What if hidden beneath contemporary narratives of progress and domination there was a mythic root system of earth-based wisdom?

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. 

Examining the tradition of dying-resurrecting gods, we will use fungi to think through the idea of gods and heroes as individuals. Just as fungi teach plants how to root into the soil, so do myths teach us how to root into relation with our biological and social ecosystems. Myths seek to express ecological truths with personified elementals, narrativizing a deep understanding of our connection to more-than-human time scales. While disconnected by time and place, Osiris and Dionysus and Orpheus are mushrooms of a shared, below-ground, mythic mycelial system.

Jesus, then, planted back in the mycorrhizal system of Mediterranean mythology and the nature-based traditions of first century Judaism, takes on an environmentally radical role. The wild rabbi teaches us how to use ecological storytelling and sacred food rituals to offer both a critique and a cure for empire. As we reroot these foundational myths in their original ecological and cultural context, we also rewild and retell these narratives with modern science, poetry, philosophy, and ecology, freshly adapting them for our contemporary struggle with climate inaction and ecocide. 

Lectures:

The course consists of live sessions on Tuesdays (5.30pm BST / 12.30pm EST) 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.

Live Q&As and Discussion:

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.

Forums:

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.

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.