A Yearlong Journey in Feminine Symbolic Life
An intimate yearlong program for women who long for
meaning, depth, imagination and connection— in community.
September 2026 – August 2027
11 Live Story Sessions
12 Live Myth Club Gatherings
Recordings & Resources
Community & Connection
10 Video Lessons on Approaching Myth
A YEAR TO REMEMBER WHAT MATTERS
For thousands of years, myths, fairy tales, and folktales have carried the symbolic wisdom of cultures across time. They speak to experiences we cannot always explain but deeply recognize: loss and renewal, thresholds and transformation, the search for belonging, and the call toward a more authentic life.
Anima Mythica is an invitation to enter into a living relationship with these stories.
Rather than studying myths as distant texts, we approach them as living companions. Stories that continue to illuminate our inner lives, our relationships, and our place within the larger world.
Over the course of a year, you will build a rich symbolic vocabulary, deepen your imagination, and join a circle of women committed to reading both stories and life with greater attentiveness, curiosity, and wonder.
Deepen your relationship with myth, symbol, and story.
Cultivate symbolic literacy for personal insight and meaning.
Build an inner library of stories that continue unfolding long after they are told.
Belong to a thoughtful community of women who value depth, imagination, and genuine conversation.
Yearlong Program
Comparative Mythology • Folklore • Fairy Tales • Symbolic Studies
Anima Mythica unfolds through interconnected components, each exploring a distinct symbolic landscape through myths, wonder tales, storytelling, symbolic inquiry, and communal conversation.
The Mythic Threshold
Before entering the live Story Sessions, you’ll begin with a recorded foundational module introducing the essential ideas and practices for studying myth. It lays the groundwork for reading symbolically, thinking mythically, and carrying the wisdom of stories into everyday life.
The recorded video lessons include:
1. Introduction & Practical Orientation
2. Why Stories Matter
3. A Mythic Education in Feminine Symbolic Life
4. Symbols, Archetypes, and Motifs
5. Mythic Questions
6. How to Listen to a Story
7. Uncolonizing the Imagination
8. Comparative Mythology & Applied Myth
9. Cultivating Mythic Sensibility
10. Building Your Mythic Library
SACRED TRANSGRESSION
Stories of Sovereignty, Rupture,
and Feminine Becoming
Inanna and the Huluppu Tree
Sumerian Myth
The Descent of Inanna
Mesopotamian Myth
Reimagining Lilith
Jewish Folklore
Guest Lecture and
Conversation
WEDDING THE WILD
Stories of Enchantment, Instinct, and the Living World
Jaci and Naia
Tupi-Guarani Myth
Matinta Pereira
Brazilian Folklore
Iara
Brazilian Folklore
The Lyrebird
Australian Folklore
ALMA
MATER
Stories of the Wild Mother, Initiation, and Feminine Inheritance
The Swan Maiden
European Folklore
Mesmeranda
Portuguese Fairy Tale
Isis and Osiris
Egyptian Myth
Vasilisa
Russian Fairy Tale
Stories Sessions
Bring mythic insight and beauty into your everyday life.
The stories don’t end when the Story Session finishes.
Each month, Myth Club brings us together for lively conversations inspired by books, films, dreams, symbols, poetry, and the questions arising in our own lives. Every gathering is shaped by the interests and curiosity of the community, making each conversation unique.
a modern mythic salon
What Women Are Saying
“Maria doesn’t teach myth. She opens a door and lets it breathe on you first, the symbol, the image, the old scent of it, before a single word of meaning arrives. She holds the virtual room the way a keeper holds fire, her presence reaching through the screen, undiminished. Every myth, fairytale, folktale she offers is chosen with care, for exactly that circle. I come away with my mythic glasses still on, carrying the myth out onto the land in summer, and into the dark of winter.”
Sally Ann Bentham
"Women and Mythology courses are some of the most empowering I have ever taken!"
Lisa DeMuro, American
“Maria’s work has launched me into one of the greatest adventures of my life. I truly don’t think I’d be where I am today without her hard-earned wisdom and generous guidance. Her infectious love of stories, myth, and imagination opened something in me that I didn’t even know was waiting to be discovered. That awakening has completely changed the trajectory of my life over the past year. I will always be deeply grateful for the gift of her work and the way it continues to shape me.”
Cara Ansis
“I connected with a community of women that immediately felt like home. I know how rare it is to immediately feel like you belong, and I am forever grateful that I found Maria on my quest to reconnect with the divine feminine.”
Becky Symes
The intention is not simply to understand stories,
but to enter into a lifelong relationship with them.
What you will gain
More than a mythology program, Anima Mythica is an invitation to cultivate a lifelong relationship with story. By the end of the year, you’ll carry them with you, returning to them again and again as companions for the different seasons of your life.
✦ Build an inner library of myths, fairy tales, symbols, and archetypes that will continue to accompany you long after the program has ended.
✦ Learn to recognize the symbolic patterns, thresholds, and initiations quietly unfolding within your own life.
✦ Develop the confidence to read myths, fairy tales, dreams, and symbols with greater depth, clarity, and insight.
✦ Deepen your understanding of enduring themes such as feminine sovereignty, instinct, grief, devotion, motherhood, belonging, and transformation.
✦ Rediscover wonder, curiosity, and a more attentive way of meeting the world through the language of story.
✦ Join a thoughtful international community of women who share a love of myth, meaningful conversation, and lifelong learning.
✦ Cultivate a lifelong relationship with stories that continue revealing new meanings each time you return to them.
Your Enrollment Includes
Immediate access to The Mythic Threshold, the foundational pre-recorded module with 10+ video lessons.
12 live Myth Club gatherings on Zoom for communal reflection and conversation (all recordings included)
Access to the Anima Mythica WhatsApp Community
Access to all course materials and
recordings for 12 months from date of purchase
11 live Story Session with storytelling and symbolic inquiry on Zoom
(all recordings included)
A bonus Live Guest Lecture & Conversation (recording included)
Downloadable PDFs featuring reflection questions, symbolic explorations, imagery, and supplementary materials
Join a circle of women remembering the wisdom of story
A Year in the Company of Stories and Symbols
From September 2026 to August 2027
If you feel called to enrich your life through beauty, timeless stories, symbolic meaning, and the company of thoughtful women,
join us on this mythic journey.
Registrations close on September 3, 2026.
Maria Souza
Program Facilitator
Anima Mythica emerges from more than fifteen years of study, teaching, and lived engagement with mythology, storytelling, and the human search for meaning through story.
Maria Souza is a Comparative Mythologist, Poet, and Educator with postgraduate training in Comparative Mythology from Institute Dédalus, a Master’s degree in Ecology and Spirituality from UWTSD, and an Advanced Training Certificate in Applied Mythology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is the author of the mythopoetic book Wild Daughters (Olympia Publishers) and the host of the Women and Mythology podcast, part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s MythMaker℠ Podcast Network.
Frequently Asked Questions
“If you live with the myths in your mind, you will find yourself always in mythological situations. They cover everything that can happen to you. And that enables you to interpret the myth in relation to life, as well as life in relation to myth.”
Joseph Campbell