If Women Rose Rooted: A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging Paperback – April 18, 2017

This book is so rooted in the folklore and psychology of women's connection to the land. Very educational and enjoyable to read.

Sharon is an amazing story teller....It's one of those books you simply can't put down.This book resonates so much with my own life experience.! It is a must read for all woman especially the ones in their 40ies and 50ies.

Scotch-Irish Blackie was born in England and has lived mostly in Scotland and Ireland. She offers the Celtic traditional stories of “first things,” which “honor Women as the creators of life, the bearers of the Cup of knowledge and wisdom, personifying the moral and spiritual authority of this fertile green and blue Earth” – and great stories they are. She mixes her personal story and poetry with the old stories. Here is how she states her understanding. “The sense of belonging to the world that those of us in these Western lands once had, that sense of deep rooting in the Earth, is all but dead. The patriarchy crippled it; Modernity dealt it the final blow. As a woman, I want to make it live again. We belong to each other, this land and I. The Eco-Heroine’s Journey is a journey back to a solid rooting in the land where we live and the traditions of our native places.” Her advice to older women: Pass your wisdom on. Tell your own story. Your truth shatters hypocrisy. When necessary, become fierce. Be wrathful.

We are reading this for book club and this is just a great book.

As a fan of "Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype" and "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants," I felt myself drawn to Sharon Blackie's book especially since it dealt with women and mythology."If Women Rose Rooted"is an honest, sometimes emotion-stealing read of a woman in search of her roots and her rootedness. Do you ever have a strong desire or pull to not just visit but belong somewhere other than where you live? Blackie did. And this is the story of her journey to find not just the place but her authentic self.Nowadays, I believe we're so caught up in busy-ness that we don't take time to slow down, to dream, to probe the soil, to immerse ourselves in nature. If CoVid-19 isolation/quarantine has done anything, I think it has given us time to do just that. Blackie helps guide our self-exploration by creating a "heroine's journey" which is similar, yet different, to Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey". Within each section of the heroine's journey, she tells stories of Celtic mythology, stories of strong women who loved nature, nurtured the land, and were independent. She weaves her own personal story into these retellings.". . . women want Sovereignty--to take up their ancient role as the moral and spiritual authority of the land. In our native myths and stories, Sovereignty represents the creative, regenerative, life-giving feminine principle; when it is balanced by the good masculine--when the goddess of the land enters into a sacred marriage with the true Kind of the people--then the land is fertile and the people safe from harm."". . . feminine qualities of relatedness are suppressed: relatedness to other humans, to the non-humans who share the planet with us, to nature and the rhythms of nature, as well as to the rhythms of the physical body and the stages of passages of our lives."This book is another that will remain in my ever-growing collection of nature and women studies.

Majestic in its scope, “If Women Rose Rooted” is an insightful and inspiring book. Blackie is generous in her sharing of her own and others’ lives in service to restoring word and world. I am always grateful for books that incorporate a mythic perspective and this one, resonant with a Celtic heart, is soul-nourishing indeed.There are many aspects of the book to appreciate. Most striking to me is how “The Eco-Heroine’s Journey” is introduced as a framework, (a further development of Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey, sorely needed in our time of ecological despair). Without Blackie’s skilled weaving of many levels of story, that schema could stay abstract. Instead, it is offers a path from grief to empowerment and ultimately hope, that each, in our own way, can root and rise. I am full of gratitude for this offering and look forward to it rippling out into the world.Mary OakAuthor of "Heart's Oratorio: One Woman's Journey through Love, Death and Modern Medicine"

This book is amazing for anyone who has been stuck in a job or a life and felt an inexplicable hollowness (maybe a reoccurring hollowness). It really made me sit and reflect on a lot of things, and it resonated perfectly with where I am at on my journey to what I feel is another level of spirituality. I believe there is definitely something deeper to our existence on this planet, and it is not chasing the almighty dollar. We all have a higher purpose, and learning to tap into that which makes us truly feel fulfilled without falling into the same pattern of lesson learning over and over again . . . well that will be priceless. This is a great read, regardless of whether you have Celtic roots or not. All you have to have is a belief that you belong somewhere or feel a connection to the place where you live, then I believe you will find meaning in this book too.