Sharon blackie

Maybe more doom scrolling, more Chardonnay, more yoga.

Well, Dr Sharon Blackie has a unique antidote, more fairy tales.

After using these old folk stories of wild girls, wise hags, magic objects and animal helpers to help navigate her own life and to support others in her practice as a psychotherapist, Sharon began writing books about the ongoing wisdom to be found in myths and folklore, including the bestsellers Haggitude and Wise Women.

Her new book is called Ripening, Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now.

I wanted to know, you know, what made you get out of bed in the morning.

What did you think was the meaning of life? Yes, I was kind of intense at that stage.

My guest on Conversations today is author Sharon Blackie.

In Sharon's previous life, she was a neuroscientist and psychologist, but she now focuses on fairy tales.

A couple of things.

Sharon Blackie has written a book called Haggitude, which I started reading in my forties and I couldn't get into it.

In my fifties post-menopause, I drank it like drinking from a hydrant.

It was amazing.

So Sharon Blackie, Haggitude is really good.

And then I have to say is that if we look at the work of Kristen I've forgotten her name now, the anthropologist who studied the Tanzania tribe, the Hadza tribe, who haven't changed their way of living for forever.

This was always the role of the post-menopausal women to lead.

And certainly our relation to the elderly, to older women in particular.

I'm really lifting up the work of Sharon Blackie with Haggitude.

She and many others have been doing some wonderful work in reclaiming elderhood, reclaiming particularly females, women growing older.

I love the renaissance in that space.

Last month was Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Marie Brown.

And this month is The Enchanted Life by Dr. Sharon Blackie.

And so I feel like as I deepen with the book and I listened to the audio books, they also really helped me integrate all of the themes that we're moving through.

And I find myself humming the songs to myself as well.

by Dr. Clarice Binkle-Estes.

Last month was Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Marie Brown.

And this month is The Enchanted Life by Dr. Sharon Blackie.

And so I feel like as I deepen with the book and I listened to the audio books, they also really helped me integrate all of the themes that we're moving through.

Like, we're the wise women in the family, and do you know, it's making me think about something.

So again, when I was thinking about this episode, I was thinking about the work of Sharon Blackie.

So have you come across Sharon Blackie?

Uh, no, only through you mentioning, but I haven't-

Yeah

I haven't used it in ages.

It's called the Rooted Woman Oracle, and it's by Sharon Blackie, B-L-A-C-K-I-E, Sharon Blackie.

And the first three cards I pulled are fascinating.

I have number seven, Ellen, the Pathmaker and Guide.

And then I went to a beautiful exhibition with a local artist who had spent the lockdowns tracking the moon through her art, and there was a copy of this story there.

And then there's a version of it in Sharon Blackie's If Women Rose rooted book.

And it's just one of those stories.

It's from an area that I grew up in in the UK, and it's just...