Unleashing our strangest, wildest selves to meet these times, ft. Prentis Hemphill

How do we transform our relationships to self, community, and place?

I had been dealing with a troll who would often leave me condescending comments on my Instagram posts. Well, ‘dealing with’ is an overstatement. I never responded; it wasn't worth my time.

The psychology of trolling is something I could become curious about, though.

Either way, I'll use one of the comments they left as an entry point here. On a post spotlighting one of my interviewee’s quotes about the importance of honoring Traditional Ecological Knowledge, they sarcastically commented something along the lines of: “Well, people back then believed they lived on the back of a turtle. So sure, they were so smart back then.”

It’s funny to me because evidently, they have completely missed the point of mythology. Cultural stories, myths, and even wisdoms are not meant to be upheld with rigidity, nor to necessarily be interpreted in literal and material senses.

It reminded me of my conversations with Sophie Strand, Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, and Dr. Sharon Blackie on the role of mythology in teaching us how to live in relation to place.

Rune, for example, shared:

“Myths are stories that produce relation… Mythology is a language that places knowledge of relation into relation with people — [in a] way that appeals to our emotions and our imaginations.”

Sophie Strand of Make Me Good Soil invoked fungi as analogy:

“Just as fungi taught plants how to root into place and access the nutrition of a specific place, so do myths teach us how to root into a specific place — and how to have a more ecologically correct and resilient relationship with all of the beings in a specific place.”

And Dr. Sharon Blackie of The Art of Enchantment emphasized our need to re-enchant our landscapes through storytelling:

“Story helps us weave ourselves into the land and feel a sense of wonder and awe when we step outside. This re-mythologizing, re-storying, to me, is a really important way that we can find belonging to places from which we would otherwise perhaps feel quite alienated.”

A lot of deeply rooted, land-based, and Indigenous cultural stories have helped to guide certain rituals and practices for hundreds and thousands of years. They might be sharing prayers and gratitudes before harvest. They might be ceremonies to welcome the shifting of seasons. They might be cleansing grief circles held by a particular river to support people to metabolize all that needs to be let go of.

Just like how cultural stories continuously get reiterated as they are passed down through oral storytelling generation after generation, however, the rituals and practices inspired by them are also meant to stay alive and adaptive to meet the ever-changing times and terrains.

But what can we do in a vastly diasporic and uprooted world, where a lot of such myceliated stories and practices have been co-opted, marginalized, or erased?

I think part of this answer lies in practicing deep listening — because like Martín Prechtel alluded to in respect to the languages of the land, these teachings are still all around us, there for us to relearn and re-open our awareness to.

But because we may no longer be so fluent in the expressions of our ecosystems, communities, and even our own bodies, I think part of the answer also lies in humility — and being okay with playing, experimenting, and trying different things to see how they feel and what they stir up.

This is why it felt so validating, like such a breath of fresh air, to hear Prentis Hemphill talk about our need to give ourselves permission to not know what we need to do all the time, and to “get weird” and even make some things up as we go.

After all, to heal our relationships with community and with the Earth requires that we “become strange” to so much of what has become normalized — and become outliers to the status quo.

Prentis simmers a lot of this down to an invitation for us to unleash our most creative, weird, and authentic selves:

“I think all of us are strange, actually. But I think we're walking around desperately trying to be ‘normal’. And ‘normal’ keeps creating these weird, constrained, extractive worlds.

I'm curious, and I don't know the answer. This is where it goes to the mystery of it all. I don't know what the world becomes when we're all a little stranger, a little weirder, but at least the basis of it will be a little bit more liberated.

If you are yourself, not constrained, if I get to see the creature in you and I get to show you the creature in me, what would we build? Who knows? […]

Yes, we move towards justice. And yes, we move towards liberation. And I'm not certain what we create, and I think that's okay.

I think we have to just humble ourselves a little bit and say, we're going to create something we've never seen, felt, or known. But it starts here with me being in a relationship with myself, being honest, and me giving you room to be yourself, too.”

If this speaks to you, I welcome you to join me and Prentis Hemphill in our full discussion (Green Dreamer EP447) as we unravel the messy layers of healing our humanity in this modern world — including an interrogation of the ways that social media and AI have been distorting our very real human needs for connection.

(Tap in to this conversation here or via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any podcast app, and view our transcript and episode resources here.)

Episode artwork by Tinuke Fagborun; episode song feature “Coming home to you” by Lauriem

“Have moments where you construct yourself less. Give yourself a little more space, a little bit more breathing room in your skin before you put yourself together in the morning or at night. Be a little undone; leave a little bit open. And mostly, just keep feeling.” – Prentis Hemphill

About Prentis Hemphill

Prentis Hemphill is a writer, an embodiment facilitator, political organizer and therapist. They are the Founder and Director of The Embodiment Institute and The Black Embodiment Initiative, and host of the podcast “Becoming the People.” Their debut book What it Takes to Heal published in June 2024 through Penguin Random House. Learn more about Prentis here.

Invitations into reflection:

• How would you like to develop, or deepen further, into rituals or embodiment practices that can help you to feel more rooted to where you are?

• What are some ways in which you feel different, or resistant, to the “norms” of mainstream culture? How would you like to honor and affirm your “strangeness” in these particular ways?

• Where might you be able to (re)learn some of the biocultural myths and stories of the lands where you call home today?

Coming soon…

It is Earth Month, and I have some s t a c k e d episodes coming up for you!

The next two consecutive conversations will focus on the Amazon Rainforest — with the first one featuring the fierce, renowned Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo — with English voiceover by our previous guest and Quechua actress Nathalie Kelley.

Are you enjoying and learning from my newsletters and interviews? If so, please join as a supporting Substack subscriber today (or make a one-time donation of any amount here), as I cannot sustain this work without you, without us!

Thank you so, so much for however you’ve already supported and/or are able to contribute!

This world can feel so overwhelming at times. But I see you and honor you for all that you do. Sending some of my personally strange essences of care to you!