Journey to Meet the Spirit of Mushroom: A Shamanic Cacao Ceremony with Gong

Cacao & Sound Healing
Written By Sorrell Robbins

Mushrooms are extraordinary beings. They live in the hidden world beneath our feet, threading through the soil in vast mycelial networks, feeding trees, composting the fallen, and bridging worlds that most of us never see. For thousands of years, indigenous traditions around the globe have honoured them as teachers and healers — and in this ceremony, I invite you to meet them as exactly that.

I’m Sorrell, Plant Spirit Medicine Woman. In this guided journey, I’ll take you into the lower realm using shamanic journeying, gong sound healing, and the optional support of ceremonial cacao. Together we’ll connect with the spirit of a friendly mushroom — whether that’s a functional ally like lion’s mane, reishi, or chaga, or a more mystical encounter with whichever mushroom spirit chooses to meet you.

You don’t need to be an experienced journeyer. You don’t need to take anything physical. All you need is your imagination, a willingness to drop into stillness, and the gong to carry you there.

Editorial note: Intro draws on Sorrell's opening monologue and her framing of the ceremony's intention. No dated language used.

Cleansing and Opening the Ceremonial Circle

Every ceremony I hold begins the same way: with an energy cleanse. Before we call in the directions, before we drink the cacao, we clear ourselves. It’s a simple but powerful practice, and I guide you through it at the start of this journey.

We place our hands in front of our heart space and allow the energy of the heart chakra — whether you sense it as green, pink, or pure white light — to flow into our hands. Then we use that love and light to wash the layers of our aura: first the outer layer, then the emotional layer, then the physical body. Anything that doesn’t serve us is released into the earth. Mother Earth composts it, just as she composts a banana skin, turning heavy energy into nourishing soil for new life.

Once we’re clean, we call in the sacred directions — East, South, West, North, Earth below and Sky above — working with the Mayan medicine wheel. We welcome Condor and Eagle, Snake, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and the vast community of Earth relations: the plant people, the stone people, the animals, furry, feathered and finned, and of course the mushroom people themselves.

What Is Shamanic Journeying? How the Lower Realm Works

Shamanic journeying is a gentle visualisation practice — not an out-of-body experience, though it can feel dreamlike. We use our imagination as the gateway. I often say it’s like listening to a radio play with your eyes closed: the images come, the story unfolds, and at some point it takes on a life of its own.

In Shamanism, the cosmos has three realms. The middle realm is where we live our daily lives. The upper realm is where we connect with higher consciousness, spirit guides, and our soul tribe. The lower realm — where we’re heading today — is the inner realm, the earth-based world of plant spirits, animal spirits, landscape spirits, and the great underground intelligence of the mushroom kingdom.

The gong is a perfect companion for journeying. It produces twelve or thirteen different tones simultaneously, which confuses the analytical left brain and frees the imaginative right brain to roam. Cacao — if you choose to use it — wakes up the brain, soothes the body, and, in the Mayan tradition, opens the eyes of the heart. You can journey just as effectively without cacao, simply following my words and the sound of the gongs.

Choosing Your Mushroom: Who Are You Going to Meet?

Before I guide you down into the lower realm, there’s one thing I want to share from my own preparatory journey: be intentional about which mushrooms you call in. Not all mushrooms are benevolent — some are toxic, some are deadly — and the spirit world is no different. When I journeyed to prepare this ceremony, my spirit guides advised me clearly: call in friendly mushrooms.

For me, psilocybin mushroom came forward. I mention this not to encourage anything illegal — in the UK, psilocybin remains restricted — but because this ceremony offers a beautifully safe and entirely legal way to connect with the wisdom and healing of psilocybin without consuming it physically. Your imagination is the medicine. If you live somewhere where you can work with psilocybin legally and you’d like to combine it with this journey, a very small dose that still allows you to follow my guidance would be appropriate — but entirely optional.

You might also choose to journey to meet lion’s mane, reishi, or chaga — functional mushrooms many of us already work with for immune support, brain health, and vitality. Or you can simply set the intention: I’m going into the lower realm to meet the friendly mushrooms. See who shows up. Trust what comes.

The Journey: Descending into the Lower Realm with Your Power Animal

The journey begins with a full body relaxation — softening from the crown of the head down to the tips of the toes — followed by a visualisation to wake up your shamanic brain. Imagine a tiny point of pure white light in the centre of your mind’s eye. Let it grow, expand, move through your body and out into your aura, filling your room, your neighbourhood, the earth beneath you. Then draw it all the way back.

Now your Tinkerbell — that little spark of conscious awareness — leaves through the crown chakra and flies to a place in nature where you feel deeply safe. A forest you know well, a favourite meadow, a beach, a mountain. Land there. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Then look for a way down: a hole in the roots of a tree, a cave, a door, a pool of water you can dive through. This is your Alice in Wonderland moment. Go down, and round, and down, deep into the lower realm.

Once you land, call for your power animal. Ask three times with your inner voice and see what steps forward. In my journey, bat arrived — a perfect ally, as bat and mushroom both help us to see in the dark, to navigate what we cannot see with ordinary eyes, to face our shadows. Your power animal will guide you to the mushrooms and stay with you throughout the encounter.

When the mushrooms arrive, treat them as you would a new friend. Ask them about themselves. How do they live? What do they eat? What are their gifts? And then, when you’re ready, ask them for healing or wisdom on whatever you’re working through in your life right now. The gongs hold space while this unfolds. Trust what comes — images, feelings, words, memories — all of it is information.

Returning Home: Integration and Closing the Circle

When I call you home, we retrace the path: thank your mushroom friends, thank your power animal, make your way back to the portal, rise up through the tunnel, out into the nature space where you first landed, and into the golden mist that carries you home across the landscapes of the world and back into your body through the crown chakra.

Wiggle your fingers. Wiggle your toes. Take some deep breaths. Welcome yourself back.

Then, before you do anything else — before you make a cup of tea or check your phone — make notes. Write down everything you can recall: the images, the feelings, the words, the sensations, the things that surprised you. Read back through your notes; sometimes that second pass jogs a detail that unlocks the meaning of everything else. Integration happens when we give the journey time and attention on this side.

We close the ceremonial circle by releasing each direction in turn, thanking the spirits of East, South, West, North, Earth, and Sky, and finally releasing Great Spirit — the life force that flows through all things, including mushrooms, including you.

How to Prepare for This Ceremony

  • Prepare your ceremonial cacao in advance if you’d like to use it — or simply have warm water or herbal tea. Cacao is optional; the journey works beautifully without it.

  • Find somewhere you can lie down or sit fully supported without being disturbed. Dim the lights if possible.

  • Use good-quality headphones or speakers — the gong produces complex overtones that are lost on phone speakers, and those sounds are part of the medicine.

  • Decide which mushroom you’d like to journey to meet, or set the open intention: I’m going to meet the friendly mushrooms today.

  • Have a journal or notepad nearby so you can write immediately after returning.

  • Think of a place in nature you know and love — you’ll be guided to go there at the start of the journey.

  • If anything feels overwhelming during the journey, remember: this is your imagination. You are always safe and always in control.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If this ceremony sparked something in you, here are some ways to continue the journey:

Further Reading

Sorrell Robbins
Previous

How to Create a Sacred Ancestor Altar: A Step-by-Step Guide
Next

Experience the Magic of Autumnus: A Sacred Cacao & Gong Journey