Carolyn Brigit Flynn
An excellent gift for friends and family
SACRED STONE, SACRED WATER
Women Writers and Artists Encounter Ireland
Edited by Carolyn Brigit Flynn
Designed by Janis O'Driscoll
An elegant and intimate collection of writing, art and photography evoking Ireland’s wild beauty and deep soul through the work of 14 American women writers and artists.
Their journey in September 2016 included world-famous Newgrange and ancient monastic sites in the Boyne Valley, where they experienced the rising sun enter the 5,000-year-old passage mound at Lough Crew.
In the scenic southwest, they traveled the world-renowned Healy Pass and the Beara Peninsula. They completed their journey with an immersion of the spiritual legacy of the goddess/saint Brigit, at her ancient monastic site, sacred wells, and Solas Bhride in Kildare.
CONTRIBUTORS include award-winning writers, poets, photographers and artists with backgrounds as medical doctors, healers, psychotherapists, musicians, shamans, teachers, social workers, and international women’s activists. They include: Editor Carolyn Brigit Flynn, Designer Janis O’Driscoll, Ursi Barshi, June BlueSpruce, Jennifer Comeau, Suzanne Daub, Sandy Dempsey, Anne Fitzgerald, Nora Jamieson, Jean Mahoney, Linda Serrato, Judy Tsafrir, Sarojani Rohan and Jessica Webb. Contributors are from California, Washington, Oregon, Maine, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
BOOK RELEASE VIDEO WITH POETRY & MUSIC BELOW
PRAISE FOR
SACRED STONE, SACRED WATER
“Beautifully woven in image and word, this cornucopia is surely a jewel in the crown of Tír Ghrá (an ancient Irish phrase which means “love of land”) literature. Booklover, read aloud to taste and hear the fulsomeness, the music and richness of these deep, passionate experiences! I fully endorse this book, and every seeker of holiness, love and wholesomeness will delight in it.”
- NÓIRÍN NÍ RIAIN, Irish musician, spiritual teacher & author of Listen with the Ear of the Heart
“This delicious and thoughtful book is almost as good as going to Ireland yourself. Through the eyes of insightful women traveling together, you’ll feel as if you are with them in a stone chamber as the autumn equinox light enters it, or visiting the sacred well of Brigid, or tramping along the green, rain-soaked hills. A must-read."
- MARY DINGEE FILMORE, author of An Address in Amsterdam
“Sacred Stone, Sacred Water is a blessing, offering undeniable beauty and magic. The earth, sky, light, river and stones speak their holy language through the words and images of these wise and gifted women who made a pilgrimage to Ireland to know the Old Ones in this life.”
- DEENA METZGER, author of La Vieja and A Rain of Night Birds
“A gorgeous book...From meeting modern stone diviners, to finding the hag-godess Cailleach, to tromps across wet moss to greet old stones, Sacred Stone, Sacred Water is a document of a life-altering journey. It reveals the beautiful mystery of an ancient tradition, and the power of ancestral land in sourcing what's essential now.”
- SONYA LEA, author of Wondering Who You Are
PHOTOS AND VIDEO from our Santa Cruz Book Release Reading & Celebration
Sat, April 13, 2019, 7pm, Pacific Cultural Center
(Clockwise from top left) Carolyn Brigit Flynn, Celtic Band Innisfree, Sarojani Rohan, June BlueSpruce, Carolyn Brigit Flynn, Marilyn DuHamel (reading for Linda Serrato), Jean Mahoney, Ursi Barshi & Janis O'Driscoll.
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Sample Pages & Poems
Two Poems From
SACRED STONE, SACRED WATER
On This Morning
Dance with the trees, old hag
Go back to the days
Before you were young
Before there was salt in the sea
Before the architect threw down the gauntlet
Before your tears turned to shards
Of impiety
On this morning the sun rose
For you and you and you
And everyone sung her own beatitudes:
blessed be the women who climbed this hill
blessed be the mist that welcomed the sun
blessed be the dog, Diego of Loughcrew who circled
the mound without wonder—but with delight
blessed be the skirted man in green with his
tribute horn
blessed be our guide, his feet made of irish soil
blessed be all the bare feet who have trod
this cold green earth that is their home
blessed be all that entered the womb of the
goddess on this day, 22nd of September, 2016
So dance, old hag,
Today you have no age rings
Today you have no grieving bones
Today the fire of the equinox
Flows through your veins
Let the beat of the drums
Pulse through you
As the wind pushes the trees
To reveal a holy rhythm
Let the songs of the mounds
Lift you—and all of us
To shimmering skies
-Linda Serrato
The Gas Station
And then there was the corner gas station,
where we stopped for a wee break.
The station sign was Gaelic,
and everywhere we turned,
green fields, the scent of Ireland, and everything
had another life, another language.
As if we had stepped into a slight bend
in the story we tell ourselves,
we fourteen women standing outside
in line for the little stall. All around,
Irish voices floated in ancient song
blessing us and the grasses.
The corner station was lit somehow,
with a drench of the Otherworld,
except we were the Other—
they were Home. It was we who abided
in a strange, separate existence.
Inside, the tall man at the counter
gave directions in an ancient brogue.
But where we were headed,
he could only point the way.
It was up to us to find it.
The sun peaked gray
and silver through the clouds.
–Carolyn Brigit Flynn