A Piece John wrote about John Allegro and The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
A close friend turned me on to a recent interview on Joe Rogan. The person was spreading the psychedelic gospels and undermining the established order. I do not know Joe well, in fact this may be the first time I have heard him. He seems to be quite intelligent and on the right track, although there were certain areas of the conversation that I would like to comment on.
As a student of the mushroom and of those who have uncovered its ancient origins, I found Joe's lack of knowledge of Allegro to be unfortunate. My friend did a good job of correcting his totally incorrect biographical intro of Allegro and rightly pointed out that Allegro was not only a brilliant philologist and academic, but the only member of the Dead Sea Scroll committee that was not affiliated with a religion.
But I would like to point out that the statement that one cannot critique Allegro's work without being a philologist while academically correct, is not exactly true, and it is often used as a method of sidestepping the question of the validity of his work. I understand the concept, I am not an astrophysicist. But there is enough corroborating evidence to unequivocally state that Allegro "cracked the code", for certainly language has been used for thousands of years to convey not only secret meanings but also to conceal them. My reading of Allegro's book simply reaffirmed what I found to be self evident. “Jesus” was indeed a mushroom personified as were many other similar "gods." He was literally the psychoactive path to godhead. Christians consumed his flesh and drank his blood. It syncs quite nicely with the Mazatec interpretation of teonanacatl as "god's flesh" and the Hindu highly revered potion called Soma.
Dissemblers can quibble about Allegro's derivations in their efforts to obfuscate the bigger picture, but they should not be allowed to distract from the profundity of Allegro's scholarship. His message is revolutionary for our times. Ancient "religions" were based around sex and "drugs", ie fertility and psychoactive plants, especially mushrooms. Christianity is not immune to this or apart from this or different from this. And today's christianity like most religions is simply a set of rituals. Now, one can only wonder what kind of trouble this mode of thinking might bring.
Joe tossed the Jesus as mushroom question out as a joke. It is not a joke and needs to be challenged. To me, studying this in 1969, with Wasson confirming the identity of Soma as mushroom (regardless of the genus he names), it was only too obvious that most of our major religions were mushroom based and Allegro simply confirmed this with his branch of language science. The ignominy of this period was that Allegro was the true philologist while Wasson was the dilettante who depended upon others. Yet the dilettante was allowed to question the character of the true scientist. The fact that Allegro had his academic reputation destroyed over his interpretation of the scrolls only deepened my acceptance of his work. After all, the sixties revealed the great lies of the Overlords and how we live in an upside down world. Additionally, Allegro was not bemushroomed nor did he seek the experience. He did not join the neo-Gods of Psychedelia who were by the late seventies performing in a traveling road show spreading psychedelic wisdom and heralding the discoveries of the ancient mysteries. On their terms!
Allegro cracked the code that laid bare christianity and exposed its fungal roots and was crucified for it. What Joe doesn't understand is that Jesus was nothing more than the latest incarnation of a series of similar figures that populated the pantheon of Middle Eastern gods. The currently accepted Jesus has absolutely no historical basis. Period. It is a heresy to say so and for that reason it is rarely discussed. But all the evidence is there for those who care to view it. (see Suns of God by Acharya S) It is quite easy to postulate about the gods and goddesses of other cultures, but it is dangerous to do so at home. Wasson was unable to accept this fact for a number of reasons. Was it his christian heritage? Jealousy? It was due to their vilification of Allegro that I had difficulty with some of Wasson and his retinue’s pronouncements. Their job was to write the history of the Psychedelic Enlightenment in their own image and it has some serious flaws.
I know I have mentioned the Irvin and Rutajit book on Astrotheology, Their book sheds more light on ancient religions than most others. It is a goldmine of information and a key to understanding the symbolism of ancient stories and mythologies. Put that together with the information of mushroom use and many mysteries become more understandable. Dr. John Allegro played a significant role in revealing the extent of mushroom usage in the ancient world and his work deserves more acknowledgement.
