The need to be rooted in a place that is not where I currently am is strong and I am determined that it will happen, but for now, my own needs have to be balanced with the needs of others – so be it. And here is the greatest pain, because unlike Sharon, I still have to make that journey. The desire to find my way to these stories came on gradually, but looking back, I can see that it was (and remains) fuelled by an urge which once was buried, then released – the call of the land where I belong. And these stories are rewarding, they are complex, multi-layered, enigmatic – the food for endless meditation and contemplation. I suspect I thought there wasn’t much to know – how wrong! For a few years now, I’ve been trying to educate myself in this wonderfully rich heritage and it seems that the more I discover, the more there is to find.

Like so many of us, I was brought up to know a lot of Classical mythology whilst practically nothing of our native stories. Both themes which are currently incredibly powerful for me. It would have been a sympathetic read based on that thread alone, but the reason I felt Sharon had written this book for me in particular was the weaving together of the Celtic themes and the importance she places on being rooted in the right place. Perhaps because Sharon’s experiences mirror many of my own the acceptance of a career based on masculine values, the increasing difficulty of riding the gulf between those values and my gut/heart intuition, the sharp sting of a crisis and realisation that change was essential. It is a journey in its fullest sense.īut for me it was no passive read.

So, if you haven’t read it yourself, this is the weaving together by Sharon Blackie of her story – her history, with the powerful threads of Celtic myth, and a cry for the active re-establishment of the balance between masculine and feminine values and energies for the health of the planet. Reading it was such an immersive experience, I’m going to try to talk just a little about the feelings and questions reading it has raised in me.

You might well have noticed however, that I don’t very often return to review the books I’ve read.īut last week I read ‘If Women Rose Rooted’ by Sharon Blackie and it was one of those rare times when I felt as if by some means of synchronicity, the right book reached me at exactly the right moment. Along with many of you, I’m something of a bookaholic – occasionally I write here about the latest stash waiting to be devoured (indeed as luck would have it, the previous post was just such a one).

If women rose rooted by sharon blackie