If Women Rose Rooted : A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging

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Creation, and so creativity, is the act of giving life, the nourishing and enhancement of life, in whatever way you choose to do it. Blackie may have the right idea, but she seems to think that the only way to save the world is to go back to a time when we all lived in farming communities with no modern technology. The Inner Hag whose image we each carry within us reflects our own unique variety of wisdom, the gift that each of us has to offer this breaking and broken world, and our own particular brand of connection to the numinous. Whenever I was in the woods, on my own, I would have one ear pricked for the sound of approaching footsteps.

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. I love it deeply, from the first rich flush of hawthorn blossoms to the last fading mauves of August heather. She thinks that native myths, fairy tales, and folklore are relevant to the personal, social, and environmental problems we face today. I am a proud feminist and it irritated me that the author spent much of the book isolating and blaming men for the state of the world/her self worth. Her next book, Wise Women: Myths and folklore in celebration of older women will be published by Virago in 2024.In all the old stories, the geilt is hypersensitive to the sights and sounds of the civilised world, finding them unendurable. The second best thing for me was the considerations about feminine ways of being and feminine ways of power. But the men I saw seemed to think they were invulnerable, just as I had on that summer day; the women, on the other hand, were more like me, all too aware of how “the great outdoors” can be a dangerous place for a lone female, even in broad daylight. I'm only cautious, but optimistic, and want to believe this author has more to say in support of trans women/all women. They will perhaps only be concerned with the stories’ surface meanings – but they will at least preserve them, and pass them down to their children.

If you'd like to become a paid subscriber, you'll have access to exclusive articles, podcasts, chat and much more. The book depicts one way of femininity – connected with nature, stories and heritage – and finds multiple examples of women that thrived when following this path. Spoiler alert, she is never happy and has to move from remote cottage to remote cottage to remote cottage.The whole journey is not so much about what goes on inside our heads – the usual over-psychologised ‘me-me-me’ approach – but about how we learn to situate ourselves on this beautiful, animate Earth, and among the non-human others who share it with us. Why I read it: It was recommended as being similar to ‘Women who Run with the Wolves’ + I’m looking for feminine non-fiction books for some extra empowerment and inspiration.