1. Name

The names for Psilocybe caerulescens mushrooms in different languages reflect the manners by which these fungi grow and their cultural context in Mesoamerica. In the Mazatec language of Oaxaca, Mexico, the Psilocybe caerulescens (Image 2) is named “‘nti' si´tho´,” meaning “the little one who springs forth,” which is appropriate because these mushrooms “sprout upward” from where they grow. As part of their cultural heritage, Mazatec people of Oaxaca, Mexico, and their environs use “‘nti' si´tho´” mushrooms for healing and divination rituals. In the Spanish language, Psilocybe caerulescens is named “derrumbe,” meaning “landslide,” for the mushrooms grow where soil has slipped down. It is known in English as the “landslide mushroom” (Psilocybe caerulescens is also documented growing in sugarcane fields). This entry favors the Mazatec Native term “'nti' si´tho´” for Psilocybe caerulescens.

Details embedded in and surrounding the word “'nti' si´tho´” reveal these sacred fungi’s place in Mazatec culture. The first syllable “‘nti’“ is a diminutive that conveys deference and affection, displaying the intimacy Mazatec people have with these mushrooms, and the word “si´tho´” means “that which springs forth”; therefore, “'nti' si´tho´” can be translated “the little one who springs forth” or “the dear little one who sprouts.” Roger Heim and Robert Gordon Wasson explain the Mazatec-language term in a way that stresses the mysterious nature of the mushrooms and their facilitated experiences: “That which comes of its own accord, no one knows from where, like the wind that comes without us knowing where from or why.” [1] Rolf Singer and Alexander H. Smith explore the connection between “nti' si´tho´” and the shifted earth: “'Nti-xi-tjo-qui-xo, pronounced ndee'-shree-t(h) oe-kee-shro, meaning dear little thing that comes out of the earth of a landslide.” [2]

In addition to the Mazatec people, “‘nti' si´tho´” is considered sacred by other Mesoamerican cultures. For instance, in Yaitépec pueblo, Oaxaca, Psilocybe caerulescens is reverently connected to wisdom and called “cui´ ya jo´ o su´,” meaning “the mushroom of higher reason” in Chatino language. [3] The significant connections between Psilocybe caerulescens and wisdom or higher reason are further explored in this entry.

This entry focuses on Psilocybe caerulescens var. mazatecorum (in taxonomy and botany, “var.” means variant and usually refers to a place or the surname of a botanist who discovered the variant) due to the rich historical and anthropological evidence for this particular mushroom’s sacramental, divinatory, and therapeutic use in the Mazatec Highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico.

2. Introduction and Artwork

Contemporary Mazatec artists are inspired by the sacramental uses of Psilocybe caerulescens that they call “‘nti' si´tho´.” Asunción Alvarado’s 2025 painting titled Nindo Ngan´íó Cerro de la Gran Energía—meaning “In The Mountain of Great Energy"—features sacred “'nti' si´tho´” mushrooms surrounded by a range of sacred shapes and images. (Image 1)

A brilliant orange and yellow 'nti' si´tho´ mushroom is depicted at the painting’s center. The mycelium, the underground root structure of the mushroom, and the stipe, the stem or stalk of the mushroom, undulate from the bottom center towards a big orange mushroom cap. Below the mushroom cap, on each side of the stipe, are two yellow hummingbirds that look toward the painting’s edges, and in front of each hummingbird are two pink shapes that resemble shells; these are volutes or scrolls. Below these volute scrolls are four blue anthropomorphic figures, and on top of each volute scroll, as if growing from them, are blue mushrooms, both of which are thin, resembling arrows pointing up and out to the edges of the painting’s frame.

The volute scroll shapes are significant details in the painting. Volutes are shapes that in ancient Mesoamerican traditions are related to words, specifically ritual and poetic language. “Volutes of words” is a phrase related to communitarian works that strengthen bonds and create shared responsibility in communities. Volute scrolls symbolize xábasen, which means “mutual aid” or “communitarian work” in the Mazatec language, a cultural feature shared with other Mesoamerican cultures, including the Nahua who use the term tequio to mean “communi'tarian work.”

In the center of the painting, superimposed and directly above the sacred “'nti' si´tho´” mushroom is a big orange bird with outstretched wings and yellow feathers; the bird flies upward to the top of a radiant mountain in the painting’s background. The base of the mountain extends across the open wings of the bird, forming a triangle, and its wings resemble arrows pointing outward to the edges of the frame. The mountain features purple, pink, and yellow colors, with black borders. Lit candles, also pointing up and out, are drawn above each wing of the radiant bird. Above the bird´s head is a transparent circle extending to the top of the mountain. Inside the circle are more volute scrolls rendered in green lines in each corner of a pentagon that contains a green circle with another circle bearing a white, radiant center point. Yellow rays outside the circle create a brilliant atmosphere extending across the top of the picture, contrasting the darker and more structured bottom of the picture, perhaps contrasting the illuminated heavens and the grounded Earth.

Regarding the symbolism in the painting, Asunción Alvarado explains: “This work depicts the energy of the mountain as a living being and creator of sacred mushrooms or holy children. It is a manifestation of the sacred, visualizing the spirits of the mushroom. In the center, a cosmic bird spreads its wings, which merge with the summit of the sacred mountain. The candles represent clarity on the path of trance. All the elements embrace the mountain as a sacred and ritualistic whole.” [4]

3. Geography and Context

Psilocybe caerulescens (Images 2 and 3) has a broad distribution in the Americas. (Image 4) “[Psilocybe, hereafter in the quote Ps,] caerulescens grows mainly in shaded places in plantations or shaded fields, while Ps. mexicana prefers sunny open fields and pastures. Ps. caerulescens, according to the statements of the Mazatec Indians whom we consulted, regularly inhabits the surface of old landslides, two or more years after the landslide has occurred.” [5]

“'Nti' si´tho´” mushrooms (Image 2) grow widely and are used sacramentally, for divination, and therapeutically by an array of Indigenous peoples in several regions of the Mexican State of Oaxaca, including the Mazatec Highlands and the Southern Oaxaca Mountains. [6] In Chatino country, also in Oaxaca, Psilocybe caerulescens grows in wet meadows near Yaitépec pueblo. [7] 'Nti' si´tho´ is found growing in Central Mexico in the States of Puebla and Veracruz, and it has also been found growing in the United States. [8] Psilocybe caerulescens especially grows in the Southeastern United States, particularly in northern Georgia. (Image 4)

4. Primary Sources and Evidence

Mushrooms are 80 percent water, making it difficult to find evidence of their material remains. Sculptures, paintings, and historical literary sources suggest ancient use in Mesoamerica. Mayan mushroom stones—sculptures of decorated mushrooms— date from 1000 BCE. [9] Twentieth-century anthropological research demonstrates the widespread persistence of sacramental and healing rituals among Mesoamerican cultures such as Mazatecs, Chatinos, Zapotecs, and Nahuas. [10]

Pre-Hispanic, pictographic codices depicting sacred mushrooms are found before the sixteenth century. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Colonial chronicles written by friars and missionaries document the consumption of sacred, visionary fungi. Regarding Mazatec culture, ancient evidence is less abundant. The Church’s Inquisition trial records are scarce in their depictions of sacred mushrooms, in comparison to their records about peyote. This lack of evidence and Mazatec secrecy around  “'nti' si´tho´” was a core part of William Safford’s hypothesis that ritual uses of “'nti' si´tho´” disappeared during colonial times. Safford was skeptical of Spanish Colonial chronicles. Safford argued that in Colonial documents these sacred mushrooms known by the Nahua-language term teonanacatl were primarily peyote buttons. [11] 

Scholars contested Safford, especially anthropologists. In 1940, Blas Pablo Reko argued that Psilocybe mushroom rituals continue to be practiced among Indigenous peoples in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. [12] In 1938, Jean Basset Johnson was the first anthropologist to witness a mushroom ritual; he also mentioned the ritual uses of Salvia divinorum. [13] In the same year, Richard Evans Schultes [14] and Blas Pablo Reko [15] traveled to Huautla de Jimenez in Oaxaca, gathering mushroom samples that they sent to Harvard University for identification. Their scholarship is featured in the journal American Anthropologist Volume 42, numbers two and three published in 1940. Robert Weitlaner, who had worked in the Oaxaca region for years looking for the ancient Mazatec calendar, provided insightful information regarding the continuity of mushroom rituals in Mesoamerica. [16] The advent of World War II caused these important findings made during a very short period of time to remain generally unknown.

Only in the Postwar Period was ethnomycology—ethnographic study around mushrooms—established as a scientific discipline that could explore Mesoamerican use of Psilocybe like “‘nti' si´tho´.” The works of Robert Gordon Wasson, Valentina Pavlovna Wasson, Roger Heim, Rolf Singer, and Gaston Guzmán presented and structured emerging and ongoing systematic research. Especially notable is Wasson’s encounter with Maria Sabina—the Mazatec ritual specialist and healer or chotaj chinej who had a deep knowledge of ritual and therapeutic uses of sacred Psilocybe mushrooms—that was published for a popular audience as a photo essay in Life magazine in 1957. [17] (Image 5)

Wasson’s writing about Sabina is limited by the dominance of his own perspective; nowadays, due to the scholarship of Álvaro Estrada, it is possible to know Maria Sabina’s first-hand testimony regarding nti' si´tho´ mushrooms and their ancestral uses. “I didn't know in reality whether the mushrooms were good or bad. Nor did I even know whether they were food or poison. But I felt that they spoke to me. After eating them, I heard voices. Voices that came from another world. It was like the voice of a father who gives advice […] Sometime later, I knew that the mushrooms were like God. That they gave wisdom, that they cured illnesses, and that our people, since a long time ago, had eaten them.” [18]

María Sabina was not an isolated figure. She was one of many keepers of communal, ancestral knowledge about 'nti' si´tho´. Singer and Smith describe another “‘nti' si´tho´” expert: “Isauro Nava Garcia, an exceptionally intelligent and cooperative man who could express himself well in Spanish, and equally well spell the words of his native Mazateco, turned out to be a keen observer of fungi. He recognized easily and almost infallibly the different species of Psilocybe, knew where they could be found and when.” [19] According to Sabina, the traditional knowledge of ‘“nti' si´tho´” is shared through sacred narratives, oral history, and practiced knowledge of healing rituals across generations as Mazatec cultural heritage.

Maria Sabina faced challenges during her life for sharing her knowledge with outsiders such as Robert Gordon Wasson. However, Mazatec culture has different and plural perspectives regarding sacramental and therapeutic uses of “‘nti' si´tho´” and the secrecy around nti' si´tho´ rituals and lore, highlighting the respect and consideration for healing rituals in Mazatec cultural heritage.

5. Interpretation

Sacred fungi, especially “‘nti' si´tho´,” are associated with wisdom and language among Native Mesoamerican cultures, especially among the Mazatec people. Colonial sources  generally consider Indigenous rituals to be idolatry or superstition, and modern approaches to Psilocybe label them exclusively as drugs, whether medicinal or illicit, without accounting for their role in culture and society. Both perspectives are problematic. The psychedelic or entheogenic experience in Mesoamerica should be considered a source of knowledge, not a chemically-induced “drug experience” or a series of hallucinations.

In the Chatino-language spoken in the Oaxaca region, the word for Psilocybe caerulescens mushrooms is “cui´ ya jo´ o su´” which can be translated as “the mushroom of higher reason.” [20] While this meaning may seem strange to scholars and advocates of the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance, the association of the Psilocybe and their facilitated experiences is an example of one significant feature regarding Indigenous philosophies. Psilocybe are embodied higher reason, and they are, therefore, associated with wisdom; these are not mere substances nor drugs nor hallucinogens, as they are usually conceived by non-Indigenous perspectives. A hallucination is the perception of something not actually happening or a distortion of actual experience. Hallucinations are, by their nature, false. Experiences mediated by “‘nti' si´tho´” are authentic experiences, not false ones.

Maria Sabina considered herself a wise woman; her wisdom and association with wisdom makes her a healer, and the Mazatecs connect healing to language, the “‘nti' si´tho´” being mushrooms of language: “I am not a Curer because I do not give potions of strange herbs to drink. I cure with Language. Nothing else. I am a Wise Woman. Nothing else […] I take Little One Who Springs Forth, and I see God. I see him sprout from the earth. He grows and grows, big as a tree, as a mountain. His face is placid, beautiful, and serene as in the temples. At other times, God is not like a man: he is the Book. A Book that is born from the earth, a sacred Book whose birth makes the world shake. It is the Book of God that speaks to me for me to speak. It counsels me, it teaches me, it tells me what I have to say to men, to the sick, to life. The Book appears, and I learn new words.” [21]  

Wisdom is associated with healing, for Mazatecs’ conceive illness to be the irruption of a negative element into the world and into language; the irruption is a fissure visible to the Wise, and through  that fissure illness and death appear. For the Mazatec’s, language is “the corner in the wound” with which the Mazatec wise doctors “plow the world.” [22] Mazatec wise doctors— whether they be called “chjota chjiné,” “chjota bendaá,” or “chjota tje'éI”— “patch up” the world wherever it has been broken for whatever reason; they cure with language: the mushrooms of language, are used to patch up a wounded world. [23]

6. Implications

The Mazatec-healer Maria Sabina is recognized and associated with Psilocybe mushrooms worldwide; however, her ideas and teachings are often misunderstood. Her testimonies, chants, and ritual language demonstrate deep Native understanding about how sacred fungi, including “‘nti' si´tho´“ and “cui´ ya jo´ o su´,”  provide wisdom and are associated with wisdom in Indigenous contexts.

A significant feature of entheogens with psychedelic properties that researchers and advocates often praise is their power to transform mood, consciousness, and how we approach daily life. [24] This transformative power of consciousness is not easy to achieve through entheogens. On the other hand, everyone is capable of recognizing the significance of ritual language and the teachings embedded within Indigenous sacramental, artistic, or creative uses, regardless of an individual’s personal experiences. Cross-cultural approaches to Psilocybe and other entheogens and psychedelics can overcome persisting cultural biases and hasty generalizations.

Mazatec visionary art, such as found in Image 1, reveals the rich symbolism and meaning of sacred mushrooms, but visionary art also shows the scope and significance of aesthetic and creative uses of sacred fungi such as “‘nti' si´tho´.” Visionary art and artists reinterpret ancient cultural heritage, creating new mental landscapes that expand our capacity to grasp new possibilities for our consciousness.

References

[1] Heim, Roger, and R. Gordon Wasson. Les champignons hallucinogènes du Mexique: études ethnologiques, taxinomiques, biologiques, physiologiques et chimiques. (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 1958), 54.

[2] Singer, Rolf, and Alexander H. Smith. "Mycological Investigations on Teonanácatl, the Mexican Hallucinogenic Mushroom. Part I. The History of Teonanácatl, Field Work and Culture Work." Mycologia 50, no. 2 (1958): 251. https://doi.org/10.2307/3756196.

[3] Heim, Roger, and R. Gordon Wasson. Les champignons hallucinogènes du Mexique: études ethnologiques, taxinomiques, biologiques, physiologiques et chimiques. (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 1958), 99.

[4] Alvarado, Asunción. Personal communication, June 26, 2025.

[5] Singer, Rolf, and Alexander H. Smith. "Mycological Investigations on Teonanácatl, the Mexican Hallucinogenic Mushroom. Part I. The History of Teonanácatl, Field Work and Culture Work." Mycologia 50, no. 2 (1958): 250. https://doi.org/10.2307/3756196.

[6] Fagetti, Antonella, et al. "Cartografía etnográfica del uso ritual y terapéutico de hongos del género Psilocybe en México." Elementos, no. 131 (2023): 74.

[7] Heim, Roger, and R. Gordon Wasson. Les champignons hallucinogènes du Mexique: études ethnologiques, taxinomiques, biologiques, physiologiques et chimiques. (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 1958), 147.

[8] Singer, Rolf, and Alexander H. Smith. "Mycological Investigations on Teonanácatl, the Mexican Hallucinogenic Mushroom. Part I. The History of Teonanácatl, Field Work and Culture Work." Mycologia 50, no. 2 (1958): 248-250. https://doi.org/10.2307/3756196.

[9] De Borhegyi, Stephan F. "Miniature Mushroom Stones from Guatemala." American Antiquity 26, no. 4 (1961): 499. https://doi.org/10.2307/278737.

[10] Wasson, Robert Gordon. The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica. (McGraw-Hill Books, 1980), 215-220.

[11] Safford, William Edwin. "An Aztec Narcotic (Lophophora Williamsti)." The Journal of Heredity 6, no. 7 (1915):310. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a109130.

[12] Reko, Blas Pablo. "Teonanacatl, the Narcotic Mushroom." American Anthropologist 42, no. 2 (1940): 368-69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/663132.

[13] Johnson, Jean Basset. "The Elements of Mazatec Witchcraft." Etnologiska Studier 9 (1939): 130-135.

[14] Schultes, Richard Evans. "PLANTAE MEXICANAE II." Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 7, no. 3 (1939): 38-39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41762722.

[15] Reko, Blas Pablo. "Teonanacatl, the Narcotic Mushroom." American Anthropologist 42, no. 2 (1940): 368-69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/663132.

[16] Johnson, Jean Basset. "Note on the Discovery of Teonanacatl." American Anthropologist 42, no. 3 (1940): 549-50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/663261.

[17] Wasson, Robert Gordon. “Seeking the magic mushroom”. Life, no 13, May (1957): 100–120.

[18] Estrada, Álvaro. Maria Sabina, Her Life and Chants. (Ross-Erikson, 1981),39-40.

[19] Singer, Rolf, and Alexander H. Smith. "Mycological Investigations on Teonanácatl, the Mexican Hallucinogenic Mushroom. Part I. The History of Teonanácatl, Field Work and Culture Work." Mycologia 50, no. 2 (1958): 243. https://doi.org/10.2307/3756196.

[20] Heim, Roger, and R. Gordon Wasson. Les champignons hallucinogènes du Mexique: études ethnologiques, taxinomiques, biologiques, physiologiques et chimiques. (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 1958), 99.

[21] Estrada, Álvaro. Maria Sabina, Her Life and Chants. (Ross-Erikson, 1981),56.

[22] Juárez García, Iván. "Elementos de filosofía mazateca." BA thesis, (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, 2022), 31-32.

[23] Munn, Henry. "The Mushrooms of Language." In Hallucinogens and Shamanism, edited by Michael Harner (Oxford University Press, 1973), 88-89.

[24] Williams, Keith, Osiris Sinuhé González-Romero, Michelle Braunstein, and Suzanne Brant. "Indigenous Philosophies and the 'Psychedelic Renaissance.'" Anthropology of Consciousness 33, no. 2 (2022): 518-520.