Alpine nomads are said to have referred to Psilocybe semilanceata as the “dream mushroom” and to have used it traditionally as a psychoactive substance. Unfortunately, we have no details concerning this use.
The first description of a modern European mushroom cult appeared in 1981 in the catalogue “Rausch und Realilat - Drogen im Kulturvergleich“ [Inebriation and Reality—Drugs in Cross-Cultural Perspective], which was published on the occasion of a museum exhibition of the same name:
I was able to take part in a solstice ceremony in Canton Bern from Dec. 21-23, 1979, in which the little mushroom that I identified as Psilocybe semilanceata was used in the context of a cult that had existed for some seven years and that featured complicated sweat-bath rituals, prayers, pipe ceremonies (without psychoactive substances), mandatory fasting, fumigations, offerings, and music in a spe- cially furnished room with a central altar. All of the people who were present (5 women and 6 men) were required to strictly avoid all drugs, including alcohol, sexual contact, eating meat, and “bad thoughts” for four days prior to and following the ceremony. During the meeting, strict fasting was required, although only two of the men ate twenty mush- rooms each on the second evening following rituals of purification. This use clearly served an oracular function for the group. It was supported by intensive, hours-long drumming of all the participants. . . . For the group, whose ideology was shaped by a broad “pagan”-Christian-Buddhist-Hindu syncretism ... the mushroom does not appear to fall into the category of “drugs” but was said to be a component of “the primordial religion.”
Most participants in these modern mushroom rituals regard them as a form of “psychedelic shamanism”  related to American Indian rituals. However, they feel that they are practicing a revived primeval form of an entheogenic ritual that is accessible to all people as a result of the “collective unconscious” or the “morphogeneticfield.”
Harvesting of the mushrooms is often preceded by a prayer to the Earth Goddess Gaia or an ominous mushroom deity; offerings such as small crystals may be placed on the borders of the pasture or meadow to give thanks to the spirit of the mushroom. The collector should eat the first two mushrooms so that he or she will then be able to recognize the right species and find it everywhere. Some mushroom collectors told me that the mushroom can be found only when the collector is in a “good mood”; people who are “weird or in a bad mood” will not be able to locate them. In Switzerland, a ritual method of collecting the mushrooms was observed in the 1970s:
The mushrooms are collected on native meadows while adhering to avoidance taboos, they are purified with sage smoke, dried, and stored in vessels that are also ritually purified. They are regarded as a “gift from God” or “from nature,” and only a limited number are collected. The largest specimens in each group are allowed to remain as the “leaders,” which are thanked and offered flour and other gifts. Songs are sung for the mushrooms so that the mushrooms that are hidden in the grass will show themselves.
In Italy, a small booklet that provides easy-to- understand instructions for the sacramental use of the indigenous Psilocybe semilanceata has been published in an enormously large press run (Pagani 1993).
In modern rituals in central Europe, the mushroom is used in groups consisting of six to twenty participants. The rituals take place outdoors in especially beautiful settings or power places, in special rooms, or in tepees. Sweat baths, meditations, walks in the forest, and other such preparations precede the communal ingestion. Most rituals begin in the evening and last for about four hours, corresponding to the duration of the mushroom’s effects.
By far the most important ritual device is the talking stick, which is modeled after that of the North American peyote cult (cf. Lophophora williamsii) and plays an extremely important role in the rituals. It is a stafflike object that may be individually chosen and modified. After he or she receives the talking stick, each person is urged to communicate to the circle (by singing, speaking, silence, rattling). The other participants remain silent and offer their complete attention to the person holding the stick. The stick is passed around during all three phases of the ritual (always in a clockwise direction). Because each person can hold the stick as long as he or she pleases, individuals are able to ensure the ritual attention they desire. By using the talking stick, the communal circle, and the power of the mush- room, collective visions, ecstatic laughter, and individual insights occur. After the circle has ended, an evening meal is shared.
The next morning, the group meets for a communal breakfast. Most of the participants are hungry and have a healthy appetite. Much joking and laughter accompanies the meal, and sometimes people describe and discuss the dreams of the preceding night. After breakfast, the parti- cipants gather in the ritual room and assume their places in the circle. Sage (Artemisia spp.) is burned as an incense. The follow-up or integration of the experience is actually the most important part of the ritual. It is said that visions are valuable only when they have been communicated. The visions are to be taken seriously, for they provide guidelines for the future. The talking stick is then passed around for the final time, and the participants are urged to speak of their experiences. Often, it is only at this time that they realize that their question has been answered and that the mushroom has taught them much. Strong emotional reactions and expressions of thanks are common. Almost all of the participants leave the ritual with deep feelings of gratitude and with the sense that they have been initiated into the mys- teries of the entheogenic mushroom and have recognized their own place in the cosmos. A ritual leader once noted:
You can always depend on the mushrooms. No matter what happened while the effects were being felt, whether people completely flipped out, experienced pure horror, were shamanically dismembered, or fell into paranoia, in the end the mushroom illuminates and disseminates its legendary healing power.