Welcome to Rowan Berries in the Grove -

The Celtic literature is replete with moments of transformation mystery.

Sometimes the tranformation is directly attributed to some mushroom or other hallucinogen, sometimes there is a more circumspect reference, for the euphamisms were used to disguise it on occasion for the audience in later times.

In Rowan Berries in the Grove are presented excerpts from the myths of some magical moments.

Sustaining and magically transformative are the songs of soma amongst the oaks of the Grove!

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Soma of the Celts
In his 1995 article, 'Irish Soma', Peter L. Wilson explores the use of soma in Ireland, and makes the valid point that consideration of entheogenesis, 'the birth of the god within', by the ingestion of psychotropic substances ought be considered in the development of religion. His article may be read in full at: http://users.lycaeum.org/~lux/features/irshsoma.htm

Every fourth and every month
Ripe fruit the rowan bore:
Fruit more sweet than honey-comb;
Its clusters' virtues strong,
Its berries red could one but taste
Hunger they staved off long.
Wilson writes, 'Mushroom language tends to be euphamised, masked, coded, [and] buried in etymologies and even false etymologies. If we are to speculate about the possible existence of a Celtic -specifically Irish - soma, we must excercise a bit of detective work, [and] go back and read our texts over again and hope for a few glimmerings or clues.' Since the myths and legends of the Celts were written down in the Christian era, misunderstadings and even censorship could well have had mushroom/ soma references amended to magic berries or beverages; soma's redness appears maintained in magical fruits, crimson nuts, scarlet quicken berries of the rowan, and even the hazels of wisdom are reddened by salmon. Wilson provides as examples myths, including the Pursuit of Diarmait and Grania, which reveal references to ritual, and so the quest to obtain 'the full of my hand of the berries of a quicken tree' is transformed in meaning, and the doorway opened to investigating Celtic soma.

Warning: when a mushroom or toadstool has white gills, a ring and a bulbous volva at the base of the stem, it belongs to the genus Amanita, and in that genus you will find the really deadly poisonous species. In Europe, Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap, is responsible for probably more than 90% of the fatal mushroom poisonings. The infamous "magic mushroom" Amanita muscaria, the Fly Agaric, affects the central nervous system, causing confusion, loss of muscular coordination, mild euphoria, profuse sweating, chills, visual distortions, and sometimes convulsions, hallucinations and delusions such as feeling of greater strength. It also puts many people right to sleep, only to wake up hours later with the feeling they've been very sick. The Fly Agaric is very attractive to maggots, and even clean looking specimens will dissolve into balls of maggots within a day or two. Caer Australis in no way encourages or advocates the use of poisonous mushrooms. Read the articles,
'Attractive but deadly - a look at some of the more poisonous fungi'
by J. Parmentier at
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjun00/jpfungi.html
and the entry 'Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric, Fly Amanita' at
http://plants.montara.com/mushrooms/MListPages/MFamList.html.

The paper 'Fly-Agaric Motifs in the Cú Chulaind Myth Cycle' was presented by Thomas J Riedlinger at the Mycomedia Millennium Conference hosted by Fungi Perfecti at the Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Oregon, 1999. Riedlinger writes, 'The emphasis here is on aspects of Cú Chulaind's abnormal behavior corresponding to various symptoms of Amanita muscaria intoxication. The combined effect of these aspects in Cú Chulaind is exaggerated [and it is] feasible that Cú Chulaind's warp spasms and wasting sickness represent exaggerated versions of the mushroom's true effects as perceived by observers and subjectively reported by its users, including ataxia (loss of muscle control), frenzied dancing in shamanic rites, amazing feats of strength, dramatic optical distortions, and disruption of sleep patterns lasting for several days with unusually vivid dreams.' The paper may be found at:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas_writings5.shtml

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The Quicken Berries of the Forest of Dooros
By the plain at Loch Lein, the Tuatha de Danaan had come to meet the Fena to compete in a game of hurley, and for three days and three nights neither had won a single goal from the other. The Tuatha de Danaan had brought with them food from the Land of Promise - crimson nuts and arbutus apples and scarlet quicken berries. These fruits were gifted with many secret virtues, and they were careful that neither apple nor nut nor berry should toch the soil of Erin.
But travelling through the Wood of Dooros, one of the scarlet quicken berries did drop to the ground, and from that a great Rowan sprang up, and it had the virtues of the quicken trees of the Land of Promise. Its beries had the taste of honey, and those that ate of them felt a cheerful flow of spirit, as if they had drunk of wine or old mead; and if a man were a hundred years old, he returned to the age of thirty, as soon as he had eaten three of them.


from the Pursuit of Diarmait and Grania:
Now when Grania heard of the berries of the quicken tree, she was seized with a longing desire to taste them. At first she strove against it and was silent, knowing the danger, for the tree was guarded by the giant Fomor, Sharvan the Surly, sent by the Tuatha de Danaan to guard it lest anyone should eat of the berries and obtain from them their virtues. Sharvan was burly and strong, with crooked teeth and a single red and fiery eye in the middle of his forhead, with a great club, and so skilled in magic that fire would not burn him, water would not drown him and weapons could not wound him - save three blows from his own club. But Grania could not hide her desire any longer, and she told Diarmait that she should certainly die if she did not get some of the berries to eat! Diarmait went to the quicken tree and met the giant, and asked leave to obtain some of the berries, 'I seek not strife, but Grania longs to taste of these quicken berries; and if she does not get them she will die. I pray you now give me a few of the berries for the princess.' The giant looked down at Diarmait, raising his head and glared at him with his great red eye, and said 'There has been peace between us hitherto, I have allowed you to live and hunt in this forest as you please, as long as you do not take and eat the berries of the quicken tree, and you have agreed; do you now wish strife? I swear that if the princess and her child were now dying, and that one of my berries would save them, I would not give it!' To this Diarmait declared, 'Understand that before I leave this spot, I will have some of the berries, whether you will or no.' And they fought, and Diarmait dealt the giant three blows of his club, dashing out his brains with the last. Grania came, and Dairmait said, 'Behold the quicken berries, Grania: take now and eat.' But she replied, 'I will eat no berries except those that are plucked by the hands of my husband.' So Diarmait stood up and plucked the berries; and Grania ate till she was satisfied.

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     "Grows an oak upon a steep,
       The sanctuary of a fair lord;
       If I speak not falsely,
       Lleu will come into my lap"
              - Gwydion, Mabinogi of Math ap Mathonwy

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