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What can mushrooms teach us about being human—and about finding our way back into relationship with the world around us?
In this episode of the Magick Kitchen Podcast, Leandra Witchwood and Elyse Welles welcome author and doula Madison Murphy Barney to explore the ideas behind Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms. Madison shares how mushrooms and mycelial networks offer a powerful blueprint for humility, reciprocity, decomposition, community, and living as part of an ecosystem rather than above it.
Together, they explore what “right relationship” can look like in everyday life: reconnecting with ancestral ways of knowing, tending the land and communities where we actually live, practicing curiosity, and relearning the ordinary skills of being a good neighbor. They also examine the limits of individualism and the self-help mindset, asking what becomes possible when spirituality moves beyond endless self-improvement and back toward embodiment, relationship, service, and the Earth.
Connect with Madison Murphy Barney:
Official Website: https://madisonmurphybarney.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisonmurphybarney/
Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms: https://redwheelweiser.com/imprints/weiser-books/
Our Medicine: https://ourmedicine.substack.com/
Special Rate - Lock in by December 1st
Samhainfest is a two-day celebration of witchcraft, folklore, ritual, music, and ancestor reverence, held October 31 to November 1, 2026, in Havre de Grace, Maryland.
Learn more and get tickets at samhainfest.com.
The Sacred Waters Retreat is a four-day pilgrimage through Greece’s healing springs, volcanic islands, sea caves, and sacred coastal landscapes. Through ritual, ceremony, and time on the water, you will reconnect with emotional renewal, embodied softness, and the ancient wisdom held by the sea.
Learn more at elysewelles.com/visitgreece
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Join the Rebel Mystic Coven Inner Circle before December 1, 2026, and keep the current rate as you enter the coven's new year-long Cauldrons in 2027. Something is brewing, and founding members get the first seat at the fire.
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Follow Elyse @seekingnumina, & join Seekers of the Sacred Wild, a free group with weekly live lessons and readings. Join upcoming pilgrimages and container courses here: www.elysewelles.com/2026Immersive
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