A brand new subscription newsletter has just been launched by Dr Martin Shaw – The House of Beasts & Vines. There will be regular free tasters, but for just $7 per month (around £5), subscribers will get exclusive access to new material and everything in the vault as it builds up.

The newsletter will be published on the platform Substack, with fortnightly offerings from Martin, including fresh essays and audio recordings.

It promises to be part care package, part spiritual provocation.

Says Martin: “Imagine we’re sitting in my study with good coffee and rain against the window. Time to stretch out and enter a treasury of stories and deep ideas.

“I’ll also keep you up to date with what I’m reading and why. All composed and recorded here at my desk or roaming the forest and moors.”
Martin Shaw

The first essay will be published this weekend, and will be the first in a series on the Irish story The Voyage of Brendan.

Says Martin: “If you want to enjoy earliest what’s cooking, please subscribe to The House of Beasts & Vines to get that seat by the fire.

“I hope you’ll consider coming with me for the adventure.

“In some spiritual traditions there’s something called the Third Watch of the Night. At 50 – if I’m lucky – I’m in it. That’s the time you speak directly into the darkness what’s on your heart, no pussyfooting.”
Read the introduction here
Subscribe here

Writings, extracts, news and videos

A treasure trove of resources including interviews, videos, articles, book reviews and essays can be accessed over at the news section of the Cista Mystica website. It’s our hope you’ll find something here to stash in your saddlebags for the road ahead, whatever it may bring.
See the archives