Doug Weller Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> . Berlant/ Journal of Ethnopharmacology 102 (2005)
> 275–288 "argues that the story was evidently
> coined to esoterically allude to (1) the origin of
> the [] (hedjet), (2) its association with Osiris —
> the deified spirit of barley who first appeared
> during the 5th dynasty, and (3) the Triple Crown
> (hmhm), comprising the three White Crowns the
> deity Khenumu, “The King Maker”,
> characteristically carried on his head, just as he
> did in this story.
> +
> +
> The theory argues, more specifically, that
> typical, as well as several anomalous, White
> Crowns and Triple Crowns strikingly resemble
> pin-stages of an [] mushroom known as the []
> cubensis because Egyptian priests and their
> prehistoric ancestors were shamanic herbalists who
> came to believe that they were divine and immortal
> after ingesting Psilocybes."
>
> etc. Anyone heard of this - and specifically has
> anyone seen this referenced/discussed?

---

Steve Berlant first posted the theory of pWestcar referring to mushrooms in October 1998. The Deja/Google discussion can be found here; Egyptian use of Hypnagogic drugs and Virology. (Berlant is, for some reason, posting under the name of "Tim Banks" on the first posting.)

He then followed it up, with reference to a now defunct URL, in Origin of Egypt's Crowns and Culture (2000).

I recall taking him to task about his theory of mushrooms being a large part of the Usenet discussion in both sci.archaeology and alt.mythology. The main alt.mythology posting was:

Egyptian crowns and Eleusinian kykeon (2000).

As I recall, and I don't think I was the only one, Berlant could offer no real proof that mushrooms were present in Egypt, or used as a form of religious/socio-political use. As I noted in one response,

The main problem I think one has with this theory is a) the Egyptians had no word for 'mushroom', b) they also had no representations of mushrooms in their art, although they were keen observers and artists of flora and fauna in both naturalistic and stylistic modes, and c) there is no single textual reference to the use of any fungal plant which we
could today identify as a "mushroom", specifically the psilocybe primordium or any other variety of mushroom, in religious, social or recreational forms of use. (Post dated 5 March 2000, alt.mythology, Katherine Griffis-Greenberg)

Yet, Steve Berlant could see the imagery of mushrooms in just about everything, including the Egyptian White Crown, the menit, the Red Crown, necklace counterpoises, and so on. His theory that it is mushrooms which "sing" in the bag of barley (part of pWestcar's "Birth of the Three Kings") is one of his more chimerical interpretations.

To sum up my review of his theories, this is what I said in 2000 in the Origins thread:

"There are theories and there are opinions. All theories have good support; opinions rarely do. Supported theories with references back to the actual texts from the culture from which they came, or are explicitly shown, get more attention than those that do not. Not all opinions or theories are created equal."

Even theories, however, must stand the test of application to all instances, for the Egyptians were a very much status quo culture for several thousand years. One would expect in all the years of pharaonic culture one would see one specific reference to a plant we know as a mushroom, and as such, would know at least the word for it. We do not. (Post dated 26 April 2000, Katherine Griffis-Greenberg).

If you do a search at Deja/Google Groups under "Steve Berlant" + mushrooms, you will find he probably developed most of his mushroom/Egyptian theory in that forum. His last post on the subject appears to have been in 2009.

HTH.

Regards,

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom