Mushroom foraging during the Mycelia journey around San Antonio Cuajimoloyas/Pueblos Mancomunados

The Story behind Mycelia

Following the Invisible Threads

Some journeys begin long before we decide to walk them.

Our Mycelia pilgrimage was born through friendship, shared purpose, and a deep love for the forests of Oaxaca.

In 2019, I met my dear friend, soul sister, and now collaborator, Ioana, during one of the last journeys we guided together through the mountains of Oaxaca. Neither of us knew that the world was about to change. Looking back, those days feel like the beginning of something much greater.

During the pandemic, we stayed connected, creating online gatherings, supporting one another, and holding space for our communities through uncertain times. Ioana often tells me that those first journeys through the mountains prepared her for everything that followed—that the ceremonies, the wisdom of Oaxaca, and our shared experiences gave her an inner compass when the world seemed to lose its bearings.

Eventually, life brought her to Oaxaca, where we continued to dream, create, and walk together. Although her own path has since taken her elsewhere, our connection has never faded.

Like the mycelium beneath the forest floor, some relationships continue to nourish us across distance and time.

When we felt the call to collaborate once again, Mycelia emerged almost naturally.

Then, only a month before our first pilgrimage in August 2025, something happened that changed the journey forever.

Our beloved friend Oscar Galindo passed away unexpectedly.

Oscar was one of the person who opened the portal for us to the sacred Hill of the Jaguar in the Zapotec community of Santa Catarina Lachatao. Through his love for these mountains, he introduced us to places, stories, and relationships that forever changed the way we experienced this land.

His passing left us heartbroken.
We chose to dedicate this journey to him.

Together, Ioana, Yves and I traveled to the Pacific coast, where Oscar had spent the last years of his life. There we created a ceremonial art piece, weaving into it our prayers, gratitude, memories, and love. We carried this offering with us into the cloud forests of Oaxaca and placed it at the center of our ceremony on the Hill of the Jaguar.

It felt as though Oscar was walking beside us.

Later that year, Ioana carried this same piece across the ocean to Burning Man, where it was finally offered to the fire. What began on the shores of the Pacific completed its journey in the Nevada desert—a beautiful reminder that nothing is ever truly lost. Everything transforms.

Perhaps this is the wisdom of mycelium itself.

Beneath every forest lies an invisible network connecting trees, fungi, plants, water, and soil. It is a living web of communication, nourishment, resilience, and mutual support. Nothing exists in isolation.

And perhaps we are woven together in much the same way.

Friendships. Teachers. Ancestors. The land. Those who have crossed to the other side. Their presence continues to nourish us, even when we can no longer see them.

This pilgrimage is about much more than mushrooms.

It is an invitation to slow down and enter the cloud forests of Oaxaca with humility and wonder. To learn from the women and men of the Zapotec communities who have lived in relationship with these mountains for generations. To discover medicinal plants and wild mushrooms, to gather in ceremony, to walk ancient trails, to listen deeply, and to remember that we, too, belong to the great web of life.

Every August, these forests become our teachers.

This year, we are called to walk this path once again.

We gather during one of the most powerful energetic gateways of the year: the Lion’s Gate portal. As if by divine timing, our pilgrimage also coincides with the solar eclipse of August 12—a moment of profound transformation, endings, and new beginnings.

Whether you understand these alignments through the language of astronomy, spirituality, or simply as an invitation to become more present, this is a remarkable time to step beyond the familiar and into a new chapter of your life.

The forest knows how to guide those who are willing to listen.

If something within you stirs as you read these words, perhaps this pilgrimage is already calling your name.

We would be honored to walk beside you through the cloud forests of Oaxaca, to share the wisdom of the mushrooms, the generosity of the Zapotec communities, the sacred ceremony on the Hill of the Jaguar, and the quiet magic that unfolds when we remember that we are all part of one living network.

Some journeys change the way you travel.

Others change the way you see the world.

And every now and then, a journey changes the way you see yourself.

Perhaps this is one of them.