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book cover for Liturgies of the Wild

Liturgies of the Wild

Myths that Make Us

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Pub Date 5 Feb 2026 | Archive Date Not set


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Description

From “one of the greatest storytellers we have” (Robert Bly), an urgent invitation to allow the oldest stories — and the Greatest Story — to reshape our own.

There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. You remain adolescent at just the moment a culture worth its salt requires you to become a real, grown, human being.

In Liturgies of the Wild, acclaimed mythographer, storyteller and Christian thinker Martin Shaw argues that we live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Drawing on the “ancient technologies” of myths and initiatory rites, Shaw provides a road to wholeness, maturity and connection. He teaches us to read a myth the way it wants to be read; provides vivid retellings of tales powerful enough to carry you through life’s travails; and shows you how to gather and reshape your own thrown-away stories. Most vividly, he shares how these ancient technologies led him—unexpectedly—to Christ, “the True Myth,” by way of a thirty-year journey and a 101-night vigil in a Dartmoor forest.

Combining scholarly erudition with nimble storytelling in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Liturgies of the Wild is a thrilling counsel of resistance and delight in the face of many modern monsters.

From “one of the greatest storytellers we have” (Robert Bly), an urgent invitation to allow the oldest stories — and the Greatest Story — to reshape our own.

There’s an old Irish belief that if you...


Advance Praise

‘From one of the master storytellers of our time, here is a rosary of soaring myth, gripping narrative and deep wisdom, all told with breathtaking verve that enchants and sweeps us along, from first word to last. A superb, inspiring read.’
GABOR MATÉ, bestselling author of The Myth of Normal

‘From our greatest living storyteller, a validation of all that is awe-inspiring and implicit in a world where we are confined by the explicit and banal.’
IAIN MCGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary and The Matter with Things

‘A journey of heart-expanding magic and redemption.’
GLEN HANSARD, singer-songwriter, Academy Award winner for Once

'I loved this tender, honest book for the way it defamiliarizes the well-worn pathways of religion, bringing to life the power within and compelling the reader to take note: here be dragons, but also grace in almost indecently extravagant abundance.’
CATHERINE COLDSTREAM, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun

'A book that will help seekers, doubters and believers alike appreciate faith anew, not by reinventing Christianity, but by re-telling its story through the experience of a thousand other stories. Read it... then read it again. It will do your soul so much good.’
JUSTIN BRIERLY, podcast host and author of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

'Shaw is a harbinger, a sign of the shift in consciousness that all of us, trapped in our techno-bubbles, so desperately need.’
MALCOLM GUITE, author of Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

'Decades of learning, practice and refinement shine in every line.’
MARK VERNON, author of Awake! William Blake & the Power of the Imagination

‘From one of the master storytellers of our time, here is a rosary of soaring myth, gripping narrative and deep wisdom, all told with breathtaking verve that enchants and sweeps us along, from first...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781846048913
PRICE £22.00 (GBP)
PAGES 256

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