One of the core values of my work with psilocybin mushrooms is nature connection and sacred earth traditions. Earth sacraments in the form of fungi and plants have the power to re-awaken us to our connection to the earth and the cosmos. Recognizing our integral part in the flow of life is deeply healing.

Some theorists go as far as to say that the evolutionary strategy of the psilocybin mushroom may be to cure us of our illusion of separation so that we may awaken to our part in things and thus become better stewards of the earth.

This summer after a long period of quarantine, I got to fully actualize these pillars of my work; nature connection, and earth medicine tradition and share this experience with others.

First, in Costa Rica I got to join my friends Chi and Leti of Tripsitters as a facilitator for their June Healing Retreat. The setting for this ceremony to unfold was utterly magical. The palapa of Hacienda del Sol was located in the lush jungle of the Nosara Peninsula. While in ceremony, beautiful blue morpho butterflies flitted, howler monkeys gathered in the trees with their babies clinging to their backs, bats peeped as they dozed in the rafters and the hundreds of species of amazing tropical plants swayed in the gentle wind as our participants opened their hearts and minds to the deepest of healing.

Afterwards I spent a week of quiet reflective time in the jungle just down the road at the beautiful Alya Retreat Center, a very unique retreat area built with great creativity and respect for the land, giving utmost priority to sustainability, and renewable resources. Here I got to experience the deepest peace. I tucked away my electronic devices and played my drums as my circadian rhythm began to synchronize with the jungle.

From Costa Rica I flew to Oaxaca, Mexico, land I consider to be the seat of the sacred mushroom traditions I treasure. A group of 11 of us journeyed to San Jose del Pacifico to participate in three days of ceremony with the Zapotec family of curanderos I have come to love and trust

For many of us in the modern world, we share a longing for reconnection with the land. This is especially important as we work with entheogenic medicine and consciousness. It is my core belief that when working with earth medicines we need the guidance and protection of the earth herself.

This is why I deeply value the opportunity I have to take healers and professionals to San Jose del Pacifico to work with the earth-connected traditions of the Zapotec family of Mailiolin. Our guides, Don Manuel and Iris Guadalupe, have been trained since childhood in these curanderismo, or shamanism. There we participated in three days of ceremony including purification and spiritual diagnosis, dance, art therapy with elements from the earth, the invocation of spirit animals, and traditional temazcal, sweat lodge. These ceremonies push us to our limits and help to loosen and reveal the emotional weight we carry before going out on the land where the sacred mushrooms grow to journey and clarify our beingness in the greater scheme of the universe.

This experience is so well held and rooted in magical tradition. As a guide I tend to turn towards my teachers at Maliollin as my ultimate standard of guideship. While I work with the traditions of my own ancestral lands and continue to turn inward for my own authentic relationship to guiding, I hold the Mailiolin teachings as a framework of true integrity in working with sacred mushrooms.