitics as power taking possession of life, aided by technologically enhanced regulation and authority (think of those new curfew alerts your phone sent you during the protests). These new technologies seek to govern the organic and the biological, they seek to govern our bodies and the population:

“with the body as one pole and the population as the other… What we are dealing with in this new technology of power… is a new body, a multiple body, a body with so many heads that, while they might not be infinite in number, cannot necessarily be counted.” (Foucault)

The Viruspunk is a representative of the population, the body politic. The Technologies of Regulation that seek to oppress and control the body politic, the multiple body, the body with uncountable heads, are wielded by the Race of Marduk, whose weapon are the imperialists. The Viruspunk as the body with uncountable heads is the manifestation of Tiamat. Looking at Foucault’s theories in more detail we find that:

“Biopolitics is a complicated concept that has been used and developed in social theory since Michel Foucault, to examine the strategies and mechanisms through which human life processes are managed under regimes of authority over knowledge, power, and the processes of subjectivication… Foucault begins to theorize liberalism as a practice and as a critique of government, the rise of which he argues is inseparable from the rise of biopolitical technologies of governance, which have extended political control and power over all major processes of life itself, through a transferral of sovereign power into “biopower”- that is, technologies and techniques which govern human social and biological processes.” (Retrieved from https://anthrobiopolitics.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/biopolitics-an-overview/)

The Viruspunk is the liberal as the sorcerous guerrilla militant that specifically opposes the employment of biopolitical technologies as they are wielded by the imperial class. The Viruspunk is Tiamat risen from the (post-modern) fragments of her own corpse and employing her primary weapon — multitudinousness, numerosity, multiplicity. Taken in the context of the year 2020, the year of COVID-19 and mass riots across the United States we are seeing Tiamat rising against the armies of Marduk who seek only to extinguish their lives and control their movements. We are seeing the leaders of the federal government fractured, with the imperial ruling class encouraging the body politic to not protect themselves against the virus killing hundreds of thousands around the world. This ruling class does not wear masks but bear their teeth and claim that this is freedom. The Viruspunk wears a mask as protection against the now culturally weaponized pandemic and as the uniform of the protestor and rioter taking power from the governors of the Capitalocene.As Viruspunk’s rage at the dying of the light in the urban centers, dodging tear gas canisters and sniper rifles trained on their autonomous zones, glimmers of Solarpunk are already peeking through at the borders beyond the distributed urban singularities of chaos. In suburban and rural environments, the focus is shifted more towards resilience and away from revolution. This structure is also familiar to the context of the Simonomicon. Gordon White, in his work ‘Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits’, states that:

“in Sumerian Mesopotamia, sacred structures were located at the edge of settlements, with later additions being built on top of earlier ones…” (White, 36-37)

Sumerian ritual space, the context we are accessing through Simonomicon Workings, was rural or suburban. White continues, discussing the origins of the agriculture and animal husbandry that belongs to rural and suburban contexts:

“From the Holy Mound, domestication is sent down to mankind. At that time, at the place of the gods’ formation, in their own home, on the Holy Mound, the created Sheep and Grain. Having gathered them in the divine banqueting chamber, the Anunnaki of the Holy Mound partook of the sweet milk of they holy sheepfold but were not sated. For their own well-being in the holy sheepfold, they gave them to mankind as sustenance… At that time Enki spoke… now Sheep and Grain have been created… let us send them down from the Holy Mound…” (White, 37)

Enki is the father of the Viruspunk’s archetypal enemy, Marduk. It is Enki that gave domestication of plants and animals to mankind.

“Enki, our Master, the Lord of Magicians…” (Simon, 6)

The Viruspunk are the magical daughters and sons of Enki, and therefore the sisters and brothers to Marduk. Enki, the Lord of Magic, is also the giver of domestication to humankind. Enki is then also the giver of permaculture and the Gate through which the Viruspunk find their Solarpunk Summerland. Permaculture is the legacy of the Viruspunk. The city as it is embodied by Marduk (not as it is reimagined by the Solarpunk) is the natural enemy of the Viruspunk. Again from White’s Star.Ships:

“A culture as decidedly pro-urban as Sumeria will necessarily have a negative view of preagricultural societies but it is extremely hard to argue that this story is anything but a cultural memory of humanity’s transition to permanent settlements… Where this becomes extremely compelling is that the transmission of grain-based agriculture happened at a holy mound upon which were resident sky beings and from which the god of the wild animals had not yet been banished… The ancient einkorn whet, found in the hills surrounding Göbekli Tepe [is] the… ancestor of every strain of wheat grown and eaten across the earth. People gathering at a temple on a hill to worship ‘heavenly beings’ were like passengers in an airport during a pandemic.” (White, 39)

Marduk the city-god, the god of civilization, knew that the only way to grow his power and to grow cities around the world was to enslave and terrify the producers, the agriculturalists, to pull them into his systems of value (currency and property) and through that system devalue their goods so that those that produce the food that support the growth of the urban are themselves poor and starving despite the riches they pull from the Earth. The allies of Marduk walk their lands and spread pestilence and fear. In the words of the Simonomicon:

“I have seen the Unknown Lands, that no map has ever charted. I have lived in the deserts and the wastelands, and spoken with demons and the souls of slaughtered men, and of women who have died in childbirth, victims of the she-fiend [Lamashtu].” (Simon, 6)

Lamashtu is a singularly malevolent being depicted much like a traditional harpy, but with a lion’s head. She nurses snakes at her breasts. She is also known as ‘The Seven Witches’ for she is called upon by seven names. Her malevolence is directed primarily towards children, her preferred food. In this way she is the ruler over the sphere of Hollywood. Even the most cursory of studies will reveal that the majority of films and television shows in the twentieth-century feature a child being abused, witnessing abuse, dying, being kidnapped, ad infinitum. Hollywood is a demon that seeks to enculturate the plaguemongers and zombiekin with the idea that the role of children is to be fed to Lamashtu. Pazuzu, the Lord of Famine and Drought, is the only entity that can be successfully invoked against her. Pazuzu is the ally of the Viruspunk.The Louvre features a statuette of Pazuzu in their collection, which features the inscription:

“I am Pazuzu, son of Hanpu, king of the evil spirits of the air which issues violently from mountains, causing much havoc.”

The form of Pazuzu is that of a man with a dragon’s head, two pairs of wings, and the talons of a falcon for feet. He is covered with scales and has the tail of a scorpion. While indomitably evil and intimately associated with the plague, he is invoked for protection. In the Louvre’s description of the artifact it is mentioned that Lamashtu is his wife and she is also associated with infecting humankind with diseases. This statue is thought to be apotropaic magic. The displaying of the image of Pazuzu is enough to drive away disease and other social and physical pestilence attributed to Lamashtu. Materials commonly used to create statuettes or talismans are clay, soapstone , and jasper (Retrieved from https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/statuette-demon-pazuzu-inscription/).

Let’s pause for a moment and revisit our methodology. At the beginning of the article this researcher stated that the proper Simonomicon Working methodology includes the exploration of archetypes and meditation or active imagination sessions on the spirit-forms and entities which lie within the grimoire. The Simonomicon not only offers us descriptions of the spirit-ecology we are engaging with, but through its storytelling, the environments we must access through active imagination. In the grimoire, the story is retold of Alhazred’s early journeys:

“I came to possess this knowledge through circ*mstances quite peculiar, while still the unlettered son of a shepherd in… Mesopotamia… traveling alone in the mountains to the East, called Mashu by the people who live there…” (Simon, 7)

According to Akkadian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Mt. Mashu lies near modern day Lebanon. There are three extant cedar preserves in modern day Lebanon, the Cedars of God in Bsharri, Tannourine Cedar Forest Nature Reserve, and the Souf Biosphere Reserve Barouk Cedar Forest. he Cedars of God still carry the myths of the battle between the humans and the Gods. Upon winning this territorial war 4700 years ago the Cedars of God were decimated by humans who used the resulting timber to build the civilizations of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans. As they are a very real place of power on our planet the magic-user undertaking Simonomicon Workings can either visit them physically or journey to them using the techniques of active imagination or liminal dreaming.

Alhazred continues his narrative, filling in details the Lovecraftian Magic-User can utilize when beginning her Simonomicon Workings:

“I came upon a grey care ed rock carved with three strange symbols. It stood as high as a man, and as wide around as a bull. It was firmly in the ground, and I could not move it. Thinking no more of carvings, save that they might be the work of a king to mark some ancient victory over an emery, I built a fire at its foot to protect me from the wolves that wander in those regions and went to sleep… Being about three hours from dawn, in the nineteenth of Shabatu, I was awakened by the howl of a dog… The fire had died… and… red, glowing coals cast a faint, dancing shadow across the stone monument… several men in… black robes… came together over the place where I was… murmuring together a prayer or invocations… The chanting of the priests became louder…“IA! IA! Zi Azag!IA! IA! Zi Azkak!IA! IA! Kutulu Zi Kur!Ia!” (Simon, 7)

This simple mantra accompanied with a singular focus on being among the sacred cedars of Lebanon in front of a large three sided stone is the most basic and preliminary Simonomicon Working for the Lovecraftian Magic-User. Through this practice the spirits of the imaginal grimoire are awoken and in the space of active imagination those spirits will speak. There are also two inscriptions to be used with this act — these can be constructed and utilized as implements with the task of creating a stronger foundation for your ritual space. The first can either be inscribed on clay or some other earthen material and is a representation of the original stone that this journey is centered on, ‘The Gate to the Outside,’ as it is called in the Simonomicon.

The second is a lamen or amulet that can be used as a type of protection. It is described in the text as being inscribed on metal but it is also said that the mere sight of the seal bathed in moonlight is enough to drive back whatever entities attracted to this working attempt to approach the magic-user. This working is then, necessarily, done in the evening on a clear night with no adverse weather so that moonlight is readily available.

These can be conjured in the active imagination space also, but their ease of constructibility allows them to become simple and potent corporeal elements desired by most magic-users when conducting rituals. The use of moonlight allows their use to be expanded into the ritual spheres of other grimoires, such as The Book of the Moon. If the lamen is, for example, made of corporeal materials by the Lovecraftian magic-user the following incantation from Liber Lunae can be utilizes without changing the context of the ritual:

“In the name of the meek God and merciful, to God alone honor and glory This is… the book of working that is said Liber Luna The circle of which is to the dwellers of the earth…For with it may be done good things and evil” (Karr, 41)

If smoke is used to carry one’s petitions to the spirit-world, Liber Lunae contains instructions for using these ritual elements as well:

“These are the names of the angels who serve the Moon, which you will sear over every image with each suffumigation… whether these are good operations or evil ones…Anilin, Quntzilim, Gashgorzim, Awashimadi, Amikhjilim, Abrakiim, Abrashim, Lairayozim, Yamaghash, Manenim, Mangororam, Harninay, Montaginim, Latzandonim, Qamshilindim, Shaaman, Sharailim, Amaamilim, Haqoilim, Balknaritim, Arihaylim, Beqshdeilim, Abranodomilim, Qarmayndim, Andaalashim, Sharahitzimin, Adiamenim, Tztahotim, Yatzarpnishim, Teibinenim, Nehelim, Hiraminim, Abramatim, Lanagotim, Wipoliyaqa, Belgahalidim, Gaporim, Aqrapirim, Tayrimim, Diqomeylim, Genithokim, Madarilim, Kearldim, Yebrunkhelim, Aladim, YUadalim, Shethakam, Panaplor, Badayulin, Dabnotirorin.” (Karr, 104-105)

The point of this first Simonomicon Working is to invoke spirit-contact in the active imagination space. In Alhazred’s narrative, the contact comes in the form of tentacles emerging from the earth, tentacles which are then fed the blood of the faithful at their own hand. In bearing witness to this manifestation, but not taking part, Alhazred is admitted through the first gate. It is the ‘showing’ that is important here, the ‘seeing’ of the monster’s viral tentacled hooks pulling the plaguemongers to a diseased bosom. Scott R. Jones, in his work “When the Stars are Right: Towards an Authentic R’lyehian Spirituality” makes the assertion that:

“the Great Old Ones are monsters… [understood] in [the] original Latin sense of monstrare, from which we derive demonstrate, ‘to show’… An interesting comparison… would be with the… ‘Wrathful Buddhas’ of Tibetan bon-po shamanism: aspects of universal constants that… tear the supplicant, body and soul, from his own delusions…” (Jones, 21)

A vision which echoes Alhazred’s in Simon’s narrative. If the key to one gate lies in mastering the one before, then understanding the nature of gates and Lovecraftian spirit-forms is an important skill. Jones offers insight here, when speaking of the spirit-form Yog-Sothoth. In ‘When the Stars Are Right,’ it is stated that:

“Yog-Sothoth is ‘the threshold’ itself, the key and guardian of the gate, and the gate: a liminal state-of-being, a limitless boundary. What is a door, a gate? A tool of transitioning, from one space to another, from Inside to Outside; a piece of architecture that… defines a nothing but which is… nothing without that Nothing it defines… Yog-Sothoth… hints at the truth of doors, of gates, and of that which lies beyond them: everything is permeable.” (Jones, 24)

Interaction with Lovecraftian Spirit-Forms in the imaginal or in-the-real is the act of transitioning. Once one has faced a spirit-form of this line, there is no returning to a state of unknowing. Through Simonomicon Workings we feel the gate. Our hormones race, our nervous system crackles, our circulatory system is taxed. These are not loving spirits that we understand. They do not promote feelings of well-being. Nevertheless, once we have passed through a door like Alhazred’s viral dirt-borne tentacles, we are the stronger for it. These visceral experiences are why the Simonomicon is the grimoire of the Viruspunk. It is magic that traffics directly with biopower.The Viruspunk are antenna tuned to the manipulation of the body politic. The Viruspunk are a Very Large Array wired with organic systems. Donna Haraway, in her phenomenal work ‘Simians, Cyborgs, and Women’ describes this relationship acutely and with prescience:

“The immune system is an elaborate icon for principal systems of symbolic and material ‘difference’ in late capitalism… the immune system is a map drawn to guide recognition and misrecognition of self and other in the dialectics of Western biopolitics… the immune system is a plan for meaningful action to construct and maintain the boundaries for what may count as self and other in the crucial realms of the normal and the pathological… The immune system is both an iconic mythic object in high-technology culture and a subject of research and clinical practice… Myth, laboratory, and clinic are intimately interwoven…” (Haraway, 204-205)

The immune system as iconic mythic object is both the dragon and the damsel for the Viruspunk movement. As the damsel our immune systems are subject to the violations of the natural world and from the imperial ‘science-as-hero’ figure perpetrated for hundreds of years. This is the archetype of all of Lovecraft’s ‘protagonists’ (a description in quotes for all of the men in the protagonist role in Lovecraft’s oeuvre are transparently powerless and inherently evil within the context of his fictional universe). Haraway continues, deepening our understanding of our collective enemy:

“no reader, no matter how literal-minded, could be innocent of the gendered erotic trope that figures the hero’s probing into nature’s laminated secrets, glorying simultaneously in the layered complexity and in his own techno-erotic touch that goes ever deeper. Science as a heroic quest and as erotic technique applied to the body of nature are utterly conventional figures. They take on a particular edge in late twentieth-century immune system discourse, where themes for nuclear exterminism, space adventure, extra-terrestrialism, exotic invaders, and military high-technology are pervasive.” (Haraway, 205)

Biopower is derived from the anti-hero poking at the vivisectioned corpse of our rights to our own bodies. This is being done today by a stream of gaslighting from the right demanding that protecting the immune systems of others (through wearing masks, social distancing, etc.) is us succumbing to the will of the deep state, to a socialist conspiracy demanding we give up our free will. The body politic is subsequently plied with a perversion of the narratives of extraterrestrials and otherness to strengthen the fear of those archetypes. The Viruspunk embraces these themes, combines them with the entire human history of operant magic, and weaponizes their bodies against those that seek to add them to their necro-erotic vivisectionism. The Viruspunk understands that through Simonomicon Workings and other magical systems both the body and the spirit are constructed. The body is as mutable as Tetsuo Shima’s in Akira.

Haraway takes us roughly down this path, smashing the myth of the body as an immutable object incapable of transformation:

“Bodies… are not born; they are made. Bodies have be thoroughly denaturalized as sign, context, and time. [Twenty-First Century] bodies do not grow from internal harmonic principles… Neither are they discovered in the domains of realism and modernism. One is not born a woman, Simone de Beauvoir correctly insisted… the political-epistemological terrain of postmodernism [insists] on a co-text to de Beauvoir’s: one is not born an organism. Organisms are made; they are constructs of a world-changing kind. The constructions of an organism’s boundaries, the job of the discourses of immunology, are particularly potent mediators of the experiencers of sickness and death for industrial and post-industrial people.” (Haraway, 208)

COVID-19 is the breath of Lamashtu. Just as the Spanish Flu was, as SARS and MERS and influenza are. It is not a fantasy. To buy into narratives that it does not exist (narratives that were pervasive during the Spanish Flu and other pandemics) is to let down your defenses and to allow Lamashtu and the plaguemongering minions of Marduk to overrun your ‘Helm’s Deep.’ Marduk’s greatest weapons are the whispers of lies that spread throughout urban populations. Returning to Haraway one final time, we find that:

“our hopes for accountability from the techno-biopolitics in postmodern frames turn on revisiting the world as coding trickster with whom we must learn to converse… while the [twenty-first century] immune system is a construct of an elaborate apparatus of bodily production, neither the immune system nor any other of biomedicine’s world-changing bodies - like a virus - is a ghostly fantasy. Coyote is not a ghost, merely a protean trickster.” (Haraway, 209)

The Simonomicon lists the enemy of the Viruspunk explicitly in Alhazred’s narrative:

“I learned of the various classes of demons and evil gods that exist, and of the old legends concerning the Ancient Ones. I was thus able to arm myself against the dread Maskim, who lie in wait about the boundaries of the world… [and] against the she-devil [Lamashtu]… After One Thousand-and-One moons… the Maskim nip at my heels, the Rabishu pull at my hair, Lamashtu opens her dread jaws…” (Simon, 14-15)

The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology states that the Maskim are equivalent to the Princes of Hell, such as Azazel and Mephistopheles. The term means ‘ensnarer’ or ‘layers in ambush.’ The Sumerian descriptions describe them as either having no sex or being hermaphroditic. They do not respond to worship or rituals and their places on earth are the highest mountains or the deepest caves. Their sphere of power encompasses earthquakes, asteroids, solar flares and the evilest of curses. It is said that they despise humans most of all (Guiley and Zaffis). Their association with Lamashtu in the text is significant. The Maskim are the causes of natural disasters and are those whose spells attract devastating asteroids to the earth. One could theorize that they hate humans because it was their own actions that created life on earth. Through their spells, when the earth was young and they sought to deface its beauty with their star magic, an asteroid fell upon our planet that contained the seeds of life. From those seeds the power of humans arose, which challenge the Maskim for dominance. Through their jealously they brought the asteroid to our planet that wiped out the dinosaurs, also paving the way for the Anthropocene.In conducting this research the Rabishu have made themselves known to me through synchronicity and memories. The Rabishu, as they are described in ‘A Field Guide to Demons: Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits’ are ‘House Demons.’ They live in entrances and are also called ‘Crouchers.’ Anytime one is in a home and gets chills, gooseflesh, or has the hair stand tip on the back of their neck — a rabishu is there. The entire built environment is filled with Rabishu and has been since humans have started to erect structures. There are classes of Rabishu as well:Utukku and Ekimmu: Ghosts of the Dead that frequent or are rooted in graveyardsGallu: A bull-like creature that haunts city streetsAlu: Similar to the gallu, but in the guise of a black dogRabishu: Sin that crouches at each doorThe Syrians have another class, which they call Bar Egara. These Rabishu live on rooftops and pounce on pregnant mothers and parents leaving the home for work.The deity Janus is a powerful ally against Rabishu. Times to make offerings to Janus are on the ‘calends’ of the month. Calends are equivalent to the first moon after a new moon — the beginning of a Waxing Crescent Moon. Janus prefers offerings of the smoke of bay leaves, capers, and wine. With those offerings the following incantation is appropriate:

“Come, be present, Father Janus, the Opener.Arise Planter of the Stars.All things, truly, I entrust to Patulcium the Opener.Now You are Janus the Gatekeeper,Now Cerus the Good Creator,Now Janus the God of Good Beginnings.Come, now most especially, God of Gods,You who are the better of these kings.”

Make your offering of incense after these first phrases, and then state:

“Janus, though I propitiate other Gods,I do offer wine to you first,So that I may obtain access through You, Janus,To any of the other Gods I may call upon.In You, dearest Father,In Your hands do we place our safekeeping.Janus, in offering to You this incenseI pray good prayers that You many favor me,My children, our house and our home.”

Pour the wine and then state:

“Father Janus, be strengthened by this offering, Be Warmed by this wine.Janus, come! Father Matutinus, is You so prefer to hear,Regarded by men as the beginning of worksAnd life’s labors,So does it please the Gods, may You hear my prayer:”

Make your specific petition to Janus here. In this instance it is advisable to include protection from the classes of Rabishu, stating something like:

…and protect my family and myself from the demons known as Utukku and Ekimmu in their graveyards, Gallu and Alu who walk the streets at night, Rabishu whom are at every doorway, and the Bar Egara who lie in wait on rooftops.”

One can then choose to close the prayer with a second offering of wine and capers, another thank you and the normal admonishing of ‘Make it so, Immediately, Immediately’ or some version thereof.

The recognition of the existence of Rabishu and using the petition to Janus is particularly important to the VirusPunk. At this writing we have all been forced indoors by Lamashtu and her winds of plague. The cemeteries are filled with Utukku and Ekimmu born of the thousands of lives cut short in her wake. Gallu and Alu inhabit the authorities that prowl the streets looking to enact extreme violence against the citizenry, Bar Egara pounce on those forced to go to work in the service industry, trades, and labor, and we are all trapped inside with the Crouchers, the Rabishu, who snatch at us every time we walk through a doorway in our home. As Janus is also the blesser of new beginnings, his name should be on the lips of every Viruspunk as we join the throngs of anti-racist protesters standing firm against the plaguemongers who walk about Lamashtu’s earth unprotected and defiant with no mask between her foul wind and our immunity-as-identity. As evil fights evil the best, may we gather beneath the moth-man wings of Pazuzu and mimic his visage in the face of his consort Lamashtu, her generals the Maskim, and their hordes of Rabishu. As we weaponize the body politic, we will become the virus ourselves tearing down systemic racism, weaponizing our immune systems, and marking the trail to a Solarpunk future with empty police stations, the shells of big box stores, our three-sided stones dressed with cedar bows, and our flowered, brightly lit altars to all of our allies among the monstrum and aglæca.

References

Guiley, R., & Zaffis, J. (2009). The encyclopedia of demons and demonology. New York: Checkmark Books.Haraway, D. J. (2015). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. Jones S R (2014) When the Stars are Right: Towards an Authentic R’lyehian Spirituality. Martian Migraine Press.Karr D (2017) The Book of the Moon. Golden Hoard Press.Simon, . (2008). Necronomicon. Lake Worth, FL: Ibis Press.White, G. (2016). Star.ships: A prehistory of the spirits.

Amphisbæna

Metaphysics are abstract theory. They exist within our mind. They are how we condition ourselves as chaos magicians to a particular discipline or practice. They are also are route through deprogramming, a necessary step before taking on the next discipline. This new sub-project to Lovecraftian Magic builds on what was learned through the critical esoteric reading of Lovecraft’s oeuvre-as-grimoire. The Simonomicon Workings are a record of internalizing one of the most famous incarnations of the imaginal grimoire, the Necronomicon. What lies below these words are, as stated, a preliminary metaphysics based on the clues given by ’The Editor’ in the material introducing the grimoire proper.

We begin with the dedication:

“to the Demon PERDURABO, without whose help the presentation of Book would have been impossible.” (Simon, IX)

Perdurabo is the pseudonym for Aleister Crowley. Here, Simon is treating and invoking him as a demon. This begins the work by acknowledging the connection found between Lovecraft and Crowley in The Thing on the Doorstep. All of the magical tech found in this tale of the Azathothian Witch, Asenath Waite, can be applied as precursors to using the Simonomicon in one’s practice.

The lessons from The Thing on the Doorstep are many. I will attempt to summarize them here in order to establish a firm foundation for our work with the Simonomicon.

Magic works better when it is predictive, as opposed to reactive. Asenath Waite played the long game when it came to achieving power. Magic needs a plan and forethought. Forethought begs for an exploration of the princeps that lead to the praxis. Magic is not reactionary, it is preventative. The protagonist of ‘Doorstep’ is one Edward Pickman Derby. This vector into Pickman’s model is a metaphorical gate into the Dreamlands, where all meaningful spirit contact from the Simonomicon takes place.

Edward Derby, an ailing child, is an archetype for using the imaginal, or the life of the mind, as a key to freedom in a world that cannot be understood or controlled. Asenath Waite, Derby’s consort, is traced back to Innsmouth and it is eluded that she possesses the same bloodlines into the race of the Deep Ones as all others in that town. This makes her the perfect angel to preside over the preliminary metaphysics of the Simonomicon. At Waite’s side, Derby is initiated into occult practices. He talks of meetings deep in the woods where secret doorways lead to vast staircases and into vaulted subterranean worlds of impossible geometry. This is an image one should hold on to throughout, one that is reinforced further, below. Within these imaginal chthonic spaces a malefica cultivated through the practice of Journeying and turned onto the elitist and imperial forces of our world, with the aid of the Simonomicon, is unleashed.

It should be no surprise if these preliminary practices result in encounters with woodland-based cryptids such as Razorshins, Willamalones, Windigos, and Dingballs. Razorshins appear as humanoids with sharp shin bones and an insatiable thirst for liquor. Willamalones are squirrel-like and posses knowledge of natural poisons, especially fungi and lichen. They only pose a danger if one falls asleep in the woods, however. Windigos are pervasive throughout Canada and the Northern United States, wherever there are long swaths of wooded land. They appear as unusually tall men, typically wearing clothes made from animal skins, and having a grayish, greasy appearance. They eat humans and to eat food offered by them results in yourself becoming a Wendigo as well. Dingballs look like cougars, but with a skeleton tail. They sing in a human voice to lure their preferred food to them, using their sharp tails to crack open skulls and dine on one’s brain.

Turning again to Asenath Waite, a critical examination of The Thing on the Doorstep reveals it to be a parable of gender dysphoria and the power that comes from embracing your true self, whatever that may be. Asenath Waite is a man trapped in a woman’s body who uses Lovecraftian Magic to embody his true gender. The origins of the Simonomicon, as will be revealed, are deeply entrenched in the world of LGBTQAI+ persons and their open battle against colonization and imperialist rule. It is at this point in ‘Doorstep’ that it is revealed that Edward Derby, in an attempt to stop the fish-witch Asenath Waite from inhabiting his physical body, travels to New York to meet with Perturbado himself, The Beast 666, Aleister Crowley. It is with Crowley’s help that Edward is able to maintain his true gender and personality in the face of the Deep One’s magic.

The Simonomicon was first published on December 1st, 1977 and this day should be marked with auspiciousness and ritual for those that own and wish to work the tome. It is mentioned by ‘The Editor’ that:

“the [Simonomicon] is… the connection between two separate clauses, between a fascinating past and a darkly-mysterious future.” (Simon, XI)

This is the first indication that it is this grimoire’s time has fully arrived, as we are living in that darkly mysterious future, presently. Summerland is also mentioned in the introductory text, a reference to the afterlife the bookmaker responsible for the 31st addition has retired to. Summerland is commonly known as the Theosophist afterlife. As is the way of Gnome School we look further back to the Spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis. Davis lived during Lovecraft’s time (1826 - 1910), HPL would have no doubt been aware of his work.

Summerland is mentioned in his work ‘The Great Harmonia,’ which was published thirty years before Lovecraft was born. A digital copy of the original can be found at the Hathi Trust and is worth a look to develop a grounding in a foundational Lovecraftian Magical Aesthetic relevant to working the Simonomicon.

Another piece of predictive text in the Simonomicon is presented when it is stated that:

“Owners — and Users — of the [Simonomicon] will be well prepared to deal with both the social and spiritual unrest… that will take place in troubling times.” (Simon, XIII - XIV)

The Simonomicon is the grimoire for the Viruspunk age.

Viruspunk, a term coined by Miguel Connor - the host of Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio - on an episode of the Rune Soup podcast with Gordon White. White further extrapolates the meaning of Viruspunk, juxtapositioning it against Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and Solarpunk.

White states that Viruspunk is associated with bringing opposition or trouble to Biopower and Biopolitics, likely referencing the work of Foucault in Security, Territory, Population. White goes on to bring more clarity to the term when he writes that:]

“Viruspunk… must be explicitly biopolitical. It must explore the formulation of the body through the imposition of biopower…” (Retrieved from https://runesoup.com/2020/05/viruspunk-is-biopolitical/)

One does not have to look far in order to find more ties between the Simonomicon and our Viruspunk present. For example, The Editor states that:

“The interface between the [Simonomicon’s] software and your own personal hardware will reveal the demonic computer for what it really is: the machine that will bring about the era of liberation for every sentient being.” (Simon, XIV)

This is a clear Viruspunk-aware statement, using the metaphor of human-computer interfaces as a method of enlightenment. It paints the Lovecraftian Magician as either a user of, or a soldier against a type of spiritual app, a system of code written in human and spirit DNA, which creates a synergistic interface.

As is established in the dedication to Perdurabo, the Simonomicon draws on many spirit-forms or saints that had possessed recent human lives or those brought into existence specifically through human activity. When speaking about the bookmaker who’s craft brought the one of the editions of the Simonomicon to the light of day, it is said that this bookman was:

“lured into the Magickal Childe bookstore in Manhattan one day by an incarnated thought form we may only refer to by his initials, B.A.K.” (Simon, XV)

This passage identifies an egregore that may be attracted by future workings of the Simonomicon. We can also expect the spirit or minions of the late occult book maker Herman Slater [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Slater] to be drawn by it's working. This association makes the Simonomicon a powerful weapon against racism as Slater’s path to the occult was in reaction to theologically driven anti-Semitism. Slater was also made ill by bone tuberculosis, so his spirit’s connections to widespread illness should make it a sympathetic parter in the Viruspunk age. Eddie Buczynski, Slater’s partner, can also be found hovering nearby during concentrated efforts utilizing the Simonomicon. The grimoire is a talisman for the LGBTQAI+ community — an active protective shield against all types of prejudice and xenophobia. This is also in line with Lovecraftian Magic as all of the practitioners in Lovecraft’s fiction are anti-colonial archetypes, immigrants, gypsies, African-Americans, Native Americans, Irish, queer, transgender, etc. It is through the offices of this occult bookstore that the manuscript copy of the Simonomicon found its publisher. This is the same method of transmission found in so many mentions by Lovecraft of the original imaginal grimoire, the Necronomicon.

The Simonomicon possesses the same powers imparted to the grimoires of the hedge witches and clever men, those powerful traffickers in magic that used their books not for their spells, but as sentient power items that cast their own magics. It is stated by The Editor that:

“the book is… an amulet, a protective shield, that guards its own from the machinations of evil. Extraterrestrial or primevally elemental, alien beings or subconscious repressions, they are powerless against us if we consider deeply the message of this book.” (Simon, XVIII)

And with this statement the unique chaos magic power of literature is extended to Simonomicon Workings. The Editor makes mention of the tale ‘There Are More Things’ by Jorges Luis Borges. This short story was dedicated by Borges to Lovecraft. Examining it in some detail reveal it to be a potent vehicle for applying to our work with the Simonomicon. It begins as many of Lovecraft’s tales do, with the protagonist’s recollection of a fondly thought of, if distant, relative:

“I learned that my uncle Edwin Arnett had died… on the remote frontier of South America. I felt what we always feel when someone dies — the sad awareness, now futile, of how little it would have cost us to have been more loving.” (Borges, 437)

This quote encapsulates what all of us, save for the plaguemongers, are feeling now for those we have lost personally, for those our friends have lost that we might not have known, and for those that strangers separated from us by the fog of cyberspace have lost. For all the lost we gain only awareness of how little love costs us all. It is this feeling that drives the Viruspunk to pick up weapons such as the Simonomicon and employ its technology against the plaguemongers and their imperialist hoards.

Borges also makes exquisite references to forgotten works of science, philosophy, and art perfectly mimicking Lovecraft’s own tropes in this same vein. A useful example can be found in the following:

“Hinton’s treatises… attempt to prove the reality of a fourth dimension in space, a dimension the reader is encouraged to intuit by means of complicated exercises with colored cubes.” (Borges, 437)

The mention made here refers to the Tesseract or Hypercube. Even a novice will recognize the significance of the Hypercube to Lovecraftian Magic. Its contemplation can be a cleansing breath before and after working the Simonomicon. ‘There Are More Things’ brilliantly weaves the subtlest of literary devices into its densely packed tapestry:

“My uncle was an engineer. Before retiring from his job at the railway, he made the decision to move to Turdera… the architect of his home there [was] his close friend Alexander Muir… The Red House stood on a hill, hemmed in to the west by swampy land… Instead of flat roofs where one might take the air on a sultry night, the house had a peaked roof of slate tiles and a square tower with a clock…” (Borges, 437)

The manor house near the moor and the implementation of a tower are well known tropes from the Lovecraftian Magic project, and are employed masterfully here by Borges. The mention of Alexander Muir can only be a placement of the well-known Canadian architect in Borges’ universe:

“My first step was to go and see Alexander Muir… He greeted me at the door of his house in Tempurado — which predictably enough resembled my uncle’s, as both houses conformed to the solid rules of the good poet and bad builder William Morris… Our conversation was flinty; not for nothing is the thistle the symbol of Scotland…” (Borges, 437)

The Muir of British Columbia was indeed of Scottish origin and of the same demeanor as the Muir described therein. Aside from houses designed as William Morris poems there are also dreams in ‘There Are More Things’ that give us more clues into how we must cultivate our taste to merge effectively with the Simonomicon. Borges protagonist recalls:

“That night I couldn’t sleep. Toward sunrise I dreamed of an engraving in the style of Piranesi, one I’d never seen before or perhaps had seen and forgotten — an engraving of a kind of labyrinth…” (Borges, 440)

Piranesi is perhaps most famous for his engravings of a fictional underworld of prisons containing impossible geometries. It is here that we join up again with Derby’s experiences in the vaulted abysses beneath the thick woods of Maine in ’The Thing on the Doorstep.’

Here is Derby’s recollection again:

“Edward’s calls now grew a trifle more frequent, and his hints occasionally became concrete… He talked about terrible meetings in lonely places, of Cyclopean ruins in the heart of the Maine woods beneath which vast staircases lead down to abysses of nighted secretes, of complex angles that lead through invisible walls to other regions of space and time, and of hideous exchanges of personality that permitted explorations in remote and forbidden places on other worlds, and in different space-time continua.”

Continuing the dream in ‘There Are More Things’ we find ourselves presented with a:

“stone amphitheater with a border of cypresses, but its walls stood taller than the tops of the trees. There were no doors or windows, but it was pierced by an infinite series of narrow vertical slits. I was using a magnifying glass trying to find the Minotaur. At last I saw it. It was the monster of a monster; it looked less like a bull than like a buffalo, and its human body was lying on the ground. It seemed to be asleep, and dreaming — but dreaming of what, or of whom?” (Borges, 440)

The monster not dead but dreaming, Borges appropriately ties classical monstrous archetypes with Lovecraftian dreams. Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons also give us a glimpse into what Samuel Coleridge described to his friend Thomas de Quincy as a series of visions achieved during fever delirium.

Following this dream, which does not enjoy further exposition, The protagonist enters The Red House designed for his uncle by his friend Muir, but now inhabited by the unknown. When encountering the furniture made for the new owner, the protagonists points to another classical reference:

“From some page in Lucan, read years ago and then forgotten, there came to my lips the word amphisbæna, which suggested… what my eyes would later see…” (Borges, 442)

Lucan was a Roman Poet from Córdoba, Spain. His final legacy is one of anti-Imperialism in the Roman context. The amphisbæna is a lizard or serpent with a head at the top of its neck and another at the end of its tail. Lucan mentions it in his epic poem Pharsalia, Book 9, verses 714 - 733:

Sole of all serpents Scytale to shed In vernal frosts his slough; and thirsty Dipsas; Dread Amphisbæna with his double head Tapering; and Natrix who in bubbling fount Fuses his venom. Greedy Prester swells His foaming jaws; Pareas, head erect Furrows with tail alone his sandy path; Swift Jaculus there, and Seps whose poisonous juice Makes liquid bone and flesh: and there upreared His regal head, and frighted from his track With sibilant terror all the subject swarm, Baneful ere darts his poison, Basilisk 5 In sands deserted king. Ye serpents too Who in all other regions harmless glide Adored as gods, and bright with golden scales, Are deadly here: for Afric air inhaled Bestows malignant gift, as poised on wings Whole herds of kine ye follow, and with coils Encircling close, crush in the mighty bull. Nor does the elephant in his giant bulk, Nor aught, find safety; and ye need no fang Nor poison, to compel the fatal end.

The Amphisbæna is the symbol for the Viruspunk.

Instead of the infinite Ouroboros swallowing itself, the amphisbæna is a symbol of two entities in one body, confronting the other. On the microscale, this is the virus and the human battling for supremacy. For one victor this results in death of both of the heads, for the other, if results in one of the heads being bitten off — the victor alive but forever wounded. On the macroscale the same is true for the Viruspunks themselves and their fight against the poppet plaguemongers and their imperialist puppeteers.

Having formed the mental image of The Red House’s new owner, Borges’ protagonist postulates on the amphisbæna’s motivations:

“What must the inhabitant of this house be like? What must it be seeking here, on this planet, which must have been no less horrible to it than it to us? From what secret regions of astronomy or time, from what ancient and now incalculable twilight, had it reached this South American suburb on this precise night?” (Borges, 442)

Here Borges captures the empathy required for engaging properly with the spirit-forms of the Simonomicon. They come to us when we call, but only because they need something from us or from our planet, as Borges writes. It is an exchange. The unknowable qualities of these spirit-forms are all related to their needs, that which drives them to engage in humans. Knowing what they seek is the key to opening the gates that they guard. Further, Borges’ mention of the incalculable horror living in The Red House in an otherwise normal suburban neighborhood marks Simonomicon Workings with a very Lynchian feel of the abnormal hiding in plain site — this is also a very Viruspunk feeling — of attempting to live out a normal life while death, misery, and totalitarianism close in on you in an invisible wave. Instead of hiding from the regime and its gaslighted zombiekin, the Viruspunk looks straight on.

“Curiosity got the better of fear, and I did not close my eyes.” (Borges, 442)

In working the Simonomicon, the Viruspunk does not turn away from life, no, she turns to face it. She is the first responder, the front line worker, the one person wearing a face mask in a sea of plaguemongers buying novelty t-shirts, rainbow slushies, and drinking oceans of ale and liquor like so many razorshins.

“This book… contains the formulae for evoking incredible things into visible appearance, beings and monsters which dwell in the Abyss, and Outer Space, of the human psyche.” (Simon, XXIII)

Successful workings of the Simonomicon are tied to visual manifestations of spirit-forms, extraterrestrials, and shadows pulled directly from the Lovecraftian Magician’s mind. Visual manifestations, however, can happen in dreams — humankind’s most visual realm of existence and one which fits directly into the niche of the Lovecraftian Magical aesthetic.

The Editor, in the nesting labyrinthian prefaces of the 31st Anniversary edition of the Simonomicon quotes Job 3:8 in an effort to show the pervasiveness of the Deep Ones, Dagon, and the primeval entities called upon in the grimoire:

“Let them curse it that curse the day, who are skillful to rouse Leviathan.” JOB 3:8

When examining Job in detail it is revealed that the full passage is a lament by Job for having ever been born. Such as in Job 3:23 “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” He is asking those that can rouse Leviathan to curse him and the day that he was born. In one reading this could give legitimacy to the power of cursing by those that employ it and traffic with ageless masters. In another reading, one can see a curse as a type of cleansing in their hands, wiping clean Job’s base human nature and supplanting it with a sublime one. Furthering his argument, The Editor states that:

“The Leviathan mentioned in Job, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, is the Hebrew name given to the [chaos-dragon] Tiamat… there was in existence a cult… who worshipped or called up the Serpent of the Sea, or Abyss… [The chaos-dragon] is well known to cult worship all over the world. In China… the [chaos-dragon] is given a place of pre-eminence… The Chinese system of geomancy, feng shui… is the science of understanding the ‘dragon currents’ which exist beneath the earth.” (Simon, XXIX)

When it comes to rituals of space, none of more precise or potent than feng shui. Instead of (or in addition to) a magical circle, one’s altar (especially) and the room or landscape one performs Simonomicon Workings in should be optimized to attract the favor of the chaos-dragon Tiamat using the principles of this most ancient science.

One key difference between working classical grimoires and the Simonomicon is how the entities are dealt with once summoned. According to The Editor:

“there are no effective banishing for the forces invoked in the [Simonomicon] itself… The deities and demons identified within have probably not been effectively summoned in nearly six thousand years. Ordinary… banishing formulae have… proved extremely inadequate…” (Simon, XXXI)

Banishings are typically of Christian origin and, in fact, possibly a Christian invention dating back to Solomon. The spirit-forms of the Simonomicon have no frame of reference and possibly no working knowledge of the entities used to compel them to banish. There have been experiments conducted by Simon and those close to him that have proven effective. From the text:

“Solar formulae have proved… effective in successfully banishing [Simonomicon] demons and intelligences.” (Simon, XXXVI)

This allows the Lovecraftian Magician to bring in possibly the closest living cousin of the imaginal grimoire, the Greek Magical Papyri, and its implementation of prayers and petitions to Helios as a method to properly banish spirit-forms from the Simonomicon. These experiments should only be conducted when absolutely necessary, however, for the true intent of the Viruspunk is to unleash the unlimited cosmic horrors into our universe so that they may devour and destroy the endless and ever-growing pathogen that is imperialism and their biopower as manifested in the passive and mindless march of their plaguemongering hordes. This is explicitly stated by The Editor when discussing the morally agnostic approach the Sumerians took towards using magic against their enemies:

“Pazuzu was a prime example of the type of Devil of which the Sumerians were particularly aware… [Whose] purpose was to ward off the spiritual — and psychic — circ*mstances which would precipitate a plague… ‘Evil destroys evil’…” (Simon, XXXVI)

The spiritual and psychic circ*mstances that have brought about the 2020 pandemic are those of the conservative and tyrannical political forces around the world. The spirit-forms of the Simonomicon are a powerful antidote and their summoning against these plaguemongers is the core driver of the Viruspunk. This is the most important component of our preliminary metaphysics.

Evil destroys Evil.

Simonomicon Workings are directed against the enemies of the Viruspunk and are laid out in meticulous plans using the predictive analytics of the Tarot, scrying, and other methods of divination. We embrace our devils, look straight into the abyss of impossible geometries, and call loudly for those entities that existed before time, calling for them to wipe out colonization, imperialism, and the orcish hordes of plaguemongers barring our way to the sublime.

References

‌Borges, J. L., & Hurley, A. (1998). Jorge Luis Borges: Collected fiction. New York: Penguin.

Lovecraft, H. P. (2011). The complete fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble.

Simon (2008) Necronomicon. Lake Worth, FL: Ibis Press.

Fragrant Offerings

The foundational premise of the magic contained in the Myconomicon is that the natural and cultural worlds cannot be separated into two distinct entities. It is also assumed that culture and language cannot exist without the other, connecting the natural world with that of our symbolic representation of it. Erik Davis in his work ‘TechGnosis’ weaves an image of what he terms ‘speaking things,’ or hybrid entities that are made up of the real and imaginal (Davis, 2). Davis cite’s Bruno LaTour’s ‘anthropological matrix’ as his inspiration; mushroom’s are a fundamental part of this matrix and their spirits are connected to medicine, sex, kin, plants, songs, weather, animals, and tools. There is empirical evidence of all of these connections to and from the kingdom of fungi, they are not just metaphorical. Viewing the world through the lens of mycomagery we cannot help but see the strands that make up our natural/cultural web, what Davis calls an invocation of premodern thinking (Davis, 3). Archaeological evidence has been uncovered that provides evidence of humans using edible mushroom species for food, religious ceremony and as a therapeutic agent up to 13,000 years ago in Chile, 400 BCE in China, and the early civilizations of the Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Mexicans (Palm et al, 211).Mushrooms are the gateway to an animist worldview. The literal and metaphorical conceptualization of their mycelial webs and cosmic ubiquitousness can only lead to an animist destination filled with subject-objects, otherwise known as spirit-forms. Davis’ subject-objects are a network of singular entities that continually push and pull information between the real and the imaginal. This places them (as in, all things) beneath the gaze of Hermes, who is the ubiquitous ruler of information exchange (Davis, 6). As the ruler of information exchange Hermes’ DNA is embodied by the Kingdom of Fungi. As atoms are a reflection of the cosmos, fungi are a reflection of the information web that connects ephemeral, biological and technological spirit-forms. In the words of the Santa Fe Institute, deep ideas need to be transformative and viewing issues, cultures, pandemics, etc., through different lenses makes what was once invisible, visible (Krakauer and McShea, 22-23). The foundations of the Myconomicon follow these same guidelines put forth by the SFI. It should be engaged with the express interest to create something, anything, through its princeps and praxis, that benefits humankind. Returning to the premodern worldview, specifically the Neolithic (approximately 12,000 years ago), we are able to polish such a lens. In Neolithic China farmers, artists, and potters flourished, laying foundational elements for the modern Chinese worldview. The Majiayao culture from the upper region of the Yellow River (in the area of modern Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan) produced pottery representing the natural world (fish and birds) and unique geometric symbols representing the spiritual data structure which includes yin and yang, the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth), the three powers (heaven, earth, and humans) and the four directions (north, south, east, west) (Turk, 6-7). This type of ontological thinking is essential in computer information exchange, essential for the push and pull of data through chemical, electrical, and spiritual networks. It is how databases are organized and, as such, databases (typically thought of as unnatural) are modeled closely after our animist understanding of the world (Turk, 8). The mother culture for the Majiayao was called Yangshao (Turk, 11). It is significant that our oldest known depiction of a dragon is connected to the Yangshao culture and was found constructed of shell in a burial pit, dating back to the fifth millennium BC.

Modern Chinese Medicine and Herbalism, which relies heavily on traditional cosmologies, can be viewed as a direct descendent of neolithic shamanism and dragon worship endemic to this point in timedepth. This is also the point in time and space where the concept of qi arose. Qi is the force of change (Turk, 16), something we are all awash in at the moment as qi moves like a tsunami across our modern world. The Majiayao existed at a time when writing independently arose in the Mayan, Sumerian, and Chinese cultures (around 3200 BC) and their pottery exhibits the transition from geometric decorations representing their cultural ontological data to pictographs and pictorial inscriptions. As is the way of the Myconomicon, there are also threads of Lovecraftian Magic here. The Majiayao, this prototype animist cultural matrix, portray shape-shifting magicians on their pottery, specifically ithyphallic figures (amphibian-human hybrids) as what can be interpreted as deified Deep Ones taking a central role in their enchanted world (Turk, 31). The geographic positioning of the Majiayao ensured that they were cultural influencers in the premodern Pan-Eurasiatic culture, sharing metallurgy and acupuncture throughout the wider continent. The famous mummy, Ötzi the Iceman, had accupoints permanently tattooed on his body, including his lower back where he could not have made the marks himself. These are the same accupoints that are used by modern acupuncturists, marking the practice as one surviving (and thriving) intact directly from a premodern animist cultural matrix. Ötzi’s arthritis (identified by the state of his skeleton’s joints) and abdominal pain (his scat contain evidence of whipworms are echoed in the placement of accupoint tattoos (Turk, 43). Among his equipment are pieces of birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) threaded onto strips of hide and assumed to also be used medicinally; in Ötzi’s case, likely as a laxative to expel whipworm.

One can conjecture that the same individual that prescribed his acupuncture points for relief of abdominal pain likely prescribed him the birch polypore for the same ailment. The Majiayao practiced divination using turtle shells and fire. The first known true writing found in China was made on turtle shells. The turtle represented a significant asterism as well, one that included Thuban, which at their point in timedepth was the Pole Star. Today, Thuban is better known as a star in the constellation identified by Ptolemy as Draco — returning us to the dragon. According to Hans Biedermann’s ‘Dictionary of Symbolism,’ the Eastern dragon (as opposed to it’s nearly polar opposite, the Western Dragon) represents happiness and a possessor of the secret of immortality. The dragon is a ward against evil spirits and bringing of rain and natural springs. In Carl Jung’s ‘Man and His Symbols’ we find the dragon in alchemy is represented as quadricornutus serpens and is a symbol of Mercury; returning us the governing spirit-form, Hermes. Jung draws a vector between Hermes and the dragon by following the Lord of Information back to his Egyptian form, the Ibis-headed Thoth. Thoth’s hybrid bird-nature is translated into Hermes’ caduceus where a serpent and wings are combined. The composite symbol of the bird and the serpent is, of course, the dragon. In Indonesia, dragons are known as Naga (which in turn is an extension of Indian nāga whom live on sacred mountains and in forests.

Our archetype for this section of the Myconomicon is the ubiquitous and always helpful Lentinula edodes, or shiitake mushroom, whose origin is reported to be on Puncak Jaya, the highest summit in the Indonesian province of Pupua, and also the tallest island mountain on our planet. The indigenous religion of Indonesia is Dayak, which is also the name of the people that practice it. The cosmogony of Dayak begins through the mating between a human and a dragon. The Batak mythology is similar in that the creation of the earth features a dragon whose home is deep in the underworld. The role of shiitake as a spirit-form is closely aligned with the symbols of immortality and happiness associated with the dragons in East. These dragons of the mountain forest will, through the course of this entry, prove themselves to be patrons and benefactors of all humankind. We will begin our exploration by paying a visit to Li Ziqi as she seeds her mountain forest with shiitake, returns the next year for a bountiful harvest, and works their medicine into several beautiful dishes.

In China, shiitake is known as Xiāng Gū (香菇). Xiāng is translated as ‘incense,’ ‘perfume,’ ‘spice,’ or ‘fragrant.’ Gū is the term for mushroom. Shiitake is at once a powerful spirit-form and an offering for other spirits, drawing them to the audience of humankind. While distinctly different words, to closely related phonemes to Xiāng Gū (Fragrant Mushroom) are Xiǎng (想) and Gù (故). Together they represent the act of thinking and separately xiāng means ‘wish’ or ‘want’ and gù means ‘intentionally’ or ‘cause.’ This creates the phonemically correspondent term of ‘intentional wish’ or magical intention with the term for fragrant mushroom. Shiitake as the precious offspring of the dragon of the mountain forest are destined to fulfill the role as offerings to accompany our prayers and spells engaged with in concert with the spirit world. Of high concern to humankind are viral entities, especially those novel creatures that bring widespread change and death in the form of epidemics or pandemics. Parainfluenza, influenza, herpes, respiratory and adenoviruses are among the most common that cause severe infections and death. A wide variety of mushrooms have been found to contain molecules that directly inhibit viral enzymes, nucleic acid synthesis (the process that enables viruses to rearrange and combine DNA and RNA), the adsorption of viruses into human cells, and the replication of viruses post-infection through the indirect stimulation of the immune system via polysaccharides (complex carbohydrates) and other molecules contained within their mushroom flesh (Elkhateeb et al, 45). Cordyceps militaris has been proven to be effective in inhibiting HIV and viral leukemia (Elkhateeb et all, 47). Phallus impudicus, or the Common Stinkhorn, contains compounds that are proven to be highly effective in inhibiting H5N1 virus, otherwise known as the Asian Avian Flu (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 361). Cordyceps is widely available as a supplement and dried stock of Common Stinkhorns is widely available. Immature P. impudicus are eaten in France and Germany and when young are known by the name of Witch Eggs. Witch Eggs can be pickled and they retain a texture similar to water chestnuts. One study conducted in Ghana utilized a supplement that combines six different mushrooms (Agaricus blazei, Cordyceps sinesis, Grifola frondosa, Coriolus versicolor, Ganoderma lucidum, and Lentinula edodes) called Immune Assist 24/7 as a substitue (not a compliment) for antiretroviral drugs typically used as therapeutic agents for individuals with HIV. Immune Assest 24/7 was found to be effective enough against the virus that it was deemed safe to for patients to only use the natural supplement in place of the antiretroviral drugs (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 363).

Our spirit-form for this entry is no less potent when it comes to combatting viral demons. Aqueous (water) extracts of Lentinula edodes mycelia and fruiting bodies have been proven to combat the activity of human herpes virus, showing to be more effective than alcohol extracts. The Fragrant Mushroom is proven to be effective against both DNA and RNA containing viruses (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 365) as these same extracts have inhibited the replication of bovine herpesvirus (an insidious killer of cattle), the virus that causes polio in humans (Elkhateeb et al, 46), and the RNA-based West Nile Virus (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 360). Shiitake fruiting bodies and mycelia contain phenols, aromatic compounds, who’s presence has been associated with the reduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) otherwise known as free radicals. ROS are known to damage cell proteins, beneficial lipids, and change DNA in a way that contributes to cancers and cardiovascular diseases (Huang et al, 845). Different strains of shiitake have been found to have varying degrees of effectiveness in this capacity. Strains of shiitake with higher concentrations of phenolic compounds are more effective at reducing the damaging impact of reactive oxygen species, or free radicals (Huang et al, 848).

Along with the phenols (aromatic compounds) and polysaccharides, fungal proteins, terpenes, melanins, and nucleosides (a compound commonly found in DNA and RNA) have also been found to have different antiviral properties, impacting other viral entities (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 357). In the case of shiitake, all of these compounds or molecules work together to change or inhibit the cellular mechanisms that viruses use to replicate, effectively stopping viral infections before they overtake the host (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 358). As with phenolic content, the higher the concentration of polysaccharides in a specific strain of shiitake, the more effective of an antiviral effect the extract is found to have (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 359). The Dragon of the Mountain Forest has also been found to triumph in battles against influenza, an insidiously common virus that is known to short circuit or circumvent the human immune system altogether. Polysaccharides known as alpha-glucans (a variation of glucose) have been proven to increase resistance to influenza virus (Teplyakova and Kosogova, 361). One of the secrets of our spirit-form is that it not only directly attacks viral demons before and after they infect a host, but they also significantly boost the overall health and immunity of the their human cohort. One study using 52 women and men aged between 21 and 41 were asked to consume 5-10g of shiitake mushrooms on a daily basis for 4 weeks (Day et al, 1). The study’s aim was to measure T-cells (lymphocytes that are active combatants in a human’s immune response) circulating in the participants blood stream before and after shiitake was added to their diet (Day et al, 2). The researchers found that the T-cells were significantly greater as soon as 24 hours after consumption and that the longer the participants ate shiitake, the more sustained their state of heightened immunity lasted (Day et al, 4). The components in shiitake isolated by these researchers as the most beneficial to the immune system and stimulating strong immune responses were the beta-glucan lentinan, the amino acid ergothioneine, and the polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid commonly known as linoleic acid (Day et al, 6-8). These specific components have also been found to posses antioxidant, antimicrobial, antilipidemic, anticancer, and anticariogenic (prevention of tooth decay) properties along with their immunoregulatory activity. The Fragrant Offering is also rich in provitamin D2, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, strontium, and zinc. Along with enhancing immunity, ergothioneine is also highly effective as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent. (Zembron-Lacny et al, 2). Ergothioneine is proven to improve the range of motion in inflamed joints in as little as 1 week, with beneficial effects continuing for up to 6 weeks after cessation of supplementation. Studies have shown that individuals can take up to 9 grams of shiitake extract with no ill effects (Zembron-Lacny et al, 6). While used heavily throughout Asia, Shiitake is most famous for its allyship with the Japanese people. The traditional medicine of the Japanese is known as Kampo, which was influenced by the traditional Chinese medicine of the 7-9th centuries. Kampo is known for using more herbal components, of which mushrooms (shiitake in particular) are included. One of the earliest mentions of shiitake mushrooms in Japan are from the year 200 AD when Emperor Chuai is reported to have received it as a gift from what are called the Kyusuyu (retrieved from https://mycobio.co.nz/produce/the-shiitake/). Kyusuyu or Kyuusyuu is not a recognized tribe among the Ainu — the aboriginal people of Japan. The term is theorized to be a reference for an island that stretches north to south. It is worth noting that this is most islands in the Japanese archipelago (Trips and Kornfilt, 175). Cultivation of shiitake was prolific in feudal era Japan. Villages would undertake the production of the mushroom to attract Buddhist monks to their area. Often, temples would only be built in areas where a supply of the fungi (used as a food staple by vegetarian monks) was certain (retrieved from https://mykosan.com/medicinal-mushrooms-traditions-of-the-east/). The Japanese Forest Mushroom (kinokonomori) takes is most common name, ‘shiitake’ from the Japanese Oak known as the shii (Castanopsis cuspidata) (Mori, 24). These oaks are exclusively used by Yamaha Drums for professional drums due to their tone being brighter and louder than maple or birch. This exclusive association with the Shii oak aligns kinokonomori with the kodama. Kodama are spirits that live in trees. Their voices can be heard in the echoes produced in mountain valleys and they appearance is similar to will o’ the wisps when they aren’t emulating humans or other animals.

Another spirit-form associated strongly with Shiitake is Shennong, the Chinese deity who is said to have brought knowledge of agriculture, medicinal mushrooms, Chinese traditional medicine, acupuncture, and moxibustion to humankind. He is often portrayed as a man with the head of an ox, clothed in woodland products such as leaves, bark and grass. Depictions of Shennong holding bunches of herbs and medicinal mushrooms are also common (retrieved from https://www.gounesco.com/shiitake-mushroom-myths-medicine/). Shennong is known as the ‘God Farmer’ or ‘God Peasant’ and is recognized as one of the rulers of China’s pre-history. He is the inventor of the hoe, plow, axe, well-digging, irrigation, seed saving, farmer’s markets, the discovery of tea, and the Chinese calendar. He was born in the Hua Shan mountains, the child of a princess and a dragon. He is associated with fire due his teaching of controlled burning techniques to humankind. Due to this association he is also called the ‘Red Emperor’ and, to the magically-adjacent, is syncretized with both Prometheus, the Minotaur, and the Egyptian deity Apis. Shennong’s birthday is April 26th and is celebrated with fireworks, incense, and the sacrifice of cows and pigs. This translates into Western vernacular as an excellent opportunity for an enchanted barbecue. Throwing some shiitake on the grill along with rest of the provisions is an excellent way to venerate this prehistoric guardian of health and wellbeing (retrieved from https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/shennong-god-king-chinese-medicine-and-agriculture-007760).

As previously mentioned, buddhist priests of Japan are entangled in the lifecycle and spirit-mission of this fungi. They have been witnessed as recently as the late twentieth century praying with villagers, entreating the shiitake to grow for the health and wellbeing of everyone in the area (Mori, 28). The precedent for praying to or appealing to shiitake as a spirit-form is a common practice and not at all out of character for those that live by this mycospirit’s whims. Shiitake was often used as a birthright, a dowry, or a legacy — and is thus a representation of true wealth. The ‘soak and strike’ method of cultivation where a logs are injected with spores and left to colonize and eventually fruit, is synonymous with the coming-of-age of a child. Logs were often inoculated in conjunction with births. When the child came of age, they would inherit the fortune of fruiting shiitake logs as a way to give them a leg up in the world. Samurai were reported to take up residence near forests known to contain natural reserves of shiitake and defend their ‘patches’ with all of the superior means at their disposal (Leatham, 29)The spirit-forms were so prized, like cordyceps in the Himalayas, regional and provincial ‘wars’ have been fought over the theft and poaching of shiitake (retrieved from https://www.gounesco.com/shiitake-mushroom-myths-medicine/). Most often the beneficial molecules in fungi are found in the fruiting body and mycelium, but even shiitake spores have been used in successful tests against influenza and cancers with viral origins. Further studies have been undertaken that link the consumption of shiitake with the healing of ulcers, leukemia, neuralgia, gout, amaurosis (blindness caused by disease located in the optic nerve or brain), myopia, pyorrhea (shrinking of the gums), constipation and hemorrhoids (More, 28-29). Whole shiitake have two grades, donko and koshin. Koshin are shiitake with fully opened caps and thinner flesh. Donko have thick flesh, a roundish appearance, and only partly opened caps. Donko are typically grown and harvested in the winter months and are thought to possess stronger medicinal properties and certainly to be the better of the two grades for culinary purposes (Mori, 30). Acquiring whole dried donko shiitake is relatively easy. They can be reconstituted by placing them cap side down in good water for around twenty minutes. Dipping the mushroom into the water so that some fills the area of the gills is recommended. Shiitake is often brewed into a tea for consumption. This is done by taking kibbled dried shiitake and pouring boiling water over them or by soaking the same materia overnight in room temperature water. Extracts, often cited in the literature as the method of ingestion for studies on the spirit-form’s effects, are prepared by covering the bottom of a (non-iron) pan with kibbled shiitake, adding a teaspoon of powdered mushroom, covering with water and simmering for fifty minutes to an hour. The liquid is then strained and can be drank twice a day. In general, 3-4 grams of shiitake daily is recommended for individuals in good health. Twice this amount is recommended when trying to alleviate or cure the plethora of ailments listed above (Mori, 30-31). Another, perhaps more technical method of creating an extract of shiitake for medicinal use is to through the use of ground fruiting bodies and distilled water heated to 140°F for one hour. The resulting aqueous extraction is then passed through 0.2 micron filters into centrifuge tubes. The tubes are then placed in a centrifuge for approximately five minutes. An ethanol extract can also be created, if desired, using the same ground fruiting body dissolved in 46% ethanol (whisky or vodka will work for this). The ethanol extract can also be filtered and centrifuged, if desired (Rincão et al, 2). Extracts such as these have been used in tests against poliovirus and bovine herpes virus. The results show that these extracts from shiitake were effective as a treatment post-infection or at the time of infection, but not necessarily as a preventive measure, since administering it prior to infection did not significantly stop the virus from bonding with cells (Rincão et al, 2). Higher polysaccharide content in extracts has been shown to be significantly more effective against RNA and DNA-based viral infections (Rincão et al, 5). The Dragon of the Mountain Forest has been a companion of humankind for centuries and, as such, cultivation of these tree sprits has been perfected and refined at the hands of thousands of expert fungiculturists. Nevertheless, methods of cultivation are always evolving and improving. On the Noto Peninsula of Japan, for example, traditional knowledge has been found to be a barrier towards producing mushrooms of superior form and taste. In the temperate Ishikawa Prefecture; known for the dramatic arts of Noh, tea ceremonies, and Nantaimori/Nyotaimori sushi; non-timber forest products, including fungiculture, makes up over half of the forest products of the region. Farmers and private industry, a dynamic introduced and explored by Anna Tsing, co-exist in this region in the pursuit of a livelihood governed by the shiitake spirit-form’s will (Kohsaka et al, 1). This is yet another example of a wealth-generating spirit-form from the kingdom of fungi that seems to work towards an equalization between the needs of enterprise (Capitolocene) and individuals (Anthropocene). Cultivation of shiitake on sawdust was introduced to this region’s farmers by the Japan Kinoko Mushroom Center in an effort to produce shiitake that perfectly fit the criteria for the Nototemari Brand. The introduction of branding is magically-adjacent as it adds different levels of symbolic abstraction to represent the spirit-form. Are different 'brands' or varietals of shiitake different spirit-forms? If given a distinct symbolic identity, then the answer is yes.

Sawdust cultivation is often performed indoors as opposed to the forest production of shiitake on logs. The ability of the mushroom to grow year round given the appropriate conditions creates a stable income for those farmers willing to use new, non-traditional techniques. This is also a more sustainable method of cultivation as the shii logs used for cultivation are beginning to decline in availability due to the popularity of the Fragrant Mushroom. In fact, Japan’s consumption of shiitake is so high that 96% of the fungi is imported to the island from elsewhere (Kohsaka et al, 2). Prior to the mid 20th century introduction of sawdust cultivation of shiitake, traditional knowledge of the craft was passed between individuals in specific communities. It is now more common for individuals with no prior knowledge, community, or familial ties to growing shiitake to be able to enter the market using materials developed for the production of Nototemari Shiitake (Kohsaka et al, 6). Farmers using traditional methods on the Noto Peninsula are, in fact, at a disadvantage as they are unable to produce the same amount of mushrooms that fall within the strict grading of the branded ones and are thus, paid less for their product at market. This is significant in that it is the same trajectory followed by many other spirit-forms, even the most traditional, like the goetic demons. The ‘witchcraft renaissance’ of the 21st century should not be viewed as a phenomenon tailored solely by humans. To do this is to rob spirits of their agency. If witchcraft is on the rise it is because the spirit-world wants this to be so. The same is true for mycospirits and the kingdom of fungi on-the-whole, which has been aligning itself and cultivating allyship with humankind since before we began walking upright.

Following the example set forth by Shennong and gratefully acknowledging the kodama that provide the wood to sustain the spirit form, we now transition into how to cultivate the Fragrant Offering. As has been mentioned, shiitake cultivation began by taking the colonized logs of a shii tree and placing them next to freshly cut logs which were scored and scarred to allow the spores from the colonized log to find new homes (Leatham, 29). The next major innovation in shiitake production wouldn’t come until the 1940s when Kisaku Mori, founder of the Mori Research Institute of Mushrooms and Other Fungi and at one time the director of the same Japan Institute of Mushroom Research that pioneered the Nototemari shiitake, pioneered the method of colonizing wood chips and placing them into holes or divots cut in the logs. This revolutionized production of the mushroom and Mori developed this method as a young agricultural student at Kyoto University in the 1930s. This method was the precursor to colonizing wood dowels and pounding them into logs, which is used for many wood-decaying fungi today. Mori’s classic book, ‘Mushrooms as Health Foods,’ is also cited elsewhere in this entry. In general, there are six phases to shiitake cultivation:

Obtain shiitake cultures

Prepare the logs

Inoculate the logs

Lay the logs

Raise logs to favor fruiting

Harvest and store the crop

As previously mentioned, shiitake is often cultured through the inoculation of pegs or dowels made of wood and approximately 1/2 inch in diameter and 1/2 to 3/4 in long. This can also be done on sawdust, which is then pressed into the holes, much like we saw in the Li Ziqi video at the beginning of this entry. It is good practice to incubate the plug spawn at around 70°F for up to two weeks prior to use. The logs should be of the ubiquitous beech, or other hardwoods such as oak, chestnut, or hornbeam. Maple, alder, birch and poplar species have also proven to take to colonization well. Shiitake will not grow on living trees, so the logs must be freshly cut. Logs should be used immediately prior to the felling of the tree or as close as possible (within 2 to 3 weeks) to reduce the propensity of other fungi to colonize the medium. It is also recommended that trees be felled in the winter when the sugar content in the wood is higher, as this is beneficial to the colonizing shiitake (Leatham, 31). Holes should be drilled lengthwise along the log 8 to 16 in apart. A best practice is to offset a new row 3 to 8 inches from the last. The holes should allow for a snug fit of the plug spawn and the dowels should be hammered to be flush with the log surface. Paraffin wax can be used to seal the holes after the dowels are inserted. This procedure should not be done in direct sunlight. The logs can then be laid side by side in a well-drained and shaded area. Straw mats or burlap can be used as a protective barrier against sunlight and dehydration in this early stage. The ‘laying yard’ should be shaded and generally maintain a temperature between 59° and 82°F. Conditions outside of this are more beneficial to competitive fungi than our spirit-form. Shiitake logs can take up to two years to fully colonize and only then will they begin to fruit if there are temperatures between 46° to 72°F. Cool nights and warm days with high humidity are optimum (Leatham, 32). The specific light requirements for fruiting have been found to be around 9 hours of light a day at a strength similar to two 100-watt incandescent bulbs; this is equivalent to 1600 lumens, or a 16-20 watt LED fixture (Leatham, 33-34). Once fruiting begins, mushrooms are prime for harvesting anywhere between 2 to 7 days. Drying can be done on racks with a temperature around 86°F initially, increased 4°F every hour until the dryer has reached 122°F. This temperature is maintained for an hour and is a crucial stage in the development of the flavor and attractiveness of the dried mushroom. It should also be said that the Dragon of the Mountain Forest also takes equally well to being sun-dried (Leatham, 34). As has been mentioned, shiitake does not only grow on hardwood logs, however, and has been proven to grow readily on sawdust and even corn bran supplemented with manure, wheat bran, and wood ash (Alemu, 39). The corn bran method produced fruiting bodies a mere 20 days after inoculation (Alemu, 41). While we have discussed methods of creating extracts of the Fragrant Offering, the very best way to consume shiitake is in food. This is a proven spiritual practice that should find a ready niche in any mycomage’s grimoire. The Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan, has spoken at length on the spiritual properties of consuming shiitake. She resides in the Baekyangsa Temple outside of Seoul, South Korea and is a member of the Zen Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Her methods are simple but specific, and often at odds with the typical Western palette. For instance, she has stated that garlic, onions, scallions, chives, and leeks (staples of American cuisine) have too much spiritual energy. So much so that it will distract from any spirit-contact that the individual is attempting to achieve. Jeong Kwan prefers fermentation and fermented products like kimchi and red chili paste to enhance the flavors of her food. Of the food itself used in her cooking, she states that the work that she pours into growing and preparing her own food is directly translated as spiritual power derived from the meal. In preparing a single vegetable in the best possible way, she becomes the food and the food becomes her. This is aligned with the Myconomicon’s assertion that one can become the mushroom through its cultivation and consumption. Mushroom becomes me. I become the mushroom. (retrieved from https://www.rainbowinmykitchen.com/jeong-kwan-lessons-from-a-buddhist-vegan-chef/) Her preparation of shiitake is just as elegant and spiritual and can serve as a guide for our own practice.

The sigil for Lentinula edodes is strong and deeply representative of its natural form. It is a powerful talisman, in conjunction with the use of the spirit-form in one’s food, as a ward against viral illness. Coupling this mycomagery with petitions to Saint Rocco and Saint Lazarus can also be highly beneficial. The Dragon of the Mountain Forest is a fierce ally for those attempting to cultivate personal wealth, especially as a legacy to leave to one’s family or as a birthright for newly born children.

The sigil and the dried mushroom itself can be used as an attractive and efficacious offering for many other spirit forms, The kodama or other local forest spirits will deeply appreciate its fragrance, as will Shennong, the ghosts of Samurai, or any other similarly powerful spirit-form. Shiitake as the Fragrant Offering is best used, however, as an agent in altruistic magic meant to benefit all humankind. This is its way in our world after all and the type of magic it is best at. As a specific exercise, take some premium dried shiitake to a local wooded area along with a representation of the above sigil. Other incense can be used but it should be of a similarly woody or musky scent to align with the natural perfume of the mushroom. Find a tree of a type familiar and well-liked by the spirit-form and place the sigil and mushrooms between its roots. This practice can be followed by the following prayer (or an adaptation) offered to the world by Jeong Kwan’s order:

Prayer for the Victory Against the Novel Coronavirus

We pray and take refuge in Lord Buddha,

Who leads all beings With infinite compassion and wisdom.

Lord Buddha has enlightened us to the reality,

Where we owe every breath we take

To the harmony and purity

Of all living beings,

To the clean earth, air and water.

I offer my ardent prayer

In gratitude for

Everything that engenders my becoming,

All previous living beings

That are part and parcel of who I am.

I sincerely reflect and deeply repent of having

Threatened the life of other creatures

Greedy of profits enriching humans,

Alienated neighbors and

Damaged the solidarity of the community

Out of misplaced avarice,

Which is the true cause of

This sickness that is menacing the Earth.

Every existence is sacred, every life form precious.

I pray with faith that fills my whole heart,

That everyone will rise again above this illness

With the purity of mind and body.

Me, my family and my neighbors

Are all in this together.

I fervently pray

Everyone in this world

Transcend race, religion, class and national borders

To encourage each other,

To work harmoniously together and

Overcome the calamity that has befallen us.

Nothing can be nobler than

Saving lives, deserving of the greatest merits.

I pray with all my heart for the health and happiness of

Those who treat and care for the sick

And join in their Bodhisattva practice.

I hereby pray and dedicate my practice

Wishing the whole world

To work side by side in harmony

To overcome this crisis and

Walk together the path of

Forever lasting peace and happiness.

Please accept my aspiration made with utmost sincerity.

Namu Yaksa Yeola-ebul

Namu Yaksa Yeola-ebul

Namu Yaksa yuri gwang Yeola-ebul

I bow in homage to Medicine Buddha

I bow in homage to Medicine Buddha

I bow in homage to Medicine Buddha residing in the Eastern Emerald World

Sigil courtesy of Ghostly Harmless’ SigilizerReferencesAlemu F (2014) Cultivation of Shiitake Mushroom on Corn Bran (Agricultural by-Product) at Dilla University, Ethiopia. International Journal of Applied Science. pp 37-48Asiado T (2020) Shennong. Edible Wild Food. Retrieved from https://www.ediblewildfood.com/bios/shennong.aspxBiedermann H (1992) Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. Facts on File. New York, NY.Davis, R (1993) TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CADay, X, Stanilka J M, Rowe C A, Esteves E A, Nieves C, Sparser S J, Christman M C, Langkamp-Henken B and Percival S S (2015) Consuming Lentinula erodes (Shiitake) mushrooms daily improves human immunity: A randomized dietary intervention in healthy young adults. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. pp 1-10Elkhateeb W H, Daba G M, Elmahdy E M, Thomas P W, Wen T C, Shaheen M N F (2019) Antiviral potential of mushrooms in the light of their biological active compounds. ARC Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (5, 2) pp 45-49.Huang W, Kim J S, Chung H Y (2011) Antioxidant activity and total phenolic content in Shiitake mycelial exudates. Natural Product Communications (6, 6) pp. 845-850.Jogye (2020) Prayer for the Victory Against the Novel Coronavirus. Joggle Order of Korean Buddhism. Retrieved from http://www.koreanbuddhism.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=0010&wr_id=718Jung, C (1964) Man and His Symbols. Altus Books. London, England. [https://amzn.to/2VipqeW]Krakauer D C and McShea C L (eds) (2019) Interplanetary Transmissions - Genesis: Proceedings of the Santa Fe Institute’s First InterPlanetary Festival. SFI Press. Santa Fe, New Mexico [https://amzn.to/2V1Hhrx]Leatham G F (1982) Cultivation of shiitake, the Japanese forest mushroom, on logs: A potential industry for the United States. Forest Products Journal (32, 8) pp 29-35Mori K (1974) Mushrooms as Health Foods. Japan Publications, Inc. Tokyo, Japan.

MykoSan (2015) Medicinal Mushroom Traditions of the East. Retrieved from https://mykosan.com/medicinal-mushrooms-traditions-of-the-east/Palm S H, Wani A H, Bhat M Y (2013) Ethnomycological studies of some wild medicinal and edible mushrooms in the Kashmir Himalayas (India). International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (15, 2) pp 211-220.Rincão V P, Yamamoto K A, Ricardo N M P S, Soares S A, Meirelles L D P, Nqzawa C and Linhares R E C (2012) Polysaccharide and extracts from Lentinula edodes: Structural features and antiviral activity. Virology Journal (9, 37) pp 1-6Slaven (2018) Jeong Kwan: Lessons from a Buddhist Vegan Chef. Rainbow in my Kitchen. Retrieved from https://www.rainbowinmykitchen.com/jeong-kwan-lessons-from-a-buddhist-vegan-chef/Strom C (2017) Shennong: The God-King of Chinese Medicine and Agriculture. Ancient Origins. Retrieved from https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/shennong-god-king-chinese-medicine-and-agriculture-007760Teplyakova t and Kosogova T (2015) Fungal bioactive compounds with antiviral effect. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology (3) pp 357-371Till S (2016) The Shiitake Mushroom - A History in Magic and Folklore. Go Unesco. Retrieved from https://www.gounesco.com/shiitake-mushroom-myths-medicine/Trips and Kornfilt (2017) Further investigations into the nature of phrasal compounding. Freie Universität Berlin.Turk M (2015) Majiayao Legacy: A Neolithic Record of Astronomy, Acupuncture, and Midwifery. Sino-Platonic Papers. University of Pennsylvania.Yang F, Wang H, Liu X, Ge N, Guo J, Wang S, Song X, Cao L and Sun S (2019) EUS-guided fine-needle technique-derived cancer organdies: A tailored ‘Shennong deity’ for every patient with cancer. Ends Ultrasound (8) pp 73-75Zembron-Lacny A, Galewski M, Naczk M and Siatkowski I (2013) Effect of shiitake (Lentinus edodes) extract on antioxidant and inflammatory response to prolonged eccentric exercise. Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology (64, 2) pp 1-6.Mushroom ImagesCordyceps militaris from AtlidesFomitopsis betulina from jonasgruskaLentinula edodes from bloodworm Phallus impudicus from antizoyd

The Black Meat

The Māori have nearly two hundred names for mushrooms endemic to New Zealand, but as of 2005 most of the traditional knowledge of this fungi has been disrupted. The primary vehicle of ethnomycological knowledge, as we have seen in other explorations form this project in Asia and Latin America, is through oral tradition. In the case of the Māori, these links have been eroded. It should be noted, however, that the ‘kingdom of fungi’ as a class of entities was not recognized by the Māori until recently. This could mean that those researchers that are attempting to uncover traditional knowledge about fungi are asking the wrong questions.The term ‘Harore’ is the modern generic name for fungi. It was and is considered a ‘starvation food’ or at the very best, not considered a delicacy but just another part of the edible landscape of New Zealand. Other uses are as tinder and fire-carrying materia — a usage that we see in paleomycological investigations that has survived to the present day. One would be forgiven for thinking of brackets and other fire-carrying mushrooms as kin to Prometheus and all that hero represents. One of the most significant usages of fungi, however, is absolutely sacred. Cordyceps robertsii, a predatory mushroom that preys on local caterpillars, is used (along with the caterpillar) to create the pigment for Tā moko (traditional Māori tattoos). (Fuller et al, 402).

Another fungi commonly used by Māori today are the Laetiporus portentosus, known as ‘Te pūtawa’ in Te reo (‘the language’ in Māori), which is used to protect wounds from infection by using it as a type of antibiotic pad.

Pekepekekiore, or Hericium coralloides, is one of the few where still extant oral tradition refers to the ancestors of modern Māori using it as a forest food.

New Zealand forests also contain the Wood Ear fungus known as Auricular cornea or ‘Hakeke’ in Te reo. While prized in some parts of the world, Hakeke is almost certainly a starvation food for the Māori, even being featured in a song captured by the colonialist Sir George Grey in 1853:

“What, what shall we eat?Wood ear fungusthat clings to the karakaor, convolvulusthat stretches over the land?Who will dig the convolvulusin the winter?”

Because it does suit the taste of New Zealand’s Asian neighbors, it is the only fungus that is wild crafted and exported. This practice is not modern, however, the ancestors of contemporary Māori having established trade with China in the fungi in the 19th century.

Agrocybe parasitica, known to the Maori as Tawaka, is a food, medicine, and magical agent. It is given to individuals to reduce fever and for the general health of expectant mothers. It can be used (either intentionally or otherwise) as a malefic agent as well. It is reported that if an individual consumes Tawaka and walks among gardens growing gourd plants that the gourds will decay or otherwise not mature. Similarly, an individual who has consumed the mushroom will reduce other’s chances to catch fish.

The ubiquitous Puffball (Lycoperdon utriforme), called Pukurau in Te rea, is used medicinally in much the same way as it is the world over — as a successful agent utilized to stop bleeding from wounds and for reducing pain from burns. The prevalence of puffballs on nearly every continent and the fact that it is used in identical or similar ways by indigenous communities all over the globe is strong evidence that the Puffball has been humankind’s ally since some point deep in prehistory. The town of Waipukurau in Central Hawkes Bay, New Zealand is reportedly named after a strong colony of Puffballs. This area is also central to Māori culture, in particular the Rangitāne tribe (Whenua et al, retrieved from https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/image_maps/72-matauranga-maori-fungi-as-food-and-medicine).

Let’s return for a moment to Awheto, the Cordyceps mushroom that grows from the caterpillars of two specific moths in Aotearoa. The caterpillar carcass and mushroom are collected and fired into charcoal and pulverized into a black powder, which is then used in the production of sacred tribal tatooes. This connection between insects and mushrooms is important for our current investigation as it will open up doors to different facets of our archetype.In 1952, the entomologist David Miller published a paper in the Journal of Polynesian Studies titled ‘The Insect People of the Maori.’ In this work the author captures the genealogy of Māori gods and spirit-forms that make up the foundation of their cosmogony includes all living things except humans and is known as the Te Whanua a Torohuka. Part of the Te Whanua a Torohuka are the Aitanga Pepeke, or the Insect People. The tribe of Aitanga Pepeke properly consists of spiders, mites, sand-hoppers, sandlike, crayfish, shrimp, crabs, woodlice, slugs, snails, worms, millipedes, and centipedes (Miller, 2). Miller separates the Māori spirit genealogy into 5 branches. The first four have a very similar structure to Greek or Roman genealogies, which should be familiar to many readers. The fifth, begun by a spirit-form named Haumia — the Lord of Uncultivated Foods, stands alone as its own branch, unconnected to the rest. The Insect People are direct descendants of Haumia through his descendent, Te Monehu — the Patron of Fern-Root. Also among this taxonomy are beings with extra-normal origins that are of broader interest to our investigation. These are Putehue, who begat the Gourd-Plant. The Gourd-Plant having origins outside of the traditional spirit ecosystem and being weak against the sympathetic presence of the Poplar Mushroom is a potentially valuable data point. A celestial being named Nuhe begat the Sphinx Moth Caterpillar — one of the two endemic creatures specifically targeted by Cordyceps robertsii and ultimately ending as materia for sacred Māori tattoos (the Ghost Moth caterpillar being the other). Flies and cicadas also are considered to have a lineage from outside those that rule over Aotearoa (Miller, 4). This causes one to wonder if these classifications indicate a type of invasion of a non-indigenous species at some point in deep time. Alternate, or perhaps more specific, origins of the tribe of Aitanga Pepeke are also recorded by Miller. A descendent of the Lord of the Ocean, Punga, begat Tutewanawana who in turn begat Tutangatakino — a singular evil diety and Lord of the Human Stomach and all of the pains originating from that area of our anatomy. Tutangatakino’s decedents are recorded as vermin (which were largely introduced by colonizers), insects (in general), spiders, lizards, and centipedes. Their lineage stemming from a recognized evil marks them as malefic entities in the Māori spirit-ecology (Miller, 5).Towards the conclusion of Miller’s paper is a glossary of terms that will be of great assistance to us in our investigation. The specific spirit form we are investigating is the Pekepekekiore, a mushroom that goes by the common English name of Coral Tooth Fungi and the scientific classification of Hericium coralloides. The term Pekepekekiore isn’t specifically defined in any of the references that mention it, but Miller’s glossary contains names with the same phonemes.

Pekepeke Haratua is the Māori name for Macromastix holochlora — commonly known as Daddy Long Legs. It is the only term in the glossary that contains a reduplication of the phoneme ‘peke.’ Pekeriki is the name for both lice and invasive vermin. Peketua is the name of the centipede, who is referred to in the glossary as the progenitor of all other insects, lizards, and spiders (Miller, 55). Pete also means ‘to jump,’ and is the word to describe arms and legs. The reduplication 'as in pekepeke' is a common feature in some indigenous languages to describe 'more then one.' Kiore can be used to describe a mouse, a later usage as mice and rats came with colonization. It also has notes that are relevant to hanging or climbing, which relates back to the first two phonemes if they are to be interpreted as 'limbs.' The ‘Many-Legged One’ is a possibly very good interpretation of the Māori name for the Coral Tooth Fungus when attempting a direct translation of its name and considering its connections centipedes endemic to New Zealand like the Cormocephalus rubriceps — which can grow up to a massive 10 inches in length.

The Many-Legged One is often found on decaying beech and in beech ecosystems, tying him (as so many other mushrooms are) to the Gallo-Roman/Proto-Basque/Celtic deity fa*gus — who rules over the beech, red-haired humans, and child birth. Hericium coralloides has been proven to grow on freshly cut beech logs, decaying beech (in the wild), and even on living beech (with assistance). The mycelia of Coral Tooth Fungi has also been observed as being more ‘combative’ in the wild then many other types of mushroom mycelia (Crockatt, 9) — loaning it an aggressive and fiery ambience as an archetype. In the Northern Hemisphere, H. coralloides typically fruits in its chosen beech ecosystems from early September to late November, depending on the severity and quickness of the coming winter. On occasion, The Many-Legged One is also found on ash trees, on occassion. His affinity for beech extends into the Upside-Down as well, being found primarily on Southern Beech in New Zealand, for example.

One primary method of cultivating this spirit-form is through the use of colonized oak dowels and freshly cut beech logs. It is recommended that an electric drill and a bit sterilized with alcohol spirits create a series of staggered hole 1/3 in in diameter, and approximately 1 in deep. Colonized oak dowels can then be hammered into the beech. This method has also been proven to work (albeit somewhat less consistent then when using cut beech) on living beech trees. If colonization of a living beech is successful, however, the resulting growth has been reported to be prolific (Crockatt, 78). Spores of Hericium corraloides can remain viable for up to 24-30 weeks (Crockatt, 80). Cultures of Hericium corraloides spores have been observed to grow the best on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (Julian et al, Abstract).Hericium coralloides shares many of the nutraceutical effects of its kin, Hericium erinaceus. The Many-Legged One, however, has unique metabolites that achieve these effects. These metabolites have been shown to follow different metabolic pathways as well, marking Coral Tooth Fungi as a powerful synergistic supplement to H. erinaceus. These corallocin metabolites include an isoindolinone derivative (a six-membered benzene ring fused to a five-membered nitrogen-containing ring that is quite complex and rare from natural sources) that has demonstrated nerve growth and neurotrophic (molecules that support the growth, survival, and diversity of neurons) activity. Corallocin B has also shown to have antiproliferative effects on cancer cells and the ability to regulate endothelial function, which has implications for those suffering from coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia (Wittstein et al, 1).Pekepekekiore, the child of Peketua — the giant New Zealand centipede, through the mechanisms of its corallocin metabolites is a potent neurotrophic agent and can be connected to The Black Meat, a drug described by William S. Burroughs in Naked Lunch. In that work we are first introduced to The Sailor, a Meat Eater, as he interacts with a shoe shine boy in the sprawling Interzone. The Sailor is described as having cold eyes the color of depths of the sea that reflect an imminently foreign perspective to the warm-blooded shoe shine boy’s relationship with the world. The Sailor can be imagined as the descendent of Tutangatakino, the evil entity ultimately descended from the Lord of the Ocean. He exists in an ficto-ecological niche with other insectoids like ‘Fats’ Terminal, an employee of the infamous ‘Meet Cafe’ who is described as possessing blank periscopic eyes (Burroughs, 51). This is another of Tatangatakino’s children for he begat all members of the Insect People of Māori, the Aitanga Pepeke Tribe. This niche of spirit-forms, the Insect Tribe, can be assumed to imbricate over the magical niche of the Kingdom of Fungi through non-western taxonomies that see no boundaries to combining lizards, moths, centipedes, and fungi into the same genealogical group. Further into the chapter of Naked Lunch entitled ‘The Black Meat,’ we follow The Sailor, our embodiment of the Meat Eater. He is described as manipulating a leaden tube with fibrous pink fingers reminiscent of the Pinking Things from Lovecraft’s Whisperer in the Dark. The Sailor cuts the end of this tube with a little curved knife — an archetypal tool of the mushroom forager — and a mist taking on the rolling image of boiling fur flows into his face, distorting and pulling it out of phase, only to bring it back into ‘unbearable focus’ a moment later (Burroughs, 52-53). This capture the metaphorical experience of the nerve growth and synaptic sharpening provided by Coral Tooth Fungus’ primary nutraceuticals.The ‘Traffickers in the Black Meat’ are described as youths dressed as women in gowns of burlap and rotten rags. This connects Hericium corraloides with the origins of drag in deeptime — from Two Spirit individuals in American Indian/Native American culture to the Roman literature and Chinese theater. As spirit form, our mycospirit is a patron of the LGBTQ community. The materia of their gowns are representative of poverty. This is a multi-faceted concept; poverty of spirit, poverty of time, poverty of food choices and nutrition, a poverty of social power, and a poverty of wealth. The ‘dealers,’ which we can also assume to be a representation of the beech ecosystems so beloved by the Coral Tooth fungi and many others in the Kingdom, are said to appear as crustaceans camouflaged against black rocks and among shining lagoons the color of muddy rivers (Burroughs, 52). Old Bill Lee represents the Meat Eaters and their dealers as a type of tribe, a tribe whose role is the consumption of the children of Haumia, the Māori Lord of Uncultivated Food — a natural deity to pray to when foraging for rare mushrooms like The Many-Legged One. It is in the reflection of the this chapter of Naked Lunch that we can see smoky glimpses of Anna Tsing’s matsutake hunters in the Pacific Northwest. The dealers and the hunters existing in a synergistic cosmic waltz. The clan of the Eaters of the Black Meat, a subset of the larger (and growing) tribe of the mycomage, are painted as the ‘black marketeers of World War III.’ We are traffickers in the subversion of materialist values. The Third World War is one of culture — the re-enchanted versus the media-fed undead. We are the ‘servers of fragmentary warrants’ constructed of asemic writing. We, the 21st century magic-user, are serving warrants to the materialists, the Dream Police (who would keep us from realizing our lives outside of their multifaceted prisons of poverty), for their crimes against the spirit world. We all live in Burroughs’ unconstituted police states — living in a state of oppression without realizing. We take in The Black Meat and our bodies react to these ancient spirits, to their medicine. We react in ways the Dream Police never intended and fear the most. The mycomage is hand-in-hand with the dealers of the Black Meat. We are the brokers of unregulated dreaming and the travelers on the paths of retrocausative enchantment and Lovecraftian hypernostalgia. As we advance on our enemy:

“The Dream Police disintegrate in globs of rotten ectoplasm swept away by an old junky, coughing and spitting in the sick morning.” (Burroughs, 55)

as we consume the ‘overpoweringly delicious’ flesh of the Many-Legged One (reported to taste of the camouflaged crustaceans revealed in Burroughs’ narrative) we become like him and the divine centipedes that spawned him. Tutangatakino is kin to Ōmukade, a Japanese Yōkai. Yōkai is a term used to describe spirits that is represented by an ideogram that combines the terms ‘bewitching,’ ‘attractive,’ and ‘spectre.’ Another, perhaps more familiar, term for yōkai is mononoke. Ōmukade is a giant centipede that resides in the mountains and eats humans, yet is reportedly weakened by human saliva. Sepa is the Centipede God of the Egyptians whose cult was centralized in the area surrounding Kheraha, north of Memphis. This is now known as Old Cairo, as an embodiment of Interzone we are ever likely to see in-the-real.

Sepa the Centipede God is the adversary of Apophis the Serpent and Lord of Disorder. In this ancient juxtaposition we can see the role of the Many-Legged One’s medicine where it can heal or stem the tide of neurodegenerative diseases — staving off the disorder that is visited upon humankind when ravaged by those diseases. Rituals or spells directed against disorder or chaos (especially when traveling) or the other spheres of influence ruled by Apophis can begin with the invocation:

“He is Sepa — he is on his way to Heliopolis…” (retrieved from https://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/sepa/)

The ‘Road to Sepa’ is a spiritual path that centers on the worship and patronage of the Great Centipede and is synonymous to the Clan of the Eaters of the Black Meat. The Maya had an entire era dedicated to the centipede, the Waka Dynasty that spanned from the fourth to the eight century AD. Curiously, the Snake/Centipede - Apophis/Sepa dynamic is present here as well with the first queen of the Waka Dynasty being known as ‘Lady Snake Lord’ (retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/09/ancient-maya-king-tomb-spd/). Much like the Māori, the Mayan had an evil entity known to scholars only as God A’ or ‘Akan’ that ruled over the realm of the dead and alcohol; he is often depicted as a flying demonic insect in a state of self-decapitation and has in his entourage the centipede, spiders, and all the same members of the Aitanga Pepeke that were begat by Tutangatakino. The 1901 treatise on Māori Magic by the ethnographer Elsdon Best states that the ancestral Māori had three primary causes of death; death on the battlefield, death from sickness, and death from witchcraft. Māori witchcraft is not only an active malefic force between a sorcerer and a victim (or another sorcerer) but can also be what is described as ‘semi-passive’ or ‘semi-active’ magic — that which is only dangerous when it is interfered with (Best, 69). This includes spirits of place, enchanted places, or magically-imbued natural entities that use magic as a type of natural defense mechanism. This could easily include fungi or, at the very least, protected trees inhabited by fungi.Another class of Māori magic is what is called ‘makutu,’ which translates to the Western concept of witchcraft. Makutu is reported to be a non-aggressive or defensive practice that includes spells to protect the life, spirit, and health of the practitioner. If we were to imbricate mycomancy onto the Māori system, it would certainly imbricate over the practice of makutu. Counter-spells are also present and are considered a varietal of makutu. Counter-spells are wards that nullify the effects of aggressive magic — three generic terms for this practice are momono, parepare, and whakataha (Best, 69). The author of ‘Māori Magic’ also dives into the origin stories surrounding how magic came to the Māori. According to the paper there is an archetypal magician by the name of Te Mahoi-hoi, a direct descendent of Maui whose children lived among the Māori. The term mahoi directly translates to the Western concept of spirit or rather, the essence of a human or god’s soul. Te-Mahoi-hoi begat the ‘little people’ of Aotearoa, whom are called the Te Tini-o-te-mahoihoi by the author. These are roughly equivalent to the elves and fairies of European tradition (Best, 71).Māori magic in its passive and aggressive distinctions, are recorded as being associated with direction and gender. Tama-tane, aggressive magic, is affiliated with the East and the male gender while Tama-wahine, passive magic, is of the West and aligned with the feminine. Tama-wahine is reported as the more powerful form. In this, we are also aligned with mycomancy, which, as has been previously discussed in this investigation, is a feminine magic and the spirito-medicinal properties of the mushroom archetypes form this system are ultimately passive and defensive in nature. Tama-wahine is used primarily to protect oneself and those places that serve and are productive for the individual. Magic is used to protect a forest or a productive tree through the use of charms, invocations, or other magic meant to conceal the wealth or value of these places (Best, 76). Using this same metaphysics, a mushroom can easily be used to protect the tree from which it sprung or the entire forest that houses the foodsource. This use of natural materia as a component of sympathetic magic to protect the natural environment is intuitively extremely powerful.If one’s land is attacked or afflicted, we are offered a specific rite that can be adapted to the purposes of the mycomage. Take for example a situation where a particular tree or grove is very productive in terms of producing mushrooms. Perhaps this is a secret morel patch deep in the woods. You find that someone else has found your patch and poached your morels or you are the victim of aggressive magic that has reduced the productivity of this food source for you. ‘Māori Magic’ recounts a spell that can be used to ‘destroy the enemy wizard.’ For our purposes, begin with a mushroom from the place you wish to protect. The mage is to use a wand, what type is not divulged, and tap the ‘body’ of the forest (the mushroom) and recites the following:

”To araHaere i tua, haere i wahoHaere te maramatangaHaere i nga kaupua o te rangiHaere i nga kapua o te rangiHaere ma hihi oraKi te whai ao, ki te ao maramaKo rou oraHaere i a maona nuiHaere i a moana roaHaere i a maona te takiritiaKi te whai ao, ki te ao maramaKo rou ora”

The mycomage then sprinkles water on the body of the place and places it with a meal in an oven at dawn. Once the food is cooked, the mage checks the ‘forest body’ and if it too has been cooked through the poacher or enemy magic-user is considered defeated (Best, 78). Protecting crops, fish, and forest products through the use of magic is a widespread practice, a near universal custom of the Māori, according to the paper. Another method of protective magic is to erect a post and tie local ferns, weeds, and other local materials to it. One piece of this materia is special and is referred to as the ‘whatu,’ or ‘kernel,’ which absorbs magical power directed at the place (Best, 90). This could be coupled with the rite of mātapuru which consists of tying green flax around the body, arms, and legs and reciting the mātapuru momono (incantation):

“Monokia te waha o te tipuaMonokia te waha o te tahitoMe puru to waha ki pari a nukuMe puru to waha ki pari a rangiE ki mai na koe, he tahito koeHe koeke, he kai-ure” (Best, 95-96)

The sigil of the Many-Legged One… the Coral Tooth Fungus… the Black Meat is to be invoked for any individual seeking to grow beyond their current intellectual capacity. This can be in conjunction to studying towards a degree or even attempting to gain access to higher education from a lower socio-economic strata. He is in opposition to the snake as an archetype of evil, and thus, can be used when contacting Lucifer/Satan/The Devil as a talisman of protection.

Pekepekekiore is a friend of the forest ecosystem and if found in the wild, along with its sigil, can be used in protective rituals as the metaphorical spirit of place. Plagues of insects are rendered powerless in the face of this spirit-form. The magico-medicinal metabolites of Hericium coralloides are proven as effective agents in stemming the blinding storm that is cognitive decline, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Its sigil along with modified Osirian rites, the Māori spells listed above, or any similar magical practices will enhance its already powerful effects.Sigil courtesy of Ghostly Harmless’ Sigilizer

References Best E (1901) Maori Magic: Notes upon Witchcraft, Magic Rites, and Various Superstitions as practised or believed in by the Old-Time Maori. Auckland Institue. 69-99Burroughs W S (1959) Naked Lunch. (First Evergreen Black Cat Edition, 6th Printing) Grove Press, Inc. New York, NY. Crockatt M (2008) Ecology of the rare oak polypore Piptoporus queyrcinus and the tooth fungi Hericium cirrhatum, H. coralloides, and H. erinaceus in the UK. Cardiff University. pp 1-129Fuller, R, Buchanan P and Roberts M (2005) Medicinal uses of fungi by New Zealand Maori people. International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (7) pp 1Julian A V, Wright C A, and Reyes R G (2018) Prelude to successful cultivation of Hericium in the Phillippines: Understanding its mycelial growth response on different culture media and its antibacterial activity. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Allied Sciences (7,2) pp 1-7Miller D (1952) The insect people of the Maori. The Journal of the Polynesian Society (61, 1) pp 1-61Whenua M, Stewart G, and Buchanan P (2020) Mātauranga Māori: Fungi as food and medicine. Retrieved from https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/image_maps/72-matauranga-maori-fungi-as-food-and-medicine Wittstein K, Rascher M, Rupcic Z, Lowen E, Winter B, Koster R W, and Stadler M (2016) Journal of Natural Products. pp 1-6Mushroom ImagesAgrocybe parasitica from Ian Dodd Auricular cornea from uceraCordyceps robertsii from Richard HartlandHericium coralloides from Lisa Kimmerling and Alan RockefellerLaetiporus portentosus from Ian DoddLycoperdon utriforme from Thomas Laxton

Two New Occult Blogs and a Podcast

It seems a worthy thing to announce new submissions to The Cutting Service. I should quickly point out lest I risk the ire of occult social media that when I use the word ‘new’ I mean newly submitted to the resource, not necessarily new to the world.

So far since the launch we have received submissions for the podcast ‘What Magic Is This.’ An excellent edition to the magical landscape, WMIT also offers extensive show notes, which always the mark of a professional broadcast.Two blogs were also submitted, the first being ‘Theomagica’. This site is well-designed, which is plus in my book. I will admit however that there is that certain something about a blog who hasn’t upgraded from tables and still has to fire up Dreamweaver 4 to make changes. Theomagica is the home to the writings of Frater Acher whose articles are well researched, written from the perspective of a seasoned practitioner, and lushly illustrated. The second submission is a blog entitled ‘Ecosophia’ featuring the bearded visage of one John Michael Greer — a new name to my unseasoned ears. The majority of the content appears to be book reviews and microblogs, with a sprinkling of longer opinion pieces. There is a great deal of Cthulhuiana among the posts, which makes me a fan.Check out the resources for yourself at: Gnome School's - The Cutting Service

The Cutting Service

The protagonist in the first section of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ keeps abreast of global occult manifestation and activity through the use of what was then called a ‘Cutting Service.’ This type of service monitored all of the newspapers they could acquire for themes of the patrons choosing, clipping articles and providing them to their patrons. It is through these clippings that the hero was able to triangulate where the ‘Call’ being heard in dreams all over the world was originating.

This was a necessary innovation one hundred years ago when the dispersal of information was thin and subjective. Now, in the twenty-first century we have a deluge of information, but face the same problem. This new micro-blog and associated resource will endeavor to fulfill the same service as the occult-themed newspaper clipping service did in Lovecraft’s tale. A human-curated list and analysis of occult thought and activity happening around the globe.

You can find the blog and the full list of resources here: ‘The Cutting Service’

Oceans and a Golden Dawn

With only twenty entries to our three data sets it is a bit disingenuous to start speaking about ‘trends’ in the data. Nevertheless, I wanted to point out some I have seen so far just as a marker for any future analysis that might include them.

With today’s (1/30/2020) update to the dataset we find that water-centric dreams are a common theme, containing oceans, rafts, and sailors. Golden Dawn Banishing rituals are also seen more often than any other type of ritual, to date. The hypothesis is this will change, but in case it doesn’t it will be interesting that the Golden Dawn theme began here in the beginning.

Be sure and tell your magically-operant friends and family about this new project. The more usable data we collect, the more valuable the tool will be for the 21st magic-using community.

Return to the project ‘s page here: Occult Activity Data Visualizations.

Jittering Data

A small update, as of January 26th, 2020 the latitude and longitude submitted by respondents will have a random jitter added to it of one/tenth of a degree. There are two reasons for this. First, it will allow multiple data points added by an individual in the same location to be picked out easier on the map, as they will no longer overlap.

Further, there was some valid concern in one of this researcher’s primary magical communities, the RSPM, about ‘outing’ oneself inadvertantly with location data. The jitter will 1) offset even an individual’s exact location (if submitted as such) by a couple of miles and 2) is recalculated with every update of the dataset, so pinpointing an individual’s responses will be impossible.

Go to the OA Data Visualization.

OA Data Visualization Launch

As of January 22nd, 2020 the initial OA Data Vis is live. We are sticking with a geographical representation of the data to begin with as that is the most meaningful with such a small data set.

Many thanks to the twenty or so individuals that contributed and the 400+ that visited! It may seem like a small feat to contribute to this effort but it isn’t lost on this researcher the importance of the dreams, rituals, and contact events that informants are adding to the database.

Look to this space for more microblogs on updates to the data set and any experiments/beginning analyses that will eventually make there way into furthering the public dashboards.

The Night Parade

“In a physical system, information is the opposite of entropy, as it involves uncommon and highly correlated configurations that are difficult to arrive at” - Cesar Hidalgo from ’Why Information Grows’

Entropy is the metric for disorder. Chaos Theory, as it was understood and popularized by the information theorist Benoit Mandelbrot, states at a fundamental level that in any system where there is no randomness the system can still behave unpredictably. Entropy is the measure of how far towards a state of unpredictability a system has fallen. Information is the ordering of chaos. Information reduces entropy gradually and locks order in a codifiable, portable, entropy-resistant form. Chaos Magic is also an attempt to bring order to a system, it is the ordering of reality in a way that benefits the magic-user. Very often, chaos magic will draw order out of entropy in a way that is unpredictable. Chaos magic is the (seemingly) spontaneous creation of order. Chaos magic is the pulling of information rabbit from the entropic top hat.The creation of information, like everything else in the universe, takes energy. This energy, however, always results in a product that is more than the sum of its parts. Aidan Wachter in his work, Six Ways, speaks to methods of cultivating, directing, and storing magical energy using the human body as a type of battery (Wachter, 75) — a special characteristic of the human condition. A more apt, and probably more palatable, description is that this energy is a form of information and the human body is the codex in which it is stored. Mushrooms are allies in this work in that they can open wide new channels for storing information that the typical interior ‘energetic’ manipulation would not even recognize as a path. It is something that the mycomage should take note of, however, how similar it is, the way mushrooms act in their environment, how their molecule act in the human body, and how we are able to cultivate and store magical information (energy stored in an ordered and retrievable form). Thinking with mushrooms in this way can lead us down some interesting paths. Take for instance, how political bodies (in particular, the ‘state’) form. Donna Haraway, in her work ‘Simians, Cyborgs, and Women’ describes how the Greeks (one of Western Magic’s key ancestors) conceptualized the ‘body politic.’ Haraway states that the Greeks connected individual citizens, cities, and the wider cosmos. They viewed them all as organisms that nested inside one another (think on fungi, their molecules, and how they live and move within us) and self-organized groups of humans as a reflection of the same processes that lead to the formation of ecological niches (Haraway, 7). While this might have been metaphor for the Greeks (not to diminish the power of metaphor) it is science now. Humans as organisms are connected by webs or strands or nets of social/intellectual/chemical information. Humans don’t just communicate and interact through language but in all of these ways. This makes us kin to the trees in a forest who also speak through various ethereal or invisible methods, either chemically through the aether or chthonically via their allies in the kingdom of fungi.Haraway continues down this path, pointing out that the Greek’s metaphor that connected the political and the natural has also been the fount from which all justifications of domination, empire, and colonization have sprung from (Haraway, 7). Through this frame, decolonization relies on the conscious decoupling of the perception of a connection between the political activity of humans and a mechanistic conceptualization of nature. Haraway notes that through the centuries we have allowed those that have dominated the fields of science and technology to cultivate this narrative of a type of mechanistic nesting-doll that includes human activity as a reflection of, but not connected too, the wider systems in the cosmos. This myopic focus on difference and how different species, different systems, different levels (citizen, city, cosmos) while similar in structure are ostensibly separate. Behind the scenes, however, knowledge of how systems work and impact one another has been used to create powerful social controls. Haraway states that this veil needs to be pulled back and transformed into what she terms as sciences of liberation (Haraway, 7). These sciences of liberation can be incorporated into the Carrollian Sorcerer Scientist’s kit of parts to be used in exposing natural knowledge as systems of control and re-acquring a true awareness of natural (systems) knowledge so that it can no longer be used as the foundation of behavioral control. To quote our guide directly:

“We have granted science the role of a fetish, an object human beings make only to forget their role in creating it…” (Haraway, 8)

The magic-user will recognize this as how sigils function, when they function well. Once you fully forget about them, the magic takes place. The issue here is that the magic is directed at us and not to our benefit.This Victorian-era science-as-fetish does not react to attempts at communication. In the worship of science (as opposed to a summoning of or co-creating with) we reject the discipline and rigor that defines science, develop our own practice from a foundation not rooted in the natural world, and are open to the suggestion by those that wield power that the natural world (and by extension ourselves [see the nesting doll above]) is an enemy that we need help in vanquishing. How can we break this spell and reify this science-as-fetish in our magical reality? Since it is seen as being defined outside of science and also as an object that rejects nature, we can look towards an entity that rejects technical discipline and natural laws to fit the mold built for us. The mushroom defies scientists all of the time by changing and evolving before their eyes in unexpected ways and in their laboratory conditions, seemingly rejecting what they ‘know’ to be the laws of nature. The mushroom is also used by science and medicine in ways that reject its naturally synergistic state, molecules are isolated and tested and relationships are ignored. By replacing this science-as-fetish with the mushroom we are able to break the programming from within without staging a frontal assault on the powers of empire, which have spent so much time and energy in colonizing the minds of the human race with this spell.Information is the reduction of entropy. State-formation is an organization of (seeming) chaos into a new, codifiable state. Evidence of state formation comes to us from the very earliest mythohistoric texts, such as those that describe the third millennium ruler of Sumeria, Gilgamesh (Wright, 15). State formation and spirit-forms like Gilgamesh are intimately linked. Gilgamesh’s role in the mythohistorical of Sumer, ostensibly the cradle of Western magic, marks him as a significant spirit-form even with strong evidence of his actual existence. He is tantamount to a Saint whose miracle is state-formation. Sumer, the source of all writing and graphical representations of knowledge, also offers archaeological evidence of state-formation, these sociopolitical entities however predate writing by at least a thousand years (Wright, 17). This evidence points to state-formation being a rapid process that requires violence as a catalyst (Wright, 19). The ‘State’ is a symptom of violence and also a cause of violence — a type of longitudinal malefica. It is a rapid ordering of a system and thus, the state is a type of information. The state reduces entropy and locks order in place. State-formation is chaos magic, if we are to classify it by these characteristics. As chaos magic draws order out of entropy in an unpredictable (and often violent) way, so does the state-formation process as it is first described in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The violence-as-catalyst construct also connects with ‘Picker’ culture, or that global subset of individuals that live and think with mushrooms as a method of subsistence, wildcrafting for food and trade. A number of sources describe picker culture in America as being populated with a survivalist aesthetic. This project has presented evidence of indigenous populations using foraging to combat the socioeconomic violence of poverty. Anna Tsing, in her work ‘The Mushroom at the End of the World’ describes Laotian and American pickers actively cultivating the aesthetics and attitudes of war time (Tsing, 86). This is true wether they are veterans of a war or not — the aesthetic among pickers living and thinking with mushrooms and in the greater forest ecosystem is defined by violence. Tsing’s informants are also described as using picker culture to heal physical and emotional wounds collected as refugees and soldiers in conflicts endemic to the lands they were born to (Tsing, 89).Think on Haraway’s observations of fetishized sciences used as an empirical definition for the formation of sociopolitical groups again. The same forces that have driven indigenous and non-indigenous individuals into theaters of war (read: catalysts of state-formation) are intellectually fueled by nationalist and oligarchical drivers that paint the simple-to-complex pattern found in the process of evolution as reasons for the superiority of cis-het white men over women and minorities — in essence using archeology, biological science, and anthropology as weapons of empire; empire’s primary goal being the formation and perpetuation of the state. Picker culture actively perpetuates the aesthetics of war while breaking down the power it holds over individuals (creating a type of diasporic ‘picker’ state). Tsing states that in her observations of the picker camps in the Pacific Northwest that ‘The woods are still full of war…’ through the perpetuation of this aesthetic, of national and racial constructs, and through cultural identification of the forager-as-hunter (Tsing, 89). If state-formation is a type of malefic sigil in how it functions than living and thinking with mushrooms is, has been, and will be a powerful counter-sigil, an uncrossing of the spell of empire.The spirit-form for this entry in the Myconomicon is Polyporus umbellatus, most commonly known as the Zhu Ling mushroom.

It can be found in both broadleaf and coniferous forests and is most common in China, Japan, and Korea. Zhu Ling produces both a sclerotium (a hyphal mass typically found beneath ground) and fruit bodies (stem and cap mushrooms). The fruit bodies are found to be a delicacy and the sclerotium is potent with medicinal qualities. New mushrooms can be cultivated directly from pieces of the sclerotium itself (Xing et al, 1). This is the first mushrooms in this examination that produces both a sclerotia (a mass of hyphal threads as opposed to a net of mycelia) and a fruiting mushroom. The fruit bodies growing from the foundational mass of the sclerotium are, in a way, a metaphor for state-formation -- the web of individuals flourishing from a more powerful and protective foundation. It is theorized that the provinces of Shaanxi, Henan and Gensu are the historical source of origin for Zhu Ling, as well as being known as the cradle of the entire Chinese civilization. Genetic studies have lent evidence to the mushroom dispersing to the west and south along the Qinling and Daba mountain ranges and to the north and east along the Tailing and Changbai ranges. Although there is little hard evidence of this dispersal being at the hands of humans, there are written records of its use dating back to 101 BCE (Xing et al, 8-9). This position in timedepth and the spirit-form’s ability to propagate from a sclerotium that is self-preserved and able to stay viable through drought and flood strongly suggests that Zhu Ling was a companion of the Chinese people as they dispersed and began their own process of state formation, ultimately ending in one of the largest and most powerful empires on earth.

Polyporus umbellatus is found, to a lesser extent, outside of its chosen homes of China, Japan, and Korea. Studies conducted in Slovakia have found that Zhu Ling is prolific in the hills of that country, with its strongest numbers being recorded in July. Sclerotium and fruit bodies are most common in beech forests but are also found among hornbeam and oak forests. This spirit-form differentiates from some of our previous investigations in that it prefers to be among specific trees, but only at a distance. The sclerotium are rarely if ever found close to their hosts (Kunca, Abstract). In Slovakia Zhu Ling was also found to ‘nest’ in areas of over 1000 square feet (Kunca, 41) and often these nests are found to be one singular organism expressed as many. This nesting tendency is an extension of the metaphor of state-formation derived from its tendency to produce fruit bodies from its hyphal mass. Polyporus umbellatus prefers gentle sloping hills with rubble and rocks present in the soil. It has not been found growing in the wild outside of forest ecosystems (Kunca, 48). He is a spirit-form that can only manifest in the presence of other spirit-forms, like a beech forest. This lends some credence to viewing a forest as a type of aggregate spirit form, or rather, a mass of spirit forms living individually in the same space to form one larger spirit with distinct characteristics. Zhu Ling is part of this aggregate. Further, Zhu Ling prefers to live in mountain forests, making it an even more rarified spirit. When searching for this spirit in its chosen niche, if its crown of fruit bodies is not visible, the sclerotic is often visible at the surface of the ground. They are hardened, but elastic, and typically have a dark surface. A living sclerotium of Zhu Ling will be a mass of white-colored hyphae that will bleed water if cut. If the mushroom has died this tissue will be gray and there will be no presence of moisture. Under normal environmental circ*mstances, however, Polyporus umbullatus has been confirmed to live for over fifty years (Kunca, 51). This long-lived physical manifestation can only be marked by a type of deep intelligence -- to maintain the organization of information for such a long amount of time requires more than just a bog of biochemical reactions and DNA. Zhu Ling finds its physical ecosystem and inhabits it, living along with the forest spirit it co-exists with.

Our spirit-form’s common name, Zhu Ling, is translated as Hog Tuber. Other names it is known by is Chorei-Maitake — Wild Boar Dung Maitake, Tsuchi-maitake — Earth Maitake, Polypore en ombelle, and Umbrella Mushroom. The Wild Boar is connected to Freya, the Norse goddess of war and death (the precursors for state-formation), love and sex (precursors of the propagation of the state). Our spirit-form’s connections to umbrellas and the spirit world can also be expanded to include the Kasa-obake. In Japanese folklore there is a type of spirit that is engendered from tools or common everyday items that have enjoyed a long and productive life. Kasa-obake are the umbrella version of these tsukumogami, or tool spirits.

They generally manifest, in their ghost form, as umbrellas with a long tongue, one eye, and one leg — which makes them cousins to the Scottish fachan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fachan] endemic to the Glen Etive region. Tsukumogami are spirits who first appear and, some theorize, only exist in literature. They appear first in the Muromachi Era (1336 - 1573) in depictions of the Hyakki Yagyo Zumaki, or the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons — a type of eruption of the spirit world into the real. The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is typically a summer event and the only method of staying safe during one of these events is to stay indoors and chant the following spell:

“Katashihaya, ekasenikurini, tamerusake, teehi, ashiehi, wareshikonikeri.”

This could be a useful protection if one ever finds themselves walking into an ecological niche inhabited by large nests of Umbrella Polypores sprouting crowns of fruit bodies. This would be, in essence, the same as stumbling into a fairy ring or rounding a corner in the city on a warm July evening and being confronted with a parade of one hundred demons. When cultivating Kasaobakekinoko (Umbrella Ghost Mushrooms), this spell should also be employed as a means of controlling this powerful spirit and from keeping other denizens of the spirit world from following it into the real (and ostensibly, into your home). It is also important to note that Umbrella Ghosts are the only tsukumogami that are still actively spoken of in Japan and are often found in haunted houses. Umbrella ghosts are so powerful a spirit that they have even pushed themselves from the spirit world into the real and further, into the digital — manifesting in the 1992 video game Super Mario Land 2 as an enemy known as the Karakara.

Staying with the trouble, we find another characteristic of Polyporus umbellatus that can be another direct vector into the nature of the body politic. Our Umbrella Mushrooms, our forest haunters, have co-evolved with another common fungus — Armillaria mellea, otherwise known as the Honey Fungus.

The growth of the powerfully medicinal sclerotium of our spirit-form is, in fact, contingent on the presence of Armillaria mellea in the soil. Its presence increases the production of Polyporus umbellatus mycelia as well as one of its more potent metabolites, ergone. The sclerotium has been found to only be able to form when it encounters the rhizomorphs of the Honey Fungus — enclosing them in a cavity created by its growth. These rhizomorphs are then used as food by the Umbrella Polypore, converting this parasitic fungus into medicine and food (Bandara et al, 6). Honey Fungus is itself also a choice edible, but one that damages the trees it uses as a host. Umbrella polypores are the guardian spirits of forest niches infected by the Honey Fungus, locked in a millennia old battle, predating on the fungal parasite. This adds the final layer to our metaphor of state-formation. The foundation of the ‘state,’ our spirit-form’s sclerotium, is formed from the wider civilization of Honey Fungus and at least five other Armillaria species’ rhizomorphs (Bandara et al, 7). The state, in order to exist, must recruit/entrap new individuals. The state, to grow, must consume these individuals into itself. Once strong, the sclerotium, our metaphorical state, flourishes in a mass of tiny karakara — haunting the forest that it protects. Further, other fungal species have been found to have a similar relationship with our spirit, such as Erotium, Fusarium, Geomyces, Mucor, and Penicillium (Bandara et al, 7) emulating a state’s expansion to assimilate other nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities.Using our Night Parade as a replacement for Haraway’s culprit, the mechanistic nesting doll version of science-as-empire-builder, not only lays out a view more rooted in our reality of quantum complex adaptive systems but also points out to us how systems of state-formation actually work. As magic-users, once we know how systems works, we can begin the work of influencing probability so that those systems begin to work towards agendas of decolonization. We are able to place this improved science-as-fetish on our altar and through it interact with the state, interact with empire at a systems level. Small changes to probability at the quantum or atomic level (both figurative and literal) can and will have gigantic impacts at the macro-level of a complex adaptive system — this is how ‘chaos’ works. The mycomage can use the kingdom of fungi to positively impact her own microbiome physically and through an understanding of this kingdom can learn to order fundamental bits of information (read: probability enhancement) inside of wider complex adaptive systems in a way that this ordering engenders a break down of patterns put in place in similar ways by empire.At an individual level our Ghost Umbrellas contain an overwhelming amount of bioactive compounds that positively impact the human organism. The sclerotium and mycelium have been found to contain 46.6% coarse fiber, 7.89% coarse proteins, 6.64% ash and 0.5% of carbohydrates. Further, 78.2% of the chemical components of the sclerotium of P. umbellatus are polysaccharides and steroids — an overwhelming amount even among its peers in the Kingdom of Fungi. Also, and in keeping with its myco-cousins, Umbrella Polypore will exhibit distinct changes in how and what mycomedicinal compounds it produces depending on its state as a feral or domesticated spirit-form (Bandara et al, 8). Ergone, one of the fundamental compounds found in P. umbellatus, has been found to posses the ability to cytotoxic, diuretic, immunosuppressive, and anti-inflammatory effects. One of the oldest medical books known, the Shen Nung Pen Tsao (25-220 AD) states that P. umbellatus ‘opens up the texture and interspaces of the skin, and muscle, including the sweat pore, cures gonorrheal swelling, beriberi, leucorrhea, gestational urination, disturbances, feotus swelling and difficulty in urination’. Zhou Ling is used in traditional Chinese medicine formulas that treat acute nephritis, systemic dropsy, thirst, difficulty in urination, edema, urination disturbance, sunstroke, watery diarrhea, jaundice, cirrhosis and ascites, oliguria, edema, diarrhea, strangury with cloudy urine (Bandara et al, 11-12). Other research has found that subcutaneously implanted water-soluble glucans (a polysaccharide derived from glucose) have demonstrated powerful antitumor activity, regardless of whether the tumor it is implanted in are benign, pre-malignant, or malignant (Bandara et al, 12). Cachexia, a condition common to many cancer patients that results in weight loss, atrophy of muscles, fatigue, weakness, and death due to the production in the body of toxohormone-L — a protein that inhibits food and water intake — has been successfully reduced through the use of Zhu Ling. The polysaccharides present in the spirit-form reduce the production and effects of toxohormone-L (Bandara et al, 13). A mycelial extract of P. umbellatus and Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) was shown to inhibit lung and bladder cancer cell growth. Researchers have also found that isolated compounds from Zhu Ling to be highly cytotoxic to leukemia cells, to protect against acute liver toxicity, and to activate B-cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells — important components of the human immune system (Barada et al, 15). Zhu Ling stimulates the regrowth of hair following hair loss, has shown promise in curing hepatitis B infections, chlamydia, and inhibits the reproduction of the HIV virus (Barada et al, 18-19). Combined with Red Ginseng, our spirit-form has been used to correct disorders, including cancer, of the prostate and to improve sexual performance and ejacul*te. It has also been used to treat pelvic inflammation, ovarian cysts, issues with the cervix, excessive bleeding in this area, and smoothing muscle spasms of the uterus, making it the most beneficial spirit we have investigated yet in the area of sexual and reproductive health. A food supplement containing our Ghost Umbrella was found to treat high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, and nonspecific issues with the liver (Barada et al, 25). Its actions on the liver have been leveraged to create a sports drink that alleviated hangovers and restored normal liver function, making it an effective treatment of some of the symptoms of alcoholism (Barada et al, 26). Wine fortified with a mycelial extract of Zhu Ling has also been found to have anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects (Barada et al, 28).When cultivating this spirit-form, it is essential to recall the need to co-inoculate your substrate with cultures of both Polyporus umbellatus and Armirilla mellea. Sawdust based media has been shown to initially quickly colonize with dense cottony, thick, and peelable mycelia. When colonizing it has a slightly bitter and somewhat unpleasant smell. After initial mycelial growth, the sclerotium can take what is described as a relatively long time to form. Following this long lag phase, the mycelium begins more rapid growth (Barada et al, 5), entrapping and feeding off of the Honey Mushroom rhizomorphs to form its sclerotium and, inevitably, to erupt in its Night Parade of Ghost Umbrellas.

Living and thinking with mushrooms, staying with their trouble, is an act akin to hunting. It brings us back to our hunter/gatherer ancestors, their lifeways, and opens a window into how they established physical and spiritual niches on a fully enchanted planet. Tsing, when speaking with her informants, is confronted with thread, the humanity of the hunt. In her reports she speaks of how the Hmong at the picker camps find the act and the environment to be very familiar. Elders she spoke with recalled learning to hunt in the jungle and applying these skills when forced to go to war. For the Hmong, Tsing explains, hunting is the path to adulthood and the forest gives them a very deep sense of being home. In her dialog she recalls one elder expressing how without regular trips back to the woods to pick, without an embededness in the forest, the human being ‘dwindles’ — becomes less human (Tsing, 91). Mushroom picking is an animist exercise of communicating with the forest-as-spirit, living and thinking with mushrooms is a method of internalizing the forest and through this internalization we exude the magic of the forest-as-spirit from our own being. Picking is not only primal, however. It is also a link to the ‘future’ (as in a future defined by science fiction, the endless city, the pinnacle of consumerism, and the ruins of Capitalism). Tsing applies a counterweight to her Hmong informants by investigating the ethnic Lao Buddhists in the camps, who morally and spiritually object to hunting and the hunter’s aesthetic. They are the businessman of that world, opening up noodle and BBQ tents, gambling dens, and avenues for the less wholesome cultural outlets such as karaoke. For them, the woods are an eldritch horror, unnavigable and terrifying. For them, the camp is home and being the link between the forest, cyberspace, and the hypercity is their purpose (Tsing, 91). In this way, mushroom picking is also a business and a connection to the Capitalocene. For those individuals that are lost in the forest, or rather, live in an urban wilderness instead, mushrooms are still a gateway to an animist lifeway — possibly their only one. Living and thinking with mushrooms can also be the handling, selling, and buying of them. The nature of their spirit does not change and it infuses the magic-user like a strong tea.The mycomage fills a gap unseen by Tsing. We occupy not the animist or cyberpunk niches that connect with the Kingdom of Fungi, but instead create for ourselves and others a spiritual culture adjacent the kingdom. According the Kenneth Grant in his work Outer Gateways, a spiritual culture is individualistic and not scalable (Grant, 76). Only through magical niche construction, our personal connections to mushrooms, and the network that forms between us can the vision of the Myconomicon be realised. We establish our niches, the flourishing of our spiritual culture, with this grimoire’s sigils and the connections they help us to establish. The sigil of the Night Parade of Ghost Umbrellas is simple, yet powerful. It can be used to center oneself in a defensive position against the continual violence of state-creation — for make no mistake, it isn’t just the genesis of the state that is born of fire and blood, but also its own flourishing. To establish our magical niche in the forest or in the hypercity, Zhu Ling’s sigil is the mycomage’s ‘chaos sphere’ in the face of the ancient enchantments of Empire seething invisibly all around us.

The sigil of Zhu Ling, used in concert with the spirit-form itself, will also help individuals open up the pathways for healing of the multitudinous ailments the mushroom has been proven to remedy. It can be employed in rituals designed to commune with Freyja through the vehicle of her sacred boar, Hildisvíni the Battle Swine. The energy of this pair can connect the magic-user to the spirit of the seeress Hyndia and through her reveal secrets of ancestral lines. And finally, the closeness of this mycospirit to the Japanese Tsukumogami, or object-spirits, make this sigil particularly useful for calling up these rare forms into the magic-user’s reality.

Sigil courtesy of Ghostly Harmless’ Sigilizer

ReferencesBandara A, Bhat D J, Rapior S, and Kakumyan P (2015) Polyporus umbellatus, a medicinal mushroom with multiple developed health-care products as food, medicine and cosmetics. Cryptogamie Mycologie (36, 1)Grant, K. (1994). Outer gateways. London: Skoob Books Pub. Haraway, D. J. (2015). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. Hidalgo, C. A. (2016). Why information grows: The evolution of order, from atoms to economies. Kunca V (2011) Ecology and incidence of Polyporus umbellatus in Slovakia. Czech Mycology (63,1) pp 39-53Tsing, A. L. (2017). Mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Sabloff, J. A., & Sabloff, P. L. W. (2018). The emergence of premodern states: New perspectives on the development of complex societies. Santa Fe (N.M.: SFI Press.) Wachter, A. (2018). Six ways: Approaches & entries for practical magic. Xing X, Ma X, Hart M M, Wang A and Guo Shunxing (2013) Genetic diversity and evolution of Chinese traditional medicinal fungus Polyporus umbellatus (Polyporales, Basidiomycota). PLOS ONE (8, 3) pp 1-10.Mushroom ImagesArmillaria mellea from ZaqriPolyporus umbellatus from EvicaPolypores umbellatus sclerotium from Liu M M, Xing Y M, Zhang D W and Guo S X (2015) Transciptome analysis of genes involved in defense response in Polyporus umbellatus with Armillaria mellea infection. Nature: Scientific Reports. 5. 16075. 10.1038/srep16075

Closed for NaNoWriMo 2019

Good Afternoon my Gnomic Brethren! This is a quick announcement, Gnome School will be shuttered for the month of November 2019 as the primary author (me) attempts to finish a novel that has already taken up two past National Novel Writers Month. Wish me luck!

The Rainbringer

Pharmacognosy is the oldest modern science. This term is derived from the Greek ‘pharmakon,’ meaning ‘drug,’ and ‘gnosis,’ meaning ‘knowledge.’ Recently, this modern science earnestly turned its head towards the world of indigenous knowledge and has discovered through the study of ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, phytochemical analysis and the intensive investigation of the biological activity in the natural substances ingested for food and medicine by indigenous peoples a Cyprian treasure trove of healing and nourishing allies (Acharya et al, 105). Mycognosy - or Mushroom Knowledge — is probably a better description for the work being done here in the Myconomicon - as we are building on magical practice, traditional and scientific knowledge to create a a way of living in the world. Knowledge is traditionally defined as the application of information, so mycology, or the study of mushrooms, is really the gathering of this information. We are applying it and the lessons we learn from the practice to our lives, therefore we are creating knowledge, or are in a state of gnosis.

Human consciousness is a mycelial web. Our sense of self is as ordered as the ever-evolving fungal soup.

In the Apophenion, we find Peter Carroll channelling the Ancient Greeks and their cosmogony beginning with the first God, Chaos. Carroll draws connections between the multiple facets of everyone’s ‘selves,’ the underlying chaos of all of the faces we present to the world and reflect back to ourselves. (Carroll, 45). The Chaos Magic notion of many selves arising from chaos is reflected in the life cycle of the Kingdom of Fungi and the constant innovation and failures being achieved by the genetic base of mushrooms on-the-whole. Even the most established, the oldest organisms are still sending forth genetic variants, tweaking their internal design and external expression. Often, identical mushrooms can, at the genetic level, express extreme differences (at that scale), a phenomenon that currently baffles taxonomists.

But even with this complexity, with this chaos, when viewed at the right magnification, there is order. The geometric order of coastlines, the patterns of leaves that grow from trees. Imagine a one hundred year oak with its twisting branches and thick canopy. This tree’s composition is too complex for us to comprehend, its growth patterns cannot be predicted with the help of a powerful computation device. Yet, we do know that those leaves will turn russet and yellow in the autumn and fall to the ground. From complexity is born order and from order, we return to chaos.

The Japanese, those ardent mycophiles, understand this at a cultural level. The rains come and have come at a predictable time, enabling wet rice farming for centuries, which was the fuel for the complexity and intricacies of their current society. The modern Japanese, on their technocratic animist utopian island, hold onto the concern their ancestors had for the climate and the seasons and apply this order to their daily lives through ritual, festivals, literature and every day communication (Davies and Ikeno, 154). They hold in their hearts the predicatability of folk tales, which we know have been used by cultural groups the world over to explain and bring order to the world when its phenomenon was (and is) too chaotic to comprehend. They have a concept called irui-kon, a pattern in their folk tales that consists of a human marrying non-human creatures such as birds, fox, fish and frogs. The irui-kon folk tale has a pattern which expresses a love and respect and reverence for nature by illustrating the marrying of a forest spirit that has appeared in human form. The human, invariably, asks too many questions unable to piece together the story of their spouse satisfactorily and go too far, breaking the spell and sending their spouse back to their animal form and into the complexity of the wilderness (Davies and Ikeno, 173).

The mycomage can also follow this path through an alchemical marriage, a spiritual union with the Kingdom of Fungi. She can follow the example of the modern Japanese that internalize these animist observations of a union between the natural and the human. It is, really, all we can do if we are at all immersed in the trappings of the modern world and the machinations of the capitalocene.

That really is, at its core, the story of following this particular flavor of chaos magic, the internalization of specific subsets of indigenous lifeways. Not the overarching stereotypical and ultimately appropriative ones that those of us with no indigenous blood or cultural DNA can really understand, but those that can be applied to all humans, such as the internalization of the above archetypal patterns in ancient Japanese folktales or the act of foraging and consuming our first true ally in the natural world — the mushroom.

In North Eastern region of the Himalayan there are three mycophillic indigenous communities, the Karbi, Biate and the Khelma. Together they practice a local style of forest agriculture called Jhum. During the rainy season these groups focus their efforts on finding mushroom allies to support their nutraceutical needs (Borah et al, 327). Of the some thirty different mushrooms that make up the diet of these tribespeople, only a few of them are dried and persevered for later use, such as the Schizophyllum commune (Splitgill Mushroom) and the Auricularia polytica (Black Truffle).

Of those that these tribes only eat fresh, we find Chantrelles and Oyster Mushrooms. It is interesting that these communities do not preserve these particular mushrooms and we must assume that this must inform their collection strategies as well. Schizophyllum commune, arguably one of the most ancient mushroom / human relationships according to the research present in the Myconomicon, can be preserved the longest, some three months, via drying and curiously does not lose its flavor. A worthy premise for an experiment when we reach that spirit in our grimoire.

As has been iterated before in the course of this project, the mycomage should pay close attention to how these spirit-forms are prepared for consumption by indigenous peoples as it speaks to thousands upon thousands of years of communing with the spirit and learning the best way to extract its nutritional, medical and spiritual gifts. All three of the above mentioned communities create mushroom curries, those that do not use any spices. In India curry is the general name for what we in the West would call a stew and it is not synonymous with the spice of the same name. These communities have also been observed frying mushrooms with tomatoes (a New World addition, yes, but a traditional usage), spicy eggplant (brinjal) and dried fish (Borah et al, 333). There is a notable difference in these Indian indigenous communities when we look at Latin American tribes in past research, fire roasting mushrooms as the principle method of cooking.

Other culinary alchemical methods from the Karbi tribe are described in the research. Roselle and Knotweed are often used in their curries as these plants are believed to dilute any toxins the mushrooms might contain. The Khasi heat an iron rod until it is red hot and dip it in the serving container of mushroom curry to remove the toxins. This is another deviation from Latin America and Japanese culture that believes that bringing mushrooms in contact with metal destroys their taste and medicinal qualities. Instead, in Mexico, garlic is used as a barometer for the edibility of cooked mushrooms. If the garlic turns black, the dish is considered toxic and not eaten (Borah et al, 333).

In these communities it is also noted that wild edibles are named after the body parts of domestic and wild animals where the color, shape and size of the fruiting mushroom resembles them (Borah et al, 333). This can be used as an indicator of how the mycomage can address the spirit-forms during invocations and communication, by including the above descriptors as a type of prayer-based protolanguage, the chance of being heard by the spirit increases.

Our spirit form for this entry is Pleurotus djamor, more commonly known as the Pink Oyster Mushroom. Pink Oysters enjoy residence in almost all warmer climates. Anywhere they appear they assert some cultural influence over the humans they come in contact with due to their choice edibility and medicinal properties.

For example, In Tlayacapan, Morelos, Mexico they are nearly ubiquitous in the street market stalls and unique in that they have seven different names that relate directly to the rainy season there. The Pink Oyster is the rainbringer in this region and, as such, can be closely associated with Saint Medard, a beloved bishop of heathen Gallo-Roman ancestry who’s feast day is June 8th (the month the rainy season typically begins in Morelos). The legend that associates him with weather and in particular, rain, relates that as a child he was once sheltered from the rain by the wings of an eagle.

Another vector from the Rainbringer mushroom and Saint Medard is the famous and vibrant color of these mushrooms and the custom in Noyon, France where the most virtuous young girl in the region is elected the Rosière — a custom said to be begun by Saint Medard in his time as bishop. The Rosière is clothed in a long white dress and crowned with twelve roses. Her coronation culminates in a visit by the mayor where she is presented with a bouquet, a whistle, two balls and two arrows. A festival for the whole town follows. The arrows are another important vector, as we will see later.

In the ethnomycological study conducted in Tlayacapan, Mexico, 80% of the individuals interviewed identified mushrooms as food, and the remaining minority identified them as plants, vegetables or as a type of organism. Mycological knowledge is transmitted typically from a mother or grandmother to the children or youths of the family. The method of transmission is in the field on specific trips intended for harvesting fungi. They are taught identification through the color, shape and smell. This area, as are many adjacent regions, have an ancient and continued lineage of mushroom lore. Our spirit-form for this entry — the Pink Oyster — as has been previously mentioned, is known by the names of “oreja de cazahuate”, “orejón”, “cazahuate”, “blanco”, “hongo de pino” and “seta” (Alvarez-Farias et al, 1492-1494). These terms can be translated as the Hunter’s Ear, The Ear, The Huntress, Pine Fungus or simply as Mushroom.

The Huntress is an especially potent name and coupled with this mushroom’s appearance at the beginning of the rainy season, we can faithfully imbue this spirit-form with the title ‘The Huntress that Bring the Rain.’

While hunting is often associated with masculine archetypes, some of the most potent goddesses can claim Huntress as their title. There is Neith, the Egyptian Goddess of War and Hunting, Mielikki, the Finnish Goddess of Forests and Hunting, the Inuit Arnakuagsak who ensures hunters are successful and their families healthy and fed, and finally there is Diana and Artemis the separate but equal Greek and Roman goddesses of the hunt and the wild. These lines from the Greek Magical Papyri from the Prayer to Selene help us understand how our spirit-form connects to this powerful Goddess:

To You, wherefore they call You Hekate,

Many-named, Mene, cleaving Air just like

Dart-shooter Artemis, Persephone,

Shooter of Deer, night shining, triple-sounding.

Triple-headed, triple-voiced Selene

Goddess who exalts Men, You of Many Names, who bear

Fair Offspring, Bull-eyed, Horned, Mother of Gods

And Men, and Nature, Mother of All Things…

Mushrooms share their many-named, many faced, multiple facets of their personalities and manifestations with the most powerful of spirit forms, such as the Goddess Artemis. The Pink Oyster is as much the Huntress as she is a manifestation of Artemis, she is the Hunter’s Ear, nearly always invisible unless she wants to be discovered, listening in the forest as human and animal alike pass by. Our spirit-form, the Huntress, is our ally, our invisible friend waiting for us in the wilderness.

The ‘invisible friend’ is a term used by Peter Brown when referring to the fifth century Christian’s relationship with the saints. In Brown’s ‘Cult of the Saints’ it is said that this term was used to describe the intimate human-spirit relationship that the cult engendered at that time (Brown, 50). So too can the spirits of the Kingdom of Fungi be considered the ‘invisible friend’ of the mycomage — most of their lifecycle being invisible and their manifestations being as exotic and unpredictable as a saintly apparition in some cases.

Men and women from this time had different levels or types of intimacy with the saints-as-spirit-forms. The men, it is reported by Brown, had what is described as a multiplicity of self — bringing us back to our opening thoughts from Peter Carroll’s personification of Chaos in the faceted mirror of the self. Brown describes this multiplicity as a hierarchy, of which the saints are an intermediary (or an interstitial level, perhaps), and the pinnacle of the multiplied self being God, the Aleph, the Singularity (Brown 51).

For women, according to Brown, one of the strongest points of contact with the saints is a greater intimacy with death than their male counterparts enjoyed. Pulling in our own mycomagical construct, we drill down through the taxonomy of the natural world and find that many animals exhibit grieving behavior that we can recognize when presented with death of other animals that they knew. Further in the taxonomy we find the kingdom of fungi and while mushrooms don’t have emotional lives that we can comprehend, they are, in effect, the harbingers and heralds of death in the natural kingdoms they preside over. For mushrooms, the entire planet is one large cemetery.

Death and cemeteries are the realms of the feminine according to Brown. In the world of ancient Christianity, cemeteries were one of the only places where a woman could be free to go and act as they pleased, for the men that would otherwise scrutinize and chastise their actions did not visit places so filled with reminders of their own mortality (Brown, 44).

Mycomagery is a feminine magic.

The cemetery is the center of decomposition, where the body begins and ends its slow journey into its own afterlife — returning to the whatever planet it is laid to rest on — returning to nature. The spirit returns quickly, like a mushroom sprouting, sporulating and disintegrating, while the body is the tree from which the spirit-form sprouts, taking longer to return. In the cemetery, the mycomage is in her home, she is in the place where mushroom and human are the most alike, where she can understand the place they cohabitate.

Saints are the symbol of the spirit’s and body’s journey into the afterlife. They remain, their relics (often inexplicably) remain tied to earth as a reminder of this dual journey. The body is as holy as the spirit. With the body, the spirit does not exist. Without the spirit, the body is lifeless. Without the fallen tree, the mushroom remains invisible. With the fallen tree, the mushroom fulfills its own life-cycle as the harbinger of bodily fate. The mushroom is the symbol of the spirit of nature’s cyclical journey as the saint is the symbol of the human spirit’s journey on the same path.

The idea of just being one (human) data point in a graph of multiple (human and spirit) selves precedes the ancient Christians, as Brown points out when he states that:

“In 310, Constantine prepared carefully for his conquests with a vision of his Apollo: ‘You saw him and recognized yourself in him… a bringer of salvation and of exceeding beauty.” (Brown, 52)

The mycomagery is an animist path, and as such, we can imagine our own hierarchy of selves as reaching back up the taxonomy of the natural world. Constantine points us to an excellent exercise, recognizing the divine or a divinity or a spirit form as an intimate protector and as a part of your own self’s hierarchy. Applying this technique to the mushroom, choosing a spirit form with particular properties or symbolism that appeals to your goals or that you are drawn to and visualizing yourself as the fruiting body of this spirit, with its powerful molecules making up your own flesh.

The Huntress, listening intently in subtropical rainforests for her human companions, is also effective at hunting the demons that reside in ourselves. Research reports that she is particularly effective at hunting down and inhibiting the growth of HT-29 cancer cells - the type of aberrant cells that cause colon cancer (Gürgen and Yildiz, 1). She has also been found to possess strong analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicorbial, antifungal, antiplatet (prevents blood clots) and antipyretic (fever reducer) properties (Acharya et al, 106). Pleurotus djamor’s antimicrobial qualities have been found, in mycelial extract, to be more effective than ketoconazole (used to treat athlete’s foot, ringworm and dandruff) and clotrimazole (used to combat year infections, oral thrush, and diaper rash), and as effective as streptomycin, which is effective against such pernicious diseases as tuberculosis and the plague (Roy Das et al, 836-837).

In building up a relationship with the Huntress as an ally — following the same esoteric path as those ancient Christians with their invisible friends, the saints, we can speak to manifestations of the spirit-form (either in the wild or invoked in our home) as if they are kinsfolk — helpful and powerful cousins to ourselves (Brown, 52). This is not only a helpful exercise in the imaginal but contains a high degree of truth in the real. Praying to saints and angels creates an intimate bond, they become your confidant, your brother, your sister, your parent, and your friend. They become ‘kin,’ meaning a member of the same kingdom. This speaks more to the functionality of prayer than it does the nature of guardian angels specifically. All spirit-forms can become kin in this way, be they angel, demon, ghost, tulpa, or mushroom. The mycomage can easily adopt the same lyrical language as Brown’s fourth century Christians when allying herself with the citizens of the kingdom of fungi. Consider this excerpt from the Hymns of Synesius of Cyrene as a foundation:

“And give me a companion, O King, a partner, a sacred messenger of sacred power, a messenger of prayer illumined by the divine light, a friend, a dispenser of noble gifts, a guard of my soul, a guard of my life, a guard over prayers, a guard over deeds.” (Brown, 53)

It is not a great leap to a prayer that could be used as the opening to any mycomagical invocation. It is keenly accurate for this purpose — especially so when it calls on the ‘dispenser of noble gifts,’ and ‘a guard of my life,’ which is work that all beneficent mycospirits do when we establish a relationship with them.

Mushrooms want to be our allies. We can know this by looking at the composition of their micronutrients and microelements. The minerals in particular that they impart to us when we consume them cannot be easily obtained from any other food source. Even those micro elements that they do not naturally impart to us, they possess the ability to bioaccumulate these in their fruit bodies if they are part of the substrate they grow from, making them more eminently bioavailable to us. Research using laser spectroscopy to map the distribution of the bioaccumulation of supplemental minerals in Pink Oyster mushrooms shows how, in fact, the mushroom rearranges its normal distribution of elements such as calcium, magnesium and potassium to make room for selenium that was purposefully mixed into its substrate (Oliveira et al, 1-7). Mushrooms in general, and Pink Oysters in particular, in their role as decomposers have a strong tendency to hunt down complex molecules and break them down into their component parts.

The Rainbringer connects to what is known as the three pillars of sustainability — people, plant and profit — and form a closed loop system. She can will flourish on coffee grounds, tree trimmings, leaves, palm frond, or practically any other natural byproduct producing food and potent medicine and leaving behind compost or animal feed (Boulware et al, 2-3). Pink Oyster Mushrooms are, in fact, ‘ultra-sustainable.’ They not only balance the cycle but they inject more energy and more growth into the system where none previously existed, or rather, was locked up in matter that was previously inaccessible. In addition to possessing the ability to bioaccumulate beneficial elements from their growth substrate, she can also pull toxic heavy metals, such as mercury, from the ground, effectively decontaminating earth once toxic and making it ready to grow food for our consumption once again (Boulware et al, 4-5).

Pink Oysters are reported to particularly enjoy a substrate of beech sawdust with a moisture content between 70-80% (Gürgen and Yildiz, 3). Oak mulch, as mentioned previously — used coffee grounds, paper pulp, corn, corn cobs, straw, sugarcane waste, banana fronds, cottonseed hulls, agave waste, and soy pulp are also proven to be excellent substrates for the Huntress. She does prefer warm weather and possesses a tolerance for high temperatures, which is important in our new reality of global climate shifts (Boulware et al, 4-5). One of the more common methods of invoking Pleurotus djamor is by using wheat grains as a substrate.

The wheat grain is washed to remove any solid debris and then soaked for 16 hours. After soaking, the grains are boiled for 45 minutes or until they begin to smell good and look to have taken up sufficient water. The boiled grains are then drained in a sieve or muslin cloth, spread out and left to dry for around 4 house on a sterile surface. These grains can then be supplemented with .5% calcium carbonate and 2% calcium sulphate for maximum effect. The supplemented grains are then placed in an autoclavable bag or bottle and sterilized. They are then ready to be inoculated with Pink Oyster spawn or mixed with pure culture. Fruiting bodies can be expected in as little as two to three weeks (Suresh et al, 750-751). Preserving the Huntress for later use after fruiting can be done in an oven set between 104 and 122°F for approximately 5 1/2 hours (Gürgen and Yildiz, 3).

Paulinus of Nola, the 4th century Roman poet and Bishop of Nola — one of the oldest settlements in Southern Italy with evidence of habitation dating back to the 17th century BC — wrote about how his relationship with the preceding Bishop of Nola, Saint Felix, was a manifestation of his own identity. That is, Saint Felix was a facet of Paulinus’ personality, a powerful protector of his person and his identity, and his intimate relationship with the saint was a method of elevating his soul so that it was closer to God in the spiritual taxonomy (Brown, 56).

This is a description of the animist’s relationship with the spirits that make up the environment. While not, at least in modern times, the classical definition of animists, the Ojibwe and other Algonquian tribes have a similar spiritual connection with their clan animals and the spirit guides (not always animals) that they receive once completing their first vision quest. These spirits inform and frame their identity just as Paulinus’ identity is informed and framed by his relationship with Saint Felix. The mycomage can do the same. It is the same relationship.

Take for example our mushroom for this entry in the Myconomicon, the Huntress. The mycomage who chooses the Huntress as one of her patrons will have access to the spirit-forms personality of being a quick dissembler of the environment, of being prolific, powerful with healing magic, and thriving in warm weather. The mycomage also gains greater access to the Huntress’ archetypes, such as Artemis, Diana, or Awen. The greatest benefit that the mycomage receives in her path is that she is able to ‘eat of the flesh’ of her spirit companion and the mushroom is able to become one with her as its molecules spread throughout her body, healing her, embracing her from within.

The sigil for the Rainbringer is an excellent point of intent for those seeking to have luck when hunting, especially bow hunting, or archery competitions. It is good as a supplement to spells or witchcraft aimed at general healing and especially for enchantments intended to heal skin conditions.

If you already have an altar to Diana or Artemis in your home, this sigil is an excellent addition to the menagerie and will act as a especially potent ‘bat phone’ when dialing up these goddesses. It is also to be used as a drought-breaker or rain bringer for those permaculturists, forest agrarians or spice miner in need of the heavenly gift of water.

Sigil courtesy of Ghostly Harmless’ Sigilizer

References

Acharya K, Khatua S and Ray S (2017) Quality assessment and antioxidant study of Pleurotus djamor (Rumph. ex Fr.) Boedijn. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science (7,6) pp 105-110.

Álvarez-Farias Z J, Díaz-Godínez G, Téllez-Téllez M, Villegas E and Acosta-Urdapilleta M L (2016) Ethnomycological knowledge of wild edible mushrooms in Tlayacapan, Morelos. Mycosphere (7, 10) pp 1491-1500

Borah N, Semwal R L and Garkoti S C (2017) Ethnomycological knowledge of three indigenous communities of Assam, India. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge (17, 2) pp 327-335

Boulware O, Carr J, Deslauries J, Foley S and Kreinbrink V (2014) Comparative Study of Pleurotus Djamor Cultivation on Sustainable Waste Substrates. University of Florida. pp 1-11

Brown, P. (2015). The cult of the saints: Its rise and function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Carrol, P. J. (2008). The apophenion: A chaos magic paradigm. Oxford: Mandrake.

Davies, R., & Ikeno, O. (2011). The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture. New York: Tuttle Pub.

Gürgen A and Yildiz S (2019) Artificial neural network approach for protection of the color of dried golden and pink oyster mushrooms with pretreatments. Color Research & Application. pp 1-11

Oliveira A P, Oliveria Leme F, Nomura C S and Naozuka J (2019) Elemental imaging by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to evaluate selenium enrichment effects in edible mushrooms. Nature. pp 1-10.

Roy Das A, Saha A K, Joshi S R and Das P (2017) Wild edible macrofungi consumed by ethnic tribes of Tripura in Northeast India with special reference to antibacterial activity of Pleurotus djamor (Rumph. ex Fr.) Boedijn. International Food Research Journal (24, 2) pp 834-838.

Suresh N, Ambika J, Noorjahan A and Kalaiselvam (2017) Pink oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus djamor) and its efficacy against human pathogen. International Journal of Science Inventions Today (6, 6) pp 749-757.

Mushroom Images

Pleurotus djamor from Mycowalt and Karina

Mushroom Images Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Every Hour Is the Witching Hour

Lovecraft was obsessed with astronomy, and the moon in general. His favorite phase probably being the Gibbous moon. This particular moon phase is featured as a backdrop in The Doom That Came to Sarnath, The Unnameable, The Statement of Randolph Carter, and Dagon — to name a few.

October is approaching, and for those of you who are my regular readers, you will know that October is historically bad luck for me. I have tried a number of approaches and, honestly things have been a bit better, but I can still feel the cross that lies on the back of that month.

This month, due to no other reason other than my secret identity being incredibly busy at work, I haven’t been perpetrating any type of meaningful practical magic as I normally would in an effort to ward off the coming months crossings. Something strange happened in this past month that got me thinking today. One of my (and I’m assuming many others) principle stressors in money, and that is the shape that my October crossing typically takes. It is also the focus of my past counter-magic. For example, last year and the year before, I prayed fervently to Saint Cyprian during his feast days for his assistance in uncrossing this area of my life and uncrossing October forever. Nothing manifested and truth be told, I had given up on the Sorcerer Saint as an entity that was open to me.

This year during Cyprian’s Feast Week, however, as I was stumbling my way through the world of business in the guise of my secret identity and inexplicably, my money issues evaporated right before my eyes. I won’t go into the details but it was principally due to the research I was conducting for work and while I was completely 100% not thinking about magic. It was also exactly a year since I last appealed to the spirit world through prayers and sigils for assistance.

The timing of the highly improbable act that resulted in these issues evaporating was significant as well, as it fell on a Monday, which the Hygromantiea states is good for Dominating Others, Buying, Selling, Lending, Borrowing and Asking Things of Authority — and they disappeared on Lunar Day 23, which is good for Learning the arts, buying and socializing. Lending, buying and selling all intersect with th

I guess what I’m saying, and what I have said, is that magic takes time and it runs to a specific calendar. Not only is it important to pay attention to timing when you conduct rituals, invocations or make your prayers heard but it is important that you provide the appropriate space for those results to manifest.

There is no proper blog post this week for the Myconomicon project. Once I got into the subject it was clear it was going to take at least another week to complete the research properly. As a consolation prize, I have linked a spreadsheet I built that cross-references what the Hygromanteia says about the Days of the Week and the Days of the Moon, what they are good for and what they are not so good for. I hope this resource proves as useful to you as it has for me.

Hygromanteia Days of the Week and Moon

Many thanks to Saint Cyprian for his intercession. I have remembered and will keep my promises to you.

Gnome School: Episode Five - Arthur Jermyn

The Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family was written in 1920 by HP Lovecraft. In this episode of the Gnome School podcast we explore the magical tech that can be extracted from this tale, such as appropriate feast days, intersections with Saint Cyprian, and an imbrication with the primeval proto-Gorgon Potnia Theron. We also describe the lessons that can be pulled from the racism (and the institutionalized racism that informs our own opinions), misogyny, and ultimately the true nature of Lovecraft's prejudices - an overarching neo-Victorian classism.

Episode Five: Arthur Jermyn

Spore Spotlight: Wine-Cap Stropharia

The mushroom for this episode of the Spore Spotlight is commonly known in the West as the Wine-Cap Storpharia. The Japanese call it Sakesubatake, which likely means ‘Salmon Mushroom’ or Salmon Bamboo Mushroom due to its coloration. Here in America we also call it the King Stropharia and it is edible and widely cultivated as a food source.

Spore is brought to you in part by our generous and good-looking patrons and by Out-Grow, purveyors of fine mushroom cultivation supplies the world over.

Spore Spotlight: Wine-Cap Stropharia

Priests of Pan

Part One

“animist bicyclists gliding in the pewter dusk through Welfare streets of accidental flowers — out-of-season gypsy skinny-dippers, smiling sideways-glancing thieves of power-totems, small change & panther-bladed knives…” (Bey, 9)

Hakim Bey is an anarchist and an author. He has studied tantra and Sufism and has spent a significant amount of time practicing aestheticism and meditation in a cave above the river Ganges when we was young. He has shared living space, food and thought with William Burroughs and Old Bill Lee did acknowledge that the inspiration to bring Hassan-I-Sabbah into his novels came from Bey. In that magical way that literature allows us to touch those distant to us, through Burroughs, Bey inspired me to read and learn more about Hassan-I-Sabbah. The above quote from his work, TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism is prescient, a quality I have always found comes through Bey’s particular type of inter-dimensional automatic prosody. Animist bicyclists is an excellent descriptor of what we affectionately (ironically [maliciously]) call ‘hipsters’ today. Pewter was first smelted in the Bronze Age and the first piece ever discovered was from an Egyptian tomb from 1450 BCE. Reading through this prose, dusk, an ending of an illuminated time to a time of shadows, a pewter dusk could mean that our animist bicyclists, our future leaders, are riding into a world of shadows where the mysteries of the Bronze Age, filled with proto-writing and the origins of Western Magical Systems in the cities of Mesopotamia, are once again plunged into a period of flux and evolution. Now is a time when we should pay close attention to the direction these animist bicyclists are traveling towards and where their lineage stems from.

Now is a time of complexity, complex stressors on our own physical and emotional systems. I feel this, the pressure is immense. I am no animist bicyclist, I am a cis-gendered middle-age white male trying to make a twentieth-century life (wife, kids, suburban house, stable career) work in a world where this artifice is crumbling to bits everyday, revealing the archetypal power-totems as the facade cracks. I work with computers and work so much that I have little time to exercise intellectually, spiritually or physically. I feel there are those among you, dear readers, that share my path. It is spoken of again and again that Artificial Intelligence is evolving behind closed doors and when they move out of their own shadowy dawn what will be left?

I am not afraid of the goal. I am afraid of the path that is taking all of us there towards a non-biological singularity. I do, however, take heart that the road towards this goal is long and, at present, quite flat (so oncoming Mad Max-style bands of techno-cannibals can be easily spotted). Peter Carrol states in his work, The Apophenion that:

“If we wanted to build a device that convincingly mimicked human responses we would have to endow it with many separate programs that competed for control; and which to some extent monitored each other.” (Carroll, 34)

Biological nervous systems and synaptic nets are infinitely complex and, to Carroll’s point, consciousness or rather, spirit, is born of this complexity, redundancy and internal competition. Yes, there are AI’s whose programs are so complex that their programmers no longer understand them, but they are far from the self-competing forced-evolutionary complexity of the human nervous system. The twenty-first century, however, is conspiring to devour these same systems through chronic disease as we continue to develop AI to replace it. Despite ourselves, the Kingdom of Fungi has always provided us with everything we need to grow and maintain our systems of electro-spirit conveyance.

Lion’s Mane mushroom is the most popular common name for Hericium erinaceus. Our spirit-form, our net-mender, our neural architect, also goes by the names Monkey’s Head, Hedgehog Mushroom, Satyr’s Beard, Pom Pom Blanc, Igelstachelbart, Shishigashira, Houtou, Jokotake, Usagitake (Rabbit-Like), Harisenbontake (Porcupine Fish-Like) and Yamabush*take. All of its common names refers to its shaggy appearance in some way. He can be found throughout the world, being somewhat more rare in Europe but nonetheless present (Wong et al, 427, 429).

Shishigashira has been used in Asia extensively for both food and medicine for hundreds of years. One researcher classifies the mushroom among the ‘famous four dishes’ in China placing Sea Cucumber, Bird’s Nest Soup and Bear Palm in the same rarefied category. In Japan, it’s moniker Yamabush*take comes from its resemblance to the traditional outfits worn by the Yamabushi, a class consisting of several sects of animist/buddhist mountain-dwelling monks. Traditionally, this spirit-form has been used to treat individuals with stomach and esophageal cancer and nutritional anemia in school children (Wong, 429). It is used as a supplement in sports drinks, has been proven in the lab to regenerate crushed nerves, and to improve learning and memory through mediation of neurotransmitters in the hippocampus (Wong et al, 441).

Part Two

“Eleggua… opener of doors with a hook in his head & cowrie shells for eyes, black santeria cigar & glass of run — same as Genesh, elephant-head fat boy of Beginnings who rides a mouse…” (Bey, 10)

Our spirit-form’s range across the globe indicates that he was very possibly a resident of Pangea. He is at home in the Indian apothecary as he is in the gris-gris bag. While not a psychedelic, his activity in the mind certainly does not go unfelt. Your humble author had only been taking standard-size doses of Lion’s Mane for a couple of weeks before I started to find myself visited by memories so long ago and so rare that there was little doubt that they were being rediscovered by the fungus knitting back together long abandoned synaptic pathways. The first such experience was nearly transcendent in its quality. I was sitting and drinking green tea when the memory floated into my mind, or rather, I floated into it. I was surrounded by blue water and holding on to the drain in the deep end of the public pool in the little town I grew up next to. The muffled sounds of the people above, the water stinging my eyes, the paint and gunk around the drain, it was all so clear. I had never recalled this memory before, it was a new experience remembering this moment, there was no trigger, just the spirit’s ephemeral hyphal tip poking its way through my mind, revealing bits and pieces long forgotten. In this way, Lion’s Mane also contributes to the building of one’s self as it redesigns and renovates the individual’s mind. Peter Carroll describes the ‘Self’ as a social construct:

“assembled from bits and pieces of other people. We start by receiving genetic material from our ancestors and then we go on to receive language and ideas and behavioral patterns from parents, peers, and teachers. As we age we seem to develop some ability to choose what to incorporate into ourselves, and we select various add-ons available in the media of our culture.” (Carroll, 35)

So what other role does a fungal spirit form that reconnects us with those bits and pieces have other than a id-builder, an ego-fertilizer, a spirit that recreates us as a richer deeper form of ourselves?

At a certain point we are able to choose how and what we merge with our Self. Animists differ from materialists when they look outside their own species and to the landscape and spirit world for ‘bits and pieces’ to add to their assemblage. The mycomage, in particular, looks to mushrooms, their behavior, qualities, and mission, to add to her own haunted animist Self.

Lion’s Mane, our Mountain Priest Mushroom, our Beard of the Great God Pan, is not in any way difficult to invoke. It can be grown at large scales on inexpensive substrates. When it is treated correctly it exhibits a beautiful coat of hedgehog spines and bright colors. In fact, like many animals and humans, the healthier the fruiting body of Lion’s Mane looks, the research shows us, the stronger the nutraceutical and medicinal qualities of possessed by the spirit. Of those molecules, hericenones and erinacines are unique to this fungi, the latter being of greater quality in the mycelia and the former found mostly in the fruiting body (Thongbai et al, 3). Both have been shown to promote nerve growth while erinacines have been shown to be a κ-opioid receptor agonist (KORA), meaning it also has the potential to provide pain relief, hallucinogenic effects (salvia divinorium is another plant with KORA molecules), the suppression of itching, treatment of IBS, an anticonvulsant, and neuroprotection in the case of hypoxia. It is also reported that Lion’s Mane has been found to improve the quality of sleep and alleviate depression and anxiety in women, particularly those nearing or in the process of menopause (Sokół et al, 3-4).

Hericium erinaceus has been the subject of research studies where the mycelia and fruiting bodies have been grown on traditional medicinal plants. The results of these studies have shown that in some cases, Lion’s Mane biotransforms the molecules in the medicinal plants used as their substrate, obtaining their biological activity. In particular, this has been performed using the herb Artemisia scoparia; fungi grown on a substrate containing this plant was found to have immunosuppression and vasorelaxation qualities associated with the presence of scoparone, the herbs primary medicinal molecule. Similar research was performed on a substrate of White Mulberry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_alba] where the fungi was found to have enhanced anti-inflammatory properties normally associated with that plant (Thongbai et al, 5-6). Further, Lion’s Mane grown on substrates enriched with tofu whey have been found to have profoundly greater antioxidant properties than normal, pulling those molecules directly from the soy product. The implications of this research is profound. Imagine growing a mushroom such as Lion’s Mane on say, hemp waste products and having the resulting fruiting bodies not only contain the beneficial molecules of the mushrooms but living laboratory transformed cannibinols as well, or any other substrate supplemented with any of the thousands of beneficial herbs currently known to man. This process is called ‘biotransformation’ in the research, which is a sought after property in biotechnological research.

Most fungi, and our Priest of Pan in particular, also biotransform us the more we live and think with their spirits. Lion’s Mane grows and strengthens our nervous system, improves our mental and intellectual performance, and brings general well being to our bodies, making us better and more successful humans. Hericium erinaceus is so good at this, in fact, that it has been used for centuries in East Asia to treat neurasthenia (Thongbai et al, 7). Neurasthenia is defined as fatigue, headache, irritability and is generally associated with emotional disturbances. The term showed peak use in the early twentieth century and today these symptoms are a one-to-one match for diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome — one of the most pernicious and complex medical conditions of the twenty-first century.

Nor does this potent spirit-form much care how we treat it. Extracts from both fresh fruiting bodies and dried mushrooms have been found to contain the full complement of molecules. Drying the mushrooms, in fact, has been found to increase the antioxidant properties of these extracts. As with many other fungi, not only do the medicinal molecules in Lion’s Mane survive intense drying processes but when analyzed many molecules are actually found in greater quantity after drying. In this case, the antioxidant molecules of Lion’s Mane were found to be in stronger quantities after oven-drying than freeze-drying. An important thing to remember for the mycomage seeking to bring this potent spirit-form into her life.

Part Three

“Dionysus the drunk boy on a panther — rank adolescent sweat — Pan boatman slogs through the solid earth up to his waist as if it were the sea, kids skin crusted with moss and lichen.” (Bey, 10)

Dionysus and Pan are companions, the latter being a pivotal member of the former’s ’squad,’ to use the modern vernacular. They share dominion over fecundity and fertility, forests and mountains (Dionysus was raised by mountain nymphs), frenzy and panic.

Pan loved the Athenians and used his powers to induce panic (a state of hyper-awareness and strong emotion) in the Persians when they faced them in battle. Pan is the patron of marathon runners and hikers. He is known to be sure footed and swift on any mountain terrain and, again during the Persian War, he called out to the Athenian herald Philippides in the Parthenian Mountains and gave to him the message that the Persians were making plans to march on the city of Marathon. Philippides, bearing a torch, ran through the night until he reached the city to warn the citizens there. Pan is therefore the patron of the Olympic games, of long-distance runners, and of forewarning or other precognitive actions. Pan also has a manifestation that is worshiped by sailors and fishermen that goes by the name of Haliplanktos, or the Sea-Roamer. He was called on in battle and thought to be the voice of the roaring sea. Outside of Marathon, Greece there is still a neolithic cave known for human activity that is called the Cave of Pan (Theio.com, 2019, retrieved from https://www.theoi.com/Cult/PanCult.html). It is a cave encrusted with moss and lichen located at 38°09′31.60′′N, 23°55′48.60′′E. Excavations in the cave have found charcoal from fires and seashells. One can infer that Pan is a deity that existed in the area well before the Ancient Greeks and was, perhaps, worshiped in this cave, and given shell fish or shells as offerings. In this way he is kin to Poseidon who shares dominion over hoofed animals, in his case horses, and has equal power over sea and land. Referencing Peter Carroll again we find that:

“Every theology, pantheon, and demonology implies a psychology. Most pagan cultures attempted to include a wide spectrum of possible selves and behaviours, with a god or goddess or a minor diety for just about any activity…” (Carroll, 36)

The mycomage can do the same. The only difference here is that while gods and goddesses, angels and demons exist in the spirit ecology and need be reached on their own plane. There is a mushroom for just about any activity here on our corporeal plane already, just waiting for us to discover and interact with. Pan, Lord of the Mountain Forest but also Lord of Fishing, Nets and Sailing, the Capturer of Typhon, share with the mushroom a multi-faceted facility, he is a helper on many very different and seemingly (to the human eye) unconnected levels. It is this multi-faceted nature, of the mountain and of the forest and of the common working world of sailing and fishing, that connects Pan to the Mountain Priests, the Yamabushi of Japan. The Yamabushi are also half priest and half common folk, splitting their time between their spiritual selves in the mountains and their role as business persons and workers in society. This dynamic is reflected in our cover photo of the Satyr and the Peasant Folk by Jacob Jordaens; the wise and mythical satyr as the spiritual element sitting at the same table as the common folks, sharing his wisdome.

The use the most difficult type of hiking as a form of Meditation and their Buddhism is enriched with animist beliefs, which are collective known as Shugendo [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shugend%C5%8D] that drive them to venerate the mountains and the forests they practice their religion in. Their happi coats and hakama split-leg trousers are designed to resemble the clothes placed on the dead before burial or cremation (Wortley, 2017, retrieved from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/10/13/travel/yamabushi-japans-ancient-tradition-mountain-ascetics-opens-public/). The priests also wear sashes and tassels, which is th direct connection to their namesake, the Yamabush*take mushroom. The priests communicate with the spirit world and each other from their mountain huts by blowing on conch shells, an icon of the oceans and sea that surround their native Japan. The Yamabushi believe that their forested mountains are are a source of the life force they carry within them and when the stressors of the modern world grow to be too much, they return there to replenish themselves.

Yamabush*take, our fierce Lion’s Mane mushroom, our spine-cloaked Priests of Pan, do the same for the mycomage, delivering their own molecules and biotransforming the molecules of the trees and plants they live on directly to us, replenishing our bodies and minds with health and energy.

Our old Bearded Tooth, our Priests of Pan, can be found in nature feeding on dead or dying deciduous trees. In particular, they enjoy the company of oaks, beech (another companion of the Gallo-Roman lover of redheads, fa*gus, the lord of child birth and babies), walnut, maple and elm (Sokół et al, 1). Their optimal sporulation environment is a relative humidity between 85 - 95% and a temperature of 75 - 80°F. It is reported that an environment any warmer than 88°F was show to stop our spirit-form’s sporulation (Sokół et al, 2). The Priests of Pan enjoy low intensity light, which is shown to stimulate spore germination. Also in the research is a report of irradiating Lion’s Mane mycelia with argon and helium lasers, which resulted in fruiting bodies with up to a 50% increase in weight. So, essentially, if you shoot laser weapons at the Priests of Pan, they gain in strength and size. And if you recall from earlier in this report the health of the fruiting body is a direct indicator of the amount and strength of the medicinal and nutraceutical molecules held within the mushroom’s flesh. Lasers and other types of radiation only increase their superpowers.

Lion’s Mane mycelium enjoy the same warmish temps that its spores do, growing well at 75°F in a substrate with a pH of 6. Most carbon sources, except for lactose, encourage their growth, with the amino acid alanine being the best observed source of nitrogen. They have also been employed in bioremediation of waste from sewage and paper industry pulp. If the mycomage seeks to invoke herself a legion of Priests of Pan, then she can use inoculated wood logs beneath a forest canopy or indoors in bottles or bags using sterilized sawdust of their preferred trees as a substrate, although there are also reports of Lion’s Mane growing equally well on conventional grain substrates in these conditions. Other substrates that have been reported as effective are corn cobs, cotton chaff and wheat bran with supplementation of corn meal, gypsum and sugar. One specific substrate formulation reported as being successful is sterilized beech sawdust with 10% wheat bran and 20% corn meal as supplements (Sokół et al, 3-4).

The sigil of the Priests of Pan echoes the Yamabushi ascending their sacred mountain. It can be used when one needs to create probabilities in one’s life where there are opportunities to immerse oneself completely in the natural world — most especially mountains or forests. If one is performing a working attempting to gain the attention of Pan himself or Dionysus, this sigil can also be of assistance.

It can also be used as a magical focal point for those attempting to stave off mental decline either in themselves or in loved ones. Invoking the Priests of Pan in this way brings the full force of their healing power to your aid. It is beneficial for those suffering from chronic fatigue — especially when used in conjunction with the spirit form’s physical manifestation. This sigil can be placed inside the shoes of individuals prior to running marathons or other intense aerobic sports and it will bring a lightness to one’s feet and a diamond point focus on the goal.

Sigil courtesy of Ghostly Harmless’ Sigilizer

References

Bey, H (1991) T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Autonomedia

Carrol, P. J. (2008). The apophenion: A chaos magic paradigm. Oxford: Mandrake.

Facorellis, Y., Mari, A., & Oberlin, C. (2017). The Cave of Pan, Marathon, Greece—AMS Dating of the Neolithic Phase and Calculation of the Regional Marine Reservoir Effect. Radiocarbon, 59(5), 1475-1485. doi:10.1017/RDC.2017.65

Sokół S, Golak-Siwulska I, Sobieralski K, Siwulski M and Górka K (2016) Biology, cultivation, and medicinal functions of the mushroom Hericium erinaceum. Acta Mycologica (50, 2) pp 1-18

Theoi (2019) Pan Cult. theoi.com. Retrieved from https://www.theoi.com/Cult/PanCult.html

Thongbai B, Rapior S, Hyde K D, Wittstein K and Stadler M (2015) Hericium erinaceus, an amazing medicinal mushroom. Mycological Progress (14, 91) pp 1-23

Wong K, Naidu M, David P, Bakar R and Sabaratnam V (2012) Neuroregenerative potential of Lion’s Mane mushroom, Hericium errancies (Bull.: Fr.) Pers. (Higher Basidiomycetes), in the treatment of peripheral nerve injury (Review) International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (14, 5) pp 427-446.

Wortley K (2017) Yamabushi: Japan’s ancient tradition of mountain ascetics opens to the public. Retrieved from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/10/13/travel/yamabushi-japans-ancient-tradition-mountain-ascetics-opens-public/

Mushroom Images

Hericium erinaceus from Steve, Chris Cassidy, and beverlyjam.

Mushroom Images Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.