Redefining Masculinity Through Nature and Narrative

Today on Mushroom Hour we join in communion with the overflowing font of mythos, play and animated everything Sophie Strand. Sophie is a poet and writer with a focus on the history of religion and the intersection of spirituality, storytelling and ecology. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including the Dark Mountain Project, poetry.org and the magazines Unearthed, Braided Way, Art PAPERS and Entropy. Their newest book “The Flowering Wand – Rewilding the Sacred Masculine” is a potent retelling of classical European myths and masculine characters like Dionysus, Merlin, Jesus that encourages men to put down the iron sword and pick up a myceliated, vegetal thyrsus.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Staying Alive by Exploring Ecology   
• Mediterranean Religions & Arthurian Myths    
• Myths as Vessels of Environmental Information   
• Replanting Myths - Reroot, Rewild, Retell    
• Polyphonic Iconography   
• Partnership Cultures and Dominator Cultures   
• Medusa & Mothers Turned into Monsters    
• Symbiosis & Synchronism    
• The Rebellion of Dionysus   
• Gender as a Morphic Field & a Mycelial Web    
• The King Becomes the Kingdom   
• Expanding Masculinity   
• Jesus the Magical, Nature-Loving Rabbi   
• Returning to the Compost Heap    

EPISODE RESOURCES:    

• "The Flowering Wand": https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Flowering-Wand/Sophie-Strand/9781644115961   
• "The Madonna Secret": https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Madonna-Secret/Sophie-Strand/9781591434672   
• Sophie Strand Substack: https://sophiestrand.substack.com/   
• Sophie Strand IG: https://www.instagram.com/cosmogyny/   
• "Bitch": https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lucy-cooke/bitch/9781541674905/?lens=basic-books   
• Microanimism: https://www.microanimism.com/   
• Chlorophyllum molybdites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyllum_molybdites   
• "Enlivenment": https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262536660/   
• "An Immense World": https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/616914/an-immense-world-by-ed-yong/