Magic Toads and
Mushrooms:
It is a fact that ‘Toads secrete a thick, white, hallucinogenic substance from skin glands when they are injured or provoked. This toxin (C24H34O5) is called bufagin, bufotenin, or more colloquially, ‘toads' milk (Guiley 1989 341). The secretion acts like digitalis in biological action, and was believed to have been used by witches for various nefarious purposes. Toad excrement was theoretically used as an ingredient in flying potions by Basque witches (Levack 45). - ( http://www.shanmonster.com/witch/familiar/toad.html Toads, Magic, and Witchcraft).
Once
whilst playing golf in Ireland, as we
rounded a corner, we saw about six young men on their hands and knees moving
down the centre of the fairway. Each
had a large plastic bag containing mushrooms.
I said
to them ‘Are they edible?’ One began laughing and said ‘Yes they are but they blow your mind away’. I suddenly realized that they were collecting
‘magic mushrooms’. I had heard of them but knew little. It appeared that the men sold them in Dublin dance halls.
I
discovered later that ‘magic mushrooms’
have been used, abused and eaten for centuries. They were used supposedly in religious
rites, witchcraft and in more modern times as a recreational drug.
Such witchcraft was practiced in the British
Isles going back to Pagan
Times and beyond. There is little doubt that Merlin the Magician of King Arthur
fame was a master of the craft. Certain ingredients that he placed
in the gathered knights’ food before he did his magic often helped his
wizardry. Again there is little doubt that he used the same Toad’s Milk and Magic mushrooms
to create mass hypnosis.
Witches without any doubt used them and it is probably from such stories that the ‘flying broom’ comes. The story of the Princess kissing the ‘frog’ whereby it turns back into a handsome Prince is also based on the Toad principal.
Many
writers in the past, and some in the present, considered some form of
hallucinatory drug an aid to writing their stories and songs. There is a story
about the Beatles
and ‘Sergeant Pepper’s
Lonely-Hearts Club Band’ but that is best left unsaid.
There is also no doubt that Ireland, in particular the deep rural areas of Munster and Connaught were heavily into so called ‘magic’. There were people in the areas who would have known all the ‘secrets’ of what other cultures call ‘shamanism’.
The ‘shaman’
of Peru claimed that with the use of certain ‘drugs’ they were able to fly.
The amazing designs of humming birds and such on the plains are not visible
from the ground, yet they are almost perfect in every detail when seen from
height in an aircraft. I am not of course suggesting that the shaman could in
fact fly, I merely say that they claimed they could and by some means unknown
to present day science, managed to do the near impossible.
Likewise when the Irish emigrated to America,
they took with them their beliefs, many of which were of superstition and pagan
origin which some still practiced alongside their Catholic religion. The ones who used ‘magic mushrooms’ or licked ‘magic
toads’ without doubt continued to do so in America.
It is scientifically claimed that many Irish people in America
fully believed that, using those means, they were able to ‘step aboard a vision’ and
float back to Ireland to visit. Of
course they were unable to do so, but by their stories they were able to
convince other members of the community that they did.
He left Ireland at the age of 15 with his parents in 1890 and
sailed to New York.
Both his parents died on the journey. Sheamus only barely survived the hard
times on the streets of New York.
When he was 22, he discovered the countryside and became a
rambler. He met up with other Galway
Irishmen and they formed a harvesting crew. They followed the work
from State to State.
Sheamus was well versed in the old ways of Ireland and had been
well taught by his grandmother. Sheamus would regularly pick ‘magic mushrooms’ in the
fields whilst he worked and the toads less frequently. He would lace the
communal tea with the milk or mushrooms and feed it to his compatriots. They
would then of course ‘trip-out’.
Sheamus being more or less in control of himself whilst under
the influence, would ‘step
aboard a vision’ and ‘anchor
at the cross in Spancil Hill’.
This is the best-known set of circumstances that are fully
recorded in the local Parish
records. The group would each year in their local village, harvest two local
widow’s corn and other crops and it was an exceptional act of charity in that
they also thatched several cottages and rebuilt dry-stone walls in the area – all for no charge.
Sheamus and his friends from the same area never did in fact
return to Ireland, not even for a visit. Yet, the fully authenticated Church
records clearly show that they helped to harvest several cereal crops and other
acts of charity in the locality of Spancil
Hill during the years, 1935, 36 and 37.
There is quite a good version of the song on this link:
----------Mike------------
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