The Salmon in the Spring

The Salmon in the Spring: The Ecology of Celtic Spirituality
Jason Kirkey, with a fore­word by Frank MacEowen
296 pages, 6×9 Paperback
978 – 0-​​9799246 – 6-​​8
$17.95

Winner of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards
Silver Medal in Mind-​​Body-​​Spirit

Read an Excerpt

Soul and Nature — the inner and outer land­scape—are one: they are the wild­ness of the world and the wild­ness of the self.  To alienate our­selves from one is to alienate our­selves from the Other.

Praise for The Salmon in the Spring

“Here at the end of the Cenozoic Era with the life sys­tems with­ering away, a sur­prising cre­ativity appears, a kind of mys­tical bal­ancing act.  The world’s spir­i­tual tra­di­tions are entering into deeply engaged con­ver­sa­tions through which the riches of each are ignited in new ways.  With The Salmon in the Spring, Jason Kirkey has boldly carved out his place in this exciting work with his orig­inal inter­pre­ta­tions of the con­cepts and sto­ries of ancient Ireland . . . Kirkey’s vision speaks directly to our present eco­log­ical chal­lenge.  Rejecting those nature-​​denying forms of spir­i­tu­ality that have been used too easily to jus­tify our domes­ti­ca­tion of the planet, The Salmon in the Spring announces its thrilling spir­i­tual foun­da­tion:  “Our wild nature is our soul.” —Brian Swimme, California Institute of Integral Studies

“The Salmon in the Spring is a bold book.  It is bold because it — no less so than its author — isn’t con­tent to rest back on its philo­soph­ical lau­rels and ponder by-​​gone eras.  To the con­trary, Kirkey and The Salmon in the Spring invite and ini­tiate the reader into a deep dive within the inte­rior space of the Celtic mystic, but in arche­typal and prag­matic ways that make an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the domain of ecopsy­chology today.” —Frank MacEowen, author of The Mist-​​Filled Path, The Spiral of Memory and Belonging, and The Celtic Way of Seeing

The Salmon in the Spring presents a new per­spec­tive on Irish myth, inter­preting tra­di­tional tales through the lens of ecopsy­chology and Buddhist insight. Kirkey’s read­ings are clear, com­pas­sionate, and respectful of the tra­di­tion while at the same time offering rel­e­vant open­ings for a global interest in Celtic spir­i­tu­al­i­ties and their poten­tial as a source for eco­log­ical healing in a time of great crisis. With exem­plary hon­esty about his sources and inspi­ra­tions, Kirkey weaves a poetic and poignant argu­ment for the neces­sity of reex­am­ining Western mythic models as we search for bal­ance in a swiftly changing bios­phere. —Erynn Rowan Laurie, author of Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom

When I listen to Jason Kirkey retell the old tales and the ancient truths from the Celtic mys­tical tra­di­tion, I am encour­aged that the wisdom of our ances­tors can still inspire a modern spir­i­tual life. His “silver branch per­cep­tion” helps us re-​​imagine our­selves as a species so we can live sane and rel­e­vant lives. The Salmon in the Spring is an elo­quent calling to be fully present and engaged in our time and place in both human and mythic his­tory. —Tom Cowan, author of Fire in the Head and Yearning for the Wind

One man’s journey to under­stand him­Self and what it is to be human in the time of the Great Turning. Dare to explore these pages and your own inner wisdom. —Jamie K. Reaser, PhD, ecopsy­chol­o­gists and co-​​editor of Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land