Santa Claus: Famous Shaman

The history of the old man in red who comes bearing gifts. 
Santa Claus is only the latest of many figures that have come to be associated with bringing gifts on the night of December 25th. 

In Sicily it is an old woman named Strina who brings gifts at Christmas, continuing a tradition that began in the days of the Roman Empire. In fact, his story takes us back to the beginning of recorded history, when some other characters climbed up trees of a different kind, and returned with gifts for everyone. 
These were not toys or perfume or watches, but messages concerning the year to come, the turning of the seasons, or the fate of the world. These people were shamans, who performed the functions of priest, historian, and record keeper, scientist and magician. 

"So, why do people bring Pine trees into their houses at the Winter Solstice, placing brightly colored (Red and White) packages under their boughs, as gifts to show their love for each other and as representations of the love of God and the gift of his Sons life? It is because, underneath the Pine bough is the exact location where one would find this ‘Most Sacred' Substance, the Amanita muscaria, in the wild." -James Arthur. 

Siberian reindeer also enjoy eating amanita mushrooms and thus are often used as a lure by the deer-herding natives. Since one of the hallucinatory experiences often felt on psychedelic mushrooms is that of flying, Santa's flying reindeer most likely derive from this. 

The Sami have a custom of feeding fly agaric to their deer and collecting the urine to drink. The reindeer’s digestive system metabolises the more poisonous components of the toadstool, leaving urine with the hallucinogenic and psychotropic elements of the fungus intact. Drinking the urine gives a ‘high’ similar to taking LSD. 
Under the hallucinatory effects of the drink, the Sami thought their reindeer were flying through space, looking down on the world. The reindeers’ liking for the toadstool hallucinogens are such that they, in turn, have been known to eat the snow on which intoxicated humans have urinated, creating a reciprocating cycle. 

In summary, it seems quite possible that the traditional image of Father Christmas, described in Livingston’s poem and universalised by the Coca Cola Company during the 1930s, has its real origins in shamanistic rituals involving the red and white fly agaric toadstool. 


Santa isn't the only occult Magic Mushroom hero, so is the Easter Bunny, King Arthur of Camelot and many more.