For thousands of years — across continents, cultures, and even species — mushrooms have formed a mysterious and powerful link between the earthly and the divine. From ancient cave paintings to shamanic traditions, from survival kits of prehistoric people to the instincts of wild animals, mushrooms have played a sacred role in the story of life on Earth.
At The Holy Spring, we honor this ancient bond. Here are some historical truths that guide our reverence:
In the caves of Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria, 9,000-year-old rock paintings show human figures holding mushrooms — their bodies surrounded by radiating shapes that suggest movement, vision, and transformation. Some believe this is the earliest visual record of sacred mushroom use in human ritual. Whether for healing, journeying, or celebration, these figures suggest that fungi were central to early human spirituality.
"We see here not a meal, but a message — an offering, a dance, a doorway."
In eastern Spain, a mural in the Selva Pascuala cave shows a line of mushroom-like figures, interpreted by researchers as Psilocybe hispanica, a psychoactive species still found in that region today. These paintings suggest that European cultures may have used mushrooms ritually over 6,000 years ago, preserving their likeness in sacred art.
Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old frozen traveler found in the Alps, carried two types of mushrooms: Piptoporus betulinus, likely for medicinal or antiparasitic use, and Fomes fomentarius, a powerful tinder fungus. These were not random foragings — they were tools, perhaps even companions. Ötzi’s fungal kit suggests mushrooms served not just for vision or nutrition, but for healing and survival.
Mushroom consumption is not unique to humans. In the wild, at least 22 primate species — including chimpanzees, baboons, and monkeys — regularly consume fungi as part of their natural diet. In Tanzania, baboons have been observed eating mushrooms during seasonal changes, while other primates selectively forage for specific species.
This cross-species behavior points to an evolutionary relationship between primates and fungi. It is not far-fetched to imagine that early humans learned from their animal kin — watching, imitating, and eventually deepening the sacred relationship with the mushroom.
"We are not the first to taste the fruit of the forest. We are part of an ancient communion."
In Mesoamerican cultures, mushrooms have long held divine status. The Mazatec, Aztec, and Maya peoples used psychoactive fungi in ceremonies to speak with spirits, diagnose illness, and receive divine visions. Called “teonanácatl” — the “flesh of the gods” — these mushrooms were central to rites of passage, healing, and divine communion.
Even today, elders in Oaxaca preserve the tradition of sacred mushroom use through guided ceremonies, honoring the mushroom as both teacher and sacrament.
Global Threads of the Mushroom Mystique
From the Vedic altars of ancient India, through the Taoist “mushrooms of immortality” in Chinese mountain temples, to the margins of early Christian icon‑art, a subtle mushroom motif threads its way through human religious imagination.
In Hindu lore the cow‑dung‑growing mushroom becomes intertwined with the sacred cow, raising the mushroom to ritual status. In Chinese Daoism the lingzhi mushroom becomes a talisman of transcendence and immortality. In Christian artefacts scholars have proposed that mushroom‑shaped forms, shot through iconography and feast‑rite symbolism, echo an older, hidden sacramental substrate.
These parallels do not prove a single unified tradition, but they do suggest that mushrooms—literal and metaphorical—have carried spiritual weight across religious systems, geographies and epochs.
What if the sacred was never lost—only hidden in the margins of our icons, stained glass, cow‑pastures and forest floors?
As a church grounded in The Sacred Mycelium, we affirm that humanity’s relationship with mushrooms is not new. It is ancient, global, and cross-species. To partake in the mushroom today — in prayer, healing, ceremony, or silence — is to walk a path worn by saints, seekers, and ancestors.
This isn’t a fad. It is a return.
A remembering.
A reweaving of the Web.
Explore our teachings in The Sacred Mycelium or join an upcoming Earthkeeper gathering where the sacrament is honored in sacred ceremony.
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