31 May 2023 – It’s been misty for days now. Misty, rainy, thunderous weather, enigmatic for this time of the year. The meeting point for all project participants is located in the Strand, Western Cape. I muse on joining the congregation of those individuals of humanity who heals with sound, art, connection with the ancestors, and dance. The 561 km journey from Cape Town to Springbok in the Northern Cape beckons on the morrow, but it is the meeting of souls still branded as outcasts for their belief systems world over that occupies my thought process. As the first few healers slowly arrive at the meeting point, the spores of the mycelium starts to fall down from the cap, ready to start a new journey of understanding, rectifying and connecting up there in the North. For the first time in years, I break bread around a long table with white, black and First Nation. A Stapelia thankfully not in flower, takes centre stage at what must look like a dark comedy sketch portraying the last supper. Outside, the clammy weather continues. Inside, we welcome another 4 hour load shedding slot; the three whippets finally starts to trust the strange people in their territory, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the electromagnetic sound energy demonstration by Q7 Beckett, leader, San vibrational healer and cosmic traveller of the Naro Tribe. The house gently lulls us to sleep as we await the arrival of our American friend Dixon Williams who is still in the air, her spores ready to land on African soil for the first time.
Stapelia plant
01 June 2023- The creeping towards the Northern Cape starts just after 12:00. The morning brings about a hustle and bustle as limbs are stretched before the journey North . My breakfast consists of beautifully ripe num-nums picked from a tree in a park near the ocean. The morning walk and talk with Q becomes one where our spores connect with the history of what happened hundreds of years ago on these very shores of the Strand.
Carissa macrocarpa (Num-num plant, Natal plum)
Dixon arrives at the meeting point with a huge smile after travelling for a period of just over 48 hours. In the world of Mycology it takes about 24 hours for spores to detach from a mushroom. Dixon’s travels brought her all the way from the State of Georgia, the south eastern parts of the US…the human networking system moves on different timeframes…
On the road, subliminal messages converse with me. Passing through Stellenbosch, a sticker message on a truck states, “Save water, drink wine”, not so subliminal considering the area I’m in. Near Porterville, a company car painted in an intricate art like print with bold colors, reminds me of Kagiso’s coat, which she has brought with to keep the cold out. Minutes before I see the car, she tells me how her mother made it for her. She has a lot of gratitude for things handmade, for they carry more value. I fall in love with her spirit all over again. I met Kagiso Kekana at one of my talks on the interconnection between ancient traditional medicinal practises over a year ago. It is there that I fell in love with her soft gentle nature, and her incredible ability to listen.
Darkness greets us an hour before arrival at the place chosen or is it predetermined…
The thoughts of every healer, or shall we refer to the group as spores for now, warms the mini bus that became our cocoon between provinces. The brightest of stars lights the way while the granite heads of the Kamiesberg whispers words of welcome. The turn off to our abode for the next few days reads Welcome to Jakkalswater (jackal’swater). How interesting, as the Jackal is a symbol of truth, the afterlife and mystery.
Supper is a true feast, crowned with a roosterkoek and warm, honest hospitality.
The moment of truth enters when we converse on how our roles as healers, observers and artists, will portray how the mycelium network grows, branches out, connects, in order to bring about healing to the land, everything above it, everything below it.
It is in this moment I learn that in order to tap into the workings of the natural mycelium network, our pain, ancient, old, and present, needs to be dealt with first.
Old wounds are prodded, but the wind outside whispers it is time to rest first.
Tomorrow the growth of spores will test its ability to become a living organism. We all have the ability to heal, maybe the trick is to become part of a system of the ones that chose the road less travelled.
