Sharon Blackie author of Hagitude

My guest for this episode is Dr Sharon Blackie award-winning writer, Psychologist and Mythologist. Her highly acclaimed books, courses, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination, and on the relevance of myth, fairy tales and folk traditions to the personal, cultural and environmental problems we face today.

She joins me to discuss her new book Hagitude which explores how nine very different female archetypes chosen from myths and fairytales can help us to gain a better understanding of our Menopause transition and also create a map of how we want to be as we age.

The key question at the heart of this book is how an exploration of the vividly wonderful and diverse archetypal characters in our fairytales and myths might help us to create a map of what it is to become a good elder

Join us as we discuss:

• How myths and folklore portray the older woman, compared to the modern perception of older women. 
• The struggle to find positive examples of ageing women in literature that are seeing the second half of their life as an adventure rather than a decline. 
• Women are looking for inspiration and different ways to envision why they might want to go on living for decades!
• Jung’s perspective on ageing as a spiritual process, different from the action-orientated first half of our lives. 
• As women we naturally turn inwards and start to ask the bigger questions as we age. 
• Menopause as the time between stories 
• Menopause as an alchemy, burning away the stuff that we are attached to in the first half of our life that won’t serve us as we move forward, we need to make room for our new story. 
• Sharon’s Menopause journey - an accumulation of the rage which started in childhood as a child who had never been allowed to express her anger.
• Wrath vs anger, if we don’t get rid of trapped anger it manifests itself within the body.
• The role of the Fates and the Furies in Greek mythology - two trios of 
• Older women perceived to have the knowledge and stability strength to keep order and hold it together. 
• One big lesson of Menopause is learning how not to hold on desperately to youth and staying young.
• When HRT is presented as a way to stay young and beautiful, that’s wrong. 
• Acceptance of ageing and cultural stereotypes.
• An increasing number of younger women are relating to the Hag or the Crone in fairytales rather than the beautiful princess character. 
• Creating the archetype of our Elder selves
• Our gift - every one of us is a unique expression of what it is to be human, that’s our gift.
• How we find clues in our childhood as to our inner hag that we become in later life. 
• Reclaiming the definition of “Hag”
• Sharon’s dreams and her dream theory.
• The alchemy of Menopause. 

Sharon’s book choice - DH Lawrence The Rainbow