“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” This untranslatable passage with many interpretations forms the basis of our religious practice. Similarly, other religions like Kaballah mention, “Those who know do not speak, and those who speak do not know”.

While in ceremony, Steph received the message “no words.” Similarly, Josh received the message “The more you speak, the less you know” while conversing with Ovoid mushrooms.

We are left with a conundrum. Our government only protects our religion if it is written down and spoken. But our religion cannot be adequately spoken in English or any other language for that matter. How do we speak the unspeakable? How do we show what remains hidden to most people?

As World-Bridgers, we aim to articulate the ineffable and to realize that our work and writings are playful in nature; they are illusions. Do not take these words to be the final teachings of Whole, as we are continually evolving and connecting more deeply with the present moment.

It is up to every partner of Whole to connect firmly to the Tao of their ancestry, the Tao of their local environment, and the Tao of relationships and communication.

Holy Books: Tao te Ching, Chuangzu, I Ching, and more.

Holy Books: The Teachings of Buddha

Teachers: Thich Nat Hahn

With a vision of living harmoniously with our neighbors in an intentional community, we require members to dedicate themselves to the practice of Non Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D.

Shortly before hs graduation with a Ph.D in Psychology, his professor told him the shortcomings of counseling and the diagnostic system. These diagnoses are often not reliable from counselor to counselor and, therefore, not valid scientific measures. Further, he learned that diagnoses can cause harm in the form of self-fulfilling prophecies. In the dominator system diagnoses can also be used against one person to obscure their individual needs.

To find out how to help his clients with a system that actually works, he studied comparative religion to understand why violence occurs in our world. From this deep study and decades of practice, he developed a language called Non Violent Communication in reference to the non-violent protests finding success in the US and India.

There are ample free resources online, and Dr. Rosenberg encouraged others to share the practice widely.

His focus on religion and science makes him a unique role model with teachings that interweave age-old traditions and modern-day therapy to create a unique blend of empathy and emotional intelligence.

Our counselors at Whole practice NVC with clients and in their daily life.

Watch this free 3-hour training if you want to learn more about the practice and see if it resonates with you.

“Collapse now and avoid the rush.”

Learn the wisdom of our ancestors now so that when we need to provide for our food and shelter on our own, we will be prepared to do so.

Holy Book: The Druid Handbook by John Michael Greer

Holidays: Equinox and Solstice, All harvests for each plant or mushroom that calls to the individual partner. These are too numerous to mention. Some opportunities to commune with plants are short-lived, like the Black Locust that blooms for only a week. Each partner will continue to update their holidays to predict the harvest and bring together the community to celebrate, process, and consume the sacred plants and mushrooms they forage. This is in line with the Earth Path teachings of Druidy.

Read here to learn more.

Terence McKenna; Food of the Gods

At the root of Vegetalismo is the idea that plants (including mushrooms) are our healers. While local shamans around the world may have realized this first, science continues to confirm the benefits of various plants and mushrooms for healing, sustenance, and connection with the divine.

Practitioners are called to plants and mushrooms to connect with the divine source of wisdom and energy. Not everyone is called to this way of life, but some of our partners and world bridgers identify as Atlantan vegetalismos. By removing sugar, salt, and oil from our diet and by consuming native plants in the wild, we can get in touch with their teachings and their songs. We use cannabis to connect with the songs of the plants and other master teachers that speak to us in our dreams and journeys. Each world-bridger and partner is encouraged to talk with the plants, receive their teachings, and integrate them into their daily lives.

While traditional Vegetalismo uses the term “dominar,” or to have dominion over, when referring to their relationship with plants, we prefer partnership. We seek to partner with the plants and the mushrooms to help heal ourselves, our community, and the earth.

We believe that all who seek can connect with plants, see them in their visions, hear their songs, and connect more deeply with their teachings. It is a long journey that is exceedingly difficult in this modern age of isolation from nature.

We’re dedicated to sharing the teachings of the plants and mushrooms and growing the knowledge base of these influential teachers here in Atlanta.

Our synaGaia helps the community use entheogens to connect with Gaia and individual enteties, to hear their message, and carry out their teachings.

We seek to acknowledge and honor those who lived on this continent long before our ancestors arrived on her shores. We walk a tight line between cultural appropriation and honoring a tradition that cared for life on this earth. In her book “Braiding Sweet Grass,” Robin Wall Kimmerer outlines touching practices of the honorable harvest and the Thanksgiving address. Then Haudenosaunee elders encouraged Kimmerer to share this life-supporting practice with the world to honor and nurture these traditions.

Native American religions varied by tribe, but many we study acknowledge the divine in all beings. They dialogue with plants and mushrooms and wait to receive their teachings. They seek balance and harmony and nurture the plants and mushrooms that give them life. We hope that we can act as stewards of the land, know the plants and animals, and how to serve them just as the natives served their teachers and healers. The plants and mushrooms in America formed a close-knit bond with humans, and that bond has been broken until recently. At Whole, we work to re-kindle the bond by planting and sustaining native plants and mushrooms and working to understand their teachings, honor native wisdom, give back to the native community, and find ways to heal the trauma that Native Americans have witnessed.

While foraging for sacred plants and mushrooms, we attempt to follow the lead of Native Americans by practicing an honorable harvest and giving thanks for all that the Earth Mother provides.

We aim to restore the land to the harmony that Native Americans provided. Each parcel of land has a unique history. When purchasing land. We aim to honor the ancestral lineages, contact existing elders and natives, offer them the land to reconnect with their home and nourish the connections between humans and the plants, animals, and mushrooms on earth.

Reference Book: Braiding Sweet Grass

Then Minoans worked together to unite in the face of danger and to practice a religion that led to peace and equality within the community.

Rianne Eisler’s - The Chalice and the Blade.

Together we deepen our connection to the plants, animals, and mushrooms that surround and co-evolve with us. As sacrament foragers we work to connect with the divine in all life through individual teachers and ancestors.

Each partner and World-Bridger is encouraged to learn more about religious faiths that speak to them, and to fully integrate their teachings into their practice as they seek harmony with the Tao, connection with Gaia, and unity with the Whole.

While our practices are rooted in ancestral wisdom, we also acknowledge that we live in a time when we can download teachings from the greatest teachers worldwide with the click of a few buttons. Why should we limit ourselves to only what we have been taught when many new ways of seeing give us a more Wholistic perspective on reality?

By not clinging or attaching firmly, we can flow with the Tao and grow outside rigid structures. When we know better, we do better. We continue to evolve our practices, and together we will update our religious beliefs and practices as we receive them through ceremony or meditations with our master teachers.