There is no debate about the fact that the psychoactive fly agaric mushroom is associated with shamanism. Over the past decades, it has become ever clearer that this mushroom was or is used throughout the world. In spite of all the efforts that have been made to prove it, Wesson’s thesis that the fly agaric was the renowned soma of the Aryans is still unproved, as is the question of whether the fly agaric was the tree of knowledge. The suggestion that the fly agaric was in fact a secret means for Buddhist monks to induce states of enlightenment remains speculation as well. Moreover, it is uncertain when the mushroom was first used for shamanic purposes. However, it has been possible to confirm that it had a shamanic significance in the Germanic regions. And it is possible that the fly agaric found ritual use among the prehistoric Beaker people, who used Stonehenge as a ritual site. Although the shamanic use of the fly agaric in Siberia was discovered only in the eighteenth century, it has been suggested that its use is rooted in the Stone Age and that it was used throughout Europe.When the Paleoindians migrated into North America, they brought the fly agaric cult with them and continued it in the Americas. However, because of the availability of psilocybin mushrooms (Psilocybe spp.), which are more easily tolerated and produce more intense visions, the cult was largely forgotten. Traces of the fly agaric cult have been found in Mesoamerica, and it still exists (at least in part) in North America. The Siberian use of the fly agaric bears many similarities to the North American fly agaric cult of the Ojibwa Indians.In his book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970), John Allegro, a former Jesuit who apparently had access to certain ancient writings that are preserved in the Vatican but unavailable to the public, advanced the theory that Jesus was actually a fly agaric mushroom and that the socalled original Christianity was a secret fly agaric cult. The fly agaric was the flesh of Christ that was consumed at the evening meal—a nocturnal cult circle—together with the blood of Christ, red wine (cf. Vitis vinifera). If Allegro is correct, then the original Christianity would have been a direct continuation of the cult of Dionysos, in which the adherents apparently consumed a wine that contained mushrooms.Robert Graves has argued that ambrosia, which the centaurs used to honor Dionysos in the autumn, was in fact fly agaric. He has also suggested that the maenads did not merely consume beer or wine (cf. Vitis vinifera) to which ivy had been added (cf. Hedera helix), but that they also were inebriated from fly agarics.Wohlberg views the Thracian Dionysos Sabazios as the analog of the Indian soma and the Persian haorna (cf. Peganum harmala) and has propounded the theory that the Thracian god is identical to the fly agaric mushroom.Carl Ruck has suggested that the secret offering of the Hyperboreans to the Delian Apollo was a fly agaric mushroom and was thus the last reminder of the Indo-Germanic soma. He views the leopard, the sacred animal of Dionysos, as a symbol for the fly agaric, which was consumed ritually and used for entheogenic purposes, because the marks on the leopard’s coat resemble those on a dried fly agaric cap. In general, Ruck regards the fly agaric as the original entheogen of the Greek culture, which over the course of time was replaced by a variety of (placebo) agents (olives, Viola odorata L., Consolida ajacis L. Schur. [syn. Delphinium ajacis L; cf. Delphinium consolida], Apium graveolens L., Aconitum napellus, Crocus sativus, Conium maculatum) and ultimately forgotten. The pine (Pinuspinea L.) and spruce (Pinus pinaster L., Pinus nigm Arnold, Pinus spp.) were sacred to Dionysos because they are the trees with which the fly agaric lives in a symbiotic relationship. The Golden Fleece and the golden apples of the Hesperides have also been interpreted as fly agarics. Vestiges of this ancient or archaic fly agaric cult may have been preserved among the Basques and in Catalonia.It is possible that the fly agaric was known in Egypt by the name ravens bread. Because some legends say that Saint Anthony (cf. Claviceps purpurea) nourished himself in the wilderness on bread that had been brought to him by ravens or similar birds, it has been suggested that fly agarics produced the visions that tempted Saint Anthony. It has also been proposed that the fly agaric was the “elixir” of the alchemists of the late ancient and subsequent periods; it has even been interpreted as the Grail.Pliny was apparently aware of the fly agaric. But like so many after him, he erroneously thought it to be a deadly poison:With certain mushrooms, the toxicity can be easily seen in the pale red color; the disgusting appearance, the bluish coloration of the inside, the furrowed lammellae, and the pallid border that surrounds it. These features are not found on some; dry, and similar to the truffle [cf. Lycoperdon], these bear more or less whitish drops from their skin on the cap.The name fungus muscarius appeared in 1256 in the work De Vegetabilibus, written by the monk Albertus Magnus. One of the oldest sources to mention the fly agaric by name is the Krauterbuch [Herbal] of the physician Johannes Hartlieb, published in 1440:There is also the sort of fungus that is impure, broad and thick and red with white spots on the top, when mixed with milk, it will kill the flies that are around, this is why it is known as the fly fungi, muscinery in Latin, (folio 16)After Hartlieb, the fly agaric received only sporadic mention or description in later herbals, including those of Gerard (1633) and Lonicerus (1679). Those that did remark on the fly agaric noted its use as a fly poison, but they made no mention of its psychoactive effects! These psychoactive effects were first described in modern times by travelers to Siberia. Around 1880, during a period of widespread wine shortages, an Italian physician suggested that the populace turn to fly agaric as an inebriant.In some areas, fly agarics are eaten for food. In the region around Hamburg, which is very rich in fly agarics, mushrooms with their red skin removed were made into soups. In some Alpine valleys, fresh fly agarics are still sliced and made into an appetizer with vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper (cf. Piper spp.). In Russia, fresh fly agarics are added to vodka (cf. alcohol) to improve its effects.