A little more detail….

Recycled Threepence coin

This lovely, unusually shaped coin was issued with two designs. This, the thistle / thrift design is the finest, especially when the background has been delicately cut away, and the thrifts psychedelically transformed in to september shrooms. Ideal for the shroomfest.

Each coin is hand pierced with a small jewellers saw. The finished shroom coin is the result of time, patience and enjoyment. A lovely pendant for anyone, especially the psyhconaut in your life. Guaranteed to guide you well during your mission and perfect reminder of each reboot of your system, not that you need a reminder; but it will certainly act as a touchstone. Handcrafted and recycled in Cambridge, UK. Size : Approx 21 mm diameter.

An amulet for safe passage on your journey, a bit like a St Christopher, just different. A visual master piece, a unique handcrafted pendants made from an old one pound coins. Each pendant is meticulously hand cut, carved and engraved using traditional engraving chisels and saws. This process is pain staking and very time consuming as the coin is so thick.

Shrooms are a bridge between worlds, spiritual enlightenment, hidden knowledge, and the duality of nature. Across different cultures, psychoactive fungi have been revered as divine gifts, feared as malevolent forces, and associated with mysterious woodland beings like fairies and elves.

In many ancient cultures, mushrooms were seen as a direct link to the divine, providing a way to communicate with deities or gain spiritual wisdom. The Aztecs called psychoactive mushrooms teonanácatl, meaning “flesh of the gods,” and used them in religious ceremonies to induce visionary states for divination and communing with deities. Some theories suggest that the legendary ancient Indian drink Soma and the divine food ambrosia of the ancient Greeks were concocted from mushrooms, such as the Amanita muscaria.

The ancient Egyptians believed mushrooms were a gift from Set, the god of the desert and storms, while ancient Greeks associated them with Zeus. This was often tied to the belief that mushrooms sprouted where lightning struck the earth.

The mind-altering effects of magic mushrooms have been long interpreted as a means to gain deep insights or reach higher states of consciousness.Siberian shamans used the Amanita muscaria to enter the spirit world and gain knowledge for their community. The mushroom ritual is believed to be the origin of the Santa Claus myth, with the shaman’s red-and-white clothes and entry through the roof of a yurt, which is covered with snow.

In both ancient rituals and modern psychedelic therapy, the loss of a subjective self and a feeling of oneness with the universe is a common experience, symbolizing a path from a lonely, individual self to a collective consciousness.

The rapid, mysterious appearance of fungi and their sometimes deadly nature have also led to folklore associating them with malevolent forces, witchcraft, and hidden worlds. The circular formations of mushrooms are one of the most widespread mushroom legends. In Celtic folklore, stepping into one of these circles—believed to be dancing spots for fairies or elves—can lead to being trapped in their realm or forced to dance until death.

In German folklore, these same circles were sometimes called Hexenkreis (“witches’ circles”), marking a place where witches danced. Other traditions believed certain fungi were used in witches’ potions or were a sign that a witch had cast a spell. In some traditions, magic mushrooms were seen as tricksters that could lead a person to great wisdom or frightening delusion. In Irish counter culture, getting a bad trip was called “away with the fairies,” or someone could be “off with the pixies”.

Mushrooms appear from decay and can sprout quickly, giving them a symbolic link to the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth. Since fungi feed on dead matter, they represent the process of old life decomposing to give rise to something new.

Some cultures, particularly in Japan and China, associate certain medicinal mushrooms like reishi with longevity and even immortality, possibly due to their immune-boosting properties. The mushroom’s shape and association with rapid growth have, in some cultures, led to its symbolic connection with fertility.

The Christmas tradition of Santa Claus is believed to have roots in the shamanic practices of Siberian cultures that used the red-and-white Amanita muscaria mushroom. Siberian shamans dress in red and white to honor the mushroom before their rituals. The traditional entry to the shamans’ yurts during winter was through a smoke hole in the roof, a parallel to Santa entering through a chimney. Reindeer are known to eat Amanita muscaria, and their erratic behavior afterward may have inspired the myth of flying reindeer.