Jesus is a Fungal God The little boy is watching his mother. They are inside, out of the metallic heat of noon, and she stands at the one table they own, soft-cedar, made by his father and older brother. He leans against the table’s leg, tugging at his mother’s skirt. Wishing she would feed him a date cake. Or pay him any attention at all. “Imah, tell me a story,” he begs. His brothers are off working with his father and he has spent all day in the nearby pasture, chasing the sheep. Now he is bored and bug-bitten. But she tussles his hair and shushes him. Slowly, the closeness of her warm body soothes him, and he watches her pull a sheet of linen from an old stone bowl. The smell is piquant, sour, like ewe’s milk. She pinches a bit of citrus-yellow dough from the bowl before covering it back over. Carefully, she rolls the old dough between her hands until it is a perfect orb. Transfixed, he watches as she carefully nestles it into a pale, sticky batch of new dough. With the same care she uses to comb his thick curls, to help him cut his meat on holidays, she begins to press and knead the old dough into the new. Suddenly there is a sequin of light. Another. Like starlight, or a combustion of dust motes. Something like a cloud shimmers above his mother’s hands. He blinks. And it is gone. Years later, the boy will grow into a man and will remember the smell of the dough, the loose, blue shadows gliding across the distant wall, the warmth of his mother’s strong thigh against his cheek, and the scintillating vision that hovered above her hands. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the leaven a woman used in making bread,” he will tell a small group of his friends as they share a loaf of bread by the seaside. “Even though she put only a little leaven in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”
So grateful for this! I have been saying for 8-9 years that if Jesus lived around our North American forests, he would have said, “The kingdom of God is like a fungus!” because it is invisible to us most of the time even though reality is suffused with its threads of subversive love and justice. Then it shows itself, perhaps briefly—here, there, who knows? You have shown me that he DID tell that parable! As a Presbyterian minister (with a biochem degree), I’m pretty firmly monotheist but eager to learn from and celebrate with others!
Thank you! Loved rereading this essay! The deep mycorrhizal contexts and connections of smalls, spirit, and myth woven together with history are deliciously nourishing! Sending lots of love!
As I previously posted on Facebook, this made me remember how decades ago I thought how foolish the book "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross" by John Allegro was, and now I think there might be something to it after all.
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My favorite phrase: " Like starlight, or a combustion of dust motes."
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The fact that I am a fan of Parcival may explain why for a split second I misread "fermented foods" as "fermented fools"
Jesus is a Fungal God
So grateful for this! I have been saying for 8-9 years that if Jesus lived around our North American forests, he would have said, “The kingdom of God is like a fungus!” because it is invisible to us most of the time even though reality is suffused with its threads of subversive love and justice. Then it shows itself, perhaps briefly—here, there, who knows? You have shown me that he DID tell that parable! As a Presbyterian minister (with a biochem degree), I’m pretty firmly monotheist but eager to learn from and celebrate with others!
My god, you. i just had to hand my computer to a friend at hte coffee shop so she could read every word. you are unparalleled.
Thank you! Loved rereading this essay! The deep mycorrhizal contexts and connections of smalls, spirit, and myth woven together with history are deliciously nourishing! Sending lots of love!
As I previously posted on Facebook, this made me remember how decades ago I thought how foolish the book "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross" by John Allegro was, and now I think there might be something to it after all.
=-=-=
My favorite phrase: " Like starlight, or a combustion of dust motes."
=-=-=
The fact that I am a fan of Parcival may explain why for a split second I misread "fermented foods" as "fermented fools"
Blessing for a Time of Trial
In this time of immense uncertainty,
In this moment of incomprehensible complexity,
We ask to be present with, and unmastered by -
Fear, anger, and assumptions.
May we have the strength of spirit, the openness of heart, and the flexibility of mind
To find and follow the path of harmony in the midst of chaos.
May we remember the miraculous gifts of Nature.
May we recognize that nothing is, nor can be unnatural.
May we know that if we go to war with Nature,
We will be at war forever and never triumph.
May we have the kindness and compassion to care for ourselves.
May we have the generosity and love to care for others.
May we have the patience and gentility to hold with calm
That which we would wish to shun.
May we be vigilant and wakeful.
May we use our voices to protect and defend
Those who do not yet know how to speak or sing.
May we bear witness to those who would be silenced
And speak truth to power, that their gifts may be shared and celebrated.
In this Time of Trial, may we have the fortitude to keep walking through
The dark night, with faith that morning will come,
And the sun will rise.