The last year has been particularly teaching me how to grow like a mushroom. Under the ground, invisible to the others in the light. My hyphae (the fungal tips of mycelium) are meandering and reaching in the layers of the unseen, finding other fungal strands: meeting beings of the same or other species, checking in on each other, all with the same goals of transformation and connection.
Some nodes in the network show up for a handful of minutes, some for hours, some attach and become part of my own network as we send each other information. Back and forth, back and forth.
It’s strange to have so much of my life down here, or perhaps to realise that there was always so much of me below the surface the whole time. And then finally the perfect conditions arrive and I am able to fruit into a moment of visibility, my presence providing nourishment to whoever is nearby. It’s just a moment in time. But even though they may not see me again for days, weeks or years - I’m still flourishing underground, spreading out my strands of energy and life into this big ecosystem we’re all a part of. I have to remind myself of this regularly, when change isn’t happening as quickly as my logical mind wants. The periods of stillness, quiet, or moments when life isn’t moving as quickly are just as relevant and important. Maybe the most important.
My upper world self is often impatient for change, growth, speed, and sending out new spores. That upper world, monkey-mind-self is incessantly asking for visible proof at every turn. Am I there yet? Is it changing? Are we in this change together? Is it getting better? Did all that excavation of myself and my soul not lead to the change I want to see in the world?
The last six years have been a masterpiece of patience, pause and restraint. I’m sure that many can feel this. The pandemic flung lots of doors open, and occasionally brought about small inklings of a new vision for the world, even among the plethora of different experiences during that chapter. A version of reality where people have time, there’s more room to breathe and respect for personal space, nature can recover, and mental health is a priority. Neighbourly behaviour, looking out for one another, sharing, and taking more responsibility for one’s corner of the world. For me it was a shock to the system that in the years that followed it seemed for a while as if the collective had neither learned anything from the experience nor changed.
Underneath all of that, however, those mycelial, visionary strands have been spreading all over the world. Despite the aggravating, heart-breaking external world stage, I knew that things had to ripen below the surface, sensing that there is an overarching sense of timing to many things. It has been a trying experience, sensing those new ideas and possibilities below the surface, and at the same time holding the reality before our eyes and around us. Being able to feel into all of the grand potential that life is and will be, while dancing in these times.
Mushrooms have been great teachers in timing, patience and humility. They work according to their own logic and knowing, and can’t be coerced into creating the experience for you that you desire, whether as wild edibles or the journeying type. They call the shots. Maybe they’re in control of the timing of us all?
And then all of a sudden, after the rains come, they provide you with the most delicious and unexpected meal or medicine. Or with the biggest belly laughs. That spontaneity, joy and unpredictability slowly teaches me to let go of my desire for control. Just because I can’t see that magic during most of the year doesn’t mean it's not there, growing beneath the surface, waiting for the perfect conditions for growth and the dispersal of spores.
If you’re in Berlin come join me for my own newest “fruiting body” on April 29th at the beautiful Teeraum Sanvian: An evening of Mushroom Meditations: a guided journey to connect with the Earth, your own inner guidance, the mushroom collective and Reishi (our medicinal mushroom of the evening). https://luma.com/199l83al
These (sober!) journeys into the underworld can help you connect to your imagination and intuition and receive answers, as well as expand your awareness and receive new energies. Mushrooms are the masters of connection and transformation, and connecting to their energies can help us understand next steps for ourselves and the collective. Experiencing these types of journeys in a group container can help strengthen our receptivity to new insight, as well as bring up collective themes that we share. (Let me know if you’d be interested in an online version if you’re not in Berlin). Mushrooms are also just really great at getting us giggling and connected, even when we’re not taking the magic ones..!
Have you felt like you’re growing in the dark in the last years? Can you see the change slowly fruiting? Thank you for reading and have a lovely long Easter weekend.
This podcast was a lot of fun. You can take it with a grain of salt, you can dive in fully, but at the least you’ll walk out with a couple of fresh thoughts: Proof Jesus Used Psychedelics on the podcast Acid for Squares. As we’re at the beautiful springtime part of the year where, once upon a time, people danced away the winter (read my story about partying away the winter last year in South Tyrol here) and welcomed the new blooms, bees and baby bunnies in a reverie of fermented plant drink (and possibly mushroom) intake - it is a very timely conversation.
I’ve also just started reading the 1970 book “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross” by John Allegro, which goes into the same themes around Jesus, mushrooms and fertility cults, so the podcast trio aren’t the first to talk about this theme.
I offer 1:1 quantum healing hypnosis sessions, in Berlin or online: 3-to-four-hour guided journeys that can help you connect to your imagination and intuition, answers around the questions you have in life at the moment, self-healing capabilities and knowledge about your life path. These sessions can also function as a deep nervous system reset, integrating new lessons and energies into the body – or for processing emotions we’ve been unconsciously holding onto. They are gentle yet empowering, and perfect for you if you’re at a threshold moment between two chapters of your life. If you’re curious, I invite you to check out my website whiterabbitjourneys.com here. Preparation or integration sessions are also possible.
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