Today on the show, I welcome Sophie Strand, 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 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 poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. She is the author of The Flowering Wand,The Madonna Secret, and the forthcoming memoir The Body Is a Doorway as well as the creator of the popular Substack “Make Me Good Soil.” You can follow her work on Instagram @cosmogyny.
We get to hear Sophie talk about The Flowering Wand, why she wrote it and how she relates to the masculine – how is it different from the patriarchy and why that is important. Is the harm patriarchal or more broadly dominant culture? How does she feel about disturbing the dominant culture system? The inspiration for The Flowering Wand was born of her interrogation of the Jesus story which she retells in The Madonna Secret with an honoring of the roots of Rabbi Yeshua and the rightful placement of Mary Magdalene as a peer by his side. Why have women’s stories been left out – are we getting better at telling them? Hmmm, consider our current election as a reflection point. How does Sophie relate and respond to the cultural limitations or expectation placed on women? How does she tend to her self? How can we tend to the earth…egregore?
Sophie has an upcoming workshop, Myths as Maps: Ecological Storytelling, happening on November 16th and 17th. We have limited time to dive into the vast subject of myth and how we can perhaps more appropriately work with myth through the creation of our own vs. an adoption of others from a much different time and place. Her daily practice is an effort to create her own myth and is a profound inspiration in how we can be better collaborators with all the beings we dance with on earth.
Thanks Sophie, I look forward to reading The Body is a Doorway when it comes out in March 2025!
Following our conversation, I turn to Kim Krans’ Archtype cards for some inspiration in how to navigate the potential challenges that may arise this week following the election. The Bridge is the response. It’s a perfect gift of contemplation for these times.
For those needing some inspiration in how to tend to oneself, one’s child or perhaps one’s inner child, here is the article I shared from Susan Weber on how to see the world as good.
Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.
Our show music is from Shana Falana!
Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org
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