Spanish) is a class much higher than a curendera or “wise women/medicine woman” (in English). Maria was the last tetonalto woman as a bridge to the 15th


century. Montoya reveals the 20th


Flesh Of God: Te Sacred Mushroom Traditions of the


Mazatec Shamans Enrique Gonzalez Rubio Montoya Christian Ortiz, Editor ISBN: 979-8453730759 ASIN: B09CD5VLZ3 2021, Independently Published 186 pages, Paperback, Dimensions: 6 X 0.42 X 9 inches


T


his is a review of the English translation of the above author’s


2013 Spanish book Conversaciones con Maria Sabina y Otros Curanderos Hongos Sagrados, $12 (or free on Kindle). Montoya’s book is bound to be a


classic among the spiritual Mazatec mythos of both pre-20th century and pre-Hispanic Mazatec sacred mushroom cultural rituals and ceremonies. Montoya’s experiences in 1973 with Maria Sabina were similar to mine in 1972, with Maria Sabina and her family. His description of sacred mushroom cultural ceremonies rings absolutely true to the beliefs and experiences in those remote Oaxacan mountain period. Te transiting of pre-Columbian sacred mushroom practices and beliefs of pre- Colombian with compatible Catholic rituals is discussed. Bemushroomed pre- Hispanic Nahua tetonalti females and tlamanime males were called “people who know things.” Maria Sabina was a chjota chjine (Mazatec for “people of knowledge”). Her status as a sabia (in


52 FUNGI Volume 15:1 Winter 2022


century mingling of simpatico Catholic icons in the ancient religious sacred mushroom veladas. Maria, a good Catholic Mazatec, was a ceremonial songstress, poet, ventriloquist, and healer using ancient sacred chants during enactments of sacred mushroom rituals. Her daughter Apollonia assisted by making nature sounds like birds or rain. People who understand the Nahua mythos of sacred mushrooms will love this book that resulted from Montoya living with the Mazatecans. Tis was a world without electric power or phone lines, where the farming techniques stretched back centuries in the remote rugged Oaxacan mountains. After the 1980s, the 20th


century technology


of electricity, refrigeration, TVs, and radios came to Hualta de Jimenez. Outsiders who were not Mazatec were kept out of Hualta by the army from 1967 to 1977 (a return to pre-1950s normality). Montoya’s book is written as a narration of his experiences with shamanic religious Mazatec healing, telepathy, divination, and healing by touching with Mazatec religious rituals and ceremonies. Te stories connect to the living land as shamanic. His descriptions of Tunder Mountain and the Altar of the Hill of Worship ring true as sacred consecrated sanctified places of shamanic power. His book might be unnerving perhaps to people who are foreign to the hybrid Catholic Christianity-Mazatec sacred mushroom mythos of the “other than human,” or OTH. Sacred mushroom prehispanic rituals are known by Nahua Mesoamerican anthropologists to have been used to contact the non- human Other. Montoya’s awakened dreaming bemushroomed religious thaumaturgy (miracles) is outside of Western dualistic reality where there is a separation of the natural, unnatural, and supernatural. Western lack of knowledge or respect for the Nahua Mesoamerican cultural wisdom is and has been an elitist western colonialist conceit. Montaya writes “Tat in this materialist civilization, we underrate the wisdom of Maria Sabina and any sense of Te Sacred.” -Tom Lane


Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager’s Guide to Finding, Identifying, and Using More Tan


25 Wild Fungi Jess Starwood 2021, Te Countryman Press ISBN: 9781682686348 208 pages, hardcover $28.00


A


ll mushroom hunters can relate to those moments when we are


searching and lose track of time, or hyper focus on a small detail of nature that fascinates us. Jess Starwood, the author of Mushroom Wanderland understands these moments. In general, this book provides good, basic information, a fanciful, almost spiritual, approach to the world of fungi, and our connection to nature. Te table of contents was a bit all


over the place visually with at least three fonts and different sizes. Sections include Introduction, Te Forager’s Forest, Meet the Mushrooms, Medicinal Mushrooms, Toxic Mushrooms, and Other Curiosities. Introduction. Troughout the book,


the formatting relies on hyphenated words at the end of sentences, which is not my jam for easy reading, but as with the comments on the Table of Contents, this is a stylistic preference. Author weaves lovely text that elicits


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