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A gathering place for lovers of myth, fairy tales and (post-Jungian, mostly Archetypal) depth psychology. Here, we explore the mysteries of the psyche, our relationship with place and planet – and whatever might lie beyond it all. My focus is on reimagining women’s stories, exploring women’s faith and spirituality, and the relevance of myths and fairy tales to the personal, cultural and environmental issues we face today. The Art of Enchantment is about finding meaning and joy in this ever-more-challenging world, with a community of like-minded seekers.

Subscribe today and receive a free gift – a PDF workbook on ‘Myth and Metamorphosis’ – for joining me.

I’m an award-winning and internationally bestselling author and psychologist, with an academic background in the mythology and folklore of Britain and Ireland, too. I have a degree in Psychology, a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience (on anxiety and panic), MAs in both Creative Writing and in Celtic Studies, along with many other academic and professional trainings in psychology, psychotherapeutic practice, mythology and folklore. I’ve been awarded research fellowships from the Wellcome Trust and the Mental Health Foundation, have been a British Psychological Society-approved Chartered Psychologist and have worked as a psychotherapist – but these days I’m a full-time writer, with a bit of lecturing and teaching in between times.

The transformative power of story has been at the heart of my work for decades. As well as writing six books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted and Hagitude, my writing has appeared in several international media outlets – among them the Guardian, the Irish Times, and the Scotsman. I’ve been interviewed by the BBC and US public radio on my areas of expertise. My awards include the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award and a Creative Scotland Writer’s Award.

I’m a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts, awarded ‘in recognition of the importance of lifetime achievement and contribution to Jungian ideas in the world’. I’ve taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world. I’m also online faculty for Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, where I currently teach an Advanced Training Certificate Course on ‘Finding Ourselves in Fairy Tales: a Narrative Psychological Approach’ and other programs.

My commitment to those of you who choose to subscribe to The Art of Enchantment is to ensure that you receive something of value in return. Not just carefully crafted words, but ideas and inspiration for life. Because if I’m passionate about anything, I’m passionate about transformation – about the idea of life as a constant process of becoming. It’s only by transforming ourselves that we can hope to transform the world.

My vision for ‘The Art of Enchantment’

(Image: Sandrine & Matt Booth)

I’ve been writing about enchantment for over a decade now; here’s what I said about it in my book The Enchanted Life:

I believe that enchantment is an attitude of mind which can be cultivated, a way of approaching the world which anyone can learn to adopt: the enchanted life is possible for everybody. Enchantment, by my definition, has nothing to do with fantasy, or escapism, or magical thinking: it is founded on a vivid sense of belongingness to a rich and many-layered world; a profound and whole-hearted participation in the adventure of life.

The enchanted life is one which is intuitive, embraces wonder and fully engages the creative imagination – but it is also deeply embodied, ecological, grounded in place and community. It flourishes on work that has heart and meaning; it respects the instinctive knowledge and playfulness of children. It understands the myths we live by; thrives on poetry, song and dance. It loves the folkloric, the handcrafted, the practice of traditional skills. It respects wild things, recognises the wisdom of the crow, seeks out the medicine of plants. It rummages and roots on the wild edges, but comes home to an enchanted home and garden. It is engaged with the small, the local, the ethical; enchanted living is slow living.

Ultimately, to live an enchanted life is to pick up the pieces of our bruised and battered psyches, and to offer them the nourishment they long for.

This – with a particular focus on myth and fairy tales, on depth and particularly archetypal psychology, on The Heroine’s Journey (especially the Fairy-tale Heroine’s Journey), on women reimagining the second half of life and on our relationship with our places and their stories – will always be the focus of my offerings here.

There are three ways you can engage with ‘The Art of Enchantment’; please find all the details on different membership levels below.

Free subcription

I’ll always provide free subscribers not just with my monthly newsletters, but with occasional bonus articles and audio, as well as access to archived free content and an invitation to join in the comments and community around those posts. I’m very much aware that not all of you can afford to pay for content, and I want to offer something here to everyone who accompanies me on the journey.

Paid subscription

As a paid subscriber, you’ll also have access to weekly work focused on myth and fairy tales, on depth/ archetypal psychology, on women’s stories, on reimagining the second half of life and on place and belonging. If you’d like to access exclusive new content from me, then for £7 a month/ £70 a year you can have it sent directly to your email inbox.

You’ll receive:

• Access to monthly ‘Myth & Fairy Tale Salons’, in which you can join me or an occasional guest teacher for a live Zoom session to talk about these beautiful old stories in greater depth. In 2025, we’ll be working with some rich and mythic stories in the Arthurian and Grail traditions, as well as the usual complement of fairy tales

• ‘On the couch’, an occasional ‘advice column’ where I’ll give a long-form answer to one of your questions about an aspect of our journey through life that you’d like help with

• Long-form articles and opinion pieces in my specialist areas

• Access to an exclusive occasional podcast in which I’ll be in conversation with a guest on one of the subjects I’m passionate about

• ‘Ask me anything’ opportunities

• Paid subscribers can engage with me at any time in the ‘Chat’ section of Substack; you can also begin your own (relevant) threads there, and enjoy the conversation with the rest of the community

The Hearth

The Hearth is an exclusive space within this community for what Substack terms ‘founding members’: those of you who want to deepen your work with story and the mythic imagination, and gather around my work in a more focused way. Membership of The Hearth includes all the benefits that paid subscribers have, along with:

• Four live online retreats with me each year. These retreats last for around an hour and a half and are focused on the qualities of the season, kickstarting the imagination, and deepening our sense of belonging to the world around us.

• From January 2025, monthly conversations around women’s spirituality and contemporary faith, through articles, chat and four Zoom sharing circles per year.

• The chance, a couple of times a year, to win a thirty-minute one-to-one session with me.

My guide price for membership of The Hearth is £120, but in the interests of inclusivity, if this is beyond your means then you can select the amount you can afford – as long as the price you choose is more than the cost of an annual subscription (which is £70). Please note that Substack currently only allows founding members to pay annually, not monthly.

I believe in writers being paid for their work, but as someone who grew up in poverty I also believe in making my work accessible to as many people as possible. So if you are genuinely unable to afford a subscription but think this community is for you, please email us at sharon@sharonblackie.org and we’ll offer you a complimentary paid subscription, with no questions asked. Substack does not currently allow free upgrades to founding member status i.e. The Hearth.

Refund policy

If you have upgraded to paid status in error, you can request a pro-rata refund within 7 days of making the payment. Refunds are not available in any other circumstances. I hope you will understand that, if this publication should ever be forced to close due to death or serious illness, refunds in such an unfortunate situation will not be possible. Admin email for all such matters is sharon@sharonblackie.org; please note that I don’t reply personally from this address.

Copyright notice

All of my work product here at The Art of Enchantment is my personal copyright, and may not be used or reproduced without my written permission.

The Art of Enchantment is a reader-supported publication. To receive exclusive, subscriber-only offerings and support my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

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