It is not wrong that we have walked this path for so long. Perhaps this path has brought us close to where we feel we need to be.

But maybe we’re feeling the stagnation in “going through the motions” of that path over and over again. Perhaps we know that path is not serving us - not taking us to where we need to be - and yet we are compelled to go the “safer” way regardless.

There are times when we are called to stop and observe our surroundings. In doing so, we find a new way through the bracken of our lives, and take the first steps into a more present, more authentic, and more true way of being.

This piece is the first movement in a powerful new poetic meditation, A Walk In The Woods. I offer it as a standalone piece here to begin helping you find where you are on your journey through life, and to sense where another path may be waiting.

Further Into The Woods

For some, this segment may be all that is needed.

Some of you will feel called to step beyond this initial threshold and see what lies at the end of this path you did not know was open, or that you have been neglecting for too long.

If this is you, I will be hosting a unique, sacred circle on Saturday 28th March at 3.30pm UTC+0 for exactly this purpose. In this intimate session, we will:

• Experience the meditation in full, including a second movement not shared today

• Engage in an integrative writing session to help communicate our experience with this new path

• Exchange our writings and experiences with other participants, helping each of us find the navigational language we need to continue on this new path beyond the circle.

This holistic experience can only be offered live and in real time. Full presence is essential, and the group’s small size (maximum 12 participants) ensures a secure, safe and nourishing container. No recording will be made, but an audio version of the meditation portion is available as part of the Poetic Realignment Bundle - which all attendees will receive to support ongoing integration of the material we explore in the session.

All this is provided at an exchange of £40 per person. Use the button below to book a place,

Take A Walk In The Woods

You can also email me at contact@tom-shaw.uk if you would like to offer a non-financial exchange of equivalent value.

If you’ve been longing for a quieter space to reflect and reconnect with your inner voice, you’re very welcome in this circle.

A Complementary Experience

If you aren’t able to be at the live circle, I invite you to listen to my freely-available poetic meditation, The Fire Within. This experience offers something different to A Walk In The Woods: an opportunity to visit and release a past experience in your life that still burns away in the back of your mind. It is also a great companion to A Walk In The Woods, and would serve those who need something additional to feel confident committing to the live circle.

Thank you for making time for this meditation. Even if the invitation to go deeper is not right for you at this time, I look forward to bringing you more soon.

With gratitude,

Tom

I did, however, make some time to visit the founders of Mycelium Hub when the core team were all in the UK. After being introduced to Mycelium Hub through others involved with Anarchapulco, I’ve had great pleasure in engaging with the distributed community they are building and being a part of what they are building. As part of my visit, we made time to record the following conversation, which you can watch in full below:

Thank you for being here, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

With gratitude,

Tom

Poems featured include Lighting The Kindling by Tom Shaw, and The Fireside by G.F. Bradby.

If you’d like to download the full audio version to take with you wherever you go, you can subscribe to this Substack by email for free. This will also keep you in-the-loop on all my latest writings and offerings.

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Poetry can be a powerful healer for the turmoil we face within. I offer:

• Standalone poetry therapy sessions to offer respite during turbulent times

• Longer-term poetry containers to help rewrite self-limiting beliefs that continually hold you back

• An ever-growing bundle of self-directed resources to help you be the author of your own life story - which includes recordings of meditations just as powerful as this one.

And if you’d simply like to enjoy receiving more poems, reflections and meditations, then you’re very welcome to stay - please consider making a one-time donation or getting a copy of my poetry book, Go Forth, Butterfly! - these small things really helps to keep my efforts.

Thank you for making time for this meditation. I look forward to bringing you more soon.

With gratitude,

Tom

I’ve been involved with Anarchapulco since 2024, where I joined the organising team following me volunteering for them at their inaugural Liberpulco event. Not only have I taken on the volunteer management for their subsequent events in Mexico and Serbia, but I have also been blessed to have the opportunity to share some of my insights in facilitating community spaces and in the power of poetry for self-emancipation as part of the programming for these events.

This has been a really powerful cross-pollination for both me personally and for Anarchapulco that continues to produce powerful results. Most recently, I took on hosting and emceeing for the most recent online event: The Non-Conformist Series: Expressions of Freedom. Bringing together incredible creatives advocating for individual freedoms and liberty, including the likes of , , and Brother Ali amongst many others, we explored how individuals in any walk of life and with any interest can harness creativity to successfully stand in their individual agency and be the masters of their own lives. I highly recommend catching up with the lifetime replays.

Get The Replays

As part of the series, I delivered my own talk on the power of reading and writing poetry for everyone in all walks of life to help make sense of the world around them and find an authentic path to living their soul purpose. This was a development of the talk I did at Liberpulco this year on the same theme, and I am now in the process of giving it a further major upgrade ready for the newly-relocated Anarchapulco “Genesis” in February next year. I am super excited for this, and look forward to sharing a stage alongside the likes of , , Andrew Kaufmann, and so many other great names. Check out the full lineup and grab tickets below (and use the code MASTERYOURWORD for a nice little discount):

Anarchapulco 2026 ~ Genesis

In the meantime, I recorded a conversation as part of the ongoing Conversations in Anarchy series on Anarchapulco’s video platforms in which myself and other contributors to the event shared our reflections on the topics discussed and why this event was so important. That conversation released a few days ago, which I felt called to share with you all today as my “reflections” for this week:

This also follows on nicely from some of the previous conversations I’ve had with Laura and other guests as part of this series. Some of those I shared through Substack and email in a previous piece, which you can catch up on below:

In addition, I have done one further conversation with Laura, Catherine and Gareth Icke (also at Anarchapulco in 2026!) on the role of parents and the needs of youth in our current era, which also comes highly recommended:

That should be plenty more “conversations in anarchy” to tide you over until next week… but if you’re still after something more, I can highly recommend ’s conversation with Neil Oliver where they explore the very concept of anarchy and “rules without rulers”:

Doc Malik Honest Health

#400 – Neil Oliver: Beyond Fear, Toward Freedom

THIS PODCAST IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE AND SERIOUSLY GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH…

Listen now

6 months ago · 89 likes · 12 comments · Doc Malik

Thank you for making the time to read this piece. I look forward to bringing you more soon.

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With gratitude,

Tom

Take my poems with you offline and support my work by purchasing a book from me:

My Books

Or, you can make a donation too - both options are hugely appreciated!

Make a Donation

Today, I’d like to share two recordings that I did some weeks ago with Anarchapulco and for their Non-Conformist Series.

The first is a conversation hosted by fellow Anarchapulco staff member Laura, with myself and Mycelium Hub’s founders Marcela and Milan all talking about the search for meaning in the various contexts of the work we have done and continue to do. It was this conversation that has led to me collaborating with Mycelium Hub to run a session of The Fire Within for their members and with OTTY, and I continue to look for ways on collaborating with them. Check out the conversation below:

Following on from the “group format” of that previous conversation, I then set up a three-way conversation with Christof Melchizedek and Samantha Pilbeam on all things inner transformation, shadow work, modalities for self development and more. There are really powerful contributions from both Sam and Christof here, so I highly recommend it.

Finally, you can also find the interview I did with Miranda and Uly about their new comic book series, Rootless Renegade, inspired by Miranda’s true story of a life in anarchism - both the ugly and the beautiful.

You can find out more about everyone featured in these videos at the links below:

• Anarchapulco

• Mycelium Hub

• Over To The Youth

• Christof Melchizedek

• Samantha Pilbeam

• Rootless Renegade

I hope these videos spark something within you, and I look forward to bringing you more soon.

With gratitude,

Tom

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Thank you for all those who tuned in live and those of you listening back to the recording. I hope to bring you more soon.

With gratitude,

Tom

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Here are some of the pieces of my own that were mentioned in the piece:

Thank you to everyone who tuned into this live video, and who watched the recording afterwards. Leave a comment below if it sparked something within you:

Leave a comment

With gratitude,

Tom

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Here are some readings I performed live on Substack to celebrate the launch of my latest book, Go Forth, Butterfly! You can find out more about the book by using the button below:

Go Forth, Butterfly!

I had a really fun time doing this, and I look forward to doing more livestreams of readings in the future. Make sure you’re subscribed to be notified when I’m going live:

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Thank you for taking the time to tune in. I look forward to sharing more soon.

With gratitude,

Tom

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While I have since stepped back from my day-to-day duties with Over To The Youth so I can better respond to some immediate needs in my life, I remain an advocate for this work, continuing to hold my position on the Board of Directors with honour to help guide the vision and mission of the organisation.

If you are aged 18-25, or know those who are, I encourage you to get in touch with Over To The Youth by using the button below:

Over To The Youth

I hope this conversation sparks something in you.

As for my poetic endeavours, a reminder that I’ll be doing some live readings from my newly-released book, Go Forth, Butterfly! this Wednesday (28th May) online, at 8pm UK time. You should get an email at the point when I go live. Click the button below to find out a bit more about the book and how to purchase a physical copy, which supports my work greatly.

Go Forth, Butterfly!

Also, as I can no longer be in Amsterdam on 2nd June, the in-person readings and signing will not be taking place at Labyrinth as originally planned. Do keep an eye out for news on UK readings soon though!

With gratitude,

Tom

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It cut out the very beginning of the recording, I believe because there’s some sort of “preview” time before I actually go live. I need to play around with the settings more to figure this out.

While I would love the ability to be able to run these from my computer and schedule them more efficiently in advance (this feature is currently only available to Apple users, strangely), I think there’s something here that can bring the pieces of Substack poets to life.

Thank you for everyone who tuned into this live video with . Join me for my next live video in the app.

Get more from Tom Shaw in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

And make sure to subscribe to be notified when the next opportunity to join me live will be:

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With gratitude,

Tom

In this conversation, we discuss how we become disconnected from our authentic selves and how we might begin to re-navigate to that “home”. We also talk about how many of the issues we see in society are manifestations of the false belief systems that live within us, and how we have created the world we currently live in.

To find out more about David’s work, you can watch some of the other interviews he has done with Brad Miller for IPAK-EDU, and with my good friend , which I will link below.

Watch David's Interview with Brad Miller

Rain Trozzi

Fostering authentic masculinity with David Cordes

I had the recent pleasure of interviewing my mentor David Cordes. David stepped into the role of Mentor for myself and Over to the Youth members during our inception in early 2022, and has served our community diligently ever since. In this powerful video, David shares the emotional story of his early childhood trauma, and the healing he found as an adu…

Read more

3 years ago · 2 likes · Rain Trozzi

You can get in touch with David directly via his website using the button below:

See More From David

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this piece. It's incredibly heartwarming to know you are here and believe in the work I'm doing, and I can't wait to be able to share more with you and the rest of the world soon.

With gratitude,
Tom

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We discuss the journey that has led her to being involved in this festival and some of the experiences she has had with activism groups over the past few years, exploring how it has informed the approach she takes in the work that she attends to. We also look at the role of technology in our modern lives, and where it makes sense to move away from a digital existence and into a physical one.

You can find more about all of Nika’s activities on her website, akinisa.com, and more on Vibehood specifically on their website and on their Substack.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this piece. It's incredibly heartwarming to know you are here and believe in the work I'm doing, and I can't wait to be able to share more with you and the rest of the world soon.

With gratitude,
Tom

Make A One-Time Donation

Subscribe now

In this Tribe Podcast, I have a conversation with my good friend (“Rain”), an entrepreneur, tech expert and founder of . You may also recognise him as the son of , and Lluvias does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to help Dr Trozzi get out the content he does.

In this episode, we discussed the ability of someone to live a nomadic life , as well as to what level we should be responsible for our lives and the lives of those around us.

We originally recorded this conversation at the very end of 2023, with the intention of publishing it through Over To The Youth, however it remained unpublished as OTTY went through a process of decentralising its approach to public-facing content. I decided it would instead make a great fit as the first of my Tribe Podcasts.

I recently had a conversation with OTTY Mentor and holistic healer Laura Samson, where we discussed our "Fundamental Life Operating System" (or "Fundamental Life Operating Program" to make the fun acronym FLOP), the collective trauma experienced by humanity in the past few years, and how digital technology can be used to serve the physical realm.

Laura is based in Pretoria, South Africa, where she provides a range of biofeedback and other holistic treatments for her clients. You can find more of her healing work at Vital Vibes.

In this video, Tom is joined by fellow OTTY member and freelance filmmaker Harvey Page. They discuss the success of Clarkson's Farm, the direction that the film industry has moved in, and how we can be conditioned by the films we watch.

You can find Over To The Youth at overtotheyouth.com