Welcome to Under a Fig Tree
An archive of essays, poetry, stories and reflections rooted in imagination, mythopoetics and ancient religion
Who am I?
My name is Gabriela. I am a Spanish/Welsh writer, poet, beekeeper, ritualist and independent scholar of myth and the history of religion.
Since 2011, I have travelled to traditional cultures around the world to learn about their customs, myths and belief systems.
I have apprenticed with shamans, renunciants and traditional healers. My fieldwork has focused on ancient sites in the Balkans, Crete and Palestine, as well as prehistoric cave art in Northern Spain, Southern France, aboriginal Australia and Indonesia.
Alongside my Substack publication, I share my findings through online programs, conferences, guest-speaking and in person events.
What qualifies me to teach? I have an academic background in mythology, anthropology, theology, and Sufi poetry. I hold an undergraduate degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic (SOAS), an MA in The Poetics of Imagination (Dartington Arts School) and various qualifications from Pacifica and Oxford University. Full list of academic qualifications.
To find out more about me and my work, you can visit my website.
What is this publication?
The main archive of my work and a platform for all my new writings sent directly to your inbox with an audio recording
Published once a month for all subscribers and every Sunday (sometimes fortnightly) for paid subscribers
A special thanks to subscribers who pay for my publication!
I hope you will consider joining me here, in the imaginal landscape known by Sufi mystics as the place where the two seas meet, the Nâ-Kojâ-Abâd ("the country of non-where”) of the ancient Persians, and the land east of the sun and west of the moon in the Russian fairytales.
Or, put more simply, see you under a fig tree.
** The title of this publication is in memoriam to my great-grandmother’s fig tree in Spain under which, as C. S. Lewis would put it, my imagination was first baptised.
