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The Mythteller trilogy #1
A Branch from the Lightning Tree: Ecstatic Myth and the Grace of Wildness
A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is centered around several key elements:
1.It features four texts and commentaries -- Welsh, Russian, Siberian and Norwegian myths that explore the process of leaving what is considered safe and predictable and journeying out into wild, uncertain areas of nature and the psyche in search of new insights. The four stories have at their center a man, woman, and adolescent.
2. A narrative of why the author gave up a large musical publishing deal with Warner Brothers to spend four years living in a tent in the wilds and over a decade facilitating wilderness rites-of-passage for others.
3.Shaw's eloquent insistence that without a renewed attention to myth and the initiation process we are only partially equipped to reestablish a complementary relationship with the living world.
4.The core of these stories are paradoxical in nature, far from the clumsily perceived 'hero' myths, and point towards Trickster, or Coyote, as a way of existing in a world ambivalent to the insights of what you could call traditional knowledge.
A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is unique in the field of myth and ritual in several ways:
1.It carries an 'in-the-field' narrative of several hundred men and women who have gone out into wild places to fast for four days and nights. Not in the Amazon, or in Mongolia, but in a place that is indigenous to them, that grounds the experience in the wider context of their lives, rather than a one-off event that can be hard to reconnect with. This is part of a growing mood to get to the bones of initiatory experience, rather than the cultural affectations. The stories illustrate both the grandeur and struggle of this often subtle process.
2.Unlike many of the big mythological sellers (i.e Bly's IRON JOHN or Pinkola Estes WOMEN WHO RUN WITH WOLVES), A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is not a gender piece, but focuses on both men and women's movement into wildness as part of the bigger awareness of climate change and ecology. It presents the old stories as keys into any debate on these issues, that the ability to think metaphorically/mythologically loosens the grip of literalness, and can 're-enchant' our perspectives.
3. As a wilderness teacher Shaw has noticed that the real point of crisis that is emerging is the return to community, rather than the time out in the wild. This is turning of rites-of-passage on its head: Shaw reasons that the rites-of-passage process requires three stages following an initial Call to the Soul:
(i) Going out of the Village, and the severance from ordinary life and the stepping into the image-laden language of myth, story, ritual;
(ii) Into the Forest, baring the soul to extraordinary forces, receiving the sacred wound, bonding with the living world;
(iii) And Back Again, return to community, the performance of identity, and the confirmation in and of the Soul.
A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE invokes Robert Graves work on the White Goddess, and the Crow poems of Ted Hughes-it is a combination of practical knowledge, imaginative insight and passionate storytelling that gives Shaw's book its persuasiveness and power. At times incantatory, at times novelistic and poetic, he writes as someone who has been to these places, undergone these trials and tested himself at the extremes of lived experience.
1.It features four texts and commentaries -- Welsh, Russian, Siberian and Norwegian myths that explore the process of leaving what is considered safe and predictable and journeying out into wild, uncertain areas of nature and the psyche in search of new insights. The four stories have at their center a man, woman, and adolescent.
2. A narrative of why the author gave up a large musical publishing deal with Warner Brothers to spend four years living in a tent in the wilds and over a decade facilitating wilderness rites-of-passage for others.
3.Shaw's eloquent insistence that without a renewed attention to myth and the initiation process we are only partially equipped to reestablish a complementary relationship with the living world.
4.The core of these stories are paradoxical in nature, far from the clumsily perceived 'hero' myths, and point towards Trickster, or Coyote, as a way of existing in a world ambivalent to the insights of what you could call traditional knowledge.
A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is unique in the field of myth and ritual in several ways:
1.It carries an 'in-the-field' narrative of several hundred men and women who have gone out into wild places to fast for four days and nights. Not in the Amazon, or in Mongolia, but in a place that is indigenous to them, that grounds the experience in the wider context of their lives, rather than a one-off event that can be hard to reconnect with. This is part of a growing mood to get to the bones of initiatory experience, rather than the cultural affectations. The stories illustrate both the grandeur and struggle of this often subtle process.
2.Unlike many of the big mythological sellers (i.e Bly's IRON JOHN or Pinkola Estes WOMEN WHO RUN WITH WOLVES), A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is not a gender piece, but focuses on both men and women's movement into wildness as part of the bigger awareness of climate change and ecology. It presents the old stories as keys into any debate on these issues, that the ability to think metaphorically/mythologically loosens the grip of literalness, and can 're-enchant' our perspectives.
3. As a wilderness teacher Shaw has noticed that the real point of crisis that is emerging is the return to community, rather than the time out in the wild. This is turning of rites-of-passage on its head: Shaw reasons that the rites-of-passage process requires three stages following an initial Call to the Soul:
(i) Going out of the Village, and the severance from ordinary life and the stepping into the image-laden language of myth, story, ritual;
(ii) Into the Forest, baring the soul to extraordinary forces, receiving the sacred wound, bonding with the living world;
(iii) And Back Again, return to community, the performance of identity, and the confirmation in and of the Soul.
A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE invokes Robert Graves work on the White Goddess, and the Crow poems of Ted Hughes-it is a combination of practical knowledge, imaginative insight and passionate storytelling that gives Shaw's book its persuasiveness and power. At times incantatory, at times novelistic and poetic, he writes as someone who has been to these places, undergone these trials and tested himself at the extremes of lived experience.
270 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
79 people are currently reading
1072 people want to read
About the author
Martin Shaw
22 books367 followersDr Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth. Author of the award-winning Mythteller trilogy (A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Snowy Tower, Scatterlings), he founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, whilst being director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK.
He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, the sick, returning veterans and many women and men seeking a deeper life.
His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion Magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry Magazine and the Mississippi Review.
Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Arts foundation.
For more on Martin Shaw’s work:
cistamystica.com | drmartinshaw.com | schoolofmyth.com | martinshaw.substack.com
He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, the sick, returning veterans and many women and men seeking a deeper life.
His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion Magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry Magazine and the Mississippi Review.
Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Arts foundation.
For more on Martin Shaw’s work:
cistamystica.com | drmartinshaw.com | schoolofmyth.com | martinshaw.substack.com
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 5, 2018
Martin Shaw makes me want to burn my possessions in a bonfire and disappear into the night with nothing but my grandmother’s ring, a tattered tome of medieval poetry, and a falcon peregrine for company. Something huge and mythic stirs behind his writing. I don’t agree with all of his ideas, but the way he expresses them is magnificent. I’d give more than 5 stars if I could.
September 10, 2013
A stunning and mind expanding sort of book. Martin Shaw takes us into the power of myth to tell the stories of our own lives. It is a work of re-enchantment and of re-engagement with the world, reflecting on soul journeys and what it really means to be alive and present to your life as a modern human.
There is much content here about the power of myth and story, the role of the story teller, oral tradition, living myth, and the power of landscape. For anyone following the Bardic path, this could prove to be essential and work-defining reading. For the rest of the Druid community, there is such a wealth of wisdom and insight here that I can highly recommend getting a copy. Lyrically written, inspiring and unsettling in equal measure, it reminds us of the wilderness within, and truths about self that we might prefer not to face up to as we try to sleepwalk through the tricky bits of our existences.
In many ways this book reminded me of Clarissa Pinkola Estes “Women who run with the wolves”. It’s that same delving into myth to understand things about life. “A Branch from the Lightning Tree” is a much more masculine take on the whole subject, exploring more of the male journeys of growth and initiation. As a female reader I had no problem with this, but at the same time knew that bits of it weren’t really written for me. Still, the insight has been profoundly useful.
I rather think this would be a very good book to place in the hands of any teenaged chaps in your life.
There is much content here about the power of myth and story, the role of the story teller, oral tradition, living myth, and the power of landscape. For anyone following the Bardic path, this could prove to be essential and work-defining reading. For the rest of the Druid community, there is such a wealth of wisdom and insight here that I can highly recommend getting a copy. Lyrically written, inspiring and unsettling in equal measure, it reminds us of the wilderness within, and truths about self that we might prefer not to face up to as we try to sleepwalk through the tricky bits of our existences.
In many ways this book reminded me of Clarissa Pinkola Estes “Women who run with the wolves”. It’s that same delving into myth to understand things about life. “A Branch from the Lightning Tree” is a much more masculine take on the whole subject, exploring more of the male journeys of growth and initiation. As a female reader I had no problem with this, but at the same time knew that bits of it weren’t really written for me. Still, the insight has been profoundly useful.
I rather think this would be a very good book to place in the hands of any teenaged chaps in your life.
November 26, 2014
This is a book that gazes at you through narrowed eyes, rakes your chest with dirty claws, picks you up in its yellow teeth and shakes you, sets you down gently and lays its warm hairy back against your opened innards. Again and again.
November 21, 2022
I gave up on this book. It was too wordy. Shaw said a lot of purple prose without following a direction or goal. I *think* his later works are more coherent but I'd have to reread the ones I own to be sure.
I'm also pretty skeptical of white authors who feel its okay to quote pan-Indigenous! traditions to validate their own theories. I am questioning why I keep returning to his works.
I'm also pretty skeptical of white authors who feel its okay to quote pan-Indigenous! traditions to validate their own theories. I am questioning why I keep returning to his works.
December 24, 2017
I wanted to like this, but just couldn’t get into it. Took forever to get through. It seemed repetitive, with too many self-aggrandizing intrusions from the writer. It kept setting off my bullshit detector.
April 28, 2020
A fascinating book, but one that needs time and a lot of close reading. When you dig into it, it is a wellspring of understanding and delight. It's non-fiction, but about fiction: about myth, nature, landscape, and the place humans have in it. It's soul-stirring and soul-shaking. Shaw uses myth as a link between landscape and language.
He uses four myths: Welsh, Norwegian, Siberian, and Russian and explores them as the heroes journey. The move into wildness (or the unknown) and the accompanying learning is tied to climate change and the old stories.
A serious book with deep-rooted enjoyment.
He uses four myths: Welsh, Norwegian, Siberian, and Russian and explores them as the heroes journey. The move into wildness (or the unknown) and the accompanying learning is tied to climate change and the old stories.
A serious book with deep-rooted enjoyment.
June 18, 2018
Martin Shaw writes with a rare poetic voice. He melts words and concepts in ways that sound foreign to our modern, overly-rationalistic ears, giving the text a very dynamic, breathing quality. The occasional vagueness of his language allows for the words to conjure up meaning and insight unique to each reader. No story is ever told the same way twice.
This book is for a particular type of person, those who prefer expansive concepts like soul, wildness, and mind, rather than sterile alternatives like brain, laws, or laboratory. Shaw says, "If you the reader are satisfied with the whole of your life, if everything seems well appointed and steadily on course, if you remain untroubled by the state of world affairs, the vanishing forests, and the rise of psychic and environmental pollution, then you might want to set this book aside. However, if you, like me, desire a life filled with breathtaking and inexplicable meaning, then I implore you, read on."
To 'know' stories in the abstract or literal sense is completely inadequate for the task of living well; stories must be "carried, always ready, always whispering, always inspiring." They must be felt, allowed to breathe, grow, morph, pick up slime, accrue wisdom like barnacles, be shaken, played with, tasted in the mouth.
A Branch from the Lightning Tree gives us a look into what Shaw does at the Westcountry School of Myth where wilderness, initiation, and myth coalesce into a wellspring of meaning, a framework for being in the world in a way that allows us to balance village life with forest life. Shaw gave-up a lucrative record deal as a music to live in the wilds of England for 5 years, encountering the power of Myth, solitude, and Nature. As he says, "I wanted to live in a circle, to be closer to animals, to attune my rusty ears to the waterfall...What I looked for was some archaic language that would expand words and frame images so beautifully that I felt connected to human folk as well as kestrels and mud. What I found was myth. Myth is promiscuous, not dogmatic. It moves like a lively river through swarthy packs of reindeer, great aristocratic families, and the wild gestures of an Iranian carpet seller. Myth is not much to do with the past, but a kind of magical present that can flood our lives when the conditions are just so."
Focused on departure, initiation, and return, Shaw emphasizes, "Myth proposes the paradoxical view that we are to dwell in the tension of a 'crossroads' of Village and Forest, and tha this very complexity provides the grounding of an authentic human life--a strange accord with ego and soul, rationality and vision...This is a book about teasing out the mischievous, solitude-loving, flamboyant, sorcerous, arms-extended-into-the-inky-blackness singing songs of the lost-highwayman aspect of your nature."
Shaw mines several myths from disparate traditions, highlighting their similarities to plant us in frameworks that help us balance ourselves, to learn that True Living is found in the "betwixt" of Village and Forest, community and individual, the knowable and the unknowable. He offers us a lens through which we can engage the world, and ground ourselves using the richly textured imagery of myths, showing a way forward for secular and non-secular people to crack open the rock from which fresh water and vital energies erupt. Meaning is aplenty and we must do the creative work ourselves; however, we are not alone, for our forebearers have gifted us tales of truth, living myths, and the earth we need to grown new worlds, to bring forth the future.
As with most things, the people who would benefit the most from this book or the nature quests experiences discussed are least likely to read it or ponder it. It's no hyperbole to refer to Shaw as a modern-day shaman who walks in two worlds: one safe and stagnant, the other terrifying and beautiful.
This book is for a particular type of person, those who prefer expansive concepts like soul, wildness, and mind, rather than sterile alternatives like brain, laws, or laboratory. Shaw says, "If you the reader are satisfied with the whole of your life, if everything seems well appointed and steadily on course, if you remain untroubled by the state of world affairs, the vanishing forests, and the rise of psychic and environmental pollution, then you might want to set this book aside. However, if you, like me, desire a life filled with breathtaking and inexplicable meaning, then I implore you, read on."
To 'know' stories in the abstract or literal sense is completely inadequate for the task of living well; stories must be "carried, always ready, always whispering, always inspiring." They must be felt, allowed to breathe, grow, morph, pick up slime, accrue wisdom like barnacles, be shaken, played with, tasted in the mouth.
A Branch from the Lightning Tree gives us a look into what Shaw does at the Westcountry School of Myth where wilderness, initiation, and myth coalesce into a wellspring of meaning, a framework for being in the world in a way that allows us to balance village life with forest life. Shaw gave-up a lucrative record deal as a music to live in the wilds of England for 5 years, encountering the power of Myth, solitude, and Nature. As he says, "I wanted to live in a circle, to be closer to animals, to attune my rusty ears to the waterfall...What I looked for was some archaic language that would expand words and frame images so beautifully that I felt connected to human folk as well as kestrels and mud. What I found was myth. Myth is promiscuous, not dogmatic. It moves like a lively river through swarthy packs of reindeer, great aristocratic families, and the wild gestures of an Iranian carpet seller. Myth is not much to do with the past, but a kind of magical present that can flood our lives when the conditions are just so."
Focused on departure, initiation, and return, Shaw emphasizes, "Myth proposes the paradoxical view that we are to dwell in the tension of a 'crossroads' of Village and Forest, and tha this very complexity provides the grounding of an authentic human life--a strange accord with ego and soul, rationality and vision...This is a book about teasing out the mischievous, solitude-loving, flamboyant, sorcerous, arms-extended-into-the-inky-blackness singing songs of the lost-highwayman aspect of your nature."
Shaw mines several myths from disparate traditions, highlighting their similarities to plant us in frameworks that help us balance ourselves, to learn that True Living is found in the "betwixt" of Village and Forest, community and individual, the knowable and the unknowable. He offers us a lens through which we can engage the world, and ground ourselves using the richly textured imagery of myths, showing a way forward for secular and non-secular people to crack open the rock from which fresh water and vital energies erupt. Meaning is aplenty and we must do the creative work ourselves; however, we are not alone, for our forebearers have gifted us tales of truth, living myths, and the earth we need to grown new worlds, to bring forth the future.
As with most things, the people who would benefit the most from this book or the nature quests experiences discussed are least likely to read it or ponder it. It's no hyperbole to refer to Shaw as a modern-day shaman who walks in two worlds: one safe and stagnant, the other terrifying and beautiful.
June 22, 2016
Powerful, beautiful insight to old folk tales seen through the lens of initiation rites and how wilderness plays a crucial role to the development of our psyche. Just the right blend of personal reflection and deep archaic wisdom.
April 6, 2021
Absolutely delicious; it's Martin Shaw, so what else would I expect? Made me want to go live in a tent. Read it at your peril.
September 4, 2017
Martin Shaw is one of the most refreshing authors I have read in a very long time. He has a solid grasp of his personal narrative, and convincingly weaves his personal mythology with that of the world's folk mythologies. His work is a wonderful example of the lyricism possible with "living myth". His exegesis after each tale was always inciteful, novel, and made you want to dive into as many old tales as you could with a new head on your shoulders. Shaw also has a wonderful and playful relationship with metaphor and the playfulness with adjectives and verbs brought sentences to life in a way I have not ever read. The only criticism I have is whoever the copy editor did a poor job in places finding typos, which made the playful flow of Shaw's writing clunky in the wrong places. Overall, Martin Shaw does a wonderful job bringing romanticism back into the mythological fold, and a playfulness to myth that had been slowly becoming dry as too many over psycho-analyzed the wild and breathing stories which are our folk heritage.
July 25, 2022
Phew that took a long time to read. Showed me I’m not alive but I rly wanna be!!!! The archetypes flow thru us and if we’re present and receptive we can channel them thru us and share w others. Nature, the right kind of trouble, stillness, love (as the only initiation we have left)……. How to do this work in community when it doesn’t exist? Mythic logic and understanding as paradoxical trickstery multilevel multi meanings at once it’s a fun way to learn how to think and experience reality. More Dionysus! The whole stanford high achiever thing made me way too Apollo to the point where I’m an empty rule following dead inside disconnected thing- how to connect back to the source/spirit of life……….well for one getting over fears out into nature and into experience and probably performance too. Creative nature movement dance.
December 11, 2019
This was a tough book for me to rate. The good bits are very, very good. There are many five-star passages, partly because Shaw's prose is so wonderful when he is on song, and partly because he occasionally has a very fresh take on things. However, in the end, the book became a slog for me.
I enjoy Shaw's live storytelling (there are hours of it on YouTube - highly recommended!), but I don't feel that his analysis of the material is of the same calibre. If you are more into the Jung/Campbell school of using myth as a tool for self-help than I am, you might like it more than I do, but as soon as the author turned his attention to that side of things, I always felt let down.
I enjoy Shaw's live storytelling (there are hours of it on YouTube - highly recommended!), but I don't feel that his analysis of the material is of the same calibre. If you are more into the Jung/Campbell school of using myth as a tool for self-help than I am, you might like it more than I do, but as soon as the author turned his attention to that side of things, I always felt let down.
March 20, 2018
Always inspiring to read Martin Shaw's work. It speaks from the inside. I have a few issues with the editing and layout of his books, but to tell the truth those little glitches don't make any difference to my great appreciation of his work. Anything that tells of the old ways in these modern times is valuable information to us, and his tellings combined with his more current experience brings to the surface some valuable connections for the soul.
July 20, 2019
I’m intrigued and curious to come back and revisit the themes and ideas explored in this book through story telling and myth. I found the ideas and exploration a bit difficult to access at times, but chose to press through reading as opposed to taking my time in digesting the ideas and stories. Which is to say, my rating here is more so a product of my own somewhat lazy reading of this work, versus the actual content that is explored.
June 22, 2018
Sheer poetry. It gave me an expanded view and appreciation of oral traditions and the deep psychology held within myth. Shaw has a unique way of juxtaposing words, particularly new and old, to create something otherworldly and new.
December 11, 2017
Outstanding work from one of my now-favorite authors.
June 4, 2018
If you are interested in why the world is so confused here is the answer.
Read
October 8, 2024An enjoyable book, I love Martin Shaw’s work, but I’d really love to see a new edition that was re-edited and copy edited.
January 1, 2025
A doctorate-level class in mythic storytelling. Martin Shaw makes me long to continue to refine my trade.
November 25, 2020
Here's a link to my review and reflection from "Becoming Anew": https://becoming-anew.blogspot.com/20...
December 30, 2018
Martin Shaw takes myth and fairytales and excavates them. He takes ancient storytelling and shows how relevant they are to us now. I imagine fairytales as subconscious fragments of humanity that have hovered around us for decades full of messages we didn’t realize were there. Martin Shaw is an epic storyteller. His books are pretty magical and when you open them up they infuse your immediate living space with a dreamlike quality. They put a spell on you. I had some really strange dreams while reading. Its worth it to check them out. Unique and important.
May 12, 2014
Difficult to understand, jumpy and vague
February 18, 2015
Loved it, straight back in for a second read
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews