The magical origin of Father Christmas
and the Christmas tree

Humanity has had a symbiotic relationship with plants for as long as we’ve been around on Mother Earth. Trees and plants have not only given us food, tools, fibre and fire to sustain our lives, but they have also allowed us to experience the nature of God itself through a sacred teacher plant called Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria), the well known red mushroom with white spots.

Amanita muscaria may well be partly responsible for the success of Conifers and Birch to re-colonise the land after the Ice Age.
The origin of putting presents under the Christmas tree comes from the fact that it is under the tree where the great gift of this unique sacred plant can be found. In shamanic cultures, it was taken communally as a holy sacrament in the heart of winter (death) to mark the return of the Sun and life through personal communion with Divinity (hence the later Christian tradition of hanging wafers –“the bread of life” and later cookies on the tree).

Taking the mushroom is not a recreational experience. It requires the right knowledge to prepare the plant and conduct this ritual safely. It is a deadly poison in ignorant hands! The Fly Agaric can literally help you to fly or flash to different dimensions. You ‘become’ whatever you behold: light, creatures, energies, even a modern film, and much more than that. There is massive time compression (possibly even beyond time itself) and thought speed is equally massively accelerated. You see your life flashing in front of you as in a Near Death experience. When people take the mushroom together they will merge, like a Vulcan “mind melt” in Star trek. Would the world be a better place if we could all have an experience of Divine consciousness?

Father Christmas IS the Fly Agaric mushroom with his red and white clothes, his ability to fly and read your mind and his euphoric “Ho, ho, ho” nature. To make the right concoction, It was necessary to dry the mushrooms first by hanging them above the hearth , either on a string on in a bag (hence our modern day socks!). The reindeer, a common herd animal of Nordic tribes, is as fond of the mushroom as people are and equally susceptible to its ‘flying’ effects. The use of Amanita muscaria is well documented in Siberian shamanic cultures. The shaman (commonly dressed in red & white) traditionally enters the community lodge through the smoke hole. He carries a bag with the dried sacred plant in it. This archetype of Father Christmas was later Christianised as St. Nicolas, a philanthropic bishop, who became patron saint of Russia. Santa Claus is the Germanic version of his name.

The picture above shows Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of St. Nicolas riding on his white horse in Amsterdam. The people have lined the streets to welcome him. Like Santa Claus, he has many helpers. His flying horse enables him to deliver presents through the chimney. Children put their shoe (and something like a carrot for the horse) by the fireplace and  sing to him before they go to bed. If they have been "good" they will be rewarded by finding a little something in their shoe in the morning. If they've been bad, they might get a little bag of salt instead (it's more of a threat than anything else. I grew up in the Netherlands and have never know that to happen!) On the eve of the Saint's birthday, the 6th of December, a sack with bigger presents get delivered. The connection between the Solstice (the turning point of the Sun) and the coming of Sinterklaas is no longer there in the Netherlands, and the old festival has been 'Christianised' by moving it to the Saints Day. Christmas was reserved for concentrating on the birth of Jesus, although children do hang a stocking on their bed, in which they may get fruits and nuts and maybe a Bible or a book.

Although St. Nicolas is the Patron saint of Russia, the Russian people now have a tradition  of Father Frost bringing presents to the children. After many years, when the celebration of Christmas was not allowed by the communist regime (because it is a religious festival) it has come back in a big way since Glasnost. Towns organise Father Frost processions, just before Christmas, to welcome him, but the giving of presents does not take place until the Russian New Year,

The fact that Russia has a Father Frost, rather than a Father Christmas may possibly be partly due to the fact that Father Frost reigns there as a Natural force in the Winter and it may also partly be that "Father Frost" was more acceptable to the authorities. People are more aware in Russia that Father Christmas with his red and white clothes IS Amanita muscaria, because the old rituals are practiced to this very day in remote areas of Siberia.
Due to the Divine "mind-melt" effect, Amanita muscaria was also identified in the past with Gods like Wodan/Odin and Thor, who both 'ride'  in the sky as well. It is interesting to remember that Thor's famous hammer is mushroom shaped and that Wodan/Odin performed two feats: he hung upside down on the World tree for nine days, which gained him the wisdom of the Runes and he drank from the Well of Mimir (universal memory), for which he had to sacrifice one eye  (and thus gained unity consciousness.  It seems likely that these myths again refer to the mushroom. One of the meanings of hanging upside down might be accessing the 'head space' of the roots of the tree with its symbiotic mushrooms. Drinking from the Well of Mimir could be a poetic way of  describing the ingestion of a mushroom concoction.
Anyhow, the Ancients called The Big Dipper constellation, which circles round the Northern Arctic the sledge of the Gods. This is one reason why Santa's home was identified as being at the North Pole. And since Father Frost is said to be living in the North Pole, the connection between Santa Claus and Father Christmas becomes clearer

It is interesting to note that the original Christmas ‘present’ is an experience right here and now. Our word ‘present’ (for a gift) may even have derived from these ancient practices. Nowadays our Christmas presents are of course very much of the material variety. In pre-capitalist societies the gift of insights, cosmic consciousness, etc, which Amanita muscaria brings, was probably seen as far more precious than any material objects. 

Of course, I cannot do justice in this brief article to such an incredible tradition, which survived nearly 1600 to 1700 hundred years of repression. The re-emergence of open knowledge about Amanita muscaria and other entheogenic (meaning: God-within) plants, explains many mysteries.
Even small mundane ones, such as why one very common Christmas tree decoration on the Continent is a red and white mushroom (including in my childhood home in the Netherlands).

The tradition of mushrooms (and other powerful plants), as a doorway to Divine consciousness, is not restricted to the North, but it is a common root to religions in all Continents all over the Globe. For example: The "Flying Carpet" of Islamic tales has a similar significance. Below is an example from carvings in the wall of the ancient temples of Anchor Wat, Cambodia. This blissful figure (one of many God/desses to be seen in these amazing temples), has a headdress of  pine trees and six Amanita muscaria mushrooms, seen from the top. This is a clear indication of the connection between divine consciousness and its source on Earth: the symbiosis of trees and mushrooms. Apart from its main stream schools of learning, Buddhism has also a "lightning vast" way to enlightment (within in one life time), which involves the use of consciousness expanding plants and preparations.

Scholars have also made a convincing case for the mushroom being essential to understanding the true nature of Christ’s message. As with the Cambodian temple image, the picture below is worth a thousand words. It is a photo from a firm which makes robes for Christian priests.

Ironically, your local priest himself may be completely unaware of the origins of his dress, although I suspect that Vatican scholars have a few books in their library, which tell the whole story....
Below is a detail of the beautiful ornate Y-shaped thing (sorry I do not know the name of this item Priest's attire), which shows the cup (the same grail for which King Arthur and his knights were searching). It is shaped like an Amanita muscaria. As the mushroom grows larger the edges of the cap bend upwards and form a cup, exposing the gills underneath. The halo surrounding the cup on the picture shows the gills and is an allusion that divine consciousness can be found through the mushroom. A similar cup is also used by priests to consecrate the wine. By blessing it, it turns into the blood of Jesus. Ironically, Jesus' message and good news was probably all about preaching the fact that we do not need priests to have Holy Communion with God. He may well have tried to revive the ancient creed that entering Divine consciousness by eating the body and drinking the blood of a plant, which causes us to BE God, is accessible to everyone.

Revelation 10:9  -So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth."
Ezekiel 3:3 - And he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it." Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
St John 14-6 - Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.
John 10-9 - I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
John 6-56 - He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Knowing about the mushroom and other plants with entheogenic properties gives a whole new perspective of all these familiar quotes. Amanita muscaria, our Father Christmas, is a doorway to to experience ego death, unity consciousness, and heaven-on-earth. Providing of course, you manage to achieve the desired state by knowing how to prepare the mushroom and just the right dosage. If you see the Bible in this light Jesus appears to speak for the mushroom as well as himself, which is not a contradiction, because in the Divine state All is One.

"The meat, the manna, the door, the comforter, the bread, the living waters, the blood, are all synonymous for that which will dwell with you, and you will put "in" you, which will teach you all things through direct communion. ........
(.... in John) it says that the world does not see, because it does not know, as opposed to those who know, and see, and will have it in them. Something that the world does not know, because it does not see, is certainly "Hidden" as in the "Hidden Manna". (James Arthur)

Food for Thought: Mary and Jesus with the "bread of life in their hands.
(Click on picture to enlarge)

It is absolutely extraordinary really, that in spite of all the many clues and the irrepressible tradition over thousands of years of Father Christmas bringing us presents, millions of people are unaware today of its true meaning. Is this because a people, that would have tasted and experienced this great gift would be difficult to control and manipulate?
Or are there other reasons?
I wonder how the world would change, if it were possible to turn Christmas once more into a feast where the whole community jointly experiences true Holy Communion?
It is exciting to think that there really is a way, before we die, to know God and to know our true Nature.

Enough Food for thought for now. I hope I have  said enough to give a whole new meaning to "Do you still believe in Father Christmas?" Yo ho ho!
If you like to know more, there are many websites to explore and books to read. Below are three excellent sites. 

      Click here to read our other seasonal articles
in Tree Talk magazine

http://www.akasha.de/~aton/NeoDMT.html
On this site  from the ATON and ODIN institute in Norway you can find out about the super-conductive brain, natural endogenous chemistry, exponentially increased consciousness, Pinoline, Harmaline, DMT.

Many more links are to be found on the three sites above.