ARILD TVEITO
From the Norwegian Entheomycological Society´s Collection
Michael Ripinsky-Naxon wrote there "appears to be a very fine line between the shamanistic initiations in places like the Franco-Cantabrian caves (e.g. Lascaux) and those connected with worship of the ‘Venus’ goddesses . . . shamanism appears to be an outgrowth of the Mother Goddess and nature cults . . . [and] there exists no serious doubt any longer about a direct connection between shamanism and plant hallucinogens."
However, neither Ripinsky-Naxon nor anyone else has ever adequately explained how plant hallucinogens and shamanism were related to Venusian, Mother Goddesses, perhaps because doing so would have required explaining the bizarre features of the many figurines that fostered the notion of such a goddess in the first place. This is not to say that many theories have not been posited to explain the bizarre features of these figurines. Rather, it is to say that none of these theories, most of which have focused broadly on fertility or more narrowly on human sexuality, has ever adequately explained why so many figurines are pocked, faceless, handless, headless, footless, one-legged or marked in some way with red pigment.
Stephen R. Berlant Ph.D: The Origin and Significance of Anthropomorphic, Goddess Figurines with Particular Emphasis on The Venus of Willendorf. 1999 (www.ethnomycology.com)
--Galleri Annen Etage
The annex at Kunstakademiet
St. Olavsgt. 32, Oslo
http://gallriannenetage.blogspot.com
