Learning Together
Oyster and Shiitake Log Workshop at our farm
February 10 from 12-3 in McDonald Tn. Register here.
Shiitake Log Workshop at Rising Fawn Gardens
2:00-4:00 PM
521 Cureton Mill Rd
Rising Fawn, GA
Past Events
SoundSeed Morning Meditation with Ceremonial Cacao
SoundSeed is an offering straight from our hearts that combines soothing, entraining instrumentation with plant medicine for releasing, connecting, and celebrating the Mystery of life!
For this session, we’re serving a sensual brew of ceremonial cacao and reishi mushroom. Journeyers are welcome to come for the music alone or join us in sacramental communion with cacao and reishi. We will also call upon the assistance of aromatic plants and flower waters to help cleanse, guide, and unburden.
Everything and everyone has a song—plants, people, places, you name it. This is an opportunity to drop into a web of sound and deepen your connection to whatever is asking for your attention. It’s also an opportunity to renew and ask for guidance and protection, as plants and frequency are so very helpful in this regard.
We’re opening an entire wall of doors to let the inside out and the outside in—plenty of fresh air and a beautiful view of the mountain. Our host @risingfawngardens has held us well before and promises to again—the herb gardens, forest, creek, and mountain slopes are home to numerous beings and the feeling of their aliveness and collaboration is palpable. Tune in with us?
Blankets and bolsters are provided; bring a yoga mat if you’d like. Email ali@forestfolkfungi.com with any questions.
Location: Rising Fawn Gardens / Rising Fawn, GA (30 minutes from Chattanooga) / 521 Cureton Mill Rd, Rising Fawn, GA 30738
Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021
Time: 10 am-12 pm (morning session!)
Joe’s experience as a facilitator of sacred sound ceremony comes from over a decade of study within an intact lineage of healers that work with sound as transformative medicine. Ali is an herbalist and works with plants and their benevolent spirits to help create space for transformation. Together, they offer individual and group sessions that weave together sacred sound and the blessings of the plants. Ali and Joe also own Forest Folk Fungi, a medicinal mushroom and herbal apothecary with an online shop.
To register: SoundSeed Meditation with Ceremonial Cacao at Rising Fawn Gardens
Sacred Night of Sound: A Deep Cave Immersion
July 10, 2021
Cumberland Caverns
McMinnville, TN
Enter into a state of deep relaxation with crystal singing bowls, drums, and meditative sounds deep within a beautiful cave.
333 feet below the earth's surface lies the beautiful Volcano Room at Cumberland Caverns. We will gather together in this space for a special night of sacred sounds. Allow yourself to enter into a deep state of relaxation with the sound of crystal singing bowls, hand pans, chimes, drums, and song.
This special evening will be hosted by Jeanette Jordan of Wild Nettle Wellness, and Ali and Joe of Forest Folk Fungi. Together they will weave layers of sound that will bring us into present moment awareness and invite the listeners to feel into their bodies in deep contemplative ways.
Sound therapy is one of many ways to enter into relationship with your mind and body, and being within the belly of the earth, inside a room that is nearly acoustically perfect will amplify your ability to go deep into a state of meditation.
The cave stays at an ambient temperature of about 56 degrees fahrenheit year round. Please plan to bring warm layers. There are absolutely no outside food or drinks allowed in the cave.
Seating will begin at 6:30. Please arrive early to walk through the cave and get seated before 7pm.
Please note that this event is not suitable for small children who are unable to sit quietly for this experience. Sound immersion is an active listening exercise and requires that the participants are intentional with their silence in order to fully enjoy the experience.
Candlelit Cacao + Medicinal Mushroom Ceremony
Awakening Intuitive Self Care is a three day Earth Medicine immersion designed to gently guide you back to the land and home to yourself. If you feel called to align your life more deeply with the natural rhythms of the earth, to foster nourishing habits with thoughtfully chosen foods and herbal medicine, to open the ears of your heart to the voice of the plants, to reconnect with your individual song and prayer, and to do all of this in gentle, supportive community, then this retreat is for you, dear one.
We will map our body's present location within the great Gaian map of seasonal and lunar circles, locating ourselves in this exact time and place. When we know where we are in the spiral, we can begin tracking our own unique rhythms in ways that bring insight, delight, and surprise.
We will journey together in the kitchen, initiating the Kitchen Witch within and learning delicious Ayurvedic recipes for gentle cleansing and soothing of the body and spirit. Together, we will ritually prepare ghee, a sacred healing food, and learn how to infuse this golden elixir with medicinal herbs and spices.
We will journey together into the forest and meet the community of plants growing around us. Entering into intentional silence, we will journey to meet a plant of our choosing and in doing so not only develop our intuitive skills, but also bring back medicine that we alone are asked to carry.
We will harvest, respectfully and with great care, plants with which to make an herbal body oil. This beautiful oil will be a part of our Ayurvedic abhygana practice.
We will fiercely honor, listen to, and give back to the spirits of the land on whose dwelling place this sacred work is conducted.
Hot Springs Gathering
June 7—9, 2019
Friday we’ll gather at the lodge and have some tea while we talk about why we’re all there. We’ll also go for a dip in the nearby river, before settling in and beginning the relaxation.
Saturday we’ll head up to Max Patch for a day of fun in the sun. We’ll make flower essences, go for a plant walk, and harvest St. John’s wort and yarrow to distill back at the lodge. In the evening, we’ll head to the hot springs themselves for a relaxing soak with new friends.
Sunday I’ll be sharing medicinal mushroom knowledge, and then Lauren will present a primer on distilling hydrosols and essential oils.
Price includes lodging and wonderful vegetarian meals, beginning with dinner on Friday and ending with lunch on Sunday. Rideshares may be available, please get in touch. The retreat is based at the historic Sunnybank Inn. Visit woodenspoonherbs.com to register.
Hot Springs NC ✨ Lauren Haynes (of Wooden Spoon Herbs) and Ali are co-facilitating an overnight retreat centered on honoring our relationships with the plants & fungi that grow around us. We'll be staying at the historic Sunnybank Inn, a bed and breakfast and hiker hostel along the AT.
Plans together include...
✔️hike to the top of Max Patch, a serene grassy bald (pictured here) that is home to many medicinal plant relations
✔️a class on Southern Folk Medicine (we're gonna determine our individual constitutions through the lens of this lineage!)
✔️discussion of the edible and medicinal mushrooms of the Southeast and safe foraging practices
✔️a kava chai ceremony to open our ❤️s
✔️an evening soak in the nearby hot springs
✔️morning tea ceremony
✔️plant meditations + exploring our intuition
✔️quiet alone time, if you'd like 🌟The space we want to hold for this weekend is open, relaxed, improvisational, and group-directed. We look forward to co-creating with all those who join! 🌟 Our weekend begins Friday evening and ends Sunday mid-morning. The sweet staff of the Inn provide us with six vegetarian meals over the course of the weekend. 🍉🌽 🌟 Call Sunnybank Inn at 828-622-7206 to register or visit link in profile for more info. There are often a limited number of scholarships available through Sunnybank.