Soma in the Americas

"Soma in the Americas" is a study dedicated to the pioneering efforts of Robert Gordon Wasson and Dr. Stephan F. de Borhegyi. From the time of their initial meeting in Guatemala in 1953 until Borhegyi's untimely death in 1969, the two scientists worked in close cooperation and shared a voluminous correspondence of over 500 letters. As the result of their collaborative efforts, as well as Wasson's extensive research into mushroom symbolism in Siberia and Southeast Asia, they surmised that if the mushroom stones did, indeed, represent a mushroom cult, than the mushroom itself was an iconographic metaphor, and the mushroom stone effigies would supply the clues necessary to decipher their meaning.

Stephan F. de Borhegyi, based his theory of a mushroom cult among the ancient Maya on his identification of a mushroom stone cult that came into existence in the Guatemala Highlands and Pacific coastal area around 1000 B.C. along with a trophy head cult associated with human sacrifice and the Mesoamerican ballgame. He supported this theory with a solid body of archaeological and historical evidence.

The Wassons, published Borhegyi’s article on the subject in their monumental book, Russia; Mushrooms and History, (Wasson and Wasson, 1957).

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