#Sharon Blackie

[rheaswrath]

1&3 Euphoria s2 / 2.If Women Rose Rooted - Sharon Blackie / 4&8.Half Your Age - Joywave  / 5&7. Mirror (1975) /6. I'm Terrified - Current Joys

#and i honestly don't know what to do about it #parallels #mirror #andréi tarkovski #euphoria #rue bennett #the mountain goats #stoker movie #phoebe bridgers #paul rubens #the current joys #taylor swift #sharon blackie #web weaving #growing up #adulthood #da aesthetic #art

[red-ibis-red]

But we also use the word 'hedge' to indicate a quite different kind of boundary: the wild margins which surround the cultivated fields. Think now of the gnarly old hedgerows of Britain and Ireland: thick, richly flowering, berried hawthorn and elder, blackthorn and hazel. An abundance of food and shelter for wild things. Secret places, where treasure might be found, where birds might speak to you and foxes shelter while singing to the stars. The suburban hedge walls us in; the wild hedge marks the edge beyond which freedom lies - the place where village becomes forest. There's nothing safe about an ancient hedge: on the other side lies the dark wood and the road which goes ever on. An ancient hedge is an enchanted place; a place where anything might happen. A liminal place, where the wisdom of the wild margins is available to all. Hedge wisdom: the wisdom of the wild world, unfettered by rules and impossible to institutionalise.

—Sharon Blackie, The Enchanted Life

#Sharon Blackie #lit

[denimbex1986]

'This weekend, I finally got round to watching All Of Us Strangers. It is a brilliant film that I thoroughly recommend and open to interpretations. But the bit that resonated with me was the fact that Andrew Scott’s character, a writer, was trying through his work to reconnect with his past.

I’ve been thinking ‘if only I could go back and live that time all over again’. I guess we all think this from time to time, but why now? Well, one answer I have from reading Sharon Blackie’s excellent Hagitude — Reimagining the Second Half of Life, is that it is perhaps a necessary part of this crossroads of life we find ourselves standing in front of at midlife. It is a fact that we can’t go back, that we can only go forward, and perhaps to do that we have to let go of a lot of things from the past, or at least, leave them where they belong — in the past.

In All Of Us Strangers, Andrew Scott’s character revisits his childhood home and finds his parents, who had been killed in a car crash when he was 12, still living, still listening to the same records, still inhabiting the same decor, the same clothes. It is 1987 and the only thing that has changed is him, he has grown and they have stayed… stuck.

In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of joining Dr Lily Dunn’s memoir writing course. I am a firm believer that learning from other writers, joining their courses, advancing our own writing is an enormously important part of practicing our own craft, and I’ve really enjoyed the exercises that she has set for everyone. But I was surprised, what I initially joined thinking I would use this course as a structure to explore has not been what I have been drawn to in my writing. In fact, like the protagonist in All Of Us Strangers, I have been drawn back, to the ghosts of the past. I have wanted to bring my childhood back to life through my writing, and this has surprised me, it has also made me feel quite emotional.

What if we could go back? What would it be like to step into an old photograph, to relive that moment all over again but this time through the adult eye? That was the task that we were asked to do by Lily.

I chose a photograph, just because it was the nicest one I happened to lay my hands on first, and I was so surprised by what came out, particularly the handbrake turn it took towards the end. So I’m sharing it here with you with the hope you might try the same exercise. Find a childhood photograph and step back into it with your adult eye...

It is a sunny day in 1983, although in all honesty, all of those days felt sunny. We are standing in the back garden of our red-brick council house, posing for a photograph, me and my stepfather. I am wearing a floppy straw hat and towelling dress. I remember that dress well – a sage green colour that tied at the front, it had something appliquéd on the front, I’m not sure what now but then those are not the details I want to focus on here.

​My stepfather is looking smart, a shirt tucked into his slacks, all beige and cream, a palette for summer. He is wearing a trilby hat and a gold necklace that catches the light, and his face, hardly visible under the brim of his hat as he looks down at me, is shaped somehow to make me laugh. I gaze up at him in delight.

My small hand is in his, but my other hand is wrapped around his wrist, over his watch strap, as if I don’t want that moment to end, as if he is all mine.

Which he was then, in 1983.

​My mum and I had moved into that council house the year before. It was brand new: putty-coloured tiled floors downstairs; bare floorboards upstairs; and in that back garden (where we would pose for that photograph a year later) a lawn we hoped would grow from seed.

This blank canvas was all ours. Mum and I went to Sheltons in the city, a smart department store buried in the backstreets, and chose mugs and eggcups with pictures of animals on them – I still have one now. At night we slept together in her double bed, even though she had gone to pains to bring something of my old bedroom with her, the brass-effect headboard my dad had shaped by hand, I can’t remember anything else now but I’m sure each item had been chosen with such importance to her at the time.

​It had been just us for a while. Mum made friends with Kate, the single mother who lived next door and I played with her children while Kate stirred a pot on the stove that she would feed to mum when she came home after an evening spent canvassing, going door-to-door with her team in not so sunny days, in fact freezing ones, selling double glazing. That’s how she afforded me brand new Clark’s school shoes, or even that sage green dress.

​Mum said the night she had met David, he had been wearing that trilby. He had entered the pub where she was sitting at the bar with Kate, and from the door he had thrown it and it had landed on the hatstand. A cool move. I don’t know how long later she had brought him home to me but I was equally smitten.

I have a memory of skipping by his side as we left the fancy new shopping centre, Queensgate, which was all smoked glass and shiny floors, more like somewhere you might imagine in America, not Peterborough, or at least not then, in 1983. In that same memory, Dai is carrying a present so big for me – a plastic aeroplane and the picture on box promised I could serve food to my passengers – and Mum was parked outside waiting for us in our dark blue Ford Cortina. She would have scolded him when we clambered inside for another big present.

​‘She’s not used to being spoilt.’

​But I was then, in 1983.

The trips to Queensgate for a giant present each weekend became a Sunday morning walk to Readwells, a newsagent in the new modern centre of our village, where I could have the run of the place, picking up any soft toy or magazine I wanted.

​The way to a six-year-old heart is through your wallet.

​But it wasn’t only that, it was the cardboard castle he helped me build for a school project, it was wrestling in front of the television on a Saturday afternoon while Big Daddy did the same on the screen. It was falling asleep curled up in the armchair to the hum of the TV in the corner of the lounge, and waking only enough to see my fleecy peach sleepsuit-covered legs reaching up to the ceiling as he carried me to bed once I’d drifted off.

​He was all mine, and I was all his.

​Is that what we were thinking as we posed for that photograph?

​I didn’t know then of the other child he had swapped to be with me. A four-year-old boy who must have been ten by then. Was he thinking of him when he smiled down at me? Was he making reparations to him when he lavished attention on me? Did it ease the pain of his guilt? Perhaps he felt none at all, this family man who had repaired us and made me and Mum whole again.

​By the time I saw that child he would be a man. I would be sat, not in sage green, but in all black on the front row of a pew in a crematorium. I would turn from my stepfather’s coffin to look at the crowd behind me, and among them I would pick out a grown man — crying like a four-year-old boy.'

#All of Us Strangers #Sharon Blackie #Hagitude - Reimagining the Second Half of Life #Andrew Scott #Dr Lily Dunn

[innervoiceartblog]

Inspiration from Sharon Blackie for International Women's Day.

#Sharon Blackie #If Women Rose Rooted #International Women's Day #spinners #weavers #way finders #love #life #wise words #heart and soul #remember

[ancestorsalive]

#landscape #stories #storycatching #storytelling #story #Memory & Spirit of Place #Ancestors Alive! #What is Remembered Lives #Sharon Blackie #If Women Rose Rooted #the reading room #listen #ancestral lands

[bookymcbookface]

The Enchanted Life, Reclaiming the Magic and Wisdom of the Natural World, by Sharon Blackie

#just finished #books #reading #bookworm #Sharon blackie #enchanted life #nature core #d.h. lawrence #poetry

[heathergorse]

An open letter to Sharon Blackie

I don't write much about trans issues. Its not because they're not of interest to me - they're of deep existential interest to me because I'm a trans woman - but it is not often that they cross with the topics of this blog.

When they occasionally do, I'll write about them.

So it is that I'm writing an open letter to the author and podcaster Sharon Blackie, after she made comments about transgender people in episode 13 of her podcast, This Mythic Life. Its an old episode, but I only very recently listened to it and it prompted me to write an open letter to Sharon in response.

I don't expect anything to come of this or many people to see it, least of Sharon herself, but it was simply important to me to write it. You can read it below:

Dear Sharon,

Gosh, but its been a good few years since I started to read your writing; I was a subscriber to Earthlines from issue 1 and ever since I’ve kept a close eye out for whatever you’re writing. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve recommended The Enchanted Life to! It's been over 10 years and I’ve enjoyed so much of what you’ve written. I’m passionate about story and place and how they can intertwine and so obviously there was a lot for me to enjoy!

I’ve listened to your podcasts for a while too, dipping in and out as time allows. So it was that I eventually came to episode 13 of This Mythic Life. I don’t think I can properly quantify how upset I’ve been since hearing it and I hope you’ll let me explain why. 

You see, I’m a trans woman. That’s a difficult “hero’s journey” to be on and there are many perils and monsters on the way. It's not an easy story but it is often a redemptive story, but I’ll talk more about story later. I can’t help talking in terms of story, I’m sure you can understand that. Listening to your episode 13 of Mythic Life was not a peril I was expecting to encounter.

Let me state as clearly as possible that I’m not trying to take anything away from what your body can do and its part in your identity, Sharon, as you expressed concern about happening in the podcast; I don’t think I know of anyone who would. I do know what it is to have things “tied up with my vision of who I think I am,” as you put it. There are also things I don’t know. 

I don’t know what it is to menstruate. I don’t know what it is to carry a child or give birth. When my cis women friends have discussed this together or told me about it privately its a time for me to be silent and listen and try to understand. It's absolutely not a time to express an opinion that is uninformed, it's absolutely not a time for me to try to prevent a conversation from happening because it's not something I can experience. 

I don’t want to take anything away from you, I don’t want to take anything away from any cis woman. I want to make sure I listen and try to understand whenever anyone trusts me with any part of their own story like that.

I wish that this was something you were wanting to do for trans women,  because going by your comments about trans (I’m going to presume women, but on the podcast you stumbled over your word choice here and went for “trans person” instead) people who have approached you about finding themselves in story it appears you haven’t properly listened to the stories of trans women yet, or of trans men or non-binary people. 

I’m going to hope that it wasn’t your intention, but your suggestion to the commenter who wanted to know where they fit into mythic stories that they go and create their own mythology, combined with your repeating comments about “third sex” people feels tantamount to segregationist language to me as a trans woman. It is very dismissive and, despite your protestations to the contrary, sounds incredibly exclusionary. Go make your own stories and maybe in 2000 years there’ll be mythic stories for trans people feels like being told there’s no place in these stories for you. How could that be? The podcast episode was about the mythic masculine and there is, of course, the mythic feminine. Are trans men and women not able to find themselves in the mythic masculine and mythic feminine by this assessment?

Sadly, your passing assertion about some cultures recognising a third sex is perhaps the worst of options. It suggests that you do not believe that trans women are women, or trans men are men. Is that a reasonable conclusion to reach, Sharon? Let me ask you respectfully and genuinely - do you believe that trans women are women and trans men are men? 

I believe that the right thing to say to a trans woman seeking to find resonance and meaning in mythic stories is to enable them to find it, to say that they are entitled to find it in the mythic feminine. I believe that the right thing to say to a trans man seeking to find resonance and meaning in mythic stories is to enable them to find it, to say that they are entitled to find it in the mythic masculine. I believe that that would have been the compassionate, inclusive and caring thing to do, Sharon, not to dismiss them to “third sex” segregation to come up with their own stories. To say that is to say to trans women and men that there is nothing for them here and that they should pursue their own culture elsewhere. I don’t believe any mythic story says that. 

Please, I implore you, please listen to the stories of some trans women and men and non-binary people because I think you would benefit greatly from hearing their personal stories and learning about their perspectives in a spirit of openness. To pursue and state the positions that you did in episode 13 of your podcast is rightly going to leave you open to accusations of transphobia, because what you have said and how you have said it is transphobic. It's entirely possible that this was not your intention at all, we are all subject to cultural and societal prejudices and can easily fall prey to them and this is a very hostile time for trans women particularly. 

I think it is entirely reasonable to respectfully and simply raise the question with you though, after what you said on your podcast and how you said it;  do you believe that trans women are women and trans men are men, or not? 

It can be a perilous road, being trans. Merely to express an opinion online, to step outside your door, to exist in public can be fraught with danger; I’m sure you’d agree that in that at least cis women and trans women have a great deal in common. Just as cis women are bombarded with messages from the world around them that they are less, so are trans women. Very sadly, episode 13 of your podcast told me that I was less and I suspect that I am not the only trans woman, man or non-binary person who heard it who felt that also. Words and how we use them can do staggering damage as well as incredible good. I want to believe that you had no intention whatsoever of doing harm and I hope that you won’t dismiss any possibility that you have done so; saying “I don’t say this in any way to offend anyone” as you did is not a free pass to not causing offence and harm. 

I’ll always value the different perspectives I discovered reading Earthlines. The Enchanted Life will always be a favourite, Foxfire Wolfskin was spine-tingingly good and Hagitude has had such rave reviews that I’m sure it more than deserves. I truly wish you every success with it. I can only hope that there’s a place for me to continue reading your writing, because right now I can’t imagine wanting to read the writing of someone who has currently left me with the impression that they believe I am not validly entitled to “my vision of who I think I am”.

#transgender #trans woman #trans pride #trans rights #sharon blackie #transphobia #open letter #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq representation #nonbinary #the study

[wherekizzialives]

October Reads

Eleven books finished this month, only one a re-read, and many of them absolutely outstanding. A real mix of types and topics as well – poetry, memoir, nature writing, mystery, horror, ghost stories, religion, self-help, feminism, travel … it may be an eclectic mix but it is an excellent one.  I cannot bring myself to recommend just one or two out of these but I will say that if you’re looking…

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#book recommendations #C J Tudor #jay hulme #Kaitlin B Curtice #Katya Balen #Mathew Gostelow #Olivia Laing #Sharon Blackie #Terry Pratchett #Val McDermid #Victoria Bennett

[kimbazee]

What I've Been Reading Lately

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small compensation at no extra cost to you. This helps keep my blog ad-free. Here’s a very short list of three books I finished reading in the past week. Enjoy! No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the late teacher’s most-read books. When I was in my…

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#British Isles #Fairytale #Folktale #No Mud #Poetry #Sharon Blackie #The Enchanted Life #Thich Nhat Hanh

[booksandwitchery]

List of books I’ve mentioned or reviewed on my blog

Here is the master list of books I’ve mentioned, with links to their pages. I will be keeping this list current and linked in my description.

*The ankh symbol [ ☥ ] indicates that this book is especially important to me and/or drastically changed my life

Secular/Science-Based/Skeptic-Friendly:

☥ Atheopaganism: An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science by Mark Green

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

☥ Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler

☥ DIY Magic by Anthony Alvarado

How to Become a Witch by Julie Wilder

☥ Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation by Mat Auryn

Storytelling Alchemy by Renée Damoiselle

The Beginner Witch’s Guide to Grimoires by Julie Wilder

The Door to Witchcraft by Tonya A. Brown

The Enchanted Life: Unlocking the Magic of the Everyday by Sharon Blackie

The Witch of the Forest’s Guide to Natural Magick by Lindsay Squire

The Witch’s Guide to Manifestation by Mystic Dylan

☥ Witchcraft Therapy by Mandi Em

Wisdom, Psychology, Philosophy, Self-Growth, etc…

☥ The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Non-Secular:

☥ Sane Occultism by Dion Fortune

Simply Wicca: A Beginner’s Guide to the Craft of the Wise by Lisa & Anton Stewart

☥ Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin

#book reviews #books #bookblr #wicca #pagan #paganism #neopaganism #witchcraft #secular witchcraft #witches #witch #witch vibes #justwitchythings #goodreads #litblr #reading #pagan reading list

[entheognosis]

To live an enchanted life is to pick up the pieces of our bruised and battered psyches, and to offer them the nourishment they long for. It is to be challenged, to be awakened, to be gripped and shaken to the core by the extraordinary which lies at the heart of the ordinary. Above all, to live an enchanted life is to fall in love with the world all over again.

Sharon Blackie

#enchantment

[red-ibis-red]

Do you hear the bruising of the deep roots, find yourself wanting to reach out and touch the bark of the tree that withstood the wind—knowing that you too have withstood a storm or two in your time?

—Sharon Blackie, The Enchanted Life

#lit #Sharon Blackie

[lioninsunheart]

As the Heroine moves on through her life and through whatever new Journeys may come, the time will come to work on becoming Elder. The word ‘elder’, of course, can mean many things. The Elder may be fierce, eccentric, wild; she may be the Trickster energy that sets about disrupting the status quo. She may also (or later) represent the deep, restful dark: the slow sinking back into the quietness within that is arguably one of the greatest gifts of extreme old age. To a woman of the Celtic nations, to become Elder is above all to become Cailleach: to represent the integrity and health of the wild places and creatures of this world. To become Elder is to become strong – strong as the white old bones of the earth, strong enough to endure the long, lonely vigil to the end of the world. To become Elder is to hold the power, stay the course. Above all, to become Elder is to become the 'bean feasa', the Wise Woman: the one who knows the secrets and speaks the languages of the land, who speaks with the moral authority of the Otherworld, who weaves the dreaming of the world. ~ Sharon Blackie: ‘If Women Rose Rooted’

[innervoiceartblog]

Curating your unique inner imaginarium

~ Working with the mythic imagination

#Sharon Blackie #Imaginarium #Mythic Imagination #The Art of Enchantment

[hog-babe]

Sharon Blackie says that beauty standards etc have destroyed our ability to see ourselves as "healthy animals" and I really like that phrase it makes sense

#she's talking about women specifically but idc #theres literally nothing relevant about gender here

[wherekizzialives]

November Reads

Seven books finished this month, again including the next book from my chronological order Discworld series re-read. If I had to recommend only one of the seven it would – hands down – be Nicola Chester’s On Gallows Down, which made me laugh and cry and left me uplifted and feeling that it is possible for each of us to make a difference in this world, even now.   Reiterating (as always) that…

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#book recommedations #book reviews #Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett #On Gallows Down by Nicola Chester #Pandora&039;s Jar by Natalie Haynes #Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench #The Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie #The Wood for the Trees by Richard Fortey #Wild Once by Vivianne Crowley