Unless you’re J.K. Rowling I imagine it’s a fairly common experience. You write a book. Because it calls to be written. And then you wait to see how it is received. Some said my voice was missing in the first edition and apparently that has been completely resolved with the second edition. I agree. It’s a much better read. But that’s all about style. Which is important, but not the reflection on content I listen for.

I fully appreciate that for those who don’t live in Ireland the book can be a bit like stepping into a whole new world. But over these past weeks, I found that for those who have grown up steeped in the history, mythology, legends, and cosmologies of Ireland, the book really resonates. Thomas Sheridan, the man who interviewed me at Wicker Man Studios, is one example. For many, the title alone spoke strongly to them. Several bookshop owners and managers read the title, flipped through the pages, and said it was a book they wanted to read and could think of friends who would want to as well.

Lovely. But even though, as Jack said many times, “ah, sure it’s early days yet”, I still listen for the impact the book is having for those who have read it. There is one story…

Michaela, an energy worker/healer, read my book and when she found out I was going to be in Ireland she told Jack she really wanted to meet me. Over lunch she shared how meaningful the book had been with regard to her spiritual journey. And then she told me of one of her clients, a local farmer who has never seen reason to venture far from his village home. Skeptical as he is about energy healing, I have no idea how he found Michaela. But he has been coming to her every month for the past couple of years. A few weeks ago she gave him a copy of my book.

While he told Michaela that he didn’t quite read all of it, what he did read completely shifted his relationship with the land and his cosmological heritage. Especially the ancient sacred sites he has grown up with in the surrounding landscape. And he reported there was a deep healing in this for him.

There’s a song I sing every day to the Divine Tribe. Honoring the ancient wisdom they hold and affirming an intention that through a deeper connection to this knowing, people might come to a place of healing and wholeness.

I left my lunch with Michaela reflecting on the story of the farmer. “Exactly!,” I thought to myself.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com