Liturgies of the Wild

Myths That Make Us

De: Martin Shaw

Narrado por: Martin Shaw

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Here is a rosary of soaring myth, gripping narrative, and deep wisdom, all told with breathtaking verve that enchants and sweeps us along, from first word to last. A superb, inspiring read.” —GABOR MATÉ, author of The Myth of Normal


From "one of the greatest storytellers we have" (Robert Bly), an urgent invitation to allow the oldest stories—and the Greatest Story—to reshape our own.

There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. You remain adolescent at just the moment a culture worth its salt requires you to become a real, grown, human being.

In Liturgies of the Wild, acclaimed mythographer, storyteller and Christian thinker Martin Shaw argues that we live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Drawing on the “ancient technologies” of myths and initiatory rites, Shaw provides a road to wholeness, maturity and connection. He teaches us to read a myth the way it wants to be read; provides vivid retellings of tales powerful enough to carry you through life’s travails; and shows you how to gather and reshape your own thrown-away stories. Most vividly, he shares how these ancient technologies led him—unexpectedly—to Christ, “the True Myth,” by way of a thirty-year journey and a 101-night vigil in a Dartmoor forest.

Combining scholarly erudition with nimble storytelling in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Liturgies of the Wild is a thrilling counsel of resistance and delight in the face of many modern monsters.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A journey of heart-expanding magic and redemption.”
—GLEN HANSARD, singer-songwriter and Academy Award winner for Once

“From our greatest living storyteller, a validation of all that is awe-inspiring and implicit in a world where we are confined by the explicit and banal.”
—IAIN MCGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

“A book that will help seekers, doubters, and believers alike appreciate faith anew, not by reinventing Christianity, but by retelling its story through the experience of a thousand other stories. Read it . . . then read it again. It will do your soul so much good.”
—JUSTIN BRIERLEY, author of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

“Here is a rosary of soaring myth, gripping narrative, and deep wisdom, all told with breathtaking verve that enchants and sweeps us along, from first word to last. A superb, inspiring read.”
—GABOR MATÉ, author of The Myth of Normal

“Shaw is a harbinger, a sign of the shift in consciousness that all of us, trapped in our techno-bubbles, so desperately need.”
—MALCOLM GUITE, author of Mariner: A Theological Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Decades of learning, practice, and refinement shine in every line.”
—MARK VERNON, author of Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination

“I loved this tender, honest book for the way it defamiliarizes the well-worn pathways of religion, bringing to life the power within and compelling the reader to take note: Here be dragons, but also grace in almost indecently extravagant abundance.”
—CATHERINE COLDSTREAM, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun

Beautiful

With the gentle seduction of storytelling, Shaw brings about an altered state of awareness in which the suggestions of grace and agency can take hold at a deeper level than reason can touch. It is a journey of exploration transcending mundanity that feels more like communion than consumption. It is a work worthy of time, and we are blessed to have it.

Come and Live

This book is an invitation to be fully human, to come alive, and to drink at fountains long lost in our modern society. Do not read this of you are not interested in pondering the mystery of life or why breathing might be worthwhile. Come plumb the depths of human society and the ancestral stories that connects us all. This book is food for the soul, one atrophied in our fast-paced consumeristic era tailored only to appetites. This book feeds something primal, and bids it to go forth in the world.

The style of the book matches its substance. "A bowl of sand is placed before the author, with expectations of hoofprints appearing" - so great is the telling.

quiet roaring heart this one. cozy up and enjoy a renewal of the sacred flame.

A well seasoned narration poetic this, wit sharp as a badger's claw, and a heart of Gold that offers sanctuary to seekers of the Grail who find their Spirits a wee bit flagging these days of merry making on holiday... This is Earth: OUR lives, nappy hats, charcoal forehead streaks, and howl sobs surrendered ...OUR offerings. Praises be. ✨✨✨

Excellent and Insightful

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book. I didn't know if I should prepare myself for a fairytale breakdown like we get in a lot of Shaw's other work like Smoke Hole or A Branch from the Lightning Tree, or if we were going to get another transcendental mind-melter like Bardskull. What this book turned out to be was a honing and distillation of all of Shaw's previous work and thinking (plus some new stuff). What we get here is every blessed thought and insight he has gleaned over the hard decades, now baptized into his new life as a Christian.

For those worried that he would chuck all of the old storytelling and give himself to some sort of tame, dishwater Christian Living book, don't be. This is Martin Shaw at is brightest and sharpest.