Mycologist of the Month: Cassandra Posey
Who are you and how is your work influenced by nature?
My name Cassandra Posey and my life is dedicated to functional systems and practices. I am not one for titles but if we had to pin it down my current maneuvers are; embodied Human, Founder of Cognitive Function, Mycologist, Educator, Herbalist, Alchemist, Ethnobotanist, Bio Hacker and Yerba Mate lover.
I feel inspired by the communication that nature influences. It’s as though we have all of these keys and symbols to a deeper understanding of ourselves, all of these clues just simply need decoding. Most questions have a solution and my big question for many years of my life was how to exist wholeheartedly in my body as myself.
As humans we must learn how to operate our bodies (machines). Each and every one of us is tasked with our own set of obstacles. I refer to mine as superpowers, ADD/ ADHD, anxiety, depression. People get caught up in diagnoses but what it really means is that my brain is highly functioning, I have the ability to learn very quickly, experience intense levels of dopamine, my problem solving skills are outside of the box and my ability to execute projects I am passionate about come with much vigor. My highs are high and my lows are extremely low. But the positive thing about your lows is that they will come back up. For me nature operates in a similar fashion and by working alongside of it and learning about myself as nature, I was able to cultivate natures ultimate gift, balance.
We are nature, something many easily forget.
What was your first memory with mushrooms?
My father used to throw me in one of those little toddler backpacks, chubby legs flying out the bottom. We would wake up around 6am and take a walk through the forest right by our house in Washington State. We would walk for a couple hours and I would bounce up and down holding these beautiful Chanterelles, having no idea what they were, but completely entranced. Children have such an unadulterated communication with nature and I appreciate my dad for providing me the opportunity to connect to this.
How do you regularly interact with mushrooms?
Currently my life is dedicated to bioavailability research, I have been working on creating a Cordyceps “hash” (dual extracted condensed Cordyceps). Most of my energy input has gone into allowing all explorations of my imagination alchemically. I try not to place any boundaries around my interactions and allow free flowing creativity to commence. The mushrooms typically lead the way haha. I often feel like a vessel or portal for them to express themselves through ways of “human communication”.
Aside from them leading my creative projects, my daily routine with them is typically Cognitive Function Brain Lube in my morning smoothie and STIMULATE throughout the hours of the day. I love to try new things and cook them into meals one wouldn’t typically put mushrooms into. A large part of Cognitive Function was trying to figure out how I could incorporate Cordyceps into multiple meals a day so I could receive the benefits and stay off my ADD/ADHD medications.
And of course anytime I can run outside and get mushroom spores and dirt in my face are also super primo, we are still amongst morels out here and I’m loving every moment of it!
What mushrooms are you the most inspired by?
Probably my love affair with Cordyceps, they continue to feed my head and they have taught me so much. When you get outside and look for mushrooms in the wild you are experiencing organisms who had to evolve under their environmental stressors to exist. I relate to this on so many levels. Cordyceps taught me to be proud of my stressors, they’re what has propelled me to my fullest potency.
My body, mind, and soul are most connected when…
My full alignment comes from my routine. It allows my busy brain a moment to breathe and allows space for receiving and integration.
I take my waking hours with much intention, a typical morning for me is to wake up, drink lemon water, I practice Kundalini or breath work, I then meditate or journal with a green tea lemonade (dried cordyceps are usually involved). Most of my ideas come from a feeling of freedom. I have worked the past 28 years to cultivate that feeling inside myself to allow my full essence to safely, wholeheartedly exist.