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 ›
Mary Sharratt
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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.
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 ›
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.
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 ›
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 ›
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.
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
The Grace of Letting Things End by Mary Sharratt
Ms. Boo, aka Queen Boudicca, in the heart of Pendle Witch Country. Though I was born and raised in Minnesota, I have wandered the world as an expat writer nearly my entire adult life, living in Belgium, Austria, and Germany,… Read More ›
This is a Wake Up Call by Mary Sharratt
George Floyd Memorial, Minneapolis This month I had originally intended to blog on the injustice of UK landowners using Covid19 as a ruse to illegally block public footpaths during lockdown when country walks are one of the few pleasures… Read More ›
Fierce Grace in Frightening Times by Mary Sharratt
The Covid 19 pandemic had turned our lives upside down on a global scale. What we as a collective could not possibly have anticipated ever happening to privileged Western people has become our new normal as we are forced… Read More ›
The Company We Keep by Mary Sharratt
Mary shares an uplifting moment with a dear friend’s gorgeous cat. Photo by Kris Waldherr. As a New Year rolls in, many of us make New Year’s resolutions, often based on the received perception that we are not good… Read More ›
The Fierce Initiation of Menopause by Mary Sharratt
Modern Western culture despises aging. Aging women are held in particular contempt. Menopause is meant to be something embarrassing and uncomfortable. The pharma industry peddles hormones and other drugs meant to mask our symptoms. Few women see menopause as something… Read More ›
Embracing Darkness: All Hallows Eve in Old Lancashire
Come Halloween, the popular imagination turns to witches. Especially in Pendle Witch Country, the rugged Pennine landscape surrounding Pendle Hill, once home to twelve individuals arrested for witchcraft in 1612. The most notorious was Elizabeth Southerns, alias Old Demdike,… Read More ›
Declaration of INTER-Dependence by Mary Sharratt
On July 4 countless people in the United States celebrated Independence Day and many enjoyed a long leisurely Independence Day weekend. While there’s nothing wrong with celebrating freedom and all that is good in your country, I’ve become increasingly… Read More ›
Missing from History: Women Composers by Mary Sharratt
Clara Schumann To a large extent, women have been written out of history. Any surviving record of female accomplishment is often trivialized or dismissed. This seems especially true in the male-dominated world of classical music. When asked to… Read More ›
Toxic Masculinity: We Need to Talk
Judy Chicago, The Three Faces of Man from Power Play, 1985 On December 1, 2018, I most reluctantly moved off a stable yard where I had kept my beloved mare Boo, aka Queen Boodicca, for ten years. I… Read More ›
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