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The Children's Fire
- Heart Song of a People
- Narrated by: Mac Macartney
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
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The Children's Fire
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Summary
Silver Award Winner, 2019 Nautilus Book Awards!
The Children’s Fire forges a trail into Britain’s wild and ancient Celtic past. It locates the fragments of a story that still has resonance today; the pulse and surge of an older wisdom that cracks the mendacity of the shopping mall’s vacuous promise. It is a passionate evocation of a generous, inclusive, diverse and spiritually significant world - the world of our longing.
In the winter of 2009 Mac Macartney walked from his birthplace in England across Wales to the island of Anglesey, once the spiritual epicenter of Late Iron Age Britain, navigating by the sun and the stars, with no map, compass, stove, or tent, and in the coldest winter for many years. The Children’s Fire records that journey and seeks to lay bare the aching loss of knowing and understanding sacredness as it applies to everything ordinary that brings joy to the human heart. It asserts the emergence of a new story; the story of a people coming home to a truth made all the more poignant having so painfully broken faith with nature, our deeper humanity, and the paradise we fouled with such casual disrespect. It is a love story and part of a larger narrative that is surfacing all around the world. It seeks to reclaim our future and name it, beautiful.
Critic reviews
"Few amongst us have both the integrity of spirit to undertake a genuine earth-walk and the poetry of soul to write about it afterwards in such passionate, powerful terms. Mac Macartney is one who has both. In this time of great turning, when we each must examine our heartfelt relationship to the earth and the more-than-human world around us, Mac's journey is a guiding light and an inspiration, a paean to the possible, to the best that we can be. With strength in the vulnerability, spanning the wide, wide spectrum of what it is to be human on this earth at this time, there could not be a more important - or timely - work." (Manda Scott, author of the Boudica: Dreaming series)
"Mac Macartney is a prophet of cultural renewal, an interrupter of the Western egocentric-consumer worldview, a wild man, an elder, a humble pilgrim, perhaps a present-day druid, and an enchanting storyteller. In The Children's Fire, he recounts his three-week solo journey on foot, without map or compass, through the scarred but still-sacred lands of his native Britain to a mythic, real, holy isle - a dreamtime pilgrimage to reclaim his/our original human wildness and belonging to the land, undertaken on behalf of the children of all species seven generations hence. You won't want to be left behind. Join him." (Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft and Wild Mind)
What listeners say about The Children's Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- B P Hanbury
- 27-12-20
Food for the soul
A deep story blending one man's journey home with the history of this island. Amazing
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 31-05-22
Be brave and listen
There are personal challenges buried here that are undeniable. Be brave and listen. You might hear something important. I did.
thank you Mac
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- MRS LISA R GORDON
- 04-10-23
An awesome story
Incredibly narrated and written by Mac M. So much gut wrenching truth and exquisite storytelling in these pages. Inspiring, heartfelt, moving, motivating, educational and thoroughly thought provoking. Like my trip to Embercombe another life changing experience in the pages of this book leaving me with a deep reminder to be close to nature, build communities and to honour all beings. With immense gratitude to Mac for sharing his beautiful gift to the world and for walking the path.
This is a must read ❤️
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sean G Clarke
- 18-01-23
Deeply refreshing!
Refreshingly deep and honest. Speaks to me of a sacredness that is both raw (wild with the unpredictabilities of life) and at the same time refined through the crystallising lens of a continuous (almost relentless) personal & intergenerational living. One that is rooted in something that is forever 'contemporary' and more meaningful. Very grateful for this story, this song, this sharing — shaOne
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kindle Customer
- 22-01-21
A beacon of hope
An honest, heart felt account of one man's journey, this book calls us to remember our cultural stories and refind our true nature. Enjoyable, inspiring, powerful.
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- M. Albiges
- 06-10-22
incredible story told with heart
Mac has intertwined his own journey across wales with the journey of the tribal people of the land and created and inspiring call to action for all of us who care about the future.
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- Erin
- 28-01-24
Mending what is broken, Love and care for the earth.
This book has inspired me and challenged me. I hope I will be changed in perspective, thought and action by this book and the wonderful teaching of Mac and others like him who love our earth for my whole life.
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- O
- 31-01-23
Powerful and important!
This is a riveting travel story with profound lessons throughout. An important book for this time when we need to be remembering the wisdom of our ancestors.
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- LindaC
- 03-01-21
Children's Fire
Evocative weaving of history and modern day Druidic journeying. I will be lighting my children's fire too.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Kizzia Mildmay
- 10-07-23
An experience I didn't know I needed
This is one of those books that I do not quite know how to review because who you are, where you are in your life, and how you think about the world will make a profound difference to how you process what Mac is offering up. The walk he undertakes both is and is not the point of the book, for the journey is – like so much else in life – not being undertaken for the sake of having made it but for what it could be, is, and may become. And if that sentence has left you thinking I’ve lost my mind then this is pretty much definitely not the book for you.
For me it was an experience I didn’t know I needed. It made me uncomfortable and in sitting with that discomfort I have been able to unpack some very important aspects of both my spirituality and how I live from day to day. It is a book that asks a lot of you, in both opening your mind to the various ideas Mac is sharing and in opening your heart to the world in a way that, in our capitalistic society, feels radical and almost frightening.
Do I agree with everything that is written in these pages? No. Does that matter? Also no. It is a book that can transport you a very long way, if you let it, and to me that feels like a very good thing.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Mac himself and I do think it added something to the whole experience.
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