What is a Sage?

What is a Sage and what is the difference with a shaman?

The origin of the word Sage is in the oldest scripture in the world, the Rig Veda:

Book 8, Hymn LXVIII

  1. This here is Soma, ne’er restrained, active, all-conquering bursting forth, Ṛṣi and Sage by sapience,
  2. All that is bare she covers o’er, all that is sick she medicines;
    The blind man sees, the cripple walks.
  3. Thou, Soma, givest wide defence against the hate of alien men, Hatreds that waste and weaken us.

It is clearly read here: Soma, the sacred drink, brings forth Rsi and Sages through ‘sapience’, a word meaning ‘wise and sage-like’. Rsi is often translated as ‘seer’, but it is a word that, because it is so similar to the mushroom Reishi, should be left as it is.

So a sage is more or less just a sage, who in this case is familiar with this sacred medicine. A shaman is more like a priest, a shaman has a (large) group of people for whom he plays the mediator to the higher world. And also shamans are welcome, although as Sages and Reishis we do have questions about certain traditions or the phenomenon of the shaman without a village.

As far as traditions are concerned, the traditions of the Toltecs and the Aztecs, which manifested themselves partly through Carlos Castaneda, are an inspiration to many of us, but there are also Sages who have more in common with Buddhism, Wicca or whatever other system.

What we have in common is more important: the inner fire, stirred up by this miraculous mushroom, and a mission to make mushrooms play a bigger role again in the lives of the people around us, so that they see that they live in a living work of art, and learn to live in such a way that they no longer behave as if they were lords and masters of this planet, but simply as sages and adventurers of Mother Nature.

The mushroom protects against the hatred of the ‘alien men’, according to the Rig Veda. What is meant by this is an interesting question. In any case, Amanita Muscaria is an amplifier of the aura and brings you in contact with the fire that lives in the earth, as Heraclites already knew, who was cut up by the aliens into a kind of pig farmer, read the book ‘Where about the piranha dreams in the lemonade ditch’ by yours truly if that subject interests you: Heraclites wrote the world’s first real trip report.

We are not selling anything. Anyone can become a Sage by simply using the Universal Medicine which is freely available in forests worldwide. We do organize ceremonies in the forest every now and then, and if you are interested to hook up just let is know and we will talk to you.

Martijn Benders has published twenty-six books, eighteen of which are in Dutch. He has been named one of the greatest talents of his time by critics like Komrij and Gerbrandy. He has also written three philosophical works, one of which is in English about the Amanita Muscaria, the Fly Agaric. Publishing on the international stage of The Philosophical Salon, he has also gained international recognition as one of the most remarkable thinkers from the Netherlands.