Lughnassadh is a time for celebrating the season’s harvest — and for beginning to think about what must be done next in the remaining bright days of summer.
There is much for me to be proud of and thankful for this season. The Silver Branch and the Otherworld is making its way into readers’ hands and I have been so moved by the responses I have received from people so far. One of my favorite poets chose one of my poems to appear in the first issue of his new journal earlier this season. I have a likely publisher for my next book — Rewilding Psychedelics. And I recently returned from a beautiful time among kindred spirits at the Good Medicine Confluence in Colorado.
In the midst of it all, despite my very sporadic posting here on Substack, I have made wonderful connections with readers and with brilliant fellow writers, and I seem to be getting new subscribers almost every day.
So it seems like it is time for me to begin putting some more work and dedication into bringing meaningful writing to all of you on a regular basis.
And I would love to know — what would you like to be reading here?
To be sure, the plants and the fungi and the gods and the ancestors will continue to guide many of my choices about what needs to be said and when and how. But you, my living human community of readers and fellow writers are also among those I hope to serve well with what I share.
The motley collection of poems and essays about plants and gods and history and neurobiology and myth and magic likely give you some sense of the scope of my recent writing. (And it is possible that a few of you know me from my earlier days as an activist and freelance journalist focused on the human and ecological impacts of U.S. foreign, military, and drug policy — I have been toying with the idea of revisiting some of those themes from an animist perspective.)
I would love to know what you find engaging, what you find meaningful, what sparks your interest and curiosity, and what questions and themes you would most love to see me explore in more depth.
Go raibh maith agaibh!
photo by Jesse Wolf Hardin
Seán - I just recently discovered your writing and your wonderful new book just arrived yesterday. I moved to the US from Ireland 31 years ago and have just these last few years felt a strong pull to return home. I'm not sure what I would work at when I return - I'm a Public Defender here in Tejas, but don't have the stamina or desire to retrain and work as a lawyer in Ireland. I feel drawn to mediation and conflict resolution or maybe some form of counseling and healing. Anyway, all this to ask you - have you had much engagement with what is stirring in Éire in the spiritual and healing sphere to fill the void left by the implosion of the Catholic Church? I'm thinking of folks like Siobhán de Paor, Diarmuid Lyng, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Manchán Magan who are taking up the mantle of the late great John Moriarty in attempting to reawaken the Irish people to our inheritance and connection to our soil. If so, I would love to read your thoughts on this.
Seán, thanks as always for the gift of your writing. I don't have any specific examples of what I'd like you to write about -- my interest in your writing has always been about whatever you are interested in enough to write about in any given moment. All of the topics you mentioned would be something I'd read. In other words, I value your writing in itself, but I also value your skill in choosing what to write about.