If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman

by Sharon Blackie

'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 is given one, and has the time and the space to read it.' - Manda Scott, author of Boudica and Into the Fire

'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.'

A life-changing journey from the wasteland of modern society to a place of nourishment and connection.

If Women Rose Rooted has been described as both transformative and essential. Sharon Blackie leads the reader on a quest to find their place in the world, drawing inspiration from the wise and powerful females in native mythology, and guidance from contemporary women who have re-rooted themselves in land and community and taken responsibility for shaping the future.

Beautifully written, honest and moving, If Women Rose Rooted is a passionate song to a different kind of femininity, a rallying cry for women to reawaken their natural power - not just for the sake of their own wellbeing, but for love of this threatened earth.

• ISBN13: 9781910463253
• Publish Date: 17 March 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 30 November 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: September Publishing
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 390
• Language: English

Reviews

[HekArtemis]

4.5 stars.

We'll start with the not great, because I seem to be good at pointing that stuff out. This book has a lot of what could be said is gender essentialism and stereotyping. There was some emphasis on the balance of male and female, men and women needing each other - a bit hetero-centric in other words. But also, to my mind, that plays a little too much into the idea that we must have a romantic style relationship with men in order to be happy and fulfilled. I really liked listening to the Celtic stories/lore/myths, I love them - but some of the examples used to show female power and energy/essence actually read to me like they were showing male power and, again, gender essentialism and stereotyping. Same old same old. I mean of course they do, they come from a patriarchal world - but as examples of woman power, eh not exactly. In many cases they just seemed to me to be examples of women being prizes, as usual. Women being required to be pretty (consider a story about a man being honourable enough to marry and kiss a super ugly woman and his reward for that is that she turns beautiful, because of course). Women having only the power to not have power. The power to care for everything and everyone, but nothing more.

The stories often did do a good job of showing how horribly women have been and are treated by men, by society. So there is that.

All that negative stuff said though, I honestly really loved this book and while those ugh things made me drop a half star, it is only a half star and I rounded up because I loved it way more than I didn't love parts of it. Blackie spoke of many things that I have been thinking of for a while, some things that just aren't mentioned very often, that seem to be missed by many people. Like how much the Eve story impacts how we view ourselves as women, and view other women, women as a group. That's just not spoken of enough.

This book does include a fair bit of mysticism and spiritualism, so if you're not into that, this book is probably not going to work too well for you. I'm Pagan though so, no worries.