If Women Rose Rooted : A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging

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I didn't like the author's personal path of oh, I'm on my second husband and my second remote celtic home and we're connecting to the land through a heavy reliance on animal agriculture! and also we are starting a publishing company without knowing anything about publishing! and look, I've brought all my type A ideas about success with me and I'm working on the publishing company and the magazine I started and taking care of these dozens of animals and we have the money to build a huge heated barn and totally remodel the house and we're exhausted and burned out. I mean, to me, this is a story of extremes. not all of us get this disconnected or buy into capitalism's definition of success, and so maybe we don't need to live on a croft on the furthest western edge of ireland or in a cottage by a waterfall to reconnect. I really like the idea of viewing environmentalism through a lens of feminism and the study of myth and the history of a place. The idea of women as essential stewards of the land and of that stewardship being intrinsically linked to knowledge of history, including the history of mythology and the environment, was very appealing to me. But this book just didn't deliver that in my opinion. This book marks the Rites of Passage we transition through in life and explores how these experiences may be painful and unauthentic for individuals in our contemporary culture.

Deeply heart-felt, poetic, and inspiring, but I couldn't help but feel small twinges of distress at some of the cis-gendered/biological definitions of women/woman included, particularly when coupled with the "essential nature" and "calling" of a woman. It was not overly saturated, or even very frequent, but it popped up here and there enough to make me pause, and wonder if the author has a place for transwomen in her call to uplift and re-enchant the world. There were parts of the book that I really enjoyed, identified with, & made me evaluate self/my choices.What a disappointment. I almost couldn’t finish this. Congratulations to everyone who enjoyed this book, I wish I was you. There is Celtic mythology in every chapter with very little analysis about how the stories relate to the female psyche. Instead, the author takes readers on her personal journey from leaving a stressful corporate job to finding the perfect cottage in the middle of nowhere where she can settle down and just be. Spoiler alert, she is never happy and has to move from remote cottage to remote cottage to remote cottage. This is just a boring memoir and I feel like I’ve been cheated into reading it. the premise of a heroine's journey, in contrast to the hero's journey described by campbell, where women reconnect with the earth and get in touch with their gifts to heal the world, ok. the utilization of ancient celtic stories to connect women with celtic heritage to their own cultures and landscapes, ok. the basic premise of the patriarchy being out of balance, masculine energy dominating feminine energy, sure, I agree with that. the concept of rape as the primal offense against the feminine, sure. I love this book. Truly, it’s mind-blowing in the most profound and exhilarating sense. This is an anthem for all we could be, an essential book for this, the most critical of recent times. I sincerely hope every woman who can read has the time and space to read it.’ ~ Manda Scott, Boudica and Into The Fire

The thing I liked the most was the authors journey. How she felt the calling to change her life in her 30s. How she failed few times to do so. And even when she thought she nailed it things still shifted. That eased the stress and need to figure everything out as soon as possible. This is the core of our task: to respect and revere ourselves, and so bring about a world in which women are respected and revered, recognised once again as holding the life-giving power of the earth itself.’ However there is such a massive focus on what is traditionally seen as womanhood, and a womans experience that it was alienating at times. I’ve not had children, I don’t see myself as particularly feminine, my womb and periods are things I would cheerfully give up without a second thought. I didn’t really find myself fitting into part of the text, despite Sharon clearly not wanting anyone to feel left out if they didn’t fit the mould.And if we rise up rooted, like trees . . . well then, women might indeed save not only ourselves, but the world.&; As the feminine awakens and we rebalance the masculine & feminine, this book can guide us to reconnect, find our authentic selves, re-root into the Earth, release what no longer serves us and help us find a sense of belonging. I was born in the north-east of England, a Celt through and through: my family and ancestry is both Scottish and Irish, and I was raised on an imaginatively rich diet of Irish myth, poetry, music and history. After studying psychology, I spent several years as an academic neuroscientist/ psychologist specialising in the field of anxiety and panic, and working at the Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris and the Institute of Neurology in London. After a few twists and turns, including some unwise years advising a tobacco company on smoking and health and safer cigarettes, and the acquisition of a master’s degree in Creative Writing, I moved to a croft in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. There I returned to my roots, in practice as a therapist specialising in narrative psychology, myth- and storytelling, as well as in other creative imagination techniques and clinical hypnotherapy. My passion during those years was, and still is, creating transformation in individuals and groups. The book left me determined to belong to some community that is working towards the saving of the earth. Also to appreciate my own heritage more. It's hard to think of a mythical heritage in the Bronx! I may have to look to my own Celtic roots. But there are also the stories my father told me, the world of the lower East Side in the 20s and 30s to the world this city has become. Bookshelves is one feature of OnlineBookClub.org; Bookshelves is found under the forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelves/ subfolder at OnlineBookClub.org. Bookshelves is only one of many features at OnlineBookClub.org. OnlineBookClub.org has many other features too.