Celtic Tree Magic by Danu Forest! After a wondrous afternoon playing with kiddos in the shade of an old friend/oak tree on Mt. Palomar I picked up the tree magic book. It’s pretty neato and reminds me a lot of the discussion of ‘thin places’ (hadn’t heard that term before, will have to check out the podcast). Excerpt: “Duir” mean “door” as well ‘oak tree’ and oak groves are places where the otherworld, the sky world and the world of earth meet (randomly my 3 y/o kept referring to the space between the trunks of the twin-trunked tree as a ‘door.’ ) Kind of hard to express, however in the midst of a long winter of grief/loss, while playing in the trees with the kids it felt like there was more than a little magic, which was a very real source of comfort. Anyways, thanks for sharing about your creative process. Also, yay, reading list ideas from other commenters.
I think of these spaces as being a portal, but your description makes even more sense to me of them being porous coexistences of realms or liminal spaces. So thankful for this post, your outlook, and your music. Thankyou.
Someone mentioned Braiding Sweetgrass below which is really good, especially the essay titled "Learning the Language of Animacy" which talks about how the language we use shape our relationship to the world and how english differs from certain indigenous languages. Also recommend The Botany of Desire by Micheal Pollen which gets a bit repetitive in its thesis toward the last chapter but still very good. The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector is def a MUST. It's all about mysticism and trying to merge with the world rather than transcend / trying to understand the construction of the human world and our emotions -- hard to explain in a few words, but it's very liminal in the way you write about.
Though it doesn't reference liminal spaces, if you haven't read The Overstory by Richard Powers.. do. It is magic in and of itself and will maybe turn you inside out.
-Kerry ní Dochartaigh, whose book Thin Places is about growing up in Ireland during “The Troubles”
-And, Robert Macfarlane, who I first heard of thin places from in either Underland or The Old Ways (I’ve forgotten which it’s in, but both are about the liminality of nature)
The (immensely problematic) Hakim Bey has this reference to "delicate tenuities" that always stuck with me and the piece it's from seems relevant to the Celtic interpretation too. https://hermetic.com/bey/millennium/interpret
Celtic Tree Magic by Danu Forest! After a wondrous afternoon playing with kiddos in the shade of an old friend/oak tree on Mt. Palomar I picked up the tree magic book. It’s pretty neato and reminds me a lot of the discussion of ‘thin places’ (hadn’t heard that term before, will have to check out the podcast). Excerpt: “Duir” mean “door” as well ‘oak tree’ and oak groves are places where the otherworld, the sky world and the world of earth meet (randomly my 3 y/o kept referring to the space between the trunks of the twin-trunked tree as a ‘door.’ ) Kind of hard to express, however in the midst of a long winter of grief/loss, while playing in the trees with the kids it felt like there was more than a little magic, which was a very real source of comfort. Anyways, thanks for sharing about your creative process. Also, yay, reading list ideas from other commenters.
which episode of on being was this?
ps resonant writings! ty mle
This is how I feel about music and reminds me of a video Ethel Cain recently put out about her concept of “the ring”
https://youtu.be/23RghN4sHkM?si=TjtNfmCNJmC6z6Fc
I think of these spaces as being a portal, but your description makes even more sense to me of them being porous coexistences of realms or liminal spaces. So thankful for this post, your outlook, and your music. Thankyou.
Someone mentioned Braiding Sweetgrass below which is really good, especially the essay titled "Learning the Language of Animacy" which talks about how the language we use shape our relationship to the world and how english differs from certain indigenous languages. Also recommend The Botany of Desire by Micheal Pollen which gets a bit repetitive in its thesis toward the last chapter but still very good. The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector is def a MUST. It's all about mysticism and trying to merge with the world rather than transcend / trying to understand the construction of the human world and our emotions -- hard to explain in a few words, but it's very liminal in the way you write about.
I don't have any recommendations I just came here to say I really love these posts and Emily's Internet Brain. Thanks.
Are you familiar with John O’Donohue’s books? If not you should read ‘To Bless the Space Between Us’ and ‘Anam Cara’
Book recommendation: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Though it doesn't reference liminal spaces, if you haven't read The Overstory by Richard Powers.. do. It is magic in and of itself and will maybe turn you inside out.
Two authors came to mind for me:
-Kerry ní Dochartaigh, whose book Thin Places is about growing up in Ireland during “The Troubles”
-And, Robert Macfarlane, who I first heard of thin places from in either Underland or The Old Ways (I’ve forgotten which it’s in, but both are about the liminality of nature)
Thank you for your thoughts. I read this too quickly... I will come back to it, but it reminded me of Marcel Duchamp’s Infrathin.
The (immensely problematic) Hakim Bey has this reference to "delicate tenuities" that always stuck with me and the piece it's from seems relevant to the Celtic interpretation too. https://hermetic.com/bey/millennium/interpret