Myth & Mycelium: An Online Course

How does Jesus, a Galilean healer, with a penchant for nature-based storytelling get mistranslated by empire and coopted by patriarchy?

In this course we will root Jesus back in the mythic and ecological context of the Ancient World, resurrecting him as the continuation of a tradition of lunar kings, rhizomatic harpists, and vegetal magicians with a shared passion for oral storytelling, communal meals, and animist wisdom.

Course structure#

The course runs from 19 July - 23 August 2022, and the sessions are held at 6pm BST (GMT+1, UK time) every Tuesday. The course consists of live sessions held via Zoom with Sophie Strand teaching and exploring the module topics in depth. Recordings are made of each session and shared with participants to watch again or catch up in their own time.

After each Lecture is an interactive Q&A and Discussion session with Sophie and course participants. A chance to probe ideas, see things from different perspectives, and ask questions about the history, philosophy, characters and texts explored, and what they mean in the world today.

Each session has an associated Forum hosted on our communication platform, where you can share comments and questions, and discuss themes and ideas of the course.

You will access the materials associated with the sessions via a members area on this website, and we will also share the materials and links with you each week via email. When the course ends we will share a PDF with you for quick reference to the materials.

Course objectives#

• Create a context sensitive mode of ecological myth analysis.
• Investigate how empire coopts and rewrites the myths of the oppressed.
• Explore the connection between oral cultures and ecological storytelling.
• Ask ancient vegetal gods of revolt for lessons on how to dismantle empire.
• Learn to listen for the “parables” in our own ecosystems.
• Reroot Jesus in his original religious, social, ecological, and anthropological context.
• Rewild and retell personal and collective myths with the flora, fauna, and fungi of our particular locations.
• Write a communal “compost gospel” including riddles, spores, seeds, and uncertainties from everyone included in the course.

About Sophie Strand#

Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Give her a salamander and a stone and she’ll write you a love story. Sophie was raised by house cats, puff balls, possums, raccoons, and an opinionated, crippled goose. In every neighborhood she’s ever lived in she has been known as “the walker”. She believes strongly that all thinking happens interstitially – between beings, ideas, differences, mythical gradients. Her first book of essays The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine will be published by Inner Traditions in Fall 2022 and is available for pre-order. Her eco-feminist historical fiction reimagining of the gospels The Madonna Secret will also be published by Inner Traditions in Spring 2023.

Subscribe for her newsletter at sophiestrand.substack.com.

And follow her work on Instagram: @cosmogyny and at www.sophiestrand.com.