A Ptolemaic Tale of Lust and Abandonment

A take by Reeder =

.. it is not coincidental that the Egyptian word muu, for the so-called muu dancers, … who were responsible for bringing the souls of the dead to the afterworld, referred to jesters, buffoons, and dwarfs (Budge, 1978; Faulkner, 1986), for these dancers were evidently originally the Egyptian analogues of the dancing mushroom spirits people have typically seen after ingesting entheogenic mushrooms.

This analysis is in full accord with: (1) the belief that the muu were originally dwarfs, just as the word for them implies (Moret, 1927); (2) the belief that the muu crown was a variation of the White Crown (Abubakr, 1937); (3) the belief that the muu were personified crowns (Altenmuller, 1975), for the muu were indeed originally personifications of the Psilocybes* their crowns were designed to represent

* Psilocybes – a genus of small mushroom with psychedelic properties.  ” Psilocybin mushroom ingestion results in hallucinatory symptoms which begin as early as ten minutes post ingestion and typically last anywhere from four to twelve hours, although cases of much longer duration have been reported in the literature. While personal accounts of intoxication share some common themes, both the intensity and length of the hallucinogenic effects of Psilocybes are highly variable.

This variability has been attributed to many factors, including the psychological characteristics of the user, the cultural background of the user, the mood or expectations of the user prior to ingestion (the “set”), the environment of the user (the setting), the psilocybin content (which can vary ten-fold between individual species and may change as a result of preparation or handling), previous use of hallucinogens, and concurrent use of other drugs or alcohol. Also, it is possible that individual sensitivities may result from inherited differences in metabolic capability.”

Source  > The Mysterious Muu and the Dance They Do, by Greg Reeder