The Tolimas and the Mushroom: Mycolatry in Pre-Hispanic Colombia

Abstract

Mushrooms have made a significant role in the ancient civilizations of Greece, India, Russia, and Mesoamerica among other countries. The use of entheogens to reach religious ecstasy and communicate with deities was common in the ancient indigenous tribes of pre-Hispanic America and it’s a practice that still continues to this day. It seems a mushroom cult was practiced by the members of Tolima indigenous cultures in pre-Hispanic Colombia. It is a common belief that mushroom cults entered Colombia from the north, from Mexico to Panama and to Colombia. The origins of the cults coming from the south also should not be discarded. And of course the cult originating in Colombian territories is a possibility. On the basis of pre-Hispanic objects displayed in the Museo del Oro, located in Bogotá, Colombia, certain facts, stories of past lives, and thoughts of many people who love these objects and had studied them in the past are analyzed. They are objects that gave life to a collection by sharing stories of their past, strengthening ties with the communities and contexts to which they belong, and, above all, have been creating and generating a unique ancient knowledge from the cultures of the past to our own present.

The chapter describes how neurotropic mushrooms like Amanita muscaria and members of the Psilocybe genus could be symbolically represented in pendants and other artifacts exposed in the museum. It’s important to remember the cult professed by the Tolimas and Tayronas to the bats and the jaguar was also present in many other Colombian indigenous tribes and it was extended to all South America. The presentation of mushrooms in form of fantastic flying animals, seems to be a method to sensitize people about their spiritual, shamanic, and hallucinogenic effects. The author beautifully explains about the hidden message of some of these gold ornaments.