How Can Myths Help Us Make Meaning? – The Idler
Celebrated mythologist, wilderness guide, and writer, Martin Shaw chats to The Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson about his new book, Smoke Hole, and the role of oral story-telling in the modern world.
Navigating the Mysteries – Emergence Magazine
As we walk our questions into a troubled future, storyteller and mythologist Martin Shaw invites us to subvert today’s voices of certainty and do the hard work of opening to mystery. Essay and narration by Dr. Martin Shaw for Emergence Magazine: https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/navigating-the-mysteries/ Listen on the Emergence Magazine Podacast.
Christian Wonder Tales – Martin Shaw, Temenos Academy
Christian Wonder Tales, Martin Shaw's sell-out Temenos Academy talk, has been made available as a free resource. The Temenos Academy is an educational charity, which offers education in philosophy and the arts in the light of the sacred traditions of East and West, the word 'temenos' meaning 'a sacred precinct'. Listen to the lecture in full: https://www.temenosacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Martin-Shaw-27.4.2022-mp3-file.mp3
The Fall and the Underworld with Dr. Martin Shaw
Dr. Martin Shaw talks with Ian MacKenzie in an interview for The School of Mythopoetics. In myth, the Underworld is a place of testing and initiation, but hopefully not a final destination. Within many stories the descent is the second element of a three stage process, leading to final grounding that is both redemptive and a gift to others. Martin Shaw is suggesting in the West we have often made the Underworld so comfortable, so subtle, and in some case so chronic, we’ve become a two
The Hawk & the Holly: new audio + commentary
Gawain & the Green Knight Brand new audio and commentary An extra special audio telling and commentary of Gawain & the Green Knight has begun on Martin's online newsletter The House of Beasts & Vines, for paid subscribers only. The first of four episodes, which will run fortnightly up to Christmas, is now available, an ideal gift for the festive season at £6 ($7) per month. As well as full access to the latest writings, audio and drawings direct from Martin's desk, subscribers get exclusive access to everything
Stag Cult: latest book out now
Stag Cult: Dr Martin Shaw's latest book out now Dr Martin Shaw's latest book Stag Cult, just released on Saturday, is already number one on the London Review Bookshop's best sellers list. Published by Hazel Press, this latest work is described as a 'shamanistic bricolage' that lifts a lantern to a kind of haunting we can’t quite exorcize. Read more from the publisher here. Martin says: "All writers love to see London Review of Books, their book and number one bestseller in the same sentence. "Good cheer and
Book news, audio & upcoming events
Dr Martin Shaw: book news, audio and events Cista Mystica has just taken delivery of a new batch of Martin's books Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass and Courting the Wild Twin, published by Chelsea Green. All orders for the next three weeks from Cista Mystica (until Monday June 6) will be signed by Martin, who will be talking about Smoke Hole on May 26 when he is interviewed as part of the magazine The Idler's pub-style 'A Drink with the Idler'
Martin Shaw in Conversation with Poet Malcolm Guite + New Gilgamesh & Inanna Audio
The latest addition to Martin Shaw's subscription newsletter The House of Beasts & Vines is a freely-available conversation with the poet Malcolm Guite, who recently turned up at Martin's door at the scrag end of a storm with a bottle of Jura in hand. Their 25-minute conversation covers C.S. Lewis, the Gods and the Nuance of Animism, and joins the fortnightly treasury of offerings which includes the audio 'Sunday Stories', recorded direct from Martin's desk, down by the river, and out on the moor. Some free tasters are
Martin Shaw Reads His Underworld Essay
As both a mythologist and wilderness rites-of-passage guide I am frequently asked to comment on climate change, collapsing stories, and what on earth to say to our kids about the future. I am no kind of pundit, so choose my words sparingly and carefully. What follows is a few thoughts. Climate change isn’t a case to be made, it’s a sound to be heard. From a mythic perspective, seeing is often a form of identifying, but hearing is the locating of a much more personal message. Hearing creates
Malcolm Guite – CS Lewis speaks into our crisis
Following a visit to Dartmoor, where he and Martin Shaw walked the River Dart, poet, singer-songwriter, priest and academic Malcolm Guite reflects on how some words of CS Lewis in the dark days of 1939 might guide us through the darkness of 2022.