1. Name

Psilocybe mushrooms have been used during centuries, even millennia for ritual, divinatory and therapeutics purposes by at least eleven Mesoamerican cultures.  In Nahuatl language Teonanacatl which could be translated as “The Flesh of the Gods”or “God´s Flesh), from nanacatl: “mushrooms or flesh” and teotl “God or sacred”. (Schultes, Hofmann and Rätsch 1992, 156). Another possible translation is: “Holy or sacred mushroom”. Teonanacatl is a generic name, which covers a wide range of species such as: Psilocybe aztecorum, Psilocybe mexicana, Psilocybe caerulenscens among others (Stresser-Pean 2011, 357-359). Apipiltzin, the “water children” is also another name in Nahuatl language. (Guzmán 1978, 392). In Mesoamerica there are regional variants and names, which is necessary to take into account. However this entry will focuses mainly in Nahua culture, due to the number of historical sources, which provided enough information about their different cultural uses.    

2. Introduction and Artwork

The image depicts an encounter between a person eating the mushrooms and the Lord of Death, Mictlantecuhtli. In the painted image, a seated man consumes two psilocybe mushrooms. Behind him another figure, a god, touches his head. Psilocybe is a genus of mushrooms, some of which contain psilocybin and psilocin. The seated man is in a trance, or he will soon enter a trance. “The three jade green mushrooms in front of the celebrant undoubtedly were painted in this colour to indicate their great value” (Schultes, Hofmann and Rätsch 1992, 162). Mushrooms growing in front of the man are three in number, which is the dose prescribed in colonial sources such the Florentine Codex. A clear depiction of Mictlantecuhtli, the Lord of Death, is found behind and to the right of the seated man eating mushrooms who looks to the left. Mictlantecuhtli is the ruler of Mictlan, the Place of the Dead, which is not necessarily the underworld but is closely related to it in funeral rituals.

The Aztec link between psychoactive mushrooms and death deities is shared with Mayan and Mixtecs (Ñuu savi), other indigenous cultures of Mexico.

Trance states are initiated by ingesting of psilocybe mushrooms,such as Psilocybe aztecorum or Psilocybe mexicana, which grows in the volcanic areas of the region. “The illustration from the Codex Magliabecchi offers three elements: mushrooms, a man eating them, and a "supernatural" effigy behind him. The reader will notice that the man holds a mushroom in each hand; that is, they have a pair of them”(Wasson, 1980, 113-114). As documented in colonial and anthropological sources, those who consume these psilocybe mushrooms are entranced and became ritual specialists who are intermediaries between the human realm and sacred entities. The ritual specialist communicatesd with ancestors, gods, and nature spirits, including rain deities.

Regarding the same image, Mercedes de la Garza argues the following: “.A representation of the Magliabecchiano Codex illustrates precisely the custom of only eating two or three mushrooms and on the visions produced. We see a native seated in front of three mushrooms, with another in the right hand and ingesting one more. Behind him, placing a hand on his head, is Mictlantecuhtli, the deity of death, expressing the experiences and images of death that those who ingested the teonanacatl used to have”(De la Garza, 2012, 79). Summarizing is possible to highlight a symbolical link within mushrooms and the deities of the Death and the underworld, which is a cultural feature shared between Mesoamerican cultures (mainly the Maya and the Nahua).

3. Geography and Context

Psilocybe aztecorum and Psilocybe Mexicana grows in Central Mexico, especially in the surroundings of the Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes. “Known only from the high mountains of Central Mexico: Río Frío, Nexpayantla (in the Popocatepetl), and Nevado de Toluca, in the State of Mexico, paso de Cortés (between Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl), in the State of Puebla and La Malinche, in the State of Tlaxcala” (Guzmán 1978, 388).  Regarding its significance some researchers highlighted that "Mexico represents without a doubt the world's richest area in diversity and use of hallucinogens in aboriginal societies. (Schultes, Hofmann and Rätsch 1992, 162)". It is a region with 10% of the world's total biodiversity. México is the region with the most significant amount of psychoactive biodiversity and mushroom psilocybin species Some of them have been used by eleven Indigenous cultures (Guzmán 2008, 405). The State of Oaxaca is the region where grows the largest number of Psilocybe species in the world, around twenty seven, and probably there are some, which are not registered yet.

4. Historical Sources

Regarding archeological evidence is very important to highlight that mushrooms are 80% water, due to this is almost impossible to find and analyze material remains. However there are sculptures, codices and ritual paraphernalia, which suggests an ancient cult. Historical sources provided enough information, especially since 16th century. The figure in the image consuming mushrooms is accompanied by Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of Death. The image in the Codex Magliabechi, f.90. r was probably painted during the sixteenth century and the whole manuscript address several topics. This image depicts Aztec culture in which the symbolism of death deities is associated with sacred narratives about human origins and human fate. Afterlife concerns were a central cultural feature in Aztec religion, which was quite different from the Western-Catholic perspectives of sixteenth-century Spaniards. The Florentine Codex compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, with the support of Nahua scholars, is the document that presents the most significant number of references. “It is called teonanacatl. It grows on the plains, in the grass. The head is small and round; the stem is long and slender. It is bitter and burns; it burns the throat. It makes one besotted; it deranges one, troubles one. It is a remedy for fever, for gout. Only two [or] three can be eaten. It saddens, depresses, troubles one; it makes one flee, frightens, makes one hide. […] He who eats many of them sees many things” (Sahagún 1973, 129).

About the ritual uses of teonanacatl, the Florentine Codex is the oldest written source in existence, where it is possible to find a mushroom ceremony performed by traders to give thanks for a successful expedition. The testimony is valuable because it helps to understand the hedonistic uses of psychoactive mushrooms, especially among the Aztec elites. "At the very first, mushrooms had been served. They ate them at the time when, they said, the shell trumpets were blown. They ate no more food; they only drank chocolate during the night. And they ate mushrooms with honey. When the mushrooms took effect on them, then they danced, then they wept. But some, while still in command of their senses entered and [sat] there by the house on their seats; they dance no more, but only sat there nodding” (Sahagún 1976, 39). The information provided by this historical source is valuable because it explains in detail a mushroom ritual and has brought into the light the visionary tradition of indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the information provided allows the reflections on the communitarian aspects of the ritual, the significance of talking about the visions, and the cultural character of the visionary experience.

5. Interpretation

The Aztec link between psychoactive mushrooms and death deities is shared with Mayan and Mixtecs, the indigenous people of Mexico.

Trance states are initiated by ingesting of psilocybe mushrooms,such as Psilocybe aztecorum, which grows in the volcanic areas of the region. As documented in colonial and anthropological sources, those who consume these psilocybe mushrooms are entranced and became ritual specialists who are intermediaries between the human realm and sacred entities (González Romero and Macuil García 2025,). The ritual specialist communicatesd with ancestors, gods, and nature spirits, including rain deities., Recognizing the cultural diversity of Mesoamerica is a crucial aspect. Historical sources demonstrated that the mushroom is related to the rainy season in Mesoamerican cultures (Maya, Mixtecs and Aztecs/Nahuas). All of them linked sacred mushrooms with thunderbolts. This feature makes sense if we remember that mushrooms grow in the rainy season during July and August.

In the three cultures studied, mushrooms are related to the deities of fertility, water, and thunderbolt. In the three cultures mentioned, a process of personification is also visible; that is, mushrooms are not a drug, or a substance isolated from the territory but beings/entities with which it is possible to establish some communication through ritual language. Mushrooms are sacred beings, but they also allow communication with other deities or with the ancestors. Within the Maya and Nahua cultures, the psychoactive mushrooms are related to the underworld deities. Within the Maya with the nine lords of Xibalba, and with the glyph "cimi" or death (De la Garza 2012). Among the Nahua culture with Mictlantecuhtli, or with the dead children before baptism (xocoyomeh).

6. Implications

The Codex Magliabechi, f.90. r demonstrates the importance of psilocybe mushrooms in Aztec religion and the ways consuming these mushrooms facilitated transactions with sacred beings. These mushrooms were also connected to concerns about the afterlife, including the Lord of Death. (Wasson 1980; De la Garza 2012) The image of the Lord of Death, Mictlantecuhtli, was not always frightening to ritualist specialists. During healing rituals or regarding divinatory uses, The Lord of Death refers to the ancestors.

In the last two decades, psilocybin and psilocin have taken a predominant role within psychedelic science, mainly because of their therapeutic potential to treat conditions related to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, palliative care, and addiction treatment, among others. These therapeutic potentials have generated dozens of clinical studies, changes in legislation in some countries, the new design of public policies, the construction of a more favourable public opinion, and the creation of a growing industry. All this has caused a paradigm shift and a dizzying series of social and cultural transformations. Despite these transformations may seem novel at first glance, the truth is that the relationship between humans and psilocybin mushrooms has a long tradition, especially among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Therefore, to better understand their therapeutic potential and the cultural transformations associated with them, it is essential to know the history of their different uses.

References:

De la Garza, Mercedes. “Sueño y extásis en el mundo náhuatl y maya.  (Fondo de Cultura Económica-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012)

 González-Romero, Osiris and Macuil Carmen. “Healing of the Thunderbolt in Nahua Entheogenic Medicine”. In Michael Winkelman (ed). Brill Handbook of Entheogenic Healing (Brill, 2025):98-121.

 Guzmán Gastón. “Variation, distribution, ethnomycological data and relationships of Psilocybe aztecorum, a Mexican hallucinogenic mushroom”. Mycologia.70 (2), 1978 Mar.Apr:385-96. PMID: 566852.

Guzmán, Gastón. “Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in Mexico: An overview”. Economic Botany 62 (3), 2008:404-412.

Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain). Book IX. Chapter VIII from the Aztec into English by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur Anderson. (The School of American Research and the University of Utah 1976 [1959]), 39.

Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain). Book XI. Trans by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur Anderson. (The School of American Research and the University of Utah 1975), 129.

Schultes, R.E, Hofmann, Albert and Rätsch, Carl. Plants of the Gods Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers.  (Healing Arts Press, 1992):156-163.

Stresser-Pean, Guy. El sol dios y Cristo. La cristianización de los indios de México vista desde la sierra de Puebla. (Fondo de Cultura Económica 2011).

Wasson, Robert.Gordon. The Wondrous Mushroom. Mycolatry in Mesoamerica. New York. McGraw-Hill Books, 1980)