YOUR GUIDES

Elodie Jouvenot (she/they) particularly resonates with the terms guide or facilitator. As the founder and community leader of Ecstatic Temple, Elodie has deep experience in creating and holding transformational and intentional spaces for both groups and individuals. They are also a somatic intimacy guide, shamanic practitioner, and erotic space holder.

Mushrooms entered Elodie’s life in 2018, following their first spiritual awakening. Since then, mushrooms and psychedelics have been among their greatest teachers, alongside somatic, shamanic, and tantric practices.

Blending pragmatic perspectives with spiritual currents, Elodie’s approach is rooted in non-dual Tantra, animism, and the interconnectedness of all things. With a fierce heart, they facilitate a return to connection—with oneself and others—as a path to love and wholeness.

Ecstatic Temple https://www.ecstatictemple.ca/
Somatic Shamanic guidance https://www.ecstaticwisdom.ca/ 

Racheal Charlie Cogan (she/they) works with embodiment. They are a registered massage therapist with a diploma in Shiatsu and Traditional Chinese Medicine, a certified Somatic Sex Educator, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) in training.

Their work is rooted in the deep wisdom carried in our bodies, and in gently supporting a process of re-membering.

Racheal hosts Awakening the Body, a podcast exploring sexuality, psychedelics, trauma, shame, acceptance, and loving self-kindness.

A professional musician for most of their life, Racheal has been in relationship with mushrooms since 2012—a source of transformation, connection, and insight into human and more-than-human relationships. Rooted in gratitude for the Earth and its living systems, they bring music into their facilitation through singing, drumming, and flutes.

Somatic Sexuality & Podcast: www.rachealcharlie.com

Massage Therapy: www.rachealcogan.com

Music: https://soundcloud.com/racheal-cogan

What to Bring

• Water Bottle: A closed water bottle to stay hydrated.

• Clothing: Comfortable, layered clothing (think slumber party vibes) and an optional change of clothes.

• Blankets & Pillows: Make your personal nest cozy. Mats are provided, but you’re welcome to bring extra items for added comfort.

• Temperature Preparedness: Body temperature may fluctuate during the journey. You may experience moments of heat or cold, sometimes accompanied by shaking or tremors as your body releases stored energy. Bring layers and a warm blanket or quilt to stay comfortable.

• Any object that will make you feel well and grounded 

• Optional : snacks and food

• Optional : Altar Item, Journal

On the Day of the Ceremony

• Eat: Ensure you have some fuel for the work ahead. Try not to eat after 12 pm to prepare your body for the journey.

• Ground into your intentions: Spend time reflecting on your reasons for participating and what you hope to explore, release, or receive during the ceremony.

Medicine and Dosage

We acknowledge the long-standing, living lineages of Indigenous peoples who have been in deep relationship with psilocybin mushrooms for generations - as teachers, healers, and holders of sacred knowledge. In particular, we honour María Sabina, a Mazatec sabia ("one who knows") from Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Her name and work came to international prominence after R. Gordon Wasson’s 1957 Life magazine article, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom.” The exposure brought a flood of outsiders to her community, disrupting local life and exploiting a sacred tradition. The transmission of this medicine into Western contexts is entangled with colonial extraction, appropriation, and harm - including the ongoing colonization of land, culture, and bodies. W

ithin this, we also honour the immense healing, insight, and transformation mushrooms have brought to many. Their wisdom continues to ripple through hearts, bodies, and communities. Thank you María Sabina and your lineage. What has become accessible to many of us was never meant to be taken - but now lives with us.

• Cacao: We will begin the ceremony with a ceremonial cacao during the opening circle.

• Mushrooms: Mushrooms will be provided, with doses ranging between 2 and 3 grams. You are welcome to take less if that feels right for you, but we will not be offering more than 3 grams.

• Facilitators’ Role: Elodie and Racheal will also take mushrooms in lower dose, joining you in the transdimensional space while holding the group’s physical and energetic integrity. Both are experienced and attuned to address anything that arises, ensuring the container remains secure and supportive.

What is Space Holding in Transdimensional Space?

This is not easily defined—it is a fluid and intuitive process. Racheal senses it as finding and holding the open space of everything, creating a contained environment for the group to unravel, release, and process. This may occur with or without specific material arising.

Racheal also thinks of sound and music as vibrational boundaries, offering protection and guiding the work to unfold as easefully as possible.

For Elodie, it’s about connecting to Source (the Universe, the Goddess, the Divine, all it as ou wish…) and trusting Her loving guidance. In these contexts, Elodie sees themselves as a hollow bone, a channel, their role is to weave in a safer cocoon, and step out of the way in order to transmute and alchemize the group process. 

Elodie trusts that individual processes are intertwined with the collective, and the other way around. With years of experience facilitating transformational and shamanic containers, she will be available support individual processes if something more challenging arises.

Navigating the Work with Mushrooms

This is a meditative, solo journey, supported by the group. While we are all in this together, and you may feel the web of connection and care between us, we ask that you stay in your own space during the ceremony. This includes refraining from engaging with others, including conversation and touch. 

During the opening circle, we will ask for your consent to offer supportive touch during the ceremony if needed. This touch may be grounding, reassuring, or part of a cleansing or blessing process, and you can decline at any time.

Allow yourself to move, shake, cry, laugh—to be with what arises. For louder expressions, such as anger or intense release, please use a pillow to muffle the sound. This helps maintain the introspective atmosphere and respects the heightened sensitivity of everyone in the space.

We also ask that you remain in the temple space until after the closing circle. This container is designed to hold the experience in a ‘safe enough’ way for everyone.

Your guides, Elodie and Racheal, will be in support of the group process, however you are responsible for your own experience.

Journey Length and Closing
The journey with the mushrooms will last between 4 and 5 hours. Elodie and Racheal will come to each of you individually to signify the closing with a final blessing. This may involve presence, touch (if you have consented), or cleansing with sage. We might also share a few words with you at that moment.

After this, we will ease our way back into grounded connection. There will be a pot of food available—please indicate any dietary sensitivities on your intake form so we can prepare something suitable for most. You may wish to eat to ground yourself, or you may find you don’t feel like eating. You can bring your own supportive snacks as well—nuts, fruit, or anything you know works well for you.

Take this time however you need: stay in your nest, move or dance, or join others to connect in the kitchen area. This is a time for gentle interaction, quiet reflection, or gathering. Once we’ve had time to ground and come back fully, we will close with a circle for optional sharing and final reflections.

Returning Home

After the ceremony, we strongly encourage you to arrange for someone to pick you up or take an Uber home. Do not drive.

Plan to have a quiet and restful space to sleep. Allow yourself time to unwind, process, and begin integrating the experience. The following day, prioritize rest and reflection.

Integration Call

There will be an optional group zoom integration meeting about 10 days after the ceremony. (Date and zoom link to be send later)

During the Ceremony

When Things Get Challenging

Challenges may arise during the journey. Here are supportive practices to help you navigate them:

• Pay attention to your body. Notice where you feel the challenge physically. Root yourself in the sensation and observe it - where is there tension?

• Expand into fear. Rather than resisting fear, gently expand your awareness into it. Be curious about it and allow it to exist.

• Ask for support. Communicate with the mushrooms—ask them to be gentle, for a break, or for love and care. This dialogue can deepen your relationship with their spirit.

• Ground yourself. Open your eyes, sit up, look around, reconnect with the space. Ground into the directions. When you are ready, go back in.

• Avoid getting lost in the story: Allow experiences or memories to arise without overthinking or trying to control them.

The “come-up” phase—typically the first 30 minutes to an hour—can be particularly challenging. Spend this time in stillness and attentiveness. Ground yourself in sensation and the body as the container for the experience. If nothing seems to happen, or the process feels slow, allow it to unfold in its own time.

The mushrooms may also be working to support regulating your nervous system, and bringing balance to your body. This may be the journey itself or preparation for what’s to come. Every journey is unique, and there is no “right” way to experience it.

Holding Space for Difficulty

When encountering difficulty, you can ask for ease and love. Let these energies hold the difficulty, creating space for it to simply exist. This process can allow knots in the body/soul to unwind—or to simply be witnessed. You don’t need to fix or change what arises. Be with it as it is.

Exploring Boundaries

This is a powerful space to explore internal boundaries:

• With beings or visions: If a being or presence appears, you can choose to engage —or not. You can say no, ask it to leave, or ask it to wait. It may return later when you feel ready.

• With experiences: You don’t have to accept everything that arises. The journey is navigable, and you are in relationship with it.

This is an opportunity to deepen your experience of consent and explore what you want to lean into—not just in the journey but in life.

Physical Presence

You can choose to journey seated or lying down. Seated positions may feel more active, while lying down can offer deeper rest. Follow your intuition, and allow your body to guide you.

If your body wants to move, shake, tremor, or flow in any way, allow it. This is part of the process.

Welcoming Erotic Energy

During the journey, you may feel the presence of erotic energy. This energy is deeply connected to our life force - creative, vibrant, and expansive. We welcome it in this space.

This is an opportunity to recognize that your erotic energy belongs to you. It is yours to hold and embody without needing to project it onto others, engage with others, or having it witnessed by others. This is a space to honour your erotic presence as part of your wholeness.

A Shared Space of Connection

We are all working with our own material, but this is a shared space, and our experiences may overlap and interact. Together, we co-create a container of connection, community, and care.

Mushrooms teach us about relationship—to ourselves, to others, and to the greater web of life.

About the Music (from Racheal)

The music in this journey reflects the deep relationships and lineages that have shaped my path as a musician - threads in a web of connection, like mycelium running through the earth. Sound and silence will be present to support our shared space.

I honor the five years in ayahuasca ceremony with my friend and guide, and the lineage of his Ashaninka teacher, Maestro Juan Flores Salazar. During this time, I learned what it means to hold space through sound and vibration. Some of the songs I sing come from this lineage. 

Some music is my own; some I’ve carried for decades, gifted by teachers and musical relationships. I learned from my years playing traditional Greek music, where I experienced how music is embedded in culture, land, and community. I also honor my teachers and colleagues Ross Daly and Kelly Thomas, with whom I toured with in Greece between 1999 and 2001. Working within mostly oral traditions literally means carrying the music within yourself, here I learned to carry and transmit music through my body.

I honor the makers of the wooden flutes I play and the trees they came from: maple, rosewood, and boxwood. I hold in my heart, my Australian friend, the late Michael Grinter, whose instruments I play, and the friendship and generosity of Swiss maker Geri Bolinger, whose instruments supported my growth as a creator of music. 

There are many names not named here. They are all part of the music. I thank them.

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Elodie and Racheal are here to support you. Please contact us with any questions or concerns. We look forward to walking this path with you.