Creating Ethical Boundaries for a Safe Integration Space

Community regards every participant as an individual, yes?, and with that individualism lies unique experiences before they reach a community space. Each person has memories, thoughts, behaviors, and ways of using their own interpersonal communication. Now, how are we to know where boundaries are set? Where are each person’s triggers? Cultural perspectives are also a care factor within communities.

Ethics and Agreements are a way to enhance communication by setting clear boundaries based on a soft set of ley lines. They provide a working framework of expectations. Boundaries are not restrictions as much as they help acheive an architecture of safety. Without them, a circle becomes this shapeless field where expectations blur and harm can quietly grow. Nobody wants that. We use some common ethical boundaries such as:

  • Confidentiality agreement that establishes mutual trust.

  • A clear distinction between sharing and advising.

  • Cutural humility with responsivity and equity for inclusive curiosity.

  • No substance use during or around meetings.

  • A trauma-informed tone that normalizes pacing, consent, and emotional regulation.

  • No diagnosing, no coaching, no rescuing - just listening and reflecting.

  • Active listening - as a way to sit with what is being shared between individuals.

Boundaries also protect the spaceholders and guardians. When lines are clear, you are free to be present without feeling responsible for anyone’s healing outcomes. The spaceholder and guardian maintains the container, the vibe, the pace and environment, not steer personal process.

Holding ethical boundaries comes from a place of care, universal love, and grounded tenderness, not limitation.

They allow participants to relax into their experiences and authenticity.

Mycelial Manifesto

Under The Root is in pursuit and on task to trigger a transformation of people from their disconnection with the planet and its living beings - to recognize and engage the undeniable tether with the essence of life coupled with our unique capacity as part of this vast ocean - all the while, activating a system of voluntary cooperation and mutual aid.  We are here to remind people of their power, especially when they feel that survival mode is the only way.

We began as a line of intimate apparel that was tough, hearty, soft, and affectionate. During those 20 years, our growth moved mountains to maintain course - because hemp fabrics, hand-dyeing, and community action was one way of moving the needle towards a gentler world.


Over the last eight years, we sustained our safety, surrendered to a labor intensive production job for another company’s products as eventually Under The Root closed up shop. The employment paid the bills, added a secure roof and food in the fridge. The exchange was a bit of monies for my body. Do you relate to this story? The body began to collapse from the strain to gain, and 6 months ago, the position was simply deleted, my financial foundation quietly taken from me, just as the red was turning to black.

But well before that fatal day, I had begun following a deeply driven question from a dream. The dream was to somehow create a union between my 30 years of psychonaut foundations and an industry that seemed to be stealing good death choices from people.
As the psychedelic realm was entering my sphere again and as my studies revealed, a resurgence above ground was taking shape. I continued to train, explore, research, and eventually volunteer.


My findings, this ongoing quest needs only to follow the flow, engage with the peoples already in motion, stand with the many others bringing death back home.

Have you ever struggled with the reasons why many of the peoples and communities of this planet are so war torn, violent, and shaken at their core?  Why are there so many people working against one another right now?

These questions had been my struggle and the facts that have haunted me for most of my life.

Homelessness was often a reality.  Capitalism ruled.  Failure was accepted and encouraged.  Governments and their financial backings were using brainwashing, lies, secrecy as a tactic to increase powerlessness.

I did not see a way out of the vicious cycle of continued helplessness.  It was similar to what I imagined torture to be like for nearly all of the living beings on this planet.  Not enough people seemed to care or believe in their voice enough to do something truly authentic about it.

Every day was like this never ending pit of doom and yet I was supposed to buy into the status quo if I wanted my life to amount to anything.  The days wore on and on and on.

"You just need a man to take care of you." "We must test on animals to be sure it is safe for people."  "This is the way it has always been."  "If you give up your needs for the whole, it will matter in the end."  "There was no penetration, therefore it can not be accused as rape." "Marijuana is the gateway drug."  "War is our last resort." "Racism is an illusion." "Are you a man or a woman?"

After a few years of allowing my melancholy and self-doubt to lead my life, something inside me made a definitive, resilient step out of the invisible trap set by the hunters of the their own species, the human race.


I had had enough - no more pussy footing around, no more following the herd, no more mornings and nights of tears, no more bullshit.  There was so much fire in my being that wanted out.


The time for me to take action was crystal clear.  My person was breathing again, and, I was still alive.


My next night off was coming up and I decided to sit down with a pad of paper and a pen, not leave the seat until I had pinpointed my strengths and skills, then write down exactly where to begin.


I understood that my decision to forge a death doula collaboration with an optional psychedelic component was not easy, quick, or without learning curves, however, my magnificent pull to sustain the path had just been burned on my skin like the Helm of Awe.

There is a void, a gaping wound, in the deathcare industry for support and companionship to assemble, assert, advocate, and ascertain the human rights, the living rights of individuals. A death of absolute sincerity.
It is possible to have an entire lifetime to flow with the sun and moon and speak with the stars inbetween. Our exact day and time of death may be uncertain; this only solidifies that as above, so below.

And, Under The Root was awake after a much needed rest and rebirth; back at it with a skillset ready to forge another chapter with this objective:

I WANTED A DEATH THAT EMBODIES A LIFE LEAD WITH THE RESILIENCE AND GORGEOUSNESS OF EVOLUTION. AND I WANTED ALL PEOPLE TO HAVE AGENCY FOR A GOOD DEATH WITH THIS ROOT CONNECTION TOO.


Under The Root is about resilient transformation.

Because there is no best time, every present moment is the time for change.  Change of the status quo.  Change of your choices. A chance for all living things to breathe together as one into infinity.

It is within your power of individuality to be free.
Free to choose to die in a way that makes you move with the sense of honor for yourself and those that hold space for your freedom to be an evolution.

Be the life force of balance; eat your horrors and dreams.

You are extra ordinary today, tomorrow, and yesterday.

Remember, you have been floating for over a million years.  

Community Evolution

Each month we give back a portion of our proceeds to programs, businesses, organizations, and companies with close ties to Under The Root and our ethical principles.  These communities are making continuous strides to transform the injustice, inequality, inhumane actions found throughout every corner of the world.

Since the agenda was set down in our plans, our responsibility and ability to support each of them becomes more apparent every month.  My hope is that even the smallest amounts give rise to a never ending flow in their cause.

Under The Root Creed

Who is Under The Root for?

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

― Martha Graham

We are the underserved populations that have fallen through the cracks of a broken system, so we learned to pick up our boots by the straps. 
We are the young people that stared at a culture with its misplaced anger. A culture that had long since lost the sense of being one with each other and all living things. 
We are the humans stripped of their connection to the earth at a very young age in order to become civilized workers. 
We are the people that had to choose one gender or the other.

But now, we are becoming… and we are not at all alone.

We represent a collaboration restoring people and planet by challenging the status quo.
We are the artists, the dreamers, the thinkers, the doers and the warriors. 
We are here to rewrite the narrative by our existence in the present. 
We are here to lead the way for your choices of transformation and most importantly to advocate for your voice.. your voice is loud.. the entire world is listening.

We are standing our ground and turning down the volume of the typical death messages, then wielding them into movements of equality, social justice, and the golden threads that bind them together. 
Our bodies are our own and no matter how far the seeming majority wishes to take us into the depths of their own control, you can not claim what is not yours. 
In every single circumstance, you have the dynamic integrity of your death.

This is what you need and it is within you now.

We see a world that is filled with a new majority, potent change-makers who are intimately connected to themselves, one another, and their collective magick.

Where we reinvent the antidote of insecurity, move with the chaos while validating our alchemical silhouette, and ultimately shift the deadly impact of commerce away from living systems. 
We see a world that performs a healing relationship with their natural environment every moment of every day.

A world that has seen gender inequality as a construct of control, then demolished it.

A world where humans embrace their individual capabilities for an evolution of cultural, social, and environmental justice.

Under The Root Brand Ambassadors

Under The Root is not here to offer the same spiel as so many other brands.  We do not covet the ownership on a good death.  This brand is about the union of values and choices inside you, the core movement within you that exudes the reality of life.  And we do this with advocacy and stewardship of these values and choices. The ones that are deeply rooted with the planet's impermanence, which in turn become transferred to the agency and pathway of your death.  


We continue to conjure and create handcrafted goods. We do this with ethical, transparent manufacturing practices of small runs, limited editions, and authentic radicalism in every decision.

We honor your innate intelligence while the current state of an industry sincerely believes that they know best. Authentic, radical changes must come from the ground up; they must come from brands and people with the courage to build new models.


We do this by offering you a personal stake in our systems, methods, and supply chains.


We demand goods and services to be worth the true sum of its parts, from the lands to the hands to the heart.

Miscellaneous Truths

Death is inherent with every human body. The body knows how to die. Death claims the right of a body without repression or compartmentalized zones, and it is a natural, whole being submersion in sensory exploration.


Death is final and there is no wrong way to ingest it with yourself. You can wash with it in the rain, dry it in the light breezes, lay it on a rocky ground cover, or bring it to the fire. It is yours to claim. Even a quick moment of acceptance sends it the message to smolder WITH you.

These words above are a personal calling card to make room for it in yourself and others. Do away with the judgment of what it is supposed to look like, talk like, act like, or be.
It is yours; every last drop of the blood of it is yours. Some people may see it just as you may see theirs, but make no doubt that it belongs to the only one who sees it as a completed circle… you.


It is time for innovation across all facets of the deathcare industry.  In order to sustain the evolution of a good death, the acceptance begins and ends with the agency of each authentic, creative individual.

The Rising Call for Attendance: Community Integration Spaces Matter Now More Than Ever

The psychedelic world is expanding faster than our collective understanding of what to do with the experiences we are opening ourselves to. Humans have grown surprisingly good at seeking—less so at digesting.

And digestion is where the real alchemy takes place.

Psychedelic integration circles are the hearth of this work: communal fires where we are tending the embers of meaning, cooking down the contents of the cauldron, sharing expansive breaths, regulating nervous systems, and weaving the threads of insight into everyday life. Without a place to metabolize, profound realizations remain like unplanted seeds—beautiful and potent, yet unrealized.

Communities need spaces where people do not have to pretend to be healed, enlightened, or endlessly thriving. Places where confusion is seen as intelligence trying to reorganize itself. Places where awe and fear sit side by side at the table, both welcome, both valid.

In a world that constantly pulls us into speed, comparison, and self-curation, community psychedelic integration circles offer something almost rebellious: slowness, humanity, and shared presence.

And perhaps most importantly—they normalize the strangeness of awakenings. Psychedelic experiences can be intimate, non-linear, disorienting, and wildly tender. But when we tell our truths in the company of others, they become less isolating and more integrated into the vast, ordinary gorgeousness of being human.

This resurgence needs us not as consumers of experience but as stewards of community wisdom, community in action. Integration circles are one of the few places where that wisdom is still cultivated through human-to-human connection, fractal inquiry, gentleness, confidentiality, and active listening.

The door has opened.
Now we build the house.

Away

I have been away.
Strolling into avenues, taking peeks of fancy through weathered stained glass, imagining places that exist only in my dreams, venturing down into the gallows below, turning corners covered in an invisible cloak, sat inside the trestles of doorways hoping not to ever be seen again, definitely not for awhile at least.

I have been away.
I had to step away.

I have been away.

Did you see your inner workings of self, while in the away?
I did, just as a piece of dust begins its next journey, or maybe it is the last, riding air molecules, dipping with the sound of a laugh.

My pen can not stop from drifting, out of my mind and onto a place. Any place.
As long as it goes, to the space you may know,
invisible to the naked eye, an interloper, no,
a made up point in your sky.

The return is unsettling, groundbreaking wide chasms keep swallowing me whole, thorny paths littered with drips of blood flow,

Grab the water jug, the cat, and throw on some pants.
We are about to go where no body knows… again.

Introduction of Ellefolk Gazette

An Introduction and Welcome from Ellefolk Gazette
Our journal since 2008, Musings, Usings, and Loose Things, was practically dripping with a deep sincerity for overhaul.  It was time for change.  Two years of racking the brain, shaking the tree, and tumbling over how on earth to be more transparent from behind the scenes.  It has become clear that a journal for this brand, the optimal interpretation, will be best delivered in segments.  My hope is that these written words connect you to the intimacy of Under The Root and possibly your own network of undergrowth.

  • Herbivore Apothecary

  • Body Movement Visionaries

  • Sensual Alchemy

  • Cabinet of Curiosities

  • Emporium Memoir

  • Madeleine

  • Musings of a Curious Observer

Herbivore Apothecary

A segment dedicated to the innate and cherished respect for herbals, holistic medicine, botany, geology, and the methods we find in nature to develop our deeper kinship with it. I will be sharing the covert operations alongside weed walks, recipes, wild harvesting, herbal techniques, plus wild crafting charms and talisman projects.

 

Body Movement Visionaries

The mythical works of modern dance, cabaret theater, and circus arts, across the globe today and yesterday, will populate this segment.  There has been a historical landscape forged by our human desire to imagine an upturned reality using the body as channel and translator.  I am sharing images, short films, documentaries, and performance clips in order to highlight as many facets of dance as possible.  There are dance companies, performance artists, classes, books, collaborations, generations, and so many more avenues to highlight.  With the onset of new technologies, a balance of participants as artists and audiences engage to create environments together.  This was the future and it is here now.

 

Sensual Alchemy

The deeper we hike inside our individual journeys, the more apt we are to devise an allurement with the sentience of all living things. A testament to what it means to be human and not human while dreaming. In the shadows we handshake with psychics. Sensual alchemy is the transformative processes, or collaborative steps, while participating in the continuity of consciousness.  It is tender, fiery, intimate, ayurvedic, grounded, patient and passionate.

 

Cabinet of Curiosities

While the corners of the studio are seething with answers, it seems important to write about the many variables that come into play.  Each handcrafted good has been steeped in brews of specifics before they become manufactured into existence.  They are fabricated from particular ideas and notions and influence of curiosity.
The objective here is to share a peek into the closet: the process involved, decision-making turns, materials used, behind the name meaning, and miscellaneous tidbits of distinction.  In the end, we still venture onward towards artful conception with the twitch of the witch.

 

Emporium Memoir

In this over-populated world of information heavy, product overload, news explosions, media grabbers, and monsters of distractions, this is my shared place of private exploration into the depths of becoming.  If only for mere moments, are we not comforted with those domains of exclusive interpretations between individuals, private library access cards, and the one hundred year old wood tables to sit at and sip warm beverages while we read together?  This segment is built with the intention to generate a dialogue and experience, a treehouse of stories and solutions as seen through my personal perspective. 

 

Madeleine

This dressform considers me a friend and while it may not inhabit a human body, the respect for one another is the same.  Madeleine has adventures and now has a pride of friends to adventure with.

 

Musings from a Curious Observer

This segment is a bit more secluded, where the door opens to the holographic universe. A brief and informative arena that hopes to give a synopsis of likes, dislikes, considerations, lists, alternatives, mistakes and solutions.

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