One major factor is that California Is now year on year living the very real impact of climate change, which was still only a growing concept in the early 90’s when the Fifth Sacred Thing was written. In the afterword of the book, Starhawk summarises how the changes in our world over the last twenty years have influenced her thinking as an activist, ecofeminist, pagan and teacher and then how she approached writing the book. Starhawk’s fiction is a deeply inspiring look at what is actually possible for a solutions focused healthy future. In comparison, the story also holds many beautiful descriptions of what large scale communities and land use designed with permaculture principles and ethics, can be like. Many of the most horrifying elements of the book (violence and oppression of both land and people), are so, because they are not far in reality to the world we live in today. It is hugely inspiring to all of us who are working hard to create social and environmental change.

The challenge of inciting revolution in such a society as the Southlands, by building a city of refuge within it, is an ethically complex task for revolutionaries of the North.

Although fiction, City of Refuge is so relevant to real life – hauntingly so at times. She brings us hope through the many examples of solutions of healing and regeneration described. Starhawk tells the story through and in, webs and connections, of love, power and magic. It’s a novel for anyone who is passionate about the future of our Earth and her communities. The lands and communities of the South are toxic and dying, those in the North resilient and abundantly diverse. The Southlands are ruled by a fascist regime in which a small minority hold financial control, children are bred to be soldiers and disposable sex slaves - and rape is a seen as a reward. Califia in the North, protects the Elements, the four sacred things –air, fire, water, and earth-and values diversity, community, sharing power and responsibility. Set in California 2049, the scene is set of a land of great contrasts. Although there is been a gap of over 20 years since Fifth Sacred Thing was published It expertly flows to take up the story as if it were written to further the tale of a much more recent novel. It’s actually the 3rd novel of the story that begins in the 1960’s in Walking To Mercury. ' How can we be build a new world when people are so deeply damaged by the old? ”Ĭity of Refuge is Starhawk’s powerful and profound sequel to the Fifth Sacred Thing.

City of Refuge by Starhawk