{"id":17409,"date":"2025-03-17T14:30:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T13:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/?p=17409"},"modified":"2025-03-17T14:30:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T13:30:33","slug":"psykedeelinen-pyhan-patrikin-paiva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/blog\/a-psychedelic-st-patricks-day\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Paddy’s Day: A Secret Psychedelic Holiday?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many Saint\u2019s days, St Patrick\u2019s began as a day that you went to church and contemplated God. Pubs were actually closed, if you can believe it! With this in mind, it’s pretty crazy to think that today thirteen million pints of \u2018the black stuff\u2019<\/em> \u2014 i.e. Guinness<\/a> \u2014 are consumed across the world on the 17th of March!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how did we get here? And is it possible that psychedelics played a part in the forging of this most rowdy of holidays?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pyh\u00e4n Patrickin p\u00e4iv\u00e4n historia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First things first, turns out St Patrick was not Irish! Or called Patrick! The story goes that Maewyn Succat was born in A.D. 390 in Britain, to a wealthy family. However, at age 16 Maewyn was kidnapped and spirited away to Ireland. There he was enslaved and worked tending to sheep for several years. During this time he became deeply religious, and after a while (klassiseen pyhimystyyliin)<\/em> he began to hear the voice of God, imploring him to escape to Britain. He duly did, smuggling himself onto a ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when he got back to his family home, the voice told him he must return to Ireland. And so, ordained as a priest and with the new alias Patricius (my\u00f6hemmin Patrick) <\/em>based on the Latin word patr \u2014 meaning \u2018father\u2019, he returned to spread Christianity across the Emerald Isle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, the Pagan Irish lords were not keen on this. So, St Patrick was regularly beaten and imprisoned, living in poverty and hardship. He did however, preach the gospel, teach, and build the first Christian churches across Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H\u00e4n kuoli vuonna 461 maaliskuun 17. p\u00e4iv\u00e4n\u00e4, ja sen j\u00e4lkeen h\u00e4nen saavutuksistaan on syntynyt monia myyttej\u00e4 ja legendoja. K\u00e4\u00e4rmeiden karkottamisesta Irlannista (though IRL snakes never were native to Ireland in the first place)<\/em>, to baptising hundreds of people in a day, to raising 33 people from the dead (!) Paddy had enough miracles to his name to achieve sainthood. It is said that the shamrock became the symbol of Ireland because St Patrick used it to describe the Holy Trinity, with each leaf representing the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ensimm\u00e4inen paraati<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For centuries the 17th of March was observed by the Irish as a religious holiday, visiting church in the morning and then merrymaking with food and drink in the afternoon. However, the first official St. Patrick\u2019s day parade actually occurred in 1601 in a Spanish settlement in America! Surviving documents show that the priest presiding over the community was Irish \u2014 and so he wished to observe the celebration. Within a few decades it was established as a feast day, becoming a date of great importance to a growing population of Irish immigrants suffering fresh persecution in their new American home. A few hundred years later, it has grown into the luminous green behemoth we know and love today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Druidit ja pookiet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ok so far, so sober.\u00a0 But Ireland has a rich history of natural psychedelic use, dating back to the ancient times of the Druids. Druidit<\/a> were the Celtic equivalent of \u2018priests\u2019 who specialized in spirituality, philosophy and natural magic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The psychedelic Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) <\/em>mushroom favoured by the Celts features heavily in Irish iconography, and stories of spirits, fairies and \u2018little people\u2019 abound\u00a0 in Irish culture. In fact the slang for magic mushrooms is the same as the word for fairies \u2014 \u2018pookies\u2019. Now, that can\u2019t be a coincidence <\/strong>can it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Irish Mythology Uses Psychedelic \u2018Codes\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, it seems there always did exist a deep psychedelic pulse in Ireland. However, in ancient mythology the use of psychedelics like magic mushrooms are often shrouded in metaphor \u2014 i.e. any references to drugs are in ‘code’ \u2014 kinda like today to be honest! <\/em>Many Irish legends feature a person gaining great knowledge or power from chowing down on some kind of magic \u2018edible\u2019. The classic Irish legend \u2018The Salmon of Knowledge\u2019<\/em> is a prime example of this.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story goes that the Druid Finnegas long sought the legendary \u2018salmon of knowledge\u2019.<\/em> The salmon had become magical by eating the 'tiedon p\u00e4hkin\u00e4t' <\/em>\u2014 hazelnuts imbued with the secrets of the world. The person who eats this salmon will then know them too. Once he finally catches it, his young assistant Finn McCool (<\/em>Fion Mac Cumhail)<\/em>, tasked with cooking the salmon, is scalded by the fat from the sizzling fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instinctively sucking on his burning thumb, Finn accidentally gains all the knowledge that his master had sought. Forever more, when he puts his thumb to his lips, \u2018unknown things\u2019 come to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only does this sound rather like the spiritual insight brought on by a shroom trip, it turns out that there are many crossovers between the ancient Irish words for \u2018nut\u2019 and \u2018mushroom\u2019. Could it be as simple as a translational difference, totally changing the subtext of a legend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And not only that \u2014 the head of the Liberty Cap<\/a> mushroom is often described as nut-like, as well as thumb-like\u2026 hmmm so young Finn puts his \u2018thumb\u2019 to his mouth to gain insight, eh? Interesting\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRed Flesh Of A Dog, Pig Or Cat\u201c<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are many traditional tales in a similar vein. In numerous ancient rituals, including the Imbas Forosnai<\/a>, participants were told to chew the 'koiran, sian tai kissan punainen liha'. <\/em>. Many believe this to be code for the scarlet fleshy cap of the Fly Agaric. This is supported by what was said to happen next\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the Imbas Forosnai was a knowledge-seeking ritual in which, after eating the \u2018red flesh\u2019, the participant placed their hands over their eyes and chanted. Calling out to their ancestors, they entered a trance that would last 3 days. They were watched over in the darkness by fellow Druids who were experienced in these matters \u2014 sounds rather like a shaman or even a trip sitter, hey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, this sacred ritual is not so different from Terence McKennan<\/a> 'sankarillinen annos<\/strong>\u2019, which goes as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take 5 grams and sit in a dark room, with no distractions, and trip your way to enlightenment.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some things never change I guess\u2026\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is said that a lot of these \u2018code-words\u2019 for psychedelics were actually\u00a0introduced to shroud the ancient knowledge of the Celts from the Christians who overthrew them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrate St Patrick\u2019s Day The Psychedelic Way!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t think St Patrick would begrudge you however, from celebrating his day the way the ancient Irish might have \u2014 with a psychedelic trip from a shroom, or that other \u2018nut-of-knowlege\u2019 \u2014 the magic truffle. So this St Patrick\u2019s Day why not expand your mind like Finn McCool? And remember:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026the whole world is Irish on the Seventeenth o\u2019 March!\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T. A Daly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Patrick\u2019s Day \u2014 the Irish holiday that has become synonymous with raucous, green-hued merrymaking. Sure, it\u2019s associated with whiskey, beer, and Guinness, but dig a little deeper into Celtic history and things become a little more trippy. To celebrate, we\u2019re asking, just how psychedelic is St. Paddy\u2019s Day?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,120],"tags":[],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-17409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychedelic-culture","category-seasonal-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17409"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230152,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17409\/revisions\/230152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17409"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=17409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}