Read on for the Ripening cover reveal, for an exciting, all-new Graduate Certificate program on Celtic Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, a couple of cancellation places suddenly available on my February in-person retreat in North Yorkshire, and other book news – and please bear in mind that this email is highly likely to be cut short by your email provider (especially if it’s the dreaded gmail …). So do click on the title to go through and read the full thing in your browser.
Dear friends
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to get into the habit of taking myself away for a week on a solitary ‘retreat’ in October or November – the richest and most creative season for me, in the much-loved dark heart of the year. Last year it didn’t happen till the beginning of December, and everyone I know thought I was mad, because no one goes on holiday in Britain in December. Except me. Because there’s no way I could conceive of a nourishing break in summer, with all its frenzied crowds and excesses of heat and light. So as this missive reaches you, I’ll be hiding away in a solitary, gale-ridden lochside cottage on the far western shores of Argyll. This is among my views:
Last year’s retreat was very much a working holiday, because I had a book to write. And a full week to myself allowed me the clarity and headspace to do that most excruciating of things for any writer: begin.
But that did make it less of a retreat and more of a tooth-gritting, solitary bootcamp. This year, it will be a proper retreat. I’m happily between books – and though I already know, I think, what the next one will be, it’s a way off. I’ll spend some time thinking hard about an ambitious new program of work and ideas that I’m planning to bring to you all next year (watch this space) but I’ll also be spending time walking (south-western Highland weather permitting) and reading and doodling. And sitting by the log burner, nicely vegetating. I’m thinking parsnip: something light and slender but with good deep roots.
In the meantime, here are a few things that have enchanted the days since my last newsletter:
The first proper ground frost, combined with a starry, starry early morning and Sirius the dog star smiling across at me, low-slung as she is these days there on the southern horizon. I recommend you adopt a star, or a constellation, or both, and follow it/ them around the skies all through the year. Sirius is my star; the Pleiades is my constellation. A story for another day.) It’s one of those rare practices that orients you not only to your place on the planet, but your place in the cosmos. (For VERY much more of all this malarkey, please scroll down for three suddenly available places on my February in-person retreat in North Yorkshire.)
Taking a covered candle out to the water’s edge in the darkness, between gusts here in Argyll last night (Samhain Eve). Nothing visible except for the flicker of a few house-lights in the distance. Decidedly eerie; unreasonably beautiful. The owls had it; the owls had it. This is Cailleach country: the stomping grounds of that remarkably wonderful Old Woman who created and shaped the land in Scottish and Irish mythology. Don’t believe all the nonsense you hear from folks who don’t understand either the myths or their context, wittering about her being a wicked witch, or a goddess of death and darkness; I don’t know where that ever came from. (Though I suspect a priest or two came into it.) (And if you want to know the facts about Celtic Mythology from someone who’s not only actually studied it and got a qualification in it, but has the ancestry and has spent many, many years resident in the places in which it’s still a living tradition – radical – please see my new program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, below!) The Cailleach is certainly not to be messed with, and she loves a good deep covering of ice and snow so the land can rest and renew, but she’s also the guardian of the necessary seasons and cycles of the year. She’s the guardian and protector of the natural world, too – in other words, the guardian and protector of life. But yes, Samhain, in one old Scottish Gaelic tradition, is that time when she comes fully awake to preside over the winter half of the year. It’s a joy to be back in the land of that particular Old Woman again, and at this decidedly Otherworldly time of year.
And talking about eerie: a recent weekend at Broughton Sanctuary, walking back along a narrow path through the woods to the house I was staying in, also in the dark. Finding myself properly spooked out by all the crackles and snaps and seriously wanting to run. Wolves lurked behind every tree trunk; for a few strange minutes I was living in an actual fairy tale and I really was the heroine lost in the enchanted forest. I’d fallen right into Ripening. Sort of serves me right.
Being told by three women in the same week that I’m a fearsome role model for how to hold strong boundaries. What they meant, they told me, was that I’ve somehow learned to say no often, firmly, but mostly nicely and always employing humour wherever possible. And without falling over myself apologising for it at the same time. I don’t much boast about my skills, but I’m quite proud of this one, because it’s hard-earned, born from the ashes of a fiery menopause and the hard, steely crucible of lymphoma. Why is it that we women find the act of saying no such an impossible rite of passage to navigate? I’m beginning to think I should hold practice sessions. Organise a ‘No’ retreat, or an all-night ‘No’ vigil, complete with fasting. ‘No’ breakfast till you’ve said ‘no’ to someone three times. Or maybe I should start The ‘No’ Podcast, an antidote to all that cheery, ‘What have you welcomed into your life and embraced with an wholehearted Yes’, and inviting my guests instead to share their experiences around ‘What have you kicked right out of the playing field with a wholehearted Please just fuck off now and leave me alone?’
The bright, autumn-orange, ever-whispering aspens in our garden, so very visible from the hills above us, beacons for the entire valley. It’s a fleeting beauty, as all the best beauties are; the leaves are almost gone now.
Making the first proper comfort-soup of the season, which always reminds me of my childhood, and which is always concocted to something resembling my mother’s ancient recipe, handed down to her in turn by my grandmother. In those times, a pot of it might last days. A super-tender, slow-cooked ham hock as the base, a grounding of soup mix with barley and split peas, an ocean of shredded leek and grated carrot and swede and parsnip. A good herb-laden stock. And the crowning glory: herby suet dumplings crisped on top under the grill. I’ve been making that soup all my life, and it will always and forever be the taste of autumn for me, and the taste of home.
Wishing you all the blessings of whichever season you find yourself in, right now.
Sharon
Ripening cover reveal! – and special edition
You might have caught an early, fleeting glimpse of it a couple of weeks ago, when it was included in a Waterstones preorder offer, but today is the official cover reveal day for Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now. Isn’t it gorgeous? I just love those trashy red thorns. (And many thanks to for the most excellent cover quote, which I would quite like as my epitaph when the glorious day comes. But I promise not to come back and haunt you all flourishing that map.)
A reminder that if you’d like to guarantee your copy of a beautiful, limited signed edition of Ripening (every copy signed by me, sprayed edges, beautifully designed endpapers, and at exactly the same price as the standard hardback) please do preorder it here; it’s available from West End Books in London only, right now. We don’t expect copies of the limited edition to be hanging around for long, so do get your order in as soon as you can; international shipping is very much available. Or if that doesn’t tempt you, other preorder information can be found at the book’s Linktree.
Ancient Stories, Living Psyche: A Journey into the Celtic Imagination and Its Insights for Today
New Graduate Certificate in Celtic Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute (online)
After three successful outings of my ‘Finding Ourselves in Fairy Tales’ Graduate Certificate program, I’m genuinely excited to be developing a new program on Celtic Mythology for Pacifica Graduate Institute (with 8 hours of CECs, if required). This is a unique course, designed for depth psychologists as well as for anyone who’d like to learn how to incorporate the insights and inspirations from this rich tradition into their lives and practice. Many of you will know that for a very long time I’ve been frustrated by depth psychology’s constant obsession with Greek myths, and when Celtic myths and archetypes do find their way into the field it’s often in ways that are inaccurate or slightly off-centre in relation to their wider mythic and cultural context. So this is my effort to offer up an inspiring and authentic grounding in this complex and fascinating tradition.
It’ll begin on February 11, and will run for eight months; all live session dates, along with recommended reading, CEC info, other details and individual session outlines, can be found on the registration webpage, here. (All questions to Pacifica via the contact details on the webpage please, not to me or in the comments here.) Here’s the general program description:
Although many of the mythical beings in Celtic traditions – the Morrígan, Brigit, Lugh, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the Tuatha Dé Danann and the fairy-folk – have long loomed large in the world’s imagination, the rich and complex context from which they spring is poorly known and often misunderstood. This Graduate Certificate in Celtic Mythology will provide an extensive and up-to-date introduction to the mythology and folk traditions of the ‘insular Celts’ – the inhabitants of the British Isles and Ireland. We’ll explore their relevance both to our lives today and to the practice of Depth Psychology.
We’ll delve into the most instructive and inspirational Irish and Welsh myths and their key actors, motifs and themes, and in the process we’ll examine the role of women, animals, kings and heroes, the land and the environment – and, most important of all, the pervasive influence of the Otherworld. We’ll consider the influence that the arrival of Christianity had on Celtic mythology, the relationship between the bards and the monks, and the ways in which pagan and Christian religions intersected. In exploring the fundamental belief systems which underlie key threads of the Celtic tradition, we’ll also challenge some contemporary assumptions about what the Grail represents.
This program will be suitable both for clinicians and researchers who are interested in finding new mythological systems to draw on, and for individuals who are interested in deepening their knowledge of and personal work within the Celtic traditions.
And while we’re talking about Celtic myth, and Celtic women, the next item in this newsletter clearly indicates that the appetite for this work is stronger than ever …
If Women Rose Rooted is a Good Housekeeping Good Books Reader Favourite!
Those words appear in my introduction to If Women Rose Rooted, and I’m thrilled to bits to be able to tell you that, almost ten years on from its first publication, this book that still refuses to just quietly die is one of nine books named by Good Housekeeping in its Good Books Christmas Collection. If Women Rose Rooted is a ‘reader favourite’ in the memoir section.
I wrote this book because I passionately believed that the women of these islands needed both to know and then to own their own forgotten stories: myths and folk tales which place women firmly at the heart of everything. In our oldest stories, the creative, generative essence of the universe was female; women represented the spiritual and moral axis of the world. But the Celtic divine female was a long way from the remote, transcendent sky-deities we’ve grown used to in recent centuries here in the West: she had one foot in the Otherworld for sure, but she was also a force of nature, firmly grounded and deeply rooted in place, indivisible from her distinctive, haunting landscapes. That was my insight back in 2015, and that’s precisely why those stories are so powerful and more necessary than ever today. Award-winning novelist Manda Scott called If Women Rose Rooted ‘an anthem for all we could be’ – and I’m utterly delighted to see it reaching an even wider audience after all this time.
In the UK you can buy the Good Housekeeping Good Books titles, including If Women Rose Rooted, in your local Waterstones, or with a 30% discount online at waterstones.com, using the code GOODBOOKS30. It’s also available from bookshop.org (via your local bookshop) with a 10% discount using the code LOVEBOOKSHOPS. All these discounts available only till 4 December.
As a curious aside: all the way back in 2009, Good Housekeeping came to my croft on the shores of Loch Broom near Ullapool to interview and photograph me for a feature they were running on women who had changed their lives – and specifically, women who had made significant career changes – at midlife. I can’t for the life of me remember how they found me, but here’s the not-very-profound but profoundly polished result. (Don’t be too impressed: I was very much younger then, they brought a stylist/ makeup person with them so that I was primped and prepped within an inch of my life – I lived on the wild and windy north-west coast of Scotland so my hair never looked quite that sleek – and the photograph was also nicely airbrushed!) But nevertheless, that old connection makes it especially lovely to have this accolade, so many years on.
Three cancellation places newly available on my February in-person women’s retreat at Broughton Sanctuary
‘A Psyche the Size of Earth’, my first in-person women’s retreat for six/ seven years, was sold out within just over a week of advertising back in August. However, because of some unfortunate circumstances resulting in some participants needing to cancel, three places have just become available. If you’re interested, please do book as soon as you can, as we expect them to go quickly. One of the rooms available is a twin room for two people, but if the single rooms are taken and you’re interested in booking the twin room as a single, please contact [email protected] and I’m sure she’ll see what she can do for you. All other enquiries to her too please.
If you missed out on the information about this retreat, you’ll find all the information you need, along with the booking form, at this web page. And you can read my August newsletter about the background to it here.
Someday your witch will come
It’s very much the season of the witch, and this is a reminder that, later this month, I have a tricksy little treat in store for paid subscribers to ‘The Art of Enchantment’. Building on, but extending, some of the ideas I offered in Hagitude and Wise Women, and updating a couple of short courses I ran a few years ago, I’ll be sharing with you some ideas and stories focused on the archetype of the Witch. Over the past year or two, frustrated by the apparent relative dearth of stories about benign witches in European folklore, I’ve been on a quest to see what treasures I can dig out. Where are all the good witches hiding? Well, there aren’t very many but there are some, and now it’s time to share those stories with you, as well as to host an online Myth and Fairy Tale Salon on the archetype of the Witch. You can expect the live gathering on November 29, following two associated articles/ story notes emailed out to you in Substack posts on November 15 and November 22. As an antidote to dangerous times, we need dangerous women – and British and European folklore is, happily, full of them!
Last chance to book: one-day workshop with Alternatives London, Saturday December 6
I’m delighted to be heading back to a wintry London with the lovely people at Alternatives for a second year running, to offer a daylong workshop around on ‘Calling and the post-Heroic Journey’. I won’t be doing any in-person events again till May next year, so if you’re interested in working with me ‘live’, please do consider coming along to what I know will be another lovely and nourishing day.
I’m so looking forward to this one; full details and tickets at this link.
Reading recommendations
I was delighted to receive a copy of Folk Tales of the Wolf, a lovely new collection of folk and fairy tales about wolves, from storyteller Chris Salisbury. Here’s the publisher’s description:
Wolves have been hunted to extinction in many countries, clung on in isolated populations near human communities and thrived in remote wilderness: theirs is a story of adaption and survival that is not yet finished. Once prevalent in Britain, the wolf has been much maligned and persecuted, but it has also been missed, and the ‘return of the wolf’ in this compendium of tales mirrors the aspiration to reintroduce this ancient species to Britain’s recovering wild places.
The wolf has wended its way into our collective imagination through traditional narratives around the world. Known as shapeshifter, this animal has weaved itself into our folklore for centuries; from the compelling protagonist and agent of change to the wily trickster and persecutor, and today as a totem of hope for the rewilding movement.
Storyteller and outdoorsman Chris Salisbury ensures the legacy of this beloved creature lives on in an unforgettable collection of wolfish tales to tell out loud.
