Rewilding MythologyReroot, rewild, retell
Reawaken ancient myths and their transformative power to reconnect humanity with nature, culture, and collective wisdom for modern times.
taught by Sophie Strand
Module 1Storytelling in a More-Than-Human World
with David Abram & Alnoor Ladha From where does a story sprout? What specific land and soil did it grow from? What ecology is it seeking to tend to, respond to, root into? How do my stories “tell” me into greater intimacy with the kin outside my door? We can reclaim the ecological nature of myths coopted ...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Cultures of Orality and Cultures of Literacy
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Writing is Magic
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Breath and the Phonetic Alphabet
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Mnemonic Land
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Q&A pt.1
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Mysticism & Anarchism in a Capitalist Neoliberal Society
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: A Liberation Ontology
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: The Kali Yuga
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Q&A pt.2
Module 2Myths Move
with Josh Schrei & Tom Hirons Ecosystems are constituted by constant cycles of decay and regrowth. We can replant myth in ecology by understanding that storytelling, too, remains healthy when it goes through cycles, decaying, regrowing, and adapting to suit shifting climatological and social pressures. We...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Wild God
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Resonance Meditation
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Resonance, Living Vibrational Force. Orpheus and Zeus
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Pan, Nymphs and Taliesin
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Allies
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: The Underworld, Inanna and Baba Yaga
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: The Muse and the Conjunctive State
Module 3Post-Apocalyptic Comp(h)osting
This session explores Octavia E. Butler’s histourist method of “composting” the ruins of misogynoir, patriarchy, and ecocide. Through the archetype of Change, we examine how she saw decay as fertile ground for new life, interdependence, and non-linear, often chaotic transformation.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: On Octavia E. Butler
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Octavia E. Butler Network Legacy
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Octavia Butler & Living Stories: Questions for Deep Reflection
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Q&A with Ayana Jameison
Module 4Moving Through Wildness and Sensuous Knowledge
with Michael Bauer, Minna Salami Picture a classical hero. Chances are, you may have envisioned a knight or warrior slaying a dragon or a gorgon. The hero proves his valour by defeating the adversary. But who is the adversary? Is it really a monster? Or is it a culture that opposes hierarchy? What if there...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Immediate Return and Delayed Return Societies
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Wildness as a Dialogue between the Living and the Environment
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Lenses for Understanding Societies: the Myth of the Monster and Environmental Psychology
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Q&A pt. 1
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Blue in Yoruba Mythology and Culture, a Feminine Colour
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Re-imagining Power with Feminist Values
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Embracing a Multiplicity of Experiences
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Q&A pt. 2
Module 5Rhizomatic Gods of Fermentation, Divine Ecstasy, and Revolt
with David Zilber, Chiara Baldini & Guiliana Furci For too long patriarchy has been conflated with the masculine. But before the sword-wielding heroes of legend readily cut down forests, slaughtered the old deities, and vanquished their enemies, there were thousands of years of vegetal gods associated with...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: David Zilber on Fermentation Pathways & Their Static Dynamism
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Flowering Code
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Anthropological Studies of Fermentation
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Civilisation & Fermentation are Inseparable
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Chiara Baldini & The Collective Effervescence
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Training in Liminality & Ritual Madness with Dionysus
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Rituals that Gave Birth to Democracy
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: The Cult of Dionysus, Mass Suppression of Trance and Divine Ecstasy
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Q&A with Chiara Baldini
Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Introducing Guiliana Furci - The Foundress of The Funghi Foundation
Chapter 11
Chapter 11: The Fungal Kin-dom
Chapter 12
Chapter 12: The Fungi Foundation & The Creation of Funga
Chapter 13
Chapter 13: There is no End in a Cycle & Deep Time Scale
Module 6Becoming a Mouth: Mythical Musicians Teach Multi-Species Collaboration
with Sam Lee & Brontë Velez Human narratives have held centre stage for thousands of years. But there was a time when legendary bards knew it was their job to channel the stories of animals and plants and stones. We resurrect a long line of magician harpists that span all the way from Palestine to Greece t...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Voice(s) Beneath your voice
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Polyphonic Kinship: Music-Making at the Edge of Extinction
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: In the Company of Nightingales
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Where the Walk Becomes an Invitation
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Q&A with Sam Lee
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Introducing Brontë Velez: Choirs of Flight
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Black Alchemy: Tending the Root Wound & Entering the Crucible
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Alchemical Fire: Sabbath, Restoration & Ritual
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Q&A with Brontë Velez
Module 7Lichenized Lovers: Rewilding Romance with Symbiosis
with Andreas Weber & Patricia Kaishian Using a lens of Queer Ecology, we can follow a line of love goddesses back to our symbiotic multicellular origins. Aphrodite, born of foam, reminds us of our oceanic ancestors. Inanna teaches us how to tie our roots together in the underworld, recalling the symbiotic ...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Living Beings and Queering Identities with Andreas Weber
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Erotic Ecologies with Andreas Weber
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: A Meshwork of Selfless Cells with Andreas Weber
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Nourishing Life with Andreas Weber
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Purple, Thunder, Mushrooms, Desire with Patricia Kaishian
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: A Queer Reimagination of Scientific Practice with Patricia Kaishian
Module 8The Hero's Journey
with Toko-Pa Turner and Jessica Dore Our bodies are composed of more bacterial cells than human cells. There are miles of mycelial fungi in a teaspoon of dirt. Resilient ecosystems are resilient in that they are home to many different species. While monomyths like the hero’s journey have long been popular,...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Archetype of the Masculine Hero with Toko-pa Turner
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Personification of Sophia
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Learning to Participate with Sophia
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Q&A with Toko-pa Turner
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Reenactment, Myth and Ritual with Jessica Dore
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: The Horses' Accompaniment
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Teachings of the Horse
Module 9Voices Inside the Land: Myth in Context
with Manchán Magan & Bayo Akomolafe Uprooted from the Galilean ecology from which he drew his nature metaphors and translated into the language of his oppressors, the teachings of Jesus have easily lapsed into dogma. How does a storytelling magician get coopted by imperialism and patriarchy? Let us replant...
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Knowledge Conserved in Gaeilge
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Crann in Our Midst and Across Borders
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Dinnshenchas: The Land as Mnemonic Device
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Listen to the Land Speak and Q&A with Manchán Magan
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Q&A with Manchán Magan II
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: How Christianity Traveled with Bayo Akomolafe
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: The Trickster and Misidentification
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: To Look Inside the Cracks
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: May You Not Be Seen
Myths are alive and resilient. They have held practical information about survival and sustenance, nested within compelling narratives that prized the epic stories of multi-species communities over the monologues of human individuals. Surviving through most of human history, they were refreshed and adapted to new conditions each time they were retold. Most importantly, they were contextual. Just as mycorrhizal fungi map the relationships in a forest, so do myths map the specific relationships of a community rooted in place.
The rise of empire brought with it a violent uprooting of myths from their context, and from the renewing respiration of communal storytelling. These stories ossified into abstraction and reinforced the anthropocentric hyper-individuality and colonial capitalism of today.
It is time to reroot, revitalise, relate, rewild. Rejecting the antiseptic impulse of the dominant culture’s bent on exterminating alternative epistemologies, let us compost our favourite myths, folklore, and narratives with ecology, science, somatics, and poetry.
Let us glimpse into the inner worlds of lichen, fungi, rainforests, and songbirds.
About the course
How can we reroot these myths in their original environments to recover the ecological wisdom they were built to transmit? How can we understand that science and mythtelling stem from a similar impulse to cultivate understanding and intimacy with the natural world?
Rejecting the antiseptic impulse of the dominant culture’s bent on exterminating alternative epistemologies, let us compost our favorite myths, folklore, and narratives with ecology, science, somatics, and poetry. Hijacking the tools of material reductionism for our feral creations, we can glimpse into the inner worlds of lichen, fungi, rainforests, and songbirds, understanding that the most important stories right now are always more-than-human.
Finally, let us retell cultural myths and personal stories knowing that, like an ark, they may carry our most precious relationships and seeds of practical wisdom, through the floodwaters and tectonic shifts of tomorrow.
- 8 Modules
- 34 Sessions
- 19 Speakers
- Curated readings, resources and embodied practices
- Community discussion area
- Reroot popular mythologies in their original social and ecological context using a historical, scientific, and anthropological lens;
- Revitalise oral storytelling as a relation mode of knowledge transmission;
- Pour anthropocentric narratives into more-than-human morphologies;
- Decenter human heroes by peering into the sensory worlds of insects, microbes, and fungi;
- Map the webs of relationship that constitute our own backyard mythic ecosystems;
- Think alongside fungi as way of understanding intelligence as a process shared by a community, rather than as an object possessed by an individual;
- Compost progress-oriented paradigms with forest ecology and the wisdom of rot;
- Offer our creative and intellectual tools to other species;
- Step into the spaces left behind by extinction with;
- Use Queer Ecology as a lens to rewild heteronormative value systems.
FacultyMeet your teachers
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I depart from these talks feeling inspired, aflame, a-flow, and fermenting. Blessedly, I carry more questions than answers and, perhaps, a greater ability to break open, listen, decompose, and I depart from these talks feeling inspired, aflame, a-flow, and fermenting. Rewilding Mythology was so much more than a course presenting different cultural stories and how they relate to ecology. It was a sacred gathering of beings and their attendant invitations to participation and relationship.
