Solstice Shamans: Amanita, Reindeer, Swans

There is a sacred magical tradition at solstice across cultures across the north...

The Magic Flight of the Sacred Solstice Reindeer Mother to reach the Celestial Realms of the Cosmic Swan Mother….

Welcome to a story as old as human history—taking flight on the backs of shamanic reindeer, cosmic Swan Mothers and Amanita mushrooms of the northern boreal forests. This is a tale of a living animism stretching back into the deep paleolithic. It is also the lost spiritual tradition at the heart of the very real Faery and Elven faiths. A once living lineage that has been demoted to fantasy and fairytale.

This old magic has been heavily persecuted, but threads still survive in Sami & Siberian shamanism, and in the west it was encoded in early Christian artwork, fairy tales and stories such as Alice in Wonderland, in the Santa Claus story and beyond.

Solstice Flight, Doorways to Otherwold

Solstice is a bio-magical event, not just a passage of the seasons; and winter solstice is the traditional time of shamanic reindeer flight to bring a vision for the coming year.

The word solstice literally means when “the sun stands still” (Latin, sol sun; stit stationary), describing how the setting sun appears to stay in the same place on the horizon for 3 days. This is the context of the story of Jesus's birth (and Dionysus and others) on the morning the sunlight "returns" and begins moving again, but that's a story for another time ...

At the moment of winter solstice, a dazzling darkness descends, full of a sparkling “dark light”. And, at a biological level, solstice generates the biggest pulse of the regenerative hormone melatonin of the year. Melatonin is the mistress hormone and governess of our biology of darkness, our regenerative, yin systems that are very different from our sunlight biology. Melatonin is at its height during the peak darkness of winter solstice. (read the full essay here)

The palpable peace that descends at solstice is not just “in our heads”, it is planetary bio-electromagnetic event, affecting our brainwaves and the magnetic intelligence fields of the Earth herself, which is the most sheltered from solar magnetic emissions at this time of the year.

As the Elders teach, it is a time-out-of-time when the Cosmos calls directly to our soul—the “shaman’s Christmas” when the spirit medicine people of the boreal traditions took flight with the amanita mushrooms to renew their relationship with Spirit World. 

It is an en-magic-ed antidote to the modern commercial Christmas, where the veils between Otherworld and Dreamworld are softened. The sensory gating of our neural circuitry dims down, giving us access to new visions and transmissions from the Cosmic Womb and Earth Womb.

AMANITA MAGICIANS & SWAN MAIDENS

Notice the magical swans behind the female amanita shaman….

Cosmic Swan Mothers

Back in 2012, as we were immersing deeply in the Deer/Reindeer/Elen/Amanita earth magic traditions whilst living in Cornwall, we were driving across the Cornish land to spend Solstice at an ancient swan-worship site, when we decided to pop into the Eden Project on our way. Unbeknownst to us, this beautiful place, which includes an ecological biome, was featuring an installation on the Sami people, which included a reconstruction of Sami dwellings, surrounded by reindeer. So we spent the afternoon drinking herbal brews, inside these beautiful circular structures, and communing with the herd of antlered reindeers. 

What we didn't know at the time, was that some of the far north shamanic magical traditions believe their lineage comes from a "heavenly swan mother" and make offerings of milk to her every morning. Likewise, in western magic traditions there is a belief that the human race originated in Cygnus, the swan constellation. Some royal lines include swans as ancestors!  

So you may have heard that Siberian and Sami shamans work with amanita and reindeer medicine, and that their traditions are the basis for the Santa Claus story, which is beautiful, touching, fascinating and likely very true.

But it is less known that Siberian shamans actually have a three part Amanita-Reindeer-Swan mother cosmology, with each of these spirit beings occupying a key “mother position” on their axis mundi that connects Heaven and Earth in a magical weaving. And that this cosmology was shared across the Ancient North.

The red and white capped amanita, with its mycelia threading down into the Earth, is an underworld mother. The reindeer (and reindeer goddess) is an Earth mother. The Swan is a celestial or cosmic mother that helps souls pass into this world, or from it. Incredibly, in the Siberian traditions it is said that human race descends from this Swan Mother, and are nourished by her milk.

And, even more interesting is that these same spirit beings Amanita, Reindeer and Swan are key to understanding the lost Elven and Faery religions of northern Europe, that, we propose, formed a very real and continuous tradition stretching across northern Europe and Asia, from pre-historic ice-age times. 

Ancient Reindeer Magic 

Reindeer, Swans and Amanita of the Elven and Faery Traditions

The oldest rock art in Britain is a 14,000 year old shamanic cave painting of a reindeer in Gower, Wales, and is connected to the reindeer goddess, Elen of the Ways. And, an ancient talismanic reindeer headdress found in Starr Carr in Yorkshire, UK, dates back 11,000 years. It was a magical object used to enact a reindeer ritual. Siberian shamans (many of whom were female) wore deer antler headdresses like the ones found in Star Carr.

In my book, Spirit Weaver, I describe some of the ancient Swan traditions in Britain and Ireland:

 In Irish tradition, the bards would wear a cloak made of swan feathers to incant their poetry. This special shamanic cloak called a tuigen is associated with shamanic flight into the Otherworld.

 In Irish mythology, Caer Ibormeith, a prince’s daughter, would shape-shift into a swan every alternate Samhain, residing in her swan form for an entire year until the next Samhain

 In England some noble families even claimed that their bloodline lineage is descended from a Knight who was born from magical shapeshifting swan maidens, most likely a reference to a bloodline of bardic magicians who revered sacred women who were known for their magical and Oracular powers and gift of tongues and prophecy.

This is a phenomena found across the world....

In a cave near Tel Aviv, they have found evidence of sacred ceremonial swan worship dating back 450,000 years! 

In Denmark ancient burials with swan wings are recorded. 

And as well as swans and deer, of course we see the amanita mushroom in so many depictions of fairy artwork, that it is almost synonymous with the tradition of fairies and Elves. The amanita mushroom is entheogenic, part of a vast shamanic tradition, and is the most likely identity of the mysterious “Soma”, the medicine that allows you to connect directly with the gods. Amanita has a very distinct magical personality.

Elphaim, the Spirit World of the faery tradition, literally translates as “Elf home”. Elves were not just “fantasy”, they were connected to a real spiritual tradition of the ancient North, eventually translated into myth. My birthplace was once known as "Elmet", meaning Elf-Meet, the name of sacred magic councils. “El” means starlight.

It is also deeply connected to the 'Christ' traditions, and artwork from a small but significant number of chapels and churches in the Christian traditions feature Amanita mushrooms, implying that God could be reached in psychdelic 'soul flight' - and that Mary Magdalene's grail cup could have held an entheogenic potion.

Indeed, in Siberian shamanism there is a section of practice that includes young women who are called 'cup bearers', and whose sacred chalices hold the elixirs of milk, vodka, and other offerings. Possibly, the cup also holds the Amanita essence.

This short essay is written by Azra and Seren Bertrand, from some of the notes on a much larger essay we were planning, including the persecution of Amanita Shamans by the Stalin regime in Soviet Russia, where ancient lineage magic was outlawed. The full story is still brewing on the stove, as this ancient magic comes back to the world.

Art at the top of the essay by Catherine Hyde (www.catherinehyde.co.uk)