The Write Path #56 - “Faces of the Mother,” with Author Sharon Ann Rose

Sharon Ann Rose is a mother, author, ceremonialist, and shamanic priestess devoted to the sacred restoration of the feminine. For over five decades, she has listened deeply to women’s stories, holding space for the subtleties of our hearts, wombs, lineages, and longings to be heard and honored.
Initiated into the mysteries of the heart-womb connection through motherhood and nature, Sharon has spent her life walking alongside women as they remember the co-creative power within them - the force that births relationships, systems, and new worlds. With a background in women’s studies, peacemaking, spirituality, and sacred union, she has created transformational programs, writings, and rituals that validate the power of living from our feminine essence.
Through her work, Sharon has touched profound layers of the human heart, often breathless at what she discovers. Her presence is grounded in listening, curiosity, and a love of surprise - trusting the unfolding path even when its destination remains unknown.

Her Website:  https://www.sharonannrose.com/

Welcome to the Write Path Podcast, where being an author, an actual author, still matters. This isn't the place for the Chat GPT experts or the AI buffs to churn out soulless content with no heart.  This is the place where authors share their journeys, explore their creativity, examine the "Why?" behind it all and come together to celebrate each other. This is the podcast for authors, about authors, and by an author, where the truth still counts and words still have power. Join Us!  You have a story to tell!

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This is the place where authors know that every page... is a step forward. Let's move forward together, let's move forward today. Listen now.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Right Path Podcast, where being an author, an actual author, still matters. Folks, this is the podcast that's for authors, it's about authors, it's done by an author, and it's where we share our journeys, we explore our creativity, and most importantly, you've heard me say this time and time again, we explore the why behind it all. All right. Folks, our guest today is an incredible young lady. I'm so excited to have her on here. Um, she is a uh ceremonialist, and we're gonna find out more about that. She's a shamanic priestess, and she's the author of Faces of the Mother, a Feminine Path to Embodiment Through Ancient Wisdom, Archetypes, and Soul Fertility. Folks, please welcome the show, Sharon and Rose. Sharon, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Hi, thank you so much, Rory. I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I love that you're here. I can't wait to talk about all this stuff. Uh, before we dive into anything in particular, though, tell everybody a little bit about you. Uh, you know, kind of, you know, your background, what makes you you, what led you to the spot you're at today?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Sure. So I love that you called me a young lady because I'm like, oh, well, I am a young lady then here today. Um I'm a woman in my midlife. And when I was young, I always dreamed I would be a writer, but not in the traditional sense. It wasn't something I thought out. It was something I felt, like I really felt I was going to be a writer. And, you know, I was one of those who um uh my teachers always called me out on my writing, got a lot of, you know, accolades for it, and I also got a lot of um a little bit of hardship around it. I was uh in high school, I think it was a junior, and worked my butt off on a paper for um a literature class, and I was told that I had plagiarized it. And for you know, an aspiring writer who was also pretty tender, I was a pretty introverted, tender young one, that crushed me. So my journey to become a writer and even like to call myself an author has taken grit and also a lot of grace. I've I've had to pull back because it got so overwhelming, and then I would have to, you know, journey into learning about having greater confidence and presence with it. And so, um, in addition to writing, I'm a poet and as you shared, a ceremonialist, I'm a woman transformational leader. I work with a variety of different modalities. I uh share meditation, guided visualization, hypnosis, uh, shamanic ritual, ceremony, etc., and really working with women from um the inside out to help them rebirth themselves and their lives from their own deconstruction of um, for lack of a better word, false, you know, false narratives in themselves, but also in the larger culture, so that they can rewrite, you know, their own um journey and story and and life. And I'm the youngest of four girls, which actually is really significant. It's kind of, I think, why I went into what I went into, which was serving women from a very young age, and it was because I was literally born to do it. I was born to study them, I was born to be watching what they were saying, what they were doing, and being like, and I can feel something different going on inside of them, and and then on to you know, learn more about that and get my degree and everything in women's studies. So it's been a great journey of over 30 years serving women individually, through retreats, groups, workshops, classes, and and through my writing and books.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Wow. Okay, that was a lot to unpack. I love that. I absolutely love it because there's so much to go back to. Um being the youngest like that. Um the uh observing of the women. Uh it sounds like you know, some of that may have not been voluntary as the youngest uh in the in the crew. Um, but what was it about that experience? You know, looking up to these other three and you know, having having all of those uh uh things happen in front of your eyes to learn from them also while you're learning on your own. Uh what was that like and how did what particularly kind of pushed you into these other areas? I mean, uh ceremonialist, uh the author of the book, shamanic priestess. And I mean, I know enough to be dangerous on this topic, but priestess is not a light term. That's I mean, you've done this f for a minute, and you're very good at it, or you don't get to call yourself that. So, you know, how did that kind of push you into that and lead you into those areas?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah, I'll start with kind of just where you ended. Yeah, so priestess, for sure, I've been doing it probably since I was born, and didn't understand um what it was. And it took me a long time. I even speak about this. The the woman who wrote the forward in my book, she shares how one day we were, you know, we were together, we were doing some ceremony at a sacred place, and and she's like, Would you initiate me? So, would you initiate me into the you know the lineage of um of your priestesshood? Terrified, terrified when she asked me that because it meant exactly what you just said. It meant I had to honor, that's actually what I was. It meant I had to really up-level and be very mature because in this day and age, um sacred feminine wisdom, etc., and and even priestessing is is quite common now, you know, 20, 30 years ago, not so much, a little more in the shadows. Still carried for sure a little bit of the of the witch trials, you know, uh when you came out about it, you knew you one, you were gonna get these look looks like what's a priestess, and and so it was it was that place. And I had to, you know, so I um and I'm sure we'll talk a bit about this, but I published my book a decade ago. This was my first book, and then I kind of went into hiding because it was because all these things that I was sharing about, though I knew, you know, this was my work, I knew I had been very well initiated and trained in it, I didn't yet have the inner capacity and resiliency to really let it be fully visible because it was still so terrifying as a female in these kind of um arts, you know, these feminine arts. And when I say magical arts, I'm not quite referring to maybe what people usually magical art in the sense of I knew I was a vessel for creation. I knew I was communicating with life every day, with the unseen world, and also the scene. I was communicating with trees and plants, and it and it wasn't an abstract thing, it was very grounded. It was something I had done to save me in my childhood. Um, so I think kind of what you just shared, yeah, I was born into it. I was born talking to um non-seen traditional uh aspects of life. It was a language that soothed my nervous system, it helped me with my wounded heart, it helped me with the sense of overwhelm. Really a very empathic young child. I think most children are actually, and it was a lot to be around human beings. But when I would go into nature, I would relax, I could breathe again, I could, you know, feel things. Um, and that's then what guided me. One, first into my own like inner initiation by creation, and then eventually training with different teachers and and and beautiful leaders on the priestess path.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Wow. Um, did any of your sisters exhibit any of these traits uh as you did, or were you alone in that?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

So both and both.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

So um one of my sisters super connected to uh like animals and you know, had such a gentle, loving heart, and she really went down a path of um mental illness eventually. So that also taught me something at a young age of like, don't go too far down this because if you get really connected to that aspect of life in the world, you know, something might happen to you and you might go crazy, you know. So it's always been a walking of an interesting um journey. And then one of my sisters is a yogini, so she um has been very dedicated to um quite a large international spiritual um path and tradition. And yeah, so each of my sisters actually quite mystical, but in in different ways, and it hasn't been easy on any of them at all.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Sure, tough way to grow up because you don't know who you can talk to about it and who you can trust and the perception and so on, for sure. I mean, especially having done it for 30 years, uh, you've seen how this was perceived 30 years ago versus how it's perceived today. And today, of course, it's much more mainstream and absolutely unpopular, actually. Uh today, I would say. Does that sound fair?

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Uh yes, very much so.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Excellent. What do you attribute that to? I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Well, I attribute it to one, it's needed. But if it wasn't needed, it wouldn't be popular. It wouldn't be what people are now gravitating to because they understand and see, like, oh, there's something going on here. And it it does bring um deeper connection, deeper rootedness, one in the body, but also for people, you know, especially women. They they sense that uh there's a greater source of intelligence in them and that they want to access that. They actually need to because a lot of times women will come towards this because they've tried everything and they still don't feel like themselves. They still feel like there's something missing, there's something they're hungering for, there's something they're longing for. And I don't think it's specific to gender at all. Um, but that's you know what my background is in. Although I I am the mother of three boys. And so I have a really good balance of uh experience in many different worlds, as well as the non-binary world as well. Um, so I think I attribute it to its time, it's now a lot safer. Um, all those, you know, four mothers and fathers who went before really paved away through the hardship, through the criticism, through literally being burned at stakes, uh, etc., for for sharing their their knowing and and what they knew they were here to to give, to help, to literally help the planet become something more.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Wow. I appreciate you sharing that. And obviously it has nothing to do with the book, and and I appreciate you taking that question just right off the cuff. We go unscripted, sometimes we go, you know, different areas here, but um, I have to apologize too, because apparently there's a hole in my research research someplace because I didn't realize that you wrote the book 10 years ago. So this book has been sitting quietly on the shelf, uh, published or unpublished. I mean, how has it been uh sort of tucked away?

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, so first it was 2013. I invited a group, you know, so I worked with women, and I had gotten that really deep call of it's time for you to uh express this in a more concrete and wider way. So, you know, through written form. So I invited a group of women to join me on on one of my creative uh transformational journeys, and I guided them for three months. So that happened in 2013, and then I was certainly writing during that time, as well as doing a lot of audios for them and and various transmissions and things, and then it came time of like, okay, now write it. So it took another year, it it really flowed through actually quite quickly. I was startled, and then on into the editing process and then the publishing process. So the it was initially published in 2016. Um, after I published it, my world literally collapsed, truly collapsed. And and I internalized this because a lot of times sensitive beings will do that of like, oh, it's because I stepped out into the world and and shared. And this also goes back to the the what we shared about being a priestess or you know, things with that more inner wisdom or or witchy-ness. Um, it's like oh, this wasn't meant to be seen yet, you know, otherwise my world wouldn't have collapsed. And so then I I just took that to heart and went in to kind of rebuild myself and and take a deeper um look at what was happening, as well as dismantle that, oh my god, because I published a book, you actually think my life fell apart because of that? Like, no, that that's insane. Um, and then republished it um earlier this year, 2026, a decade later from its first publishing.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Wow. Um, was it has it been received differently?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

That you're aware of certainly, but you know what happened is that I received myself differently.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Love that. Okay, I love that. So you came out ready to sort of accept having a book that was published.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah, and I and going back even to how you opened this, you said this is for authors, by an author, you know, with authors. The first time that I published that book, I actually never called myself an author. It was really hard for me.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

And so again, I think that's really important for authors to hear. There's a lot of inner work because sure, there's so many people writing now, and it it's become, do you know what I mean? Like you do this to create a business, and now is your business card. It's like there's so many um AI can do it for you, and again, no judgment here whatsoever. Right. But I wrote that book from the depths of my soul, and so yeah, it wasn't gonna be an easy thing as a self-published author, even though I had kind of a local publisher um care for that part of it, but it wasn't gonna be an easy thing to just step into that. And I am I have five planets in Aries, so I'm not somebody who thinks I just like feel the fire and I go for it. And and so coming back to the conversation we were having earlier, with you know, this being a fire horse year, and now I'm not the one who has to use that energy because life is literally holding it. So I literally like gave the book over to that fire horse to say, yeah, you run with it, sweetie. You run with it. So I don't, you know, want burn myself out nor doubt myself, you know. Yeah. And so in the in the sense of how it's received, yes, receive it was received beautifully then. I just couldn't hold it. And now it's being just as beautifully received, and I'm holding it. So I'm asking for all the things I didn't know how to ask for before. I'm asking for reviews, I'm asking for people to put their eyes on it, I'm asking for people to share about it. And back then, I had no idea you even needed to do that.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

What? Totally understand.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And I wasn't comfortable with it either, so it just wasn't gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

I love the perspective shift, you know, and the way you're talking about that. I mean, a lot of people sort of just chalk that up to imposter syndrome, you know, and say things like that. But that doesn't quite encapsulate what you're dealing with when you are not willing to accept um what you're trying to become. That's a difficult spot to be sitting in. Um what now this was sort of a result of everything you were going through at that point in your life as well. It wasn't just about the book.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Correct. Correct. I just linked the two together and in my in my mind, and you know, neuroscience shows so beautifully now that you have to literally focus on who you want to become. And that will then literally you know, like carry you forward into that, but I was not like here. I did this thing, and I didn't have my footing in the vision of that. So I went back to who I was to like then walk with this book, which was never gonna work. It wasn't gonna work because I was falling into old patterns, I was um believing all the you know, narrative, the the very crippling narrative inside of me, and then like trying so hard to kind of resist that and and you know overcome it when it is so huge, you have to hold that vision and not just the vision, but that felt knowing of I'm an author. And what that you know, what that will then carry you into.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Nice, nice. With all of your experience and um uh everything you've done over the years, uh, all the skills that you've acquired uh with all of these different uh things that you do, uh, were you able to sort of self-diagnose, realize what was happening with you, and then set yourself on a course to healing? Or is that too close, uh, even with everything that you've been trained to do? Did you have to get like some outside push, guidance, you know, help, that type of thing?

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Yeah, beautiful question. Uh obviously from someone who knows. I know.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

I know enough to be dangerous, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:55

So it was all of it. Um, there were times, yes, because I am someone who goes deep and I'll go in, you know, deep into the cave, so to speak, because I have to clear, you know, and I I I pull out of life and I need that to be able to hear myself and to be able to hear what's guiding me. Um, so I definitely did that plenty. And I also have an amazing, amazing group of women in my community. So I leaned into them, I leaned into sisterhood. I absolutely I have incredible um holistic health, you know, care team. I leaned into them. I um I drew upon everyone and everything I possibly could, and including myself.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yeah, I love that answer. I uh I know a lot of people who are kind of in this space uh who uh have various talents, various um educations, um, have developed various skills. There seems to be an overwhelming pressure to um prove yourself or validate your own work in that I can't have a problem if I'm going to teach someone else. Um have is that something like what you experienced? Have you seen that in other folks? And how do people start to kind of get around that and do what you did, which is hey, I'm gonna do what I can, but then I also need to lean in to the support.

unknown 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yeah, that one's a gorgeous one. And and it's not something that people often talk about, you know, and so this pathway of one, you really do need to eventually create structures around you because this is like an addiction. It's an addiction to not believe in yourself, it's an addiction to not understand. You were created to do things that you actually, if you stop and you sabotage it, those still need to be created through you. And if you keep doing that, you're you're going to become ill and not just yourself, because I went through physical symptoms, um, but all kinds of things. It impacts your relationships, it impacts your um your finances, it impacts your career, it impacts your you know, your connections with child your children and and the larger society and certainly your own self-identity. So, yes, you need to um lean into, you know, there's actually a 12-step program. It's called Under Earning and Under Being. And I worked with a lot of their tools, you know, to really see that people once you have this notion inside of you of kind of that imposter syndrome you were talking about, you will literally keep playing out, you know, these these characteristics until you can get your own eye on them and know, okay, this is what, you know, you do that whole self-identity honesty um thing where you say, Yeah, I'm gonna keep doing this if I don't get tools to do this differently. And and so then you do, and and then you do it gently. You do it with so much self-compassion and self-forgiveness, but you do it, and you do it every single day.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

But you do it. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

You look straight at it and you know, oh, when I get someone to invite me on a podcast, and I'm like, nah, I don't really feel like I want to, you know, whatever that is, you go, nope. Every single time someone invites you on a podcast, you go. You go. And that slowly, you know, eventually then you can you can start being more discerning by what which podcast feels right, which one doesn't, but you go because it's so important to see yourself in that, um, in that new way and new role and stop hiding away and thinking you're, you know, you're not enough or or you're the imposter, or um, you'll never be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Great advice. It's very powerful. Um let's go back to the book for a minute, because I've taken you, you know, all the way away from your book, and I apologize, but thank you for indulging me. Um the the faces of the mother, a feminine path to embodiment through ancient wisdom, archetypes, and soul fertility. A feminine path. So it sounds like you are laying out a way, uh maybe providing a plan, actionable steps for people to uh achieve these goals. Tell us a little bit about what they can expect when they go and find the book that is now mainstream that was hiding for a little while.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

That's nice. Yeah, so this mainstream book that is no longer hiding um shows the way. And what I will say is that feminine path does ask you to rest and go deeper. And so that's right off the bat. I, you know, here I was, I went out, I put it out there with that wonderful fiery spirit. And she said, no, no, honey, come back in, go even deeper. And so, you know, what I love for so many women who've read this book, they read this isn't a book, it's a one-time read. You read it again and you come back to it again. Or um, a lot of women will put it by their bedside and just do the open it, you know, for one page, and it's always the perfect wisdom, you know, that they that they need and want that day. And so it walks you through, it's broken down into three different sections. One is kind of an overview of um the creative feminine process. Uh, the middle section is the showcasing of this, these 13 archetypes. So it's the full spectrum of the faces of the sacred feminine. This isn't just about women, it's about, you know, understanding that the sacred, the face of the divine is not monolithic. It's not one, it's we, it's us, it's all, and we hold that in us, and we also get to look and see around us, you are the face of the divine, I am the face of divine. We don't get to be like, no, no, no, it only is white, or it only is male, or it's only female, or no, no, it's all of it. And so this breaks it down, and it even becomes, you know, it's kind of a journey book, a playbook, a workbook, a journal, all in one. It showcases um each of these women had an archetype that they connected with for three months, and then they journeyed with that and created something from that. So a lot of um them did painting, poetry, all kinds of things. And so it showcases that. So it's kind of like an art gallery in the middle, as well as sharing honestly what happened for these women. And you were speaking about this earlier, the rupture, the rupture that happens when you step into saying, I am here ready to be who you know I am designed to be. I'm ready to be more than what my limited understanding of myself and life is. And you usually do go through a rupture, so it showcases that with honesty. And then at the and the third section, the final section shares about what I went through after the journey was done. And that too was another rupture and another um coming to hold and carry the honesty that when you bring your gifts into the world, when you when you bring that inner wisdom, not just the the pretty, well-educated analytical wisdom, but the wisdom that's like of your blood and bones and you know, um your body, it ain't always gonna be totally easy. And it does require community, connection, and things like my book to hold support and guide you through the process. And there's lots of reflection questions and places where you can doodle and draw, um, and give you a whole, you know, wholeful uh creative journey for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, it seems like it's uh it's uh on the surface. The first words that come into mind are you know self-help and that self-improvement. It sounds more transformational than that. Am I picking that up?

SPEAKER_02 26:01

You are picking that up. You're so intuitive.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

I got a little. I have a great wife who really teaches me stuff that she learns and then puts up with me and how long it takes me to learn it. So it's uh I'm blessed in that way.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

But well, know that you're not slow, you're it's perfect, you're just going deeper. You're going deeper.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Trying, trying. I appreciate that. The um you mentioned something, and it was almost in in passing, about um you're called to slow down and and go deeper, like you you've been talking about, but that isn't easy to do. And there's so much sort of resistance to that from the outside world, but also from inside of all of us, you know. And I know that especially uh you know with women who have you know families or responsibilities and things like that, the idea of let me uh you know sort of step aside for a minute and you know, detach and get quiet and go deep, that seems like almost a violent act sometimes. And it's very, very difficult for them to do. Um it's is in the book, or maybe you can address it yourself. But is there maybe a step someone can take to begin to do that so that they can, in fact, go deeper? Because it's just not as simple as it sounds.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

You know, the way the way you just phrase that, you know, very clear, forthright, and super tender. Like it's violent not to. And so I think first acknowledging that we're we're doing a disservice to our system. And then if we're doing a disservice to our own systems, like I mean the full functioning of a healthy system, mind, body, you know, relational, soul, spirit, heart, then we're doing a disservice to the entire makeup of life. We're doing a disservice to the earth and we're doing a disservice to all of humanity. So that one is like boom, one. We we sit with that and we kind of reckon with that and say, is that really worth whatever I think I'm doing when I'm rushing and staying in the grind of the day? And you know, everybody can only answer for themselves. For me, of course, it was no. And then I had all, you know, as I shared, you know, when I was young, I required time away from life, from people. So I knew that that was probably always gonna be a part of my makeup. I have to unplug, and I'm not just talking about technology, I literally have to unplug from hearing other people tell me how I should be living my life. Otherwise, I believe it. If you were to tell me, Sharon, you should go do this. I believe it. Like, I'm I'm and that I don't think I'm unusual. We're, you know, pretty porous, naive human beings who are like, oh great, you're telling me exactly what I should do. So I've had to learn to pause and go deep right there. As soon as I see something online, as soon as I'm scrolling and and I read something, I'm like, oh great. Uh as soon as someone tells me something, I have to pause and unplug, literally, and plug back into me. And so that one happens a lot quicker for me now, but in the beginning, I just had to make sure I always took time for myself. And it could be as simple as making sure I always walked every day on my own, nothing in my ears, just walked and was with myself. Uh, it also became, you know, um something I would do where I would go away because I I am a mom of of three, and so when everybody was younger, I went away once a month and and stayed in a little rustic state park, you know, cabin for the weekend. I I had to, otherwise I had no idea who I was, who my voice was, and and who others were. And that just became a part of it. So I think it's really important for for people to figure out what their what their way is. Like I know my husband takes a bath every night. That's that's his like moment, you know, and and how will we slow down? Because obviously the planet and everything on it can't keep up at this rate.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Wow. Wow, I I love that, especially the part about the bath, I gotta be honest. But uh, I hope he's not upset that you're telling, you know, I know his little secret. Whole bunch of people deserved it. But uh no, I I understand. You know what um now did your husband come to that realization uh you know early on, or was that something you had to help him with?

SPEAKER_01 30:44

No, you know, his dad did that. So he's the youngest of five boys. I'm the youngest of four girls, so really interesting dynamics. And when his dad would get home, I think he just couldn't even fathom this house of five boys. You know, it was too much for him. And he would always go and I think take the newspaper and take a bath.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Oh wow, okay. So it's it's a little learn behavior. He got a little help going. This is a great way in on one. All right. That's that's incredible. Um let me ask you uh a few uh you know book related questions here. Um every I talked to everybody at least a little bit about kind of their process. And you know, I'm interested with where you um spend a lot of your uh sort of sensory life uh in terms of a lot of feeling, you know, a lot of emotion, you know, a lot of those types of things. Does that impact how your process for writing the book happens? Um do you know, sort of feel it and then write it, or do you go the other direction and say, hey, even though I spend a lot of my life over here, every day I'm gonna do one hour and I'm gonna sit down and be structured? I'm curious how that all played together in the actual writing of the book.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

I had wished I was that second version where we're like be super structured. And the irony is I listened to my intuition and my felt reality, and it ended up being quite structured.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

So um, because I was um uh mom of of three young kids, I think my youngest had like literally just been born, and often for women that's when they have a lot of energy after a birth. And so I would um our children always slept with us when they were young, and so I would, you know, hand over my sweet babe right into my husband's arms, and I would just gently sneak away, and it would be like three or four o'clock in the morning, and so I did that every single day, and the book just flowed out of me. And and that was for me, writing always was that way. It was this way that I connected with um the you know the the non-formed words, the you know, the the words before they formed. It would be early in the wee hours of the morning when it was dark and quiet, and and I would just sit down. And for me, uh often I'm um on a computer more than hand writing. I'll write poetry by hand on paper, uh, but like bookie type things. I do it on the computer, and yeah, so I just sit down. People will use terms like channeling um often with with writing, and and I wouldn't have said that back then. Again, I was more uncomfortable with any words that had uh stereotypes or stigma to them. So I just was like, well, I just sit down and suddenly something happens, and I'm just voraciously writing for two hours. Um, so but I would phrase that more now of I very consciously and intentionally was getting out of the way, creating a very quiet um environment that was very safe, guarded, and protected for for myself and my own connection, you know, with my source, with spirit, and then I just let what came through come through. And it it all happened quite quickly within like a hand months, just a few months.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Really? So months just to write the book the first time. That's that's amazing. Yeah, definitely. I've I've heard people take a lot longer than a few months to to write their books and get them all the way done.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

So editing took a while, you know, and I'm also I have editing as my background. So when the from you know, the first round I was editing my own version, and that's a little that's a little fun.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Editing while you're writing type of thing?

SPEAKER_01 34:24

A bit of both, you know, but no, usually I would just let it come through, and then it was the next day, I'd go back and be like, oh, let me let me add it.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Okay, I love that part of it. Um, the the book itself comes out, you decide to self-publish, right? Um, did you look at any other options, or were you just like, I'm going right to self-publish? This is my baby, I don't want to turn anything over. I'm not even gonna look into this other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

So I did a couple things. Um, so mine is kind of hybrid because I remember I had gone to a talk at my local library, and there was a local publisher for self-published books. Um, and I was really intrigued by that. So I always had that in the back of my mind. I did look into um agents and things. I was incredibly daunted by the thought of do you know writing letters. I think I did maybe like to 10. Um, but like, trust me, compared to what I hear authors do, it was not a lot. And again, I was more of a fire starter, like you just go and um I tried to take a couple courses of like, yeah, you've written your book. Now what do you do? And again, I can't really follow other people's directions. So I came back because it kept popping in the back of my mind of like, you remember that local publisher? Go check them out. And I really liked what they uh provided. So I went with them.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Excellent. Okay. Um no matter who we go with these days, we always end up having to promote our own books. So, you know, I do like to ask folks, um, what have you found is a a good method of promotion for your book? Um, what may be a horrible method that you found? Uh, you know, anything work real well or not work, and and what are you doing to promote it?

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah, so lean into your community. Um, kind of the old traditional sense of um word of mouth is is the best way to go. It really is the best way to go. Uh not potentially for per se that that quick, fast, like, hey, I just, you know, bam, the boom. It's for the long enduring that you want your book to literally be a presence in the world for the rest of your life. And so turn towards your community, ask your community, like, I'm gonna be launching my book, or I'm publishing my book, or um, I've got a book event. Share with people, share with people and and ask people to review it. You know, it's it's the building of the um container around you that then gives you as an author the enduring ability to keep going, to keep going. And then this time around, when I published it, I did um have publicists who kind of manage the presence on Amazon. So yeah, I I learned wow, there's Amazon ad campaigns and all this. So I think that certainly is is more is helpful for the the longer-term international exposure. Um, and and in this day and age of the technology and the boosts for visibility and all the options with that, that also is a really important aspect of it, too.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Nice. Okay. Um let's take a minute, go a little deeper here. Uh, whenever we're writing our books, uh, I found this myself, and I find it with just about everybody I talk to. Um, as we're actually writing the book, when we're sitting there and we're producing the words that are going on the pages, usually there is uh someone, something that we're picturing, someone that we're writing the book to, or we're writing the book for. Um does that fall into uh, you know, does that work for you? And if so, who were you writing this book to or for?

SPEAKER_01 38:15

So um yes. It's an interesting thing because it literally is a felt experience. And in my case, I was literally writing it for the women who had walked the journey with me, who I had invited into this process. So that was kind of the first layer, but I could feel and knew there was many layers. But it was their faces that I would see as I was writing. It was what we had just gone through or what they had shared. And I felt like that writing was answering their hearts' questions. It was answering um their challenges when when they were clearly like in a moment of I can't keep with this, like this is too much for me. I'm so scared. I can't bring forward, you know, what's in me to bring forward. So it felt like it was a call and response, and I could feel those women because they were literally in my orbit at the time, and and we were walking together. And then as time progressed, and certainly as I came back to it, it was interesting this time. Um, because I added in in things with this second publishing, and I was writing to me back then, which was really a sweet one. And then I was writing to the you know, the women of of the world and the women of the future, and then there's always for me as a mother a weaving in of writing to the world I want it to become for my children, you know, when I'm gone. So I could feel all of that at different times in different ways, and um, and it felt again like this whisper and a prompting that would you know keep the words flowing.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Wow. Beautiful answer. And I didn't even prep you for that question. That was awesome. I love that. That was great. All right. Um, okay. Uh before I, you know, hit you with the last, you know, question or two. Um, I want to make sure we get this out. So, how can people contact you, find out more about the book, order the book, things like that? Give them all of your info.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Sure. Uh, website is sharonandrose.com. You can find about my work there. The book is on there, you can purchase it on there, and then find out other things that I'm up to. Um, I'm on presence in social media, Sharon Ann Rose on YouTube. Book is available on um Amazon, uh US as well as international, and then things like Barnes and Noble, um, all the different online kind of venues. Uh, it's available as well as um local bookshops. I'm the ones I've, you know, I I don't know if I could just click them off right now, but as the it continues, as well as um library systems.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Love it. Okay, love it. That's fantastic. Um, I appreciate you sharing that. And we'll have a bunch of those links in the show notes too for folks who are trying to find the book, um, especially the website. We always make sure we get that in there. Um Sharon, as we, you know, kind of bring this uh to a close, you have shared a ton about yourself, uh, about you know your why behind everything, um, your motivations, uh, who you were writing the book to. It's been absolutely wonderful to hear from you. I know there's a lot of folks out there who are listening to and hanging on every word you're saying because they are aspiring authors, and they are dying to get to where you are. So let me kind of throw it to you, and you can take this anywhere you want. But um, what is your best advice for the aspiring authors out there who are not quite where you are yet?

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Yeah, as our conversation has unfolded, what I would share with aspiring authors is say that statement in the mirror. I am an author. Say it a lot, and then feel into or see like who you are as an author, because we can hold on, like I held on to I'm a writer, I'm an aspiring writer, and that does, you know, it's that's beautiful, and eventually that can cave cave in on itself, and so you know, literally like flesh out that vision right to that I am an author, right? Like that, who that is, and then hold it, walk with it, and let it actually walk you, let it hold you accountable to that author that you are, you always will be, but the one that you're also becoming by you know working on your your manuscript or other writing materials.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Love it. Great answer.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

I at first I had an itchy nose, but I'm like, no, I think I'm giving you what it was that witch back then who used to wiggle her nose. Like, I'm giving you a little of that. Oh, yeah, the witch and the aspiring authors. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

All right. Um, and I know you think you're off the hook now, but I have a I have a very unique, very unique opportunity to ask you a different kind of a question here. Um, we recently uh you know, ran our demographics, and we have uh somewhere between 80 and 85 percent of our listenership are women. And um a lot of those, of course, are authors or aspiring authors. And what I have noticed about a lot of our listeners is that they're all, I mean, if they're looking to be authors, if they're looking to grow, they're looking to expand, they're looking to change, they're looking for more. You know, they they want that growth in their lives. So with someone like you on here, um, with your level of expertise and your messaging, I would love to throw one more question at you if you think you're up to it. All right. Here we go. Um what sort of advice can you give uh to all of the uh ladies who are out here listening to this show right now, this episode, who are looking for that growth, who are looking to sort of hand their their desires, their life over to that fire horse mentality and say, hey, you know, take it and run. Um what's a good first step to get in motion uh towards whatever it is that's out there waiting for you? What do you what can you say to those women who are out there listening to this right now?

SPEAKER_01 44:32

So I feel kind of teary. Um so I'm gonna answer it from that place, which is that know that it is hard, and what you've walked has been really hard, really hard. And it that part doesn't need to be what you try to overcome. Um more of even that little like bewitched, like allow yourself the joy and the pleasure to receive that fire horse. Like this year is has all kinds of alchemical um support and a makeup that you can lean into, even though the world looks like it's absolutely trying to crush women, it's not actually what's going on, and so when you turn in towards yourself, you really build up that capacity to say, I am an author. Not only am I an author, I am a female author, I am a woman author. And um again, really lean into knowing what is well, alive, so vital inside of you, and needed now. I mean, it's such a trite statement to say needed now more than ever, but it is needed now more than ever, and all the supports actually now are here, and yeah, you got it, darling. You got it.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

It's beautiful. I knew it. I knew that was the question to ask. All right, uh, folks. Um my goodness, uh, she's a poet, she's a ceremonialist, she's a shamanic priestess, she is an author of the book Faces of the Mother: A Feminine Path to Embodiment Through Ancient Wisdom, Archetypes, and Soul Fertility. Uh, and she is a mother herself to, you know, three boys. So three boys, Rick. Did I get that right? Okay. Uh, folks, uh, Sharon and Rose. Sharon, you've been absolutely wonderful as a guest, and I know you brought a ton of value to our listeners today. Thank you so much for not only coming on the show, but for showing up the way that you did and for giving so generously of yourself today. It was really, really great.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

Thank you, Rory. It is such a pleasure, and I really have been so touched by uh your obvious care and true impeccability and integrity, really wanting to support authors, but supporting our future authors. So thank you. It means so much.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Thank you for that. I appreciate that very much. Uh, folks, um, there you go. There you have it. Uh, that's been another fantastic episode of the Right Path Podcast, where the truth still matters and words still have power. Folks, this is the place for authors who know that every single page is a step forward towards finding your right path. Until next time.