We all know that psilocybin mushrooms are powerful tools to work through emotions and connect with the cosmos. On one hand, magic mushrooms are psychedelics, but within spiritual and shamanic traditions, they’re recognized as Niños Santos – the spirit of the child who returns us to a place of purity.
Most of us see mushrooms as nothing more than entheogenic substances with no inherent meaning, but different traditions offer different lenses to view them. In shamanic traditions, mushrooms are ancestral medicines and spiritual tools to access higher planes of information.
Having worked closely with magic mushrooms in a ceremonial setting, it’s clear that there’s much more to these fungi than what meets the eye. In this article, I’ll cover the spiritual meaning of mushrooms, and we’ll discuss how they’re used within a ceremonial framework.
Magic Mushrooms in Spiritual Traditions
Just like Ayahuasca and Wachuma, which are central to shamanic practices in Latin America, so are their estranged fungi cousin – mushrooms.
Magic mushrooms are going through a boom in all walks of life, from the scientific community to psilocybin-assisted therapy and spiritual retreats. Simply put, they’re making a comeback, and are gradually becoming a more accepted part of society in general.
Most of us know that mushrooms can be useful tools in the world of healing, personal development, and spiritual growth, but there’s a lot more to them. Mushrooms are, and always have been rooted in spiritual tradition and shamanic practice in every corner of the world.
This is what we’re going to look at.
In South American traditions, magic mushrooms are known as “niños santos”, or the spirit of the child because they embody innocence, playfulness, and purity. They guide us back to our inner child and help us envision paths to reconstruct our lives, inside out.
Just like a child’s innocence inspires playfulness, creativity, and joy, mushrooms help us reconnect with that part of ourselves that is so often lost as we ‘grow up’. We become overserious and bitter and tend to forget that we need more play in life.
To enjoy. To experience the world through a lens of curiosity and wonder without becoming so consumed by the stress of adult life.
but there’s a lot more to them…
Magic Mushrooms Are Spiritual Tools
Mushrooms help guide us toward our future selves and pave a path to get there. They have always played a role in elevating consciousness while symbolizing rebirth due to their cyclical nature growing from decay.
While under the effects of mushrooms, people often feel connected to nature as they encourage introspection and thought. Although not necessarily common, people may undergo mystical experiences while under the effects of mushrooms, including experiences of ego death, spiritual awakening, and rebirth.
Mushrooms are associated with:
- Reconnection with the inner child
- The expansion of consciousness
- Inner healing and emotional release
- Spiritual awakening and the transmutation of consciousness
- Mystical experiences
- Death and rebirth
If you’ve worked with these medicines enough, you might notice that there are similar tones between a mushroom experience and an Ayahuasca experience. That’s because they are both teacher plants that open the gates to our subconscious and dissolve the barriers between us and the universe.
Each teacher plant has a different energy and is used for different reasons. Ayahuasca is mostly used as a healing plant, San Pedro as a heart opener that connects us to love, and mushrooms to learn more about oneself and begin constructing new paths.
Think of Ayahuasca as a stern teacher, while mushrooms are like an imaginative friend handing you a pen to rewrite your story. They invite you to co-create through introspection and reflection. You have more control over the narrative and can guide it with your intentions.
Intentions are important with any teacher plant, but with mushrooms they are everything. Intentions during an experience with psilocybin mushrooms allow you to consciously address problems, map solutions, and shape the reality you desire.
How Do Magic Mushrooms Help?
Mushroom ceremonies offer a space for rebirth, renewal, and reflection under the guidance of healers.
During my experiences participating in mushroom ceremonies, I gained a whole new appreciation for these teacher plants and realized how crucial the role of the ceremony is. I had taken mushrooms many times in my life as a way to reflect and process experiences, but under the guidance of shamans, it was a much more profound experience.
My first mushroom ceremony was held in a pitch-black temazcal in a shamanic medicine community in Peru. The shaman who was facilitating the ceremony spoke about the importance of using intention and desire to build a path into the future – saying that this is a time to think about what we want in life, and how to begin achieving it.
Unlike with Ayahuasca ceremonies, much more consideration goes into the narrative, or the process, as it’s believed that what you think about and believe during a mushroom ceremony will manifest into reality. The experience starts strong but slowly stabilizes into a gentler, smoother experience where it’s important to guide the journey and consciously create our realities.
After setting intentions and saying prayers, we drank the mushroom tea and were led through a guided meditation to:
- Focus on our intentions and direction for the ceremony
- Connect with the breath to activate the mushrooms
- Ground and feel connected to the Earth
- Hold love for our mothers and fathers
Within moments, I felt jolts of electricity channeling through my body. Visuals quickly became apparent as we were instructed to lie down on the Earth and get comfortable. I began melting into the Earth while the visuals opened up to an entirely new world.
Like I was watching a high-definition TV screen, I instantly became immersed in an interdimensional space somewhat representing a cosmic labyrinth full of spirits and people walking around and interacting with me. It was unlike anything I’d experienced before: clear, vivid, and extremely profound. The detail was impeccable and I observed in awe.
As I lay in silence observing the experience, the vivid visuals slowly eroded into plans, solutions, and a crystal-clear roadmap for how I could provide value to the shamanic center during the time I was working there.
It was as though the mushrooms were architects, drafting blueprints for my future, not just showing possibilities but allowing me to emotionally experience and believe in their reality. More than just a mental exercise, it was a visceral experience: I could see, feel, and embody the future reality I wanted to create.
So I played everything out and for hours, could only focus on the center – like building it brick by brick. I saw every message I would send, every design I would implement, everything. It was more than refining a vague, overall picture, but was rather extremely vivid.
After integrating the experience, I put this plan into action, which brings me to an important point: Just because you can create a roadmap for your envisioned reality doesn’t mean it will automatically come to fruition. You need to put in the work.
Niños Santos: The Spirit of the Child
Mushrooms are spiritual allies that offer gentle guidance to connect us with divinity, heal past wounds, and chart new futures. They teach us to honor our inner child, embrace our creative potential, and consciously build the lives we want to live.
Mushrooms are spiritual healers that subtly cleanse both body and soul. While they don’t trigger dramatic physical purges like Ayahuasca, they help the body expel toxins through the urine and quietly sweep away emotional and energetic clutter which creates space for renewal.
As sacred medicines, mushrooms remind us that the answers we seek are within, waiting to be rediscovered with curiosity, intention, and respect.