A Branch from the Lightning Tree: Ecstatic Myth and the Grace of Wildness Paperback – June 21, 2011

A Branch from the Lighting Tree is a landmark book of myth, soul and beauty. I was feel under its spell immediately. Martin Shaw is a mythologist and powerful storyteller. His prose is exquisite -- he prose is like a rip tide into the mystery of the soul and nature.This is one of my most cherished books, because it speaks to a transcendent quality of … he touches upon things that are beyond words, but somehow captures the elusive aspects of the psyche in his writing. Mr. Shaw has craftily and cunningly brought to life living myths through his own intimate wandering living in the wild part of the year. Like King Arthur…he dances between the invisible worlds and delivers the secrets of the unconscious with his fine storytellers eye, heart and spirit.I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves great mythic writing and scholarship.

Martin Shaw charms us and illuminates a path into the deepest interior of our Self. A journey into the soul surely is the path to beauty and truth, however prickly the dark path can be. This story is a jewel.

Awesome and original. I think often of this book - frankly, it persuaded me to leave my job. Shaw's time in the woods after the implosion of his marriage and band, and the ability to steep himself in the ambiguity and vastness of myths during it, showed me that there is much to learn and little to fear.

Although I am still reading Mr. Shaw's book (close to finishing) - A Branch from the Lightening Tree.. I can't help but share my excitement about this book right now. I am jumping up and down...that's how excited I am. Seriously this book, his words, stories and the deep knowledge imparted stir (both soothing and agitating) something quite massive and unfathomable in me. This book is an initiative experience in its own right.If you are curious about the shared mythopoetics that we all are, that the land is and are interested in the connective tissue of story and place and initiation in western culture just pick this up and sink in. It is a tad on the dense and chewy side so, just make it your winter project...

So OK, here’s the door. Do you want to open it? What’s written in this book will remind you of truth and beauty about life—the kind that maybe you have felt while dancing without thought, seen with the corner of your eye, remember from dreams that taught you lessons. This book is a medicine bag. This book is healing tools. It’s really good.

This book is amazing. Martin Shaw tells the ancient stories with beautiful language and just enough analysis to help us remember that they are powerful initiation stories. These are tales that we can resonate with ourselves and realize we're not alone and also see what comes next in our own story. A must for our culture, which has lost much of our mentoring. Here we can learn to mentor ourselves.

Incredible writing from an incredible mind. A poetic, shamanistic, wild adventure that is well suited to the inquisitive mind and hungry heart of a soul traveler

A truly wonderful, insightful book. A great token to any personal/spiritual growth.

Found myself whooping, hollering, cackling and moving my bones half way through paragraphs....the animacy of the writing really is that good and the content....for me anyway....was profound, insightful and as important as anything I've read recently. It's Otherworldly mead for the ego. A dose of practical wildcrafting for the soul. A tattered and possibly priceless map of sorts to a landscape, a vocation and the sources of generative inspiration hiding in plain sight for anyone looking for a way to come home that they can call their ownShaw writes...."The job of the elder is to be nuttier, more curious, occasionally fierce and more connected to the eccentricities of wildness than the youth ever dreamed. More than anything, the elder has seen some rough pattern to their life and knows how to express it through a story." This book is the work of one in whom the seeds of authentic elderhood are lurking alive and well....and that is a rare and unexpected gift in these turbulent times.

Anyone interested in opening themselves up to myth and shifting how they walk in the world should read this book. It is transformative.

Shaw, and is bardic adventures of the realm of storytelling are a full meal for even some seasoned feasters of written word. I never fail to find myself time and again in the characters. His stories have a way of creating shape to my character.

I cannot praise this book enough. It is an extraordinary read and has such depth that I will inevitably return to it again-and-again for wisdom and insight. Martin Shaw has shamanic feel for language and manifests the depths through metaphor and image. This is a book to linger over, to contemplate and live with, this is a book that opens up imagination and develops one’s being, this is a book to savour and relish. This is a book that could save our disenfranchised youth and our lonely old people if truly understood. It is only the mythical imagination that can save this planet!

Glastonbury nonsense. Keep taking the weed.