le palle verdi dei vicini

Eccolala la metto dopo...

Notizie varie sul raccubo:


archive.org/stream/pdfy-XTEfv8wyrr2jWE1Q/the-sacred-mushroom-and-the-cross-john-allegro_...
Philologically, also, the cherub-griffin is related to the fungus. The names in Indo-European and
Semitic go back to another "pod-" or "womb-" word, *GtJIUB, similar in meaning to the source
of the name of the well-known pod-plant, the Carob.'5 It was this Carob that supplied the horn-
or uterus-shaped pods eaten by the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:16). Pliny described them as "not
longer than a man's finger, occasionally curved like a sickle, with the thickness of a man's
thumb". '6 The name had another reference in the ancient world, however. The Accadian botanists
use the same Semitic word for Carob to describe the Sumerian "Seed — of — life" plant, the
mushroom. 17

The "locusts" part of the prophet's diet has given the biblical naturalists much trouble. There
were, of course, edible locusts known in those times, but popular tradition fancied the Carob as
the most likely reference of the text, and today the Ceratonia Siliqua is known as "St John's
Bread".

play between the Semitic gobay, guba', "edible locust", and gab' a, "mushroom". The similarity
is not accidental: both come from a Sumerian root, GUG, "pod", the locust reference being to the
larva of the insect, the mushroom's to the volva from which it develops.23 Even the popular
designation of the Carob as "St John's Bread" is not all that removed from the truth, since the
Carob, as we have seen, shared at least in ancient Accadian the same name as the mushroom.24
No story in the New Testament has so gripped the imagination of authors, artists, opera librettists,
and others than that of the death of John the Baptist at the instigation of a jealous woman:

But when Herod heard of it he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised." For Herod had
sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife;
because he had married her. For John said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your
brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could
not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe.
When he heard him he was much perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. But an opportunity
came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading
men of Galilee. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his



guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me whatever you wish and I will grant it." And he
vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give it, even half of my kingdom."
And she went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the
baptizer". And she came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, saying, "I want you to
give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry,
but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately
the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him
in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her
mother . . (Mark 6:16—28).

The whole story is woven from names of the sacred mushroom. The most obvious word-play is
between the "Baptist's" name, Tabbala'; the "platter" (Latin tabula, borrowed as tabid' into
Semitic); and the mushroom TAB-BA-LI.25 But other, more subtle punning has provided most of
the details, such as the "banquet for the men of Galilee",26

123

124 THE SACRED MUSHROOM AND THE CROSS

the offer of gifts "unto half my kingdom" ,27 the prophet being "bound in prison",28 and so on.
The "daughter of Herodias" or "the little heron" as the name means, is a piece of mushroom
nomenclature, as is the use of the name "Herod" itself throughout the story. Here, as elsewhere,
real — life characters feature in the story, otherwise quite fictional, largely because their names
lent themselves to easy punning on mushroom names or epithets.

The "vine-cluster" became, then, a useful synonym for the sacred mushroom, and is used with
this allusion in a composite picture of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden given in the post-
biblical book of Enoch. We noticed earlier how Josephus used this quaint literary device to
portray in a roundabout way the phallic and mushroom significance of the High Priest's
helmet.24 A number of plants are brought together to illustrate various aspects of the actual
object being cryptically described. Taken at their face value the resultant picture is absurd, but
each of the plants so adduced contains some allusion, by shape, or simply by a pun on its name,
which, to the initiated, conveys the intended meaning of the whole. In the case of the Tree of Life,
whose fruit made Adam and Eve like gods, the apocryphal writing says it had "the height of a fir,
leaves like a carob, and fruit like a vine_cluster".25

...
Each of the comparisons bears upon the sacred mushroom, the Amanita muscaria. The "fir"
because it is a denizen of the conifer forests ;26 the "carob" because this "pod" name was given
to both the mushroom and the food of pigs and "Prodigal Sons" ;27 and the "vine-cluster"
because the red cap of the fungus was so pictured, as we saw above.