Author Archives
An American author living in Pendle Witch Country in Lancashire, Northern England, Mary Sharratt is on a mission to write women back into history. She is the author of seven acclaimed novels.
Her most recent book, ECSTASY, about composer and life artist Alma Schindler Mahler, is now out in paperback. Her other novels include THE DARK LADY'S MASK, about Aemilia Bassano Lanier, England's first professional woman writer, and ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, which won the Nautilus Gold Award, Better Books for a Better World. Her 2010 novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL, presents the Pendle Witches of 1612 in their true historical context as cunning women and healers.
Mary's articles have appeared in WALL STREET JOURNAL, HUFFINGTON POST, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and MINNESOTA MAGAZINE. She is a regular blogger for FEMINISM AND RELIGION.
Visit her website: www.marysharratt.com
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The Curse of Being Kind
Since earliest childhood, girls have been admonished to be kind and accommodating. To repress our intuition and gut instincts. We’ve been socialized to gaslight our innate sense of right-and-wrong and self-preservation in order to be NICE, to appease. Good Girls… Read More ›
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The Dark Heart of Winter
I have long struggled with winter. I grew in Minnesota where winters were long and brutally cold. I remember hauling myself through hip-deep snowdrifts on my walk to elementary school and that was in the suburbs! The North of England,… Read More ›
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The Guru Question: Are Spiritual Hierarchies Inherently Oppressive?
Painting of a noblewoman seeking counsel from two Tantric yoginis, in the Mughal style, about 1750. From the British Museum’s recent exhibition, Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution. A beautiful starting point to learn about Indian spirituality in its original context. May… Read More ›
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Women of Power: the Pendle Witches
Twelve years ago, I published my novel Daughters of the Witching Hill, drawn from the true story of the Pendle Witches of 1612. The story of these wisewomen and healers still haunts and enchants me to this day. Currently the… Read More ›
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From the Archives: Embracing Fierceness by Mary Sharratt
This was originally published on September 9, 2015 This essay is inspired by Donna Henes’s brilliant post, I am Mad. Too often as spiritual women, we are told we have to perform niceness all the time, even if it means compromising our… Read More ›
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A Visionary History of Women: Part 3
The Pendle Witches As a spiritual person, I am fascinated with women’s experience of the sacred. We women, for the past five-thousand years of patriarchy, have been side-lined and marginalized by every established religion in the world. But in every… Read More ›
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A Visionary History of Women: Part 2
You can read my essay: A Visionary History of Women: Part 1 here. I’m on a mission to write women back into history, because, to a large extent, women have been written out of history. Their lives and deeds have… Read More ›
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A Visionary History of Women
Part One: Hildegard’s Holy Wisdom I’m on a mission to write women back into history, because, to a large extent, women have been written out of history. Their lives and deeds have become lost to us. To uncover their buried… Read More ›
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Bread and Circuses and Mother’s Day
According to Juvenal, politicians in ancient Rome discovered they could get the downtrodden masses to abdicate their rights and accept shocking degrees of oppression merely by giving them enough bread to eat and circuses to distract them. Meanwhile, in our… Read More ›
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All Shall Be Well: Hope in Hopeless Times
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” These words of Julian of Norwich, taken from her masterpiece of visionary theology, Revelations of Divine Love, seem almost tone deaf against our… Read More ›
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The Wheel of the Year in Portugal
In an earlier blog, I introduced Luiza Frazão, Glastonbury-trained Priestess of Avalon, co-founder of the Portuguese Goddess Conference, and author of the books A Deusa do Jardim das Hespérides and A Deusa Celta de Portugal, which explore Portugal’s Celtic Goddess… Read More ›
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Fiction: Buddha and the Rocking Chair
Your ex-boyfriend gave you a solid brass Buddha, one foot high. You hate to think what he had to pay for it. Not knowing what else to do with it, you place it on your bookcase. You must admit that it’s a beautiful object, that it inspires a certain peace. But it leaves you cold, just like the crucifix hanging in your parents’ bedroom always left you cold.
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From the Archives: I Am in Peace: the Ministry of Margaret Fell by Mary Sharratt
Moderator’s note: This marvelous FAR site has been running for 10 years and has had more than 3,600 posts in that time. There are so many treasures that have been posted in this decade that they tend to get lost… Read More ›
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Beyond Act One: Why We Need More Stories about Older Women
We are hard-wired to frame our experience in stories. Almost anything we endure, no matter how painful, can take on a deeper meaning if we see it as one chapter in an overarching narrative. Stories give coherence and meaning to our often fragmented and chaotic lives.
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How Not to Join a Cult: (It’s not as easy as it seems)
Many, many moons ago, when I was still living in England, my husband and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to join a local meditation group. Meditation, after all, is rightly praised for conferring countless benefits for body,… Read More ›
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Sweet Dark Mystery of Winter by Mary Sharratt
For many years, I suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder. As soon as the clocks went back in autumn and the nights grew dark, I’d fall into a contracted space. The days seemed too impossibly short to get things done. Even… Read More ›
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Join the Resistance by Mary Sharratt
“Rest is resistance,” journalist Cassady Rosenblum wrote in her recent essay in the New York Times , entitled “Work is a False Idol.” This statement completely undermines our American work ethic that elevates productivity to the highest altar. Rosenblum, a journalist… Read More ›
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The Life-Changing Magic of NOT Showing Up by Mary Sharratt
“Showing up is 80 percent of life.” This oft-repeated maxim, attributed to the now disgraced Woody Allen, has become a modern cliché. Recently the variation of this sentiment that’s making the rounds is, “The hardest thing is showing up.” While… Read More ›
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Why Life Balance is a Feminist Issue by Mary Sharratt
The move to Portugal all but forced me to heal my relationship with time and productivity, to create a life that was sustainable and nurturing.
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The Goddess in Portugal by Mary Sharratt
Most people know Portugal as a deeply Catholic country with a rich Islamic past and an ancient Sephardic Jewish heritage reaching back to Roman Lusitania. But what about the country’s pre-Roman, pre-Abrahamic Goddess cultures? Like many foreigners, I moved to… Read More ›
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Plague Year Pilgrims: Let’s Keep Walking
Throughout our long Covid crisis, our daily walk offered precious respite from the tedium of being perpetually housebound and viewing the outer world through electronic screens. Walking brought us exercise and fresh air. It cleared our heads, lifted our mood,… Read More ›
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REVELATIONS: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
My new novel REVELATIONS is drawn from the lives of two medieval mystics who changed history—Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, two very different women whose paths converged and who, I believe, have much to teach us today. Women’s spiritual… Read More ›
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The Way of the Mystic
Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are coming out of a long pandemic winter and entering a new season of waxing light, hope, and growth. Yet these continue to be turbulent times. Even with the progress of the Covid… Read More ›
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Embracing Darkness by Mary Sharratt
I have long struggled with winter. I grew in Minnesota where winters were long and brutally cold. I remember hauling myself through hip-deep snowdrifts on my walk to elementary school and that was in the suburbs! The North of… Read More ›
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The Via Feminina: Revisioning the Heroine’s Journey by Mary Sharratt
Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, the Hero’s Journey, is outlined in his 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Drawn from his studies of comparative mythology and Jungian psychology, the Hero’s Journey has become a foundation myth of modern culture. The… Read More ›
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The Time of Your Life by Mary Sharratt
Between the ages of 24 and 36, I made my home in Munich, Germany where I taught English to professional adults and began my writing career. My first novel, Summit Avenue, was published in May 2000 when I still lived… Read More ›
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Margery Kempe: The Self-Made Mystic
I’ve always been fascinated with the women mystics, such as 12th century powerfrau and visionary Hildegard von Bingen, the heroine of my 2012 novel, ILLUMINATIONS. Likewise my new novel, REVELATIONS, which will be published in April 2021, is centered on… Read More ›
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The Other Side of the Mountain by Mary Sharratt
I love my new life in Portugal and I’m so happy and grateful to be here. However, I have encountered one major roadblock–I simply cannot replicate my daily writing routine that I’d relied on in the UK for nearly twenty… Read More ›
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A Deep Ecology of Horse Manure by Mary Sharratt
My recent move from Northern England to the Silver Coast of Portugal has been a radical change on so many levels. Not only am I coming to grips with a different climate and culture and immersed in learning a very… Read More ›
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Mysticism as a Female Path by Mary Sharratt
Women have been sidelined and marginalized in every established institutional religion in the world. Even in alternative spiritual movements, male teachers and leaders abuse their authority toward their female students and followers. This is why women’s circles and spiritual… Read More ›
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