It’s the holiday season, and I’m thinking of mushrooms. The hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria to be exact — a red-and-white toadstool mushroom — most closely associated with fairy tales. At first glance, Amanita muscaria and the Christmas holiday appear to be an unlikely duo. But would it be too far-fetched to propose that the story of our modern Santa Claus, the omnipotent man who travels the globe in one night, bearing gifts, and who’s camped out in shopping malls across the United States [every December], is linked to a hallucinogenic mushroom-eating shaman from the Arctic?
I don’t think so.
And neither do a number of scholars. As it turns out, the shamanic rituals of the Sami people of Lapland, a region in northern Finland known for its wintry climate and conifer forests, bear an uncanny semblance to the familiar narratives of Santa and Christmas that we have come to know.
According to the writer and mycologist Lawrence Millman, the shaman would make use of Amanita muscaria’s psychoactive effects in order to perform healing rituals. The use of Amanita muscaria as an entheogen (that is, a drug used to bring about a spiritual experience) would enable the shamans to act as intermediaries between the spirit and human world, bringing gifts of healing and problem-solving. (Although these mushrooms are poisonous, the Sami reduced their toxicity by drying them..) Various accounts describe the shaman and the rituals performed in ways that are fascinatingly similar to the narrative of Santa. An all-knowing man who defies space and time? Flying reindeer? Reindeer-drawn sleds? Climbing down the chimney? The giving of gifts? The tales of the Sami shamans have it all.
I can remember as a child being captivated by the festive spirit of Christmas, the glowing lights and the stories of Santa Claus. But as we grow older, we numb ourselves to that exuberant wonder and awe we felt as children. Exploring the unlikely roots of our Christmas folklore has given me a new perspective on the narrative I remember from childhood.
So, once upon a time, Santa was related in lineage to a psychedelic mushroom-eating shaman from Lapland? Sure. Maybe there’s more to Santa than we had previously acknowledged. Like his shamanic forefathers, perhaps he’s giving us a gift — one of knowledge and reflection, and one we certainly can’t buy.
This Christmas, I think we should make room for one more story: one about mushrooms, shamans and ancient rituals. - Matthew Salton
Matthew Salton is a filmmaker and animator in Portland, Ore.