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Because enchantment, by my definition, has nothing to do with fantasy, or escapism, or magical thinking: it is founded on a vivid sense of belongingness to a rich and many-layered world; a profound and whole-hearted participation in the adventure of life. The enchanted life presented here is one which is intuitive, embraces wonder and fully engages the creative imagination – but it is also deeply embodied, ecological, grounded in place and community. It flourishes on work that has heart and meaning; it respects the instinctive knowledge and playfulness of children. It understands the myths we live by; thrives on poetry, song and dance. It loves the folkloric, the handcrafted, the practice of traditional skills. It respects wild things, recognises the wisdom of the crow, seeks out the medicine of plants. It rummages and roots on the wild edges, but comes home to an enchanted home and garden. It is engaged with the small, the local, the ethical; enchanted living is slow living.”
It is heartening to read a progressive view of the women’s movement and one that links with care for the Earth and all living beings. This book is very well recommended.’ GREENSPIRIT MAGAZINE Being from New York City, living in the Bronx, I feared this book would have little to offer me but I was wrong. There is even a section on how to appreciate the earth as a city dweller. The rest of it made me dream of another way of living. I wanted to move to rural Ireland immediately! 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. Mind-blowing. An anthem for all we could be . . . I sincerely hope every woman who can read has the time and space to read it.’ Manda Scott, author of Boudica and A Treachery of SpiesA beautiful, intelligent and unusual book … I’m hoping this book will become the anthem of our generation, encouraging all women to surrender to the earth’s intelligence and rise up, rooted, like trees.’ Kate Forsyth, author of ‘Bitter Greens’, T’he Wild Girl’, and ‘The Beast’s Garden’ But the truth is she wrote this book within a year of the last few chapters, a year isn't really long enough to enact serious change let alone digest all of the behavior that led her to essentially be addicted to home buying/running from problems/commitments made when things became a little hard. There were parts of the book that I really enjoyed, identified with, & made me evaluate self/my choices. 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.’
It is a Call to Life – a full, authentic life. It is a Call to rise from the half-sleep of our existence, and take up our part in the great unfolding of the world. To become a Voice of the Wells. We must answer the Call, or forever be lost in the Wasteland. For many women, that Call occurs at midlife. Dante expressed it perfectly, in the opening lines of The Divine Comedy: ‘Midway upon the journey of my life I found myself in a dark wood, where the right way was lost.’ Most women experience major change in these middle years: physical change or professional; social or psychological; changes in our family and our relationships. Our children leave home. We are overtaken by disillusionment and dissatisfaction. We find ourselves unhappy in our jobs, in our marriages. We develop physical illnesses, anxiety or depression. Rage and grief threaten to overwhelm us. We begin to contemplate our own mortality. We question who we are, who we might have been, who we might yet become. We question our spiritual values and our material values. We begin to wonder what we are doing with our lives, what meaning we might find. We open our eyes a little wider, and take in the world beyond ourselves. For the first time, we see the Wasteland for what it is.”
The course: dreaming a new story
For women who feel separated from their true feminine self, this is a rallying cry to rediscover those ancient roots and be part of the life force again .’ cygnus review
Beyond my issues with the feminism aspect, so much of this book was dedicated to the personal history of the author, interviews with different women, and repetitively talking about the connection between "the divine feminine energies" and the earth that I felt the connection to real environmental issues was missing, and I would have also enjoyed more context for the selected myths. Women have long been told to “know our place”. This powerful and inspiring exploration of the female relationship with landscape turns the diktat around, showing us what may be gained from doing just that.’ Melissa Harrison, author of the Costa-shortlisted ‘At Hawthorn Time’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.
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