Oooh! I had such a discussion with some Reiki-adherents on another list about this.
The common figure of the roly-poly red-and-white ho-ho-ho santa was commisssioned by Coca Cola, sometime in the 30s I think (I could be way off on dates), as part of a Christmas advertising campaign. They employed a German emigré anthropologist to come up with a figure, and so he did. This image is (speaking as an advertising man) a triumph of brand marketing.
What Coca-Cola was unaware of, and what their boffin never bothered to tell them, was that his image for Santa was dervied from Northern European shamanic practice, and nothing to do with Christianity at all.
THE NORTH POLE
The whole thing revolves around the psychotropic mushroom, Fly Agaric. This is a toxic and poisonous mushroom, the preparation of which was known to the shamans all across Northern Europe. Best eaten dried, there are others means...
COME FLY WITH ME
Reindeer have a paticular fondness for the mushroom, and like pigs with truffles, would sniff them out, eat them, and become intoxicated. In some places the urine of a 'bombed out' reindeer was collected as the drug passed through the system becuase some of the more toxic elements had been filtered out. This urine could then be drunk with safety, and the drinker would then join the reindeer!
If you want to know how you catch a urinating reindeer - you don't, but you follow it, and eat the yellow snow in its wake. Many believe this is the origin of the European term 'getting pissed' (ie drunk) whereas 'across the pond', in the colonies, I believe you chaps consider it something to do with becoming annoyed?
In other places the owners waited untilk the creature 'came down,' then slaughtered and ate it. The fresh meat was still strongly affective.
There aare records of this drinking the urine process going through 5 or 6 people before the urine loses its potency!
SANTA'S OUTFIT
This, the 'magic mushroom' with it's white stalk, red cap spotted white, gace the colour scheme for the Santa outfit. In pre-1900 English Christmas cards, the Christmas figure (a generic mix of Christian and pagan myth) usually wears green.
COMING DOWN THE CHIMNEY
The Siberian winter dwelling, or yurt, had a smokehole in the roof, supported by a birch pole. Often the yurt would be completely buried by drifting snow, and visiting friends, for the athletic, involved entry through the smoke hole.
The village headsmen could afford fly agaric, whereas most could not. But the headman would collect his own urine, which, like the reindeer, was still strongly affective. Kept in wineskins, this was often given to the poor in midwinter festivals. As the yurts were snowed in, the eaasiest was was lowering this 'gift' through the smoke hole in the roof.
Also at midwinter festivals, the shaman would enter the yurt through the smokehole, carrying a sack with dried Fly Agaric or urine from already intoxicated people, perform his ceremonies, and ascend the birch pole and leave. Ordinary people believed that the shaman could fly, either himself or on flying reindeer.
In the shamanic traditions of Siberia, the shaman would ingest fly-agaric in order to journey to the Sky Father and bring back gifts of knowledge and power for his community. Dressed in a warm, fur-lined, ritual costume, with a thick belt hung with bells, the shaman would make his journey at nightfall to consult with these otherworldly spirits.
It seems that there is also a symbiotic relationship between the fly-agaric mushroom and the birch tree - the mushrooms grow in the shade of the tree - which would account for the 'sacred birch' tradition in European shamanism. Indeed, within shamanism, trees, per se, are held as sacred, as homes of the elementals or gateways to spirit, and connections between different life forms (such as the mushroom and the tree) are revered since the shamanic belief is that we are all - every life form - connected, one to another.
Thomas
It was a perfect plan and would have worked.... but there was one tiny problem he never really showed up.... :| Theres me at ten years old ready to take over the world and boom..... foiled again, Would of gotten away with it too if it wasnt for those pesky kids!... Kinda going scooby doo here sorry.
