#and yet! still not as high a power level as khalida/alder!

[arbitrarygreay]

So I heard you like Talder but hear me out: Dominura/Rimone

Or Onasia/Yun, fine, whatever

[smallfrost]

Mother Mycelium Theory; portal to the Otherworld?

MFS Research Institute is open and we have patches! Make sure to use the hashtag #MFS Research Institute when sharing all of your well crafted theories and investigations so everyone can follow along. 

When I first posted the crack theory about Mother Mushroom, I captioned the screen shot of the Necro Mycelium with “The entrance to The Upside Down, probably”. Now, this was meant to be a joke but perhaps it was unintentionally accurate? What exactly is the Mycelium and how may it come into play? Let’s discuss a possibility below.

The thing is, MFS has now established that Mushrooms are very important to witches in this universe; especially Necros. This is first brought to light by Scylla in the graveyard but now Izadora confirms this in the Necro Mausoleum. I’m not going to write about mushrooms here because others already have (here is a great breakdown) but I think we can all agree that Necros have a special relationship with fungi; perhaps as a conduit to channel the resonance of the dead.

If you come to my office, I’ll make you cream of mushroom soup

So here is where my upside-down joke may have stumbled unintentionally onto something. Throughout different mythologies there are Underworlds or Otherworlds that heroes travel through during their odysseys. In order to reach these worlds, the hero needs to travel through some sort of gateway. I’m not convinced that the Mycelium is a gateway to an Underworld because of its fungal nature. I am unaware of a Greek or Roman myth associating mushrooms with an odyssey to the Underworld and journeys there typically require crossing a body of water. Mushrooms instead seem to be very prevalent in European folklore as a source of power and connection to magic. Regardless of origin and culture, however, one thing is prevalent when it comes to mushrooms: they are often associated with hallucinogenic properties and are therefore utilized for visions (by a religious figure head or oracles for example) or that they can be used to enter a spirit realm to commune with the dead.

Therefore, is it possible that the Mycelium is a gateway to the Otherworld; the Orbis Alius? In Celtic mythology, the Otherworld is a place where souls of the dead travel while they wait to be reincarnated or the in between (or limbo) before moving to their final destination. It is a dimensional plane that contains a high concentration of power and magic where the rules of physics may not apply. The Necros in MFS may therefore use this gateway to amplify their connection to the resonance of the dead such that the dead being in closer dimensional proximity to their own plane may aid them in their work. Together with the visionary implications of fungi and mushrooms, this could suggest a potential dreamscape/lucid dream/vision scenario for Raelle due to her connection with the Mycelium.

I could make so many lesbian jokes but I’ll withhold… for now

Aside. Since Scylla has mentioned that “nothing ever really dies” it is possible that in this universe, reincarnation may be a widely accepted belief. This may suggest that my original theory about “resurrecting” Willa Collar may still be plausible (especially now that we know the Mycelium has a memory of a Collar). I’m not unconvinced that this connection won’t serve as a way for Raelle to communicate with her Collar ancestors at some point if they are themselves in the Otherworld. 

Me after I’ve been in quarantine for 5 weeks

Yes, Necros have a connection to mushrooms. And now we know that the Mycelium has a memory of Raelle. This was obviously something that Izadora DID NOT want to have happen. We also know that there is a metaphysical connection between Raelle and Scylla; Scylla has bound herself to Raelle in some way such that she can communicate with her directly. Now listen, this is not some small piece of work. In ‘My Witches’, the only way Alder and Co. can visualize the Kiev raid is through General Clary’s [metaphysical] connection with her daughter. Therefore, this type of connection (where one witch can communicate with another witch almost telepathically) suggests a bond of a different strength. This also implies that Raelle is now Scylla’s family (another theory which I am very fond of).

All of us when MFS season 1 ends

In terms of additional context clues for episode 7, in several different trailers (including the most recent one for ‘Mother Mycelium’), we see a moment when Raelle wakes up rather suddenly, looking as though she was bursting out of a dream or had a sudden realization. She is wearing a grey sleep shirt.

When you remember you left a NSFW post up on your work computer

This appears to be the same shirt she is wearing in the promo pics with her in the Dungeon with Scylla. Two things stick out to me from the following photos:

1) Raelle appears to be asleep or unconscious, with Scylla attempting to get her attention 2) Raelle is unbound and alone in the Dungeon with Scylla

Now, no well-structured military body would EVER lock two hostages in the same dungeon together but especially if they have a relationship such as that between Raelle and Scylla. This show is too intelligent to play into the “they’re locked in a cell together; I wonder what will happen?” fanfiction trope (there’s a prompt, someone go write it). Further, if Raelle WAS a hostage, she also would have been chained and bound. So, for these reasons, together with the context any mythological clues above, I think we are perhaps getting a glimpse at a dreamscape.

EDIT: The final piece of evidence is actually one of the first we ever received. A line of dialogue and later a clip from a trailer where Scylla says “You have no idea how powerful you are”. From this trailer, we can now see that Scylla says this while she is in the dungeon. 

Oh darling, you make me powerless...

It is likely she is speaking to Raelle in this moment because 1) Anacostia has told Scylla directly that she is a gifted student, 2) Abigail has acknowledged she is naturally gifted (and will be seeking her help to save Khalida), 3) We see her use intense power in training (the storm she brews when fighting Abigail, vocal, wind strike training, her power with the scourge, her healing leveling the entire class), and 4) The Spree want to extract Raelle, perhaps because of her power. No one else has been made out to be this powerful contextually yet so we can infer that Scylla is talking to Raelle. So somehow, Raelle ends up in the dungeon, and likely utilized a lot of power to do so. End EDIT.

Raelle, through her metaphysical connection with Scylla and their physical connections to the Mycelium, may enter the Otherworld and be able to travel through this dimensional plane and commune with Scylla. So, is that the real Raelle? I think perhaps it is, but in a metaphysical way. 

However, I am not convinced that all of the promotional photos are from the same scene. Scylla is being tortured in one. Raelle looks like she is being dragged into the dungeon in another. I’m not sure how these all fit together but @pure-gay-fandom-trash​ and I have a hunch that the release of all of these photos serves to throw us off our predictions due to the lack of context. So it is very possible that there may in fact be a faux Raelle scenario as well (which I’ll discuss in more detail in a separate post).

EDIT: All this being said, the fact that Scylla directly states that mushrooms occupy the underworld in the kingdom of plants does suggest the existence of an actual Underworld in this universe. It could be that the Otherworld is the space in between (limbo) or it could be that Eliot is creating an entirely new mythology which I am totally here for.