The Sanctuary: Essays on Eco-Mythology
Out on October 15th!
Will be out on October 15th!
In this collection of revived Portuguese eco-mythologies, Sofia invites us moderns to reconsider our relationship with the living landscape. The invitation is a profound gesture of soul-recovery, for the ideologies of denial underpinning modernity do not give credence to such stories; there is no seeing, no affection for, and no chance for participation with the other-than-human world or the spiritual dimensions holding all worlds together. Our souls yearn to consciously travel the intricate webs of intersubjective relationships weaving coherence from chaos while all around, there throbs a mutual craving for attention and enlivenment. These stories are rooted here. Storied landscapes alive and pulsing with meaning invite participatory ways of living in and with the world that are as ancient as we are. Through holding to a vibrant oral tradition in partnership with Place, Australian Aborigines have kept alive stories that date back tens of thousands of years, while global moderns have sought to dismiss such traditions as outdated and primitive. Depriving cultural renewal of deep historical roots makes the past irrelevant to the modern mind; losing the relevance of continuity sets moderns adrift on an ocean of meaninglessness. Foregoing integrity tears holes in the fabric of existence which is now unraveling all around.
As a gift, an offering, and an invitation then, the stories collected here become a sacred sanctuary, a place to upend and recover from modern ways of thinking and perceiving. In calling to repressed and overlooked aspects of reality, most especially those that exist beyond our human-made temporal frameworks, these stories also nourish lost and denied aspects of ourselves, raising them from the shadows. Reinvigorating the land’s aliveness also restores its agency, empowering Place to become an active, storytelling participant once more. The stories in this collection are the result of entangled efforts to revivify the world’s aliveness in the modern European mind. Snatches of symbols and sentiments from the shared myths of our past infuses awareness with the cyclical nature of time. Unexpectedly perhaps, here we may find hope, for if what has passed may come to pass again, all may be renewed. Remnants and scraps, scents and sensations continually arise, reappearing to relate with us once more. May our hearts, bodies, and souls be open to receiving, inviting in what has been too-long banished, all that yearns to live and breathe again.               Â
​—DR. JACQUELINE KURIOS, PHD, Northumberland, March 2024.
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"The Sanctuary welcomes all who seek to honor ecological reciprocity. It is a place where listening deeply to the eco-mythological beauty of our landscapes does not deny the violence of their loss at our hands."
—Telma G. Laurentino, Ph.D., author of A Love Letter from the Forest, to You, Through Me.
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"A bold, labyrinthian, mythopoetic research-prayer that is rooted locally and entangled everywhere."
—Annabelle Berrios, JD, MA
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"Sanctuary offers us a wondrous journey in deep, non-linear time through the myths, tales, histories, and elemental forces that have shaped the Iberian landscapes. Meticulously researched and exquisitely written, it's an at once soothing and disquieting read."
—Daniela Kato, Ph.D.
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"Sofia's words flow with the ease of a gurgling stream, and make it pleasurable to ride along the many vantage points and vistas she offers on this journey into the fabric of the Western Iberian psyche."
—Karmit Even Zur, Artist and Storyteller.
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"Sofia generously offers a cartography not to transcend, but rather to inscend into the deep roots of the ecological and mythological relationships that nourish ways of living that refuse to kill."
—Telma G. Laurentino, Ph.D., author of A Love Letter from the Forest, to You, Through Me.
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"Meticulously researched and exquisitely written, Sanctuary offers a wondrous journey in deep, non-linear time through the myths, tales, histories, and elemental forces that have shaped the Iberian
landscapes."
—Daniela Kato, Ph.D.
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"Sofia's words flow with the ease of a gurgling stream, making it a pleasurable ride along the many vantage points and vistas she offers on this journey into the fabric of the Western Iberian psyche."
—Karmit Even Zur, Artist and Storyteller.
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"Sofia Batalha reweaves myth to trace sensuous metabolic paths of solidarity within the uncertainty of our predicament, offering readers the opportunity to consider the layers of their own stories."
—Fabrice Olivier Dubosc, Psychoanalyst.
"In these pages, I have found the elixir of the old woman, which opens our vision to the mysteries of life and the territory, reminding us that we are a living web: relational, organic, chemical, mythical, and biological."
–Ana Alpande, Artist and Storyteller.
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"Sofia Batalha’s work draws on what is most ancestral in Portuguese culture, putting it into dialogue with other international thinkers, offering clues on how to create alternatives to the necro-capitalist system."
—Samuel F. Pimenta, Journalist and Activist.
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"A book that is all the more important and urgent the less immediate it is to understand, because to understand is not the right verb. It implies the effort to enter a mental blur where lucidity and true sight emerge."
—Antonella Vignati, Founder of the Women's Integral Health School.
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"Through Sofia's writing, we feel a hand that touches us in the dark and guides us, while we stumble and wish for the journey to end."
—Dulcinea Pinto, Ph.D. in Archeology.
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"What incredible research, what powerful reflections, how important this 'postactivism' that can cause cracks in the great system that threatens life."
—Carlos Solano, Architect and Author.
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"Taste these transgressive essays on Life. A poignant work for a decadent humanity: it is urgent to make Life a Sanctuary."
—Maristela Barenco, Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences.
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"The Sanctuary is an experience about oneself. A I-thou journey. I didn't know about my own interrelationships, what was already there before me."
—Inês Peceguina, Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology.
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"In this book, Sofia awakens us to the mystery that has passed us unnoticed yet is so familiar. A story is never just a story, and a landscape is not a landscape at all."
—PatrÃcia Rosa, Mendes, Transpersonal Therapist.
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"Sofia Batalha’s book is a generous and precious offer to find an answer to these questions in the ancient stories hidden in the crevices of the Iberian soul."
—Chiara Baldini, Ph.D. candidate at CIIS.
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"The prose is poetry; the poetry is philosophy; the research is prayer—and the entire 'amulet book' is an incantation that invites us to remember what we have lost, and what still might be found."
—Melinda Reidinger, Ph.D., author of The White Deer: Ecospirituality and the Mythic.
"Sofia, in The Sanctuary, lulls us into a series of polyphonic-poetic readings, soaked in the dynamic magic of the fabric where life reveals itself."
—Jorge Moreira, Researcher at the CFE (Centre for Functional Ecology.)
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"Recovering our eco-self is the most important work of our time, and freeing ourselves from the disassociated modern psyche is essential."
—Pegi Eyers, author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community
Will be out on October 15th!
This book was mainly walked and dreamt, so I offer my deep gratitude to the systematically silenced shoreline I’m on: to all she voiced, sung, screamed, asked and shared.Â
It is also a product of many readings, including books, academic papers, and blogs. I thank the diverse, living and otherwise, authors, researchers, and creators whose work is cited throughout the chapters. Indeed, I'm on the shoulders of giants, not only humans, who breathe and search for the frail remaining fragments of a responsible and reciprocal European psyche.Â
My gratitude goes to Ana Alpande, who generously wrote the original preface, and also to David Martin for his kind invitation to translate this book into English, as well as his tireless commentaries and reviews. I also wish to thank all the love and hours Jacqueline Kurio spent reading all these lines, and for accepting to write the English edition preface. Also, deep gratitude to everyone who read the draft and took time to offer invaluable suggestions and corrections, you know who you are!Â
My final heartfelt gratitude goes to my loving family, Marco, Violeta and Jade, for all the patience and space they sustain and offer when I’m in intense writing fever mood.
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