Yes, Christmas is grossly commercial, a taint that touches other year-closing holidays as well. And yet this time, and these traditions, have deep mythological roots that connect us to important gifts of the spirit.
The mythic figure of Santa Claus reveals the tangled history of our year end aspirations and need for community. I hope this snapshot of some of his origin stories adds interest and inspiration to your holiday season.
Warm wishes for a wonder-filled season. See you in 2023!
Transcript of Christian saints, Norse gods, and magic mushrooms: myths of Santa Claus
Hello, and welcome to Myth Matters, storytelling and conversation about mythology and what myth can offer us today. I’m your host and personal mythologist Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours, you are part of this story circle.
And wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world, I hope it’s warmer where you are then it is here in Fort Collins, Colorado right now. I’m so happy that I moved from Southern California to be present for the coldest temperatures in almost 30 years. All to say that I’m very happy that we just celebrated the solstice and are making our turn back towards the longer and warmer days here in the northern hemisphere. The Solstice is one of many holidays during the season and today I want to talk about one of the best known mythological figures, here in the United States anyway, and in other parts of the world that have been touched by European culture. Santa Claus.
Santa Claus is a mythic figure. And his origins are murky in the manner of the mythological. I want to share several of the theories about Santa with you in the hope that maybe some information and the old stories might enhance our appreciation for this time of year and the significance of the old holidays and rituals that we’ve inherited. Yes, the relentless commercialization, and the consumer culture is hard to take. It points out a lot of what is wrong about contemporary life.
And yet underneath the crass and the trivial is the spirit of generosity, and compassion, gratitude for the gift of life, and the understanding that we are in it together, all of us on this beautiful planet Earth. In the figure of Santa Claus, we have a male hero without a gun, you might notice, one whose tools are laughter, kindness, and generosity. So personally, I like Santa.
Let’s begin with one of the most common stories about Santa’s history. Some say that Santa’s predecessor is St. Nicholas, a Catholic bishop and Saint in the fourth century. St. Nicholas lived in what is now Turkey, and was well known as a miracle worker and the giver of anonymous gifts to those in need.
According to one legend, St. Nicholas heard about a very poor man who had three daughters. The daughters were unable to marry because they didn’t have dowries. The family’s poverty was so dire that their father was about to sell them into slavery, which meant prostitution. According to the story, St. Nicholas heard about the situation, went to the man’s house at night, and tossed a bag of gold coins through the window.
He did this for three nights, a bag of gold coins for each one of the daughters. Now we know it was St. Nicholas because on the third night, the father kept watch in order to learn the identity of his benefactor, and he discovered the generosity of St. Nicholas. This is one of many stories about the generosity and kindness of St. Nicholas.
The inspiration that he offers us likely explains the longevity of his stories, and also how he came to be morphed and reworked into a figure like Santa Claus, that has relevance for us today.
Another likely ancestor of our present day Santa Claus is the god Odin from Norse mythology. Odin was the Father God in the Norse pantheon. He was called the “Father of All.” Together with his brothers, Ve and Vili, he killed the first giant and created the world out of the giant’s body. Odin made the first man out of an Ash Tree and the first woman out of an Elm. As a god of the wind, Odin gave the human beings soul, life and the breath.
The myths of the Norse pantheon fascinates me because unlike other mythologies, this group of Gods operates with the knowledge, the prophecy, that they will be defeated in a great war, die, and that their world will end. So there is a sense of consequences for these divine figures, a weight and a shadow of tragedy that allows these gods to be heroic in a way that the Greek gods, for example, cannot be. The Greek gods live forever, in a state of perfection, messing around with human beings, because what else would alleviate their boredom? But the Norse gods? Well, in Odin in particular, there’s a dimension of love, love for the world and service, because they fear the end.
Odin was dedicated to preventing the big war that was prophesized. This war was called the Ragnarok, and he was told that it would bring the end of his cosmic time. If you are interested in a really great contemporary handling of this idea of the death of these gods, I highly recommend the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It’s one of my favorite books. And if you go into it, knowing it’s about Norse mythology, I think you’ll really enjoy the references.
Anyway, Odin, as the father of all, carries the responsibility to protect the world. Odin was the god of battle and death. This was a war that he was preparing to fight after all, but he knew there was a limit to the power of the sword, and although he gathered the best warriors around him, he also worked to acquire insight and wisdom. This, he was also the god of poetry. As part of his quest for understanding and the means to prevent this great war, he went to the well of knowledge, which was at the base of the great world tree.
The well of knowledge was located at the base of the second root of the great world tree, the root that went to Midgard and the world of the humans. This well was carefully guarded by Mirmir, who drank from the well every day and was reputed to be the wisest man in the world. When Odin heard of Mirmir and the well, he decided to go and drink his fill.
Odin found the well, greeted the guardian, and made his request to drink. Mirmir knew who he was of course, and why he had come. He told Odin that the knowledge provided by this water surpassed anything that the god could imagine. “Whoever drinks of it gains a second sight,” he said, “the ability to see the depths of all things, to see what is otherwise invisible. You must pay for this power of insight.”
Odin tore out one of his eyes and dropped it beside the well. Then he plunged his face into the water and drank until he would burst. Thereafter, Odin had only one-eye and was also known as the “All- Seeing.”
So Odin was wise, like Santa Claus, wise and very well informed. We’re told that Santa Claus has worldwide knowledge of who is naughty and who’s nice and Odin had two big black ravens, named Thought and Memory. These ravens traveled throughout the realms, the different worlds, and they kept Odin apprised of everything that happened, especially in Midgard among the human beings. Odin also had the long gray, white hair and beard. He didn’t have flying reindeer though. He had a flying horse.
Odin had an eight-legged horse, dappled grey, named Sleipnir. Sleipnir was a magical creature, able to leap great distances fly through the air. And it was widely agreed that Sleipnir was the finest horse that ever lived, that he was supremely intelligent, and courageous. Odin acquired Sleipnir as a result of a little incident that involved Loki, the Norse trickster. I think I talk about Loki in a podcast from the first or second season of Myth Matters, so you might look for that if you’re interested in him.
The short version, is that in the early days of Asgard, the gods wanted to build a wall around their settlement. Remember the Ragnarok threat. A builder came to them and said that he could do it in just three months all by himself. They didn’t think that that was even remotely possible. And then the builder said, “Well, if I do do it, then I want the goddess Freya as my wife and I’m also going to want the sun and the moon.” The gods, well, they didn’t really trust the builder. They didn’t really want to make this deal, but Loki said, “Hey, how else are you going to get a wall without having to build it yourself?” So, they agreed to do it.
Then it turned out that this builder had a magical horse. Yes, a magical horse that was very, very handy in this building project. And so ultimately, it looked like he was going to complete the task on time and the gods were going to have to give him the sun and the moon and the goddess Freya, which they did not want to do. So, they went to Loki and said, “Hey, it’s all your fault. You have to solve this problem or we’re going to torture you and it’s going to be very unpleasant.”
So, Loki turned himself into a mare. He lured away the builders’ stallion, thus putting an end to the building of the wall. And a little bit later, Loki gave birth to a grey foal with eight legs. Yes, he gave birth to Sleipner who became Oden’s flying horse.
Odin, as I said, was, among other things, the god of war, and he often led his warriors to battle or out for what the people called, “the wild hunt.” It was said that you felt this band of hunters pass by whenever the wind blew hard. But during the twelve days of Christmas, beginning with the Winter Solstice, Odin was known to ride with a larger and less reputable, more rowdy, band. It was believed that the gates of the Underworld opened and the spirits of the dead often made an appearance. The Yule fires were lit to encourage the return of the sun. Prudent folk stayed indoors, away from the dark paths and the wild woods.
According to the stories, Odin rushed through the skies on Sleipnir, dressed in his dark cloak and wide brimmed hat, with his long white beard flowing. Before him were a hooting owl and his two dark ravens. Behind him was a phantom horde of hounds, the ghosts of dead heroes, and the souls of those caught between heaven and hell. This group hurtled through the night sky in pursuit of quarry known only to them.
Down on earth, the passing of the raging host in this wild hunt was marked by a tumultuous racket of pounding hooves, howling dogs and raging winds. Every person with common sense was inside, close by the fire. But if some reason, a traveler happened to be outside when the hunter passed by, he would be judged on his purity of heart, his courage and sense of humor. It was very dangerous to disrespect the Wild Hunt. According to one account, a miller’s son once rudely yelled out to the hunters, “Take me with you!” They replied, “If you want to hunt, you can also eat,” and threw him a human leg.
Now, if you passed the tests and were judged as worthy, you could go home with your shoes full of gold. There is a story about a drunken peasant who had such luck. He was coming home from town late at night and his path led him through the woods. The wind started blowing and a voice called out, “In the middle of the path! In the middle of the path!” This was a friendly warning that the rough huntsmen were coming by. They were known to spare those who kept to the middle way. But the peasant was drunk. He paid no attention to it.
Suddenly a tall man with a long white beard, riding a gray horse, came out of the clouds. He tossed the peasant one end of a heavy chain. “How strong are you?” he said. “Let’s have a contest. Let’s see who can pull the hardest.” The peasant took hold of the heavy chain and while the hunter remounted he wrapped his end of the chain around a nearby oak tree.
The hunter pulled and pulled and could not budget the man. He came back down and again dismounted. “You wrapped your end around the oak tree,” he said to the peasant. “No,” responded the peasant, quickly undoing the chain. “See, here it is in my hands.”
“We’ll have another go then,” cried the hunter, “I’ll have you in the clouds yet!” As he got back onto his horse the peasant quickly wrapped the chain around the oak tree again. Up above the dogs barked and the horses neighed and the hunter pulled and pulled. The oak tree creaked at its roots and shook. The peasant was terrified but the oak tree stood.
“You have pulled well!” said the hunter. “I’ve challenged many men and you are the first to withstand me. I will reward you.” Then he rejoined the ghostly horde of hunters and they went on their way with a fearful rumbling and howling. The peasant, subdued and suddenly quite sober, cautiously went along his way.
Suddenly, from unseen heights, a groaning stag fell before him. The hunter appeared and jumped from his gray horse. He pulled out a sharp knife and quickly cut up the game. “The blood is yours,” he said to the peasant, “and a hind quarter as well.” “My lord,” said the peasant, “your servant has neither a bucket nor a pot.”
“Pull off your boot!” said the hunter. The peasant did so and the hunter filled it with blood. “Now take the blood and this meat home to your wife and child,” ordered the hunter. Then he was gone.
At first the peasant was so terrified that he barely felt the burden. But gradually it became heavier and heavier until he was barely able to carry it. Tired and bent and dripping with sweat, he finally reached his hut. Behold, his boot was filled with gold, and the hindquarter was a leather bag filled with silver coins!
In the old days, children used to leave their boots or socks out by the hearth on Solstice Eve, filled with carrots, hay, and sugar for Sleipnir, as part of the Yuletode celebration. In return, Odin would leave them a gift. Now, we leave out milk and cookies for Santa, and he does the same. Many think that Odin and St. Nicholas were blended under the influence of Christianity, producing the image of a kindly gift bearing Santa Claus with a long white beard, and eight flying reindeer.
Eight flying reindeer. Isn’t that one of the most fantastic pieces of Santa’s story? And the mystery of his space and time-defying journey to deliver gifts to all of the children, all around the world, in one night. Here’s an emerging theory about the origins of our mythology of Santa and his reindeer that I find very interesting and credible, given the scholarship and my personal experiences, that Santa is the result of shamanic practices using a magic mushroom.
You may have noticed tree ornaments shaped like amanita mushrooms, and other depictions that show up in Christmas decorations around the world, particularly in Scandinavia, and Northern Europe. According to this theory, the indigenous people native to what we know now as Siberia, the Tungusic people, for example, and the Sami people in the Lapland region of northern Scandinavia are groups that had a very close relationship to the hallucinogenic mushroom, amanita muscaria, the holy mushroom, also known as the Alice in Wonderland mushroom.
You are probably familiar with it–I’ll also put some images on my website–it’s red and white. And it’s found under certain conifers, i.e. Christmas trees. This fungi has a symbiotic relationship with the roots of the trees. Now, reindeer are common in Siberia and Northern Europe. And the traditional peoples have very close relationship to them. One reason for this, interestingly, is that the reindeer seek out the amanita mushrooms. The reindeer seek out the mushrooms and eat them and presumably trip on them.
Now, it’s quite possible that it is by observing the reindeer that humans came to understand the properties of these mushrooms and also originally how the mushrooms may have been rendered useful to human beings. Amanita muscaria is very toxic. It has to be handled carefully. One common metho involves drying. And another way that the chemical compounds in the mushroom can be separated is through having the reindeer ingest them, and then the urine. Yes, eating their yellow snow.
Amanita muscaria is also known as the fly agaric because flying is a common experience in the hallucinations induced by the mushroom, along with distortions in time and space. The Alice in Wonderland experience. The mushroom was sacred to the people and central to the shamanic tradition. According to Carl Ruck, a classics professor at Boston University who has been contributing to the scholarship around the use of entheogens (plants basically, that have been used for millennia to produce a non-ordinary state of consciousness. God revealers, in other words)–according to Ruck, these shamans had a tradition of dressing up like the mushrooms, they dressed up in red suits with white spots.
These peoples lived in yurts. In the winter time, lots of snow piled up and they frequently went in and out of their dwellings through the central smoke hole. Yes, the chimney. Between the solstice and the end of the year, the shamans would travel around to the people bringing mushrooms on reindeer drawn sleds. They would perform ceremonies for people. The gifts then, brought by Santa, in the form of healing and visions, and perhaps, dried mushrooms. I’m going to post a link to an animated short film by Matthew Salton called “Santa is a Psychedelic Mushroom” that was shared by Atlantic magazine on my website at mythic mojo.com.
Now I want to share a few more thoughts about Santa, specifically about Santa and his elves. But first, a couple of announcements from the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
Woohoo an end of the year gift. A new book is coming out, Myth and Modern Living: A Practical Campbell Compendium written by my dear friend and colleague Stephen Gerringer. In his 24 funny and thoughtful essays, Gerringer explores familiar and esoteric aspects of Joseph Campbell’s vision, and Gerringer adds a lot of his own thoughts, which I very much appreciate.
You can add a paperback copy or an eBook to your library by making a $10 or more donation to the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and I will post that link at my website, mythic mojo.com.
I’m also going to post a link to a short essay of mine, titled “The Seeds of a Story” that is the latest bit of writing in the JCF’s weekly Mythblast series. I highly recommend subscribing to the Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythblast if you would like to receive interesting reflections on Campbell’s work and mythology today. There are a range of interesting and talented people contributing to the Mythblast series.
A big warm welcome to new subscribers: Maryn, Cosima, Jane, Tamara, Bridget, Paul, Meret, Henry, Lani, Nancy, Bill, Trish, Paul, Sue, Jacqui, Sydney, Laura, Celia, Kyle, Nance, Greg, Tegan, and Miriam.
If you’re new to Myth Matters, I invite you to head over to the Mythic Mojo website, where you will find all these links that I’m mentioning. You can get on the email list. You’ll also find a transcript of this episode and information about my other offerings. There are a number of different ways that you can work with me to bring the power of myth and story into your life and explore your own mythic dimension.
You’ll also find the link to Myth Matters on Patreon. I am very grateful for the patrons and supporters of this podcast. Thank you so much for your support. A special shout out to: Jane, Jennessee, Emmett, and Ronny. There are some benefits to patrons beyond the good feeling of bringing this work forward, and you’ll find all of those details if you click the link.
Now, back to Santa and the elves. This figure of St. Nicholas was blended in with local folklore, a great deal of which we got from the very snowy and cold parts of Europe and Scandinavia. Now as part of the original Yuletide celebrations, the bringer of gifts was a goat, the Yule Goat. And another figure blended into this whole mix here is an elf from Nordic folklore, called the “Tomte.” The Tomte replaced the Yule Goat as the one who delivered Christmas presents about maybe 200 years ago, and subsequently then joined the mythology or the clan of Santa Claus.
The Tomte is a small elderly man with a white beard, around three feet tall, dressed in gray with a red woolen cap. And if you go to track down these images that have the aminita muscaria mushroom in them, Christmas decorations, you will also find Tomte, usually carrying them. The Tomte or the elf cares for the animals and the children and the other property at a homestead. And they have a connection I think, to other genies that is spirits of a particular place, and also ancestors.
Our ancestors– without whom we wouldn’t be here, right? They typically ask very little in return for their protection and their hard work, but they do demand respect. In some traditions, around Solstice time it was proper to leave the Tomte who had worked for you all year, a bowl of porridge.
So, we have Odin, Santa Claus, St. Nick, household elves, ancestor spirits, shamans and even the psychedelic mushroom eating reindeer in Siberia all wrapped up here together. They all point toward the reality of an unseen realm behind this one and the beautiful truth of our gifts and fate. Stories like these and others that we tell in this holiday season, remind us that we are all recipients of some form of generosity in an abundant, magical world.
In 1897, Frank Church, an editor at The Sun newspaper, replied to a letter that he received from an eight year old girl named Virginia. Virginia asked him “Is there a Santa Claus?” Church said “yes there is, as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist.” He told her that nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world. He concluded:
” You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. “
There is indeed a Santa Claus. And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. If we have a better understanding of our need for myth, and all that our old stories offer, we can live more satisfying lives. We can inhabit a better story and create a more beautiful, just and sustainable world.
I’m so grateful to you for listening. I wish you a marvelous and wonder-filled holiday season and end of 2022. I’m going to take a little break, in keeping with the relatively short days and hibernating energy here I’m northern Colorado. So I will meet you again for season 5 of Myth Matters in late January.
Until then my friend, take good care of yourself and keep the mystery in your life alive.
The links that I mentioned are in the transcript above!
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