Fungi Singing Sessions
Mon Aug 8, 7:00 PM - Mon Aug 8, 8:30 PM

Dearest Mycophile singers,

You are invited to open your voice and channel the songs of specific species of Fungi every Monday evening in August.

Learn the personality of the fungi, where it grows and what it eats, before moving to its cultural significance and human relationships.

Then warm up your voice with a variety of strength building vocal exercises.

Commune with its physical form, meditating with mushrooms and/or mycelium, gathering auric data, then listening for sounds and songs.

Finally invite the fungi spirit to channel through your voice, leading us together into a flowing fungi filled singing session.

Which Species?!
Aug 1: Turkey Tail – Trametes versicolor
Aug 8: Cordyceps – Cordyceps militaris
Aug 15: Lions Mane – Hericium erinaceus
Aug 22: Reishi – Ganoderma lucidum
Aug 29: Honey Mushroom – Armillaria mellea
Agenda per Session
Fungi basic facts

We start with learning about the Fungi beginning with its personality- it’s ideal habitat, relationships with other beings, it’s food source, and any unique characteristics about how it grows or what it does.

Then we move on to the mushroom’s cultural significance. What relationship has this entity already formed with humans and our ancestors? What was the tone of our dynamic with them- tenuous, symbiotic?

Preparing the Voice
After preparing our mind, we move on to preparing our body instruments starting with our voice.

Warm ups include a variety of strength building vocal exercises, some mimicking wild animal sounds combined with simple scales.

Communing Meditation

Next we are ready to commune with the actual mushroom.

Being in the presence of the fruit body or mycelium, the physical form of the entity, allows us to begin gathering auric data.

We commence with a mushroom meditation by taking 3 slow deep breathes while holding or gazing upon the mushroom.

After we feel a sense of ethereal connection we are ready to invite the entity to move into our voices.

Listening for the song

This last part is a most exciting practice- one of listening. We are invited to listen to the sound and song of the being we’ve studied.

The song already exists in the ethereal, it’s already written, but it’s waiting and wanting to be born through you, specifically through your voice.

You are not the creator of this song, so your most important and difficult task is to get out of the way, and allow it’s vibrations to move through you.

Part of setting the container for this workshop is making an agreement that we do our best to set aside harsh judgements of our own and others voices.

When the judgements arise, we let them pass and keep listening.

The relieving part is that since it’s not your song, you don’t have to worry about if it sounds good or beautiful enough, you are simply a channel.

Recordings welcome.

We will continue singing until the energy of the mushroom shifts.

It could call for a stop and restart or an unending flow of mushroom voice jam.

About the Teacher:

Ayla Réalta has been singing since she was a small child and training her voice under the guidance of New York City vocal coach Dr. Michael Warren (michaelwarrenvoice.com) and professional opera singer Ted Dougherty (strongvoicestudio.wordpress.com) for over 15 years.

She has been teaching singing in the Portland area and beyond for over 6 years.

She believes that everyone has the potential to uncover their unique and powerful voice, and that singing is the most vulnerable and healing form of expression.

Since becoming enamored with mushrooms in 2019, Ayla has been practicing the art of channeling their songs.

Fungi singing is at her hyphal tip, the cutting edge of combining two of her most beloved life-long pursuits – singing and mycology.

Out of all her current work, she is most excited about the magic of this practice.

About the Space:

EARTH Space PDX was established in 2020 as a multifaceted community center in Portland, Oregon with a purpose to uplift E.A.R.T.H.

~ Education, Art, Resilience, Trade, and Healing. It serves as a community center, art studio, art gallery and community market.

A note on COVID

There are no requirements for masks or proof of vaccination.

We will be sharing space indoors with an anticipated intimate group of 10-20 participants.

You may wear a mask if you feel called but know that many participants will be maskless. Before purchasing a ticket, please use your personal discretion to assess if this is the right environment for you.