A Library for Wild Sacred Places

One of the things that I love so much about going on long trips by car is that I am not limited to what I can carry. So, for me, that means that I bring books. Lots of them. I have a very well-stocked kindle which is always in my handbag. I have a Scribd subscription with a number of books stored in my digital library. But there is just something so satisfying about bringing a large stack of paperbacks along on the journey with you.

So, what books am I bringing with me on my pilgrimage to the far north? Here’s what I’ve selected so far – a broad and eclectic range of genres from folk tales to celtic spirituality, from transpersonal psychology to a colouring-in book. I’ve chosen a quote from each book that I think you might enjoy, and which I think speaks to the reason why it’s coming with me….

Anam Cara – John O’Donohue

“Real intimacy is a sacred experience. It never exposes its secret trust and belonging to the voyeuristic eye of a neon culture. Real intimacy is of the soul, and the soul is reserved.”

Eternal Echoes – John O’Donohue

“Nature is always wrapped in seamless prayer. Unlike us, nature does not seem to suffer the separation or distance which thought brings. Nature never seems cut off from her own presence. She lives all the time in the embrace of her own unity.”

Divine Beauty – John O’Donohue

“The beauty of the earth is a constant play of light and dark, visible and invisible. We perceive and participate in that beauty through the interplay of senses and spirit. Our senses are lanterns that illuminate the world.”

The Spell of the Sensuous – David Abram

“There is an expectancy to the ears, a kind of patient receptivity that they lend to the other senses whenever we place ourselves in a mode of listening – whether to a stone, or a river, or an abandoned house. That so many indigenous people allude to the articulate speech of trees or of mountains suggests the ease with which, in an oral culture, one’s auditory attention may be joined with the visual focus in order to enter into living relation with the expressive character of things.”

Walking in the Mist – Donald McKinney

“For the Celt the point of the pilgrimage was to be submerged in the world of nature and spirit, to leave the material world far behind. You may start off my seeking answers to questions, or guidance and help. But the pilgrimage takes you instead to another place where tranquility and calm can heal, sooth and inspire you.”

Writing Wild – Tina Welling

“Writers are not domesticated or tame. They do not see only what everyone else sees, but rather they take the time to look beyond, look closely, amplify, take apart. Writers listen deeply to the chords of sound around them, label the separate ingredients of a fragrance, taste the earth in an apple, touch tree bark, feel breezes on their skin, and become more and more conscious of the response of their emotions to their body sensations. Let us not allow those inner events that cannot be measured and graphed fall away. We cannot lead a valid writer’s life without those immeasurable aspects of aliveness: emotions, thought, insights. This is the realm of writers. This is where we need to be doing our work.”

A Branch From the Lightening Tree: Ecstatic Myth & the Grace in Wildness – Martin Shaw

“The job of the elder is to be nuttier, more curious, occasionally fierce and more connected to the eccentricities of wildness than the youth ever dreamed. More than anything, the elder has seen some rough pattern to their life and knows how to express it through story. This carries tremendous hope with it.”

Women Who Run With the Wolves – Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“Though we may have tried to prevent a recurrence of theft by practically sewing ourselves into our soulskins, very few women reach the age of majority with more than a few tufts of the original pelt still intact. We lay aside our skins while we dance. We learn the world, but lose our skins. We find that without our skins we begin to slowly dry away. Because most women were raised to bear these things stoically, as their mothers did before them, no one notices there is a dying going on, until one day…”

The People of the Sea: Celtic Tales of the Seal-Folk – David Thomson

“As to the seals themselves, no scientific study can dissolve their mystery. Land animals may play their role in legend, but none, not even the hare, has such a dream-like effect on the human mind; and so, though many creatures share with them a place in our unconscious mind, a part in ancient narrative, the seal legend is unique. Walk on their lonely beaches, climb onto their rocks with the knowledge that the sea before you stretches unbroken to America, that for thousands of years people believed what you now feel – that you are at the uttermost edge of the earth – and when all is quiet except for waves and sea birds, you hear an old man gasp. You turn towards the sound. It is a seal that has broken the surface of the water to take a breath, and, very often, seeing you it will raise its whole torso and stare back at you to assess the danger, or from curiosity – then disappear silently.”

The Mermaid Bride & other Orkney Folk Tales – Tom Muir

“The stranger that Jessie let in was not a man at all, but one of the selkie folk. Selkie men are fond of human lasses and are always on the lookout for any opportunity. What happened that night is not for us to know, but nine months later Jessie was delivered of a healthy baby boy. But he was no ordinary boy, for he was half bairn and half selkie. For half the moon’s course he lived at home on the island with his mother. For the other half he donned his flippers and whiskers and lived in the sea with his father and his selkie family.”

Stories of the Sea – John & Caitlin Matthews

“Once upon a time… when people still lived in caves and would sit around the fire every night, storytellers used their magic to keep the vast and silent darkness at bay. Their tales hopped off the tongue and into the ear, taking root in the imaginations of their listeners. There, each tale grew wide and tall, put flesh on its bones, and then walked about in the world.”

The Orchard Book of Viking Stories – Robert Swindells

“The Vikings are gone, but when we read these tales we sometimes catch a glimpse of them, just a glimpse, and for a moment perhaps we see the world through their eyes – its beauty and its wonder, which our scientific age has all but worn away.”

Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

“A moment later Jonathan’s body wavered in the air, shimmering, and began to go transparent. “Don’t let them spread silly rumours about me, or make me a god. O.K., Fletch? I’m a seagull. I like to fly, maybe…”

Animal Kingdom: A Colouring Book Adventure – Millie Marotta

“It is a celebration of the animal kingdom as much as it is a colouring and doodle book, waiting for you to lose yourself among the pages.”

I have a feeling more will find its way into the car before we leave, and I haven’t even touched here on the books that I am bringing on my kindle. I’m only away for a few short weeks, and yet I seem to be planning enough reading to fill a year! But I do hope that you can see that this is a journey of myth and magic, or land and story, of sea and selkie. These books will inspire, will comfort, will weave my sensory experience with the wild wealth of language and archetype. And, I suspect, these books will influence, in one way or another, my selkie petition….

There’s still time if you want me to petition the selkies on your behalf – just click here, and you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll find all the details. In the last few days, I’ve been sending out a special wee gift to all those that sign up. A selkie surprise!