The Lantern Path - Step Two

OPENING

Create space for curiosity, relationship and what is ready to change form.

This collection of invitations asks you to learn, notice, listen and begin a conversation before meeting the medicine in ceremony.

45–60 MINUTES · JOURNAL · MOVE IN YOUR OWN TIME

Crossing the threshold
__________________

Opening is
not forcing.

Openness is a way of listening to what is stirring, what is ready to be met, and what still needs time. Curiosity opens the door; discernment helps you cross with care.

Sacred medicines are approached here as teachers, not tools for producing a predetermined outcome. Preparation is a way of making room to listen… to what you know, to what you cannot yet name and to what may be asking for attention.

You can remain open without surrendering your boundaries, and receptive without abandoning your own way of knowing.

A TEACHING FROM THE FOREST FLOOR

What mushrooms do in nature, and invite in us.

The mushroom we see is only the brief, visible expression of a much larger life. Beneath the surface, fungi help break down organic matter, return nutrients to the soil and form relationships of exchange throughout the living world.

When we meet mushrooms as medicine, we may encounter a parallel process within ourselves. This is a metaphor, not a promise: the ceremony may help us notice what is ready to be metabolized, restore connection among parts of life that have become separated and create fertile conditions for something new to grow.

They do not simply remove what has fallen. They change its form.

A THREE-PART REFLECTION

Compost · Connect · Bloom

Divide a journal page into three sections and answer the questions below. Examples are provided to help inspire you if you’re feeling stuck. Allow your responses to be unfinished or uncertain.
You are simply noticing the landscape, not creating an agenda for ceremony.

01

RETURN TO THE SOIL

Compost

What is ready to decompose or change form?

  • A role or identity you have outgrown

  • Bitterness or resentment that has become heavy

  • Shame, disappointment or regret

  • Grief that has had nowhere to move

  • A protection that now feels constricting

02

RESTORE THE THREADS

Connect

What is calling for connection?

  • Your body and thinking mind

  • Your outer life and inner experience

  • A part of yourself you learned to silence

  • Rest, play, creativity or pleasure

  • Community, belonging or the living world

03

WHAT’S READY TO GROW?

Bloom

If this experience creates fertile soil, what may be ready to be planted?

  • Greater trust in yourself

  • Clearer, more compassionate boundaries

  • Courage for an honest conversation

  • Creativity, play or wonder

  • A possibility only beginning to stir

PAUSE · NOTICE THE WHOLE ECOSYSTEM

When you reflect on what is ready to be recycled, what is calling for connection, and what is ready to flourish…
what begins to come into view?

A LISTENING PAUSE

Let the teaching
move beyond words.

A visual and auditory offering… a moment to step beyond the written words and connect with the beauty, intelligence and wisdom of the mushrooms.

Watch, close your eyes or simply let the harmonies meet you.

BEGINNING A CONVERSATION

A letter to the mushrooms

This is an invitation to enter into relationship with a sacred elder, teacher, friend. Writing directly to the mushrooms moves the medicine from abstraction into conversation.

You do not need to hold a particular belief about how mushrooms communicate. Addressing them simply changes the quality of your attention.

Make room for honesty, curiosity, respect and response, not only a list of what you hope to receive.

Dear Mushrooms…

I am coming to this experience because…

Lately, I have been noticing…

I am curious about…

I am open to seeing…

Something that feels tender or uncertain is…

I am willing to meet…

Something I am not yet ready to meet is…

What I would like you to know about me is…
_____________________________________________

BEFORE CLOSING YOUR LETTER, LEAVE A LITTLE SPACE TO LISTEN.

Notice what meets you there… a word, an image, a sensation, a memory or perhaps simply silence.

MYCELIUM DREAMING · AUTUMN SKYE MORRISON

A RELATIONSHIP, NOT A TRANSACTION

A meaningful relationship is shaped not only by what we hope to receive, but by how we arrive, how we listen and what we are willing to offer in return.

Reciprocity may begin with respect, attention, gratitude and a willingness to carry what you learn into the way you live.

As you consider what you hope to receive, what feels meaningful to offer in return ~ through your attention, your presence or the way you carry this experience forward?

What is your offering?

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

— SIMONE WEIL

A compass,
not a contract

SETTING AN INTENTION

Return to your journal pages. Notice the words, questions or qualities that continue to hold energy.

An intention is an orientation of the heart - the direction you are willing to face as you enter the unknown. Hold it lightly enough that the medicine can answer a different question than the one you arrived with.

A BODY CHECK

Does it feel spacious or demanding? Curious or controlling? Honest in your body?

01

02

03

04

05

I am open to…

I am willing to meet…

I am ready to explore…

Help me understand…

Teach me how to…

A CLOSING RITUAL

An Invitation to
Co-Create

Choose one or several small objects for our shared altar ~ something that holds a quality, story or intention you would like beside you in ceremony.


Keep them somewhere visible until we meet. This experience will be shaped by more than what happens in ceremony.
It will also be shaped by the presence, care and intention each person brings.