Amanita Muscaria as the Plant/God Soma of the RigvedaBy Michael S. SmithRevised, August, 1997For nearly 150 years Vedic Scholars have been in search of the mysterious plant ofthe 4000 B.C.E. Rigveda known as Soma. Soma was the plant around which the Vedicsacrifices took place and that was said to cause an ecstatic altered state ofconsciousness. But Soma was more than a plant, it and its expressed juice werealso considered a god which was commonly used interchangeably with the god Agni,the god of fire. I hope to be able to show that Soma is in fact not a commonplant, but a fungus with inebriating and potentially hallucinatory effect. I planto first present textual evidence from the Rigveda itself and then secondly topoint out the use of this specific fungus by other cultures, thereby supportingthis general thesis.The idea that Soma was a fungus, specifically the red capped Amanita muscariamushroom, was first presented by the ethno-mycologists R. Gordon Wasson and hiswife Valentina Wasson in the 1960s and published in their 1968 volume Soma: The
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Divine Mushroom of Immortality. A number of theories as to the identification ofSoma had been circulating for years, but all were found to lack similarities tothe poetic descriptions of the plant described in the Rigveda. Some plants offeredup as being Soma were Bhang (Cannabis), Rhubarb, Periploca aphylla, Sarcostemmabrevistigma, and Ephedra vulgaris, to mention just a few, with Peganum harmalabeing the most recent suspect. Some of the strongest evidence suggesting thesecould not be Soma is that the Rigveda makes no mention of the divine plant havingany roots, leaves, blossoms, or seeds. What we do find in the Rigveda though ispoetic references to attributes that could be applied to a mushroom. To see theseattributes we must first have an understanding of where the Amanita muscariamushroom grows and what it looks like.The Amanita grows in a mycorrhizal relationship with a number of different trees,specifically the pines, firs, and above all, the birches, from which the mushroommust feed from. Being temperate climate trees that grow in cooler climates we canassume that the Amanita grows in higher elevations surrounding the northernportions of the Indian peninsula, specifically the Hindu Kush range and theHimalayan mountains. The Rigveda repeatedly states that Soma grows high in themountains and nowhere else. For example, Mandala V 43 states that Soma is a plant
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from the mountain..., and Mandala IX 46 says that Soma is seated on the mountain
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top... With the placement of Soma in the high mountains it would be naive to
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assume that Soma could be the previously mentioned plants that all grow in thelush valleys or the arid flatlands.Understanding the great importance of Soma in Vedic culture why is it that inmodern India there is agreement that what are being used in the sacrifices areSoma substitutes? Could it be that the Ar-yan, in their migration from thenorthern highlands into the low lying valleys and flatlands, had no way ofbringing the plant with them because of its inability to be cultivated due to itsneed for a mycorrhizal relationship with trees that only grow in the highland?The Amanita muscaria itself is a bright red mushroom that has woolly white spotson its top that are fragments of the veil from which the mushroom emerges as itexplodes out of the ground. These wool like spots, which resemble warts, lent tothis mushrooms designation as a toadstool. The Amanita can grow up to 8 inches
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tall and nearly 10 inches in diameter once it has fully opened its parasol.An indication that Soma might be the red Amanita is that Soma is described asbeing like the sun. He (Soma) has clothed himself with the fire-bursts of the
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sun... (Mandala IX 17). Even before it has fully opened the Amanita can remind
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one easily of the sun, its white spots seen as the orbs rays. Mandala IX 86 statesthat Soma envelopes himself all around with the rays of the sun... Soma has even
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been compared to the brilliance of lightning (Mandala IX 22), causing the poet to
declare, make me burn like fire started by friction (Mandala VIII 48). W.L.
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Reese, in his Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, states that Agni (Soma)
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represents the trinity of earthly fire, lightning, and sun. In this extended sensehe was the mediator between the gods and man. As in many other cultures it seems
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possible that a hallucinogen, in this case Amanita muscaria, was the doorway toentering the realm of the gods.A common metaphor for Soma is the bull, the Rigvedas symbol of strength. He
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(Soma) bellows, terrifying bull... the hide is of bull, the dress of sheep
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(Mandala IX 70). In Mandala IX 97 we find a reference to the red bull. Might we
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assume that the skin of the mushroom represents the red hide of the bull, whilethe woolly spots represent the dress of sheep? Many references to a cows udder
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can also be found in the Rigveda. Since Soma was milked of its juice it seems
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possible that the Amanita itself could be this udder. This becomes all the moreplausible if one has seen an immature Amanita. No doubt to a poetically inspiredmind the Amanita could suggest a cows udder. Even the stalk, or amsu, is likenedto a teat. When the swollen amsu were milked like cows with full udders...
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(Mandala VIII 9). What is also interesting is that the milk of Soma is described
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as a tawny yellow color, a color much closer to cows milk, and to the expressedjuice of an Amanita, than would be the green juice of a chlorophyll producingplant.Another interesting reference is to Somas being a single eye. Quickened by the
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seven minds, he (Soma) has encouraged the rivers free of grief, which havestrengthened his single eye (Mandala IX 9). And in Mandala IX 97, Soma who has
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for eye the sun. Though further evidence suggesting that the Amanita is the
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single eye is lacking Wasson simply asks us to examine an Amanita and inquire if acreeping vine or Rhubarb could fulfill the concept of the single eye so fittinglyas the red capped Amanita. Another Mandala about the eye helps bring together themany metaphors descriptive of Soma. I have drunk the navel (Soma) into the navel
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(stomach) for our sake. Indeed, the eye is altogether with the sun. I have milkedthe child of the wise (Mandala IX 10). In this quote we can see the many
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metaphors at play, the navel, a word with an archaic history in many cultures andwhich often has the dual meaning of a mushroom, the eye, which can signify bothits shape and its power to open up ones sight, the sun, of which the red cap couldrepresent, and the milking, which is what was done with Soma and which fits intothe udder concept of Soma.The most interesting, and probably the strongest supporting evidence that Amanitamuscaria is the divine Soma is the mentioning in the Rigveda of there being twoforms of Soma. With those two forms which stand facing us, O Soma, thou reignest
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over all things (Mandala IX 66). Wasson in his studies of Amanita use in other
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cultures also came across two forms of Amanita. The first being the expressedjuice of a fresh or re-hydrated mushroom, and the second being the urine of thosewho have drunk the juice. The best example of urine drinking after the ingestionof Amanita mushrooms comes from Filip Johann von Strahlenbergs studies of the
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Siberian Koryak tribe in the early 1700s. Strahlenberg states that when the
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Koryak,make a feast, they pour water upon some of these mushrooms, and boil them. Theythen drink the liquor, which intoxicates them; the poorer sort, who cannot affordto lay in a store of these mushrooms, post themselves, on these occasions, roundthe huts of the rich, and watch for the opportunity of the guest coming down tomake water; and then hold a wooden bowl to receive the urine, which they drink offgreedily, as having still some virtue of the mushroom in it, and by this way theyalso get drunk.Since the Amanitas psychoactive principle are altered very little by passing
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through the human body the possibility of interpreting the Rigvedas references to
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a second form of Soma being urine is simplified. I hope this one quote will allowa deeper understanding of Wassons thesis. Soma, storm cloud imbued with life, is
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Michael S. Smith - Amanita Muscaria as the Plant of God Soma of the Rigveda
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