INTERBEING

A 4-week

online

beginner's

holistic mycology

group course.

Interbeing is designed with the perspective that fungi are animate beings.

This four-week online group course was created to increase understanding, awareness, and appreciation of our fungal friends. Fungi, the great recomposers of our earth, deserve better recognition and reciprocity from our human "side" of things.

What is Holistic Mycology?

Holistic Mycology engages the whole body with fungi, as experiencing fungi is definitely more than just thinking about them with our brain. Perhaps at times they think of us. This course is different from other mycology courses because we see fungi as more than just an organism or a food or a medicine.

Gabriela understands fungi as animated inhabitants of above and below. Fungi have long been by our side (or perhaps we have long been by their side), and they reflect our own capacity for regeneration, inquiry, embodiment, and soul-fullness. Fungi are ancestors and teachers of our own sporulating bodies as well as of our community ecosystems.

As recomposers (life-arrangers) and decomposers (dead-eaters), fungi invite you to embody your own fruiting body and to heal our co-creation with the planet(s). What you sense in the mushroom may also be in you. The fungi are a framework for showing us how to better steward our connections, both seen and unseen.

This course guides students into foundational mycology education that places our human experience as intricately woven into the context of the fungal terrain. Fungi are animated beings. We are not as separated from one another as we once thought. This course is created knowing that fungi have been sacred to many people around the world for quite a long time. This course invites us to learn together through curiosity, reciprocation, integration, and community.

The Course

This course consists of four Sunday classes throughout the month of April. Each class is 2.5 hours long (~120 minutes of course material fluffed by 30 minutes of discussion/ reflection).

Sunday 04 April 2021
Class 1: Fungal Ecology

Sunday 11 April 2021

Class 2: Receiving Mushroom Medicine

Sunday 18 April 2021

Class 3: Meet Your Mushrooms

Sunday 25 April 2021

Class 4: From Lightning to Lore

While conversing with Fungi during Interbeing, we are also invited to become aware of the Moon's core movements: New and Full. As we engage deeper with fungi, becoming aware of cycles larger than ourselves can help us integrate our understanding and experience. Cycles larger than ourselves are also something fungi teach us so deeply about.

All 4 classes will be recorded and sent out to the group via email. Recordings will not be accessible once the course has ended. The last day that all 4 class recordings will be accessible online will be Sunday, May 2nd.

Class attendance is by no means required, but definitely recommended to get the course's true value of live, communal, group learning. Gabriela values live courses with human interaction, otherwise this 4-week course would be recorded without the opportunity to participate and engage one another (like many other online courses these days).

Weekly Invitations

You will receive Weekly Invitations, or prompts, to answer in your own time, on your own terrain. No homework is required, but these Weekly Invitations can aid in deepening your experiential learning, personal inquiry, and group connection. These can be anything from "Collect and identify a mushroom specimen this week," to "What fungal philosophy is calling to you?".

Mycommunity Forum

For the duration of the course all students have access to the online Mycommunity Forum for open discussion. Please post your questions, ideas, and insporation on this forum so that others who might feel the same way can also engage in the inquiry and get answers pooled from the group as a whole. This course functions as a trustworthy wellspring of mycology knowledge as well as a web of support, and Mycommunity. The Mycommunity Forum will not be accessible after our course ends, which is officially May 2nd.

About Your Interbeing Guide

The Mushrooms swept up Gabriela's heart in 2012 upon moving to Seattle. She values mycology education that is holistic and friendly. For far too long we have overlooked fungi in textbooks, classrooms, and backyards. Gabriela believes this class is for everyone. She is Vice President for the Mushroom Society of Utah, Blog Editor for Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), and Project Leader for Northern Utah Funga. She believes everything should get a chance to rot. Learn more about her.

Sunday 04 April 2021 3 pm - 5:30 pm MST
Class 1: Fungal Ecology

Opening Ceremony

Fungi 101

Mycelium

Spores & Sporulation

The 4 Core Ecological Groups of Fungi: Saprophytic, Mycorrhizal, Endophytic, and Parasitic
Recomposition (Nutrient Cycling)
Decomposition (Rot)

Mycoremediation and Mycomaterials

Lichen

Slime Molds

Sunday 11 April 2021 3 pm - 5:30 pm MST

Class 2: Receiving Mushroom Medicine

Mushroom Medicine Explained (active compounds, uses, and history)
MycoAstrology

How to make Mushroom Tea/Broth

How to make Triple Extract Mushroom Tincture

How to make Mushroom Essence
The Mycobiome

Allying with Fungi in the Garden 101

Sunday 18 April 2021 3 pm - 5:30 pm MST

Class 3: Meet Your Mushrooms

Mushroom Identification 101 (Field Guides & More)

How to Collect Mushrooms for Food, Medicine, or Science

Frequently Used Mushroom Terminology

How to Make a Spore Print

The 13 Most Common Mushrooms Across Bioregions

Mushroom Toxicity and Common Toxins

How to Get Engaged in Your local Mushroom Culture

The Importance of Funga Conservation

Sunday 25 April 2021 3 pm - 5:30 pm MST

Class 4: From Lightning to Lore

Fungi in Traditional Ecological Knowledge

What is Deep Fungi Philosophy?

MycoMythology
Fungi in Ritual

Entheogens: From History to Microdoses

AstroMycology

Integrating Mycommunity

Closing Ceremony

Course Breakdown

Please note: All listed times are in Mountain Standard Time (MST), which is 1 hour ahead of PST and 2 hours behind EST. Please calculate the relevant time for your time zone.

Life Skills You Will Learn

How to identify the most common mushroom species that grow across most continents (oysters, morels, chanterelles, red belted conk, Amanita muscaria and lookalikes, turkey tail, chicken of the woods, puffballs, etc.)
A deepened understanding and appreciation of our fungi-reliant world.
Mushroom Latin and common names, classifications, and common terminology so that you can confidently describe fungi and converse with other mycophiles.
Regenerative mushroom foraging ethics and techniques.
How to collect, identify, and document your mushroom observations.
How to collect mushrooms for food, science, or medicine.
How to use a mushroom field guide and other classification materials.
How to identify the most common toxic mushroom species.
An understanding of how to support the fungi that are endemic and beneficial to body, garden, and compost.
How to make a spore print.
The central historical impacts of fungi-human connections.
The importance of applied mycology, community science, open source information, and DIY experimentation.
An understanding of the primary roles that fungi perform in the environment.
How to select medicinal mushrooms (such as reishi, cordyceps, chaga, lion’s mane, and matsutake).
How to prepare mushroom teas/broths, tinctures, and essences.
The compounds found in medicinal mushrooms and their effects on our human biology.
The most simplified steps to growing your own mushrooms at home.
The benefits of psilocybin on individuals and communities.
How science and spirituality can connect through fungi.
What makes fungi unique organisms.

What You Will Receive:

The Zoom information to access four live group classes.
All classes will be recorded and accessible to students until the completion of the course (May 2nd).
Access to our Mycommunity Forum (underneath the students tab) where you can discuss your fungal curiosities and insporations with your classmates.
Optional Weekly Invitations to deepen your personal fungal understanding on your own time and land.
Reference materials and infographics for you to keep.

REGISTER

The last day to register for Interbeing April 2021 is on Wednesday, March 31st.

Please register if you feel this course is for you. There are limited spots.

The video classes will be presented through Zoom.us, so please make sure you are ready with a free Zoom account before our course begins and that you also have reliable internet connection (through computer or smartphone).

Once you have registered, look for an important welcome email from gabrielamushroom@gmail.com. This email will arrive in your inbox on April 1st. This email will contain important information about how to log into our Zoom classes and how to create a login for our Mycommunity Forum.

*Moon Mushrooms prohibits discrimination on any basis including experience, race, age, sex, gender, religion, visible and invisible disabilities, relationship status, and veteran status in all programs and practices. Fungi wisdom, love, and rot are for all.

** Due to the nature of this course, refunds are not available.