The Flowering Wand

Rewilding the Sacred Masculine

By: Sophie Strand

Narrated by: Sophie Strand

• Reveals the restorative fungi archetype of Osiris, the Orphic mysteries as an underground mycelium linking forests and people, how Dionysus teaches us about invasive species and playful sexuality, and the ecology of Jesus as depicted in his nature-focused parables

• Liberates Tristan, Merlin, and the Grail legends from the bounds of Campbell’s hero’s journey and invites the masculine into more nuanced, complex ways of dealing with trauma, growth, and self-knowledge

Long before the sword-wielding heroes of legend readily cut down forests, slaughtered the old deities, and vanquished their enemies, there were playful gods, animal-headed kings, mischievous lovers, trickster harpists, and vegetal magicians with flowering wands. As eco-feminist scholar Sophie Strand discovered, these wilder, more magical modes of the masculine have always been hidden in plain sight.

Sharing the culmination of eight years of research into myth, folklore, and the history of religion, Strand leads us back into the forgotten landscapes and hidden secrets of familiar myths, revealing the beautiful range of the divine masculine, including expressions of male friendship, male intimacy, and male creative collaboration. In discussing Dionysus and Osiris, Strand encourages us to think like an ecosystem instead of like an individual. She connects dying, vegetal gods to the virtuous cycle of composting and decay, highlighting the ways in which mushrooms can restore soil and heal polluted landscapes. Exploring esoteric Christianity, the author celebrates the Gnostic Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas, imagining the ecology that the Rabbi Yeshua would have actually been referencing in his nature-focused parables. Strand frees Tristan, Merlin, and the Grail legends from the bounds of Campbell’s hero’s journey and invites the masculine into more nuanced, complex ways of dealing with trauma, growth, and self-knowledge.

Strand reseeds our minds with new visions of male identity and shows how each of us, regardless of gender, can develop a matured ecological empathy and witness a blossoming of sacred masculine powers that are soft, curious, connective, and celebratory.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Sophie Strand. All Rights Reserved. (P)2022 Inner Traditions Audio. All Rights Reserved.

Delightful snd joyful

What a wonderful poetic blending of magic and theory! Read so beautifully and eith so much inspiration. Thank you Sophie! And Dionysus 💕🌹

I Love this book!

I can’t do this book justice with a brief review, nor do I want to spoil it’s themes with a long one.

I listened to it almost non stop in 1 day, and look forward to listening to it again.

It is comprehensive, accessible, sincere, and compassionate. This book provides a badly needed perspective with which to process contemporary reality.

Cultural context is everything!

What rich stories and the cultures that fed them giving them full well rounded meaning. Amazing to see how stories change to fit new narratives of conquerors and changing of times. Kudos on this book. Will read/listen again.

Not ‘This’ not ‘That’

This book is an exploration and reimagining, revealing invitation into how we must dive back into our roots to change our relationship to our home…to the earth and sky. What we seek is not this or that. It is both, and. I know men who are more ‘vegetal’. I see the ways in which they concern themselves less with the battles for dominance and more with the trust in something that precedes us as humans. I feel their tenderness and longing to lay down swords and pick up the instruments of art and listening to how to be in relationship. Thank you to Sophie for your own deep listening heart and opening a space for emergence and for the invitation.

Beautiful

I love author narrated audiobooks and this is definitely one of my favorites; The heartfelt writing style really comes through in the narration. This is one of my favorites--Thank you!

The most important book of this generation

If healing will happen it will happen by reconciliation of the stories that make up our worldview. This book stands firmly As an invitation for a truly more beautiful world

Genius

Unbelievable insight, exquisitely presented as fluid phasing between poetry and intellectual analysis - and it couldn’t be more timely.

A Must Read

Absolutely loved this book - a must read, esp for men. Through myth and mycelium, Sophie Strand offers a perspective of possibility by reimagining our past into a more grounded present for a future that has the roots we need to bloom and grow.

The most important book

How to even put words to the magic that is this book? And read by the author, a pure gift.

The authors voice is poetry, history and philosophy merged.

Strand is the preeminent voice of reemerging human thought. Best book I’ve listened to/ read in 5+ years.