A Guide to "Anamchara" (Carl McColman's Substack Newsletter)

Including: How to manage the notifications you receive

Hello friends! Thanks for connecting with me here on Substack. I hope you’ll find plenty here to keep you interested and coming back for more.

The purpose of this post is to give you an overview of the different kinds of writing I’ll be sharing with you here. You’ll also get instructions for how to configure your subscription so you only get the interesting and appealing posts that you want.

I’ve been writing about spirituality and mysticism for quite some time now; my first book came out in 1997 and I began blogging in 2003. Over the years my books and blog have explored a variety of spiritual topics including mysticism, Celtic wisdom, Neopaganism, Christianity, interspirituality, and contemplative practice.

Substack has replaced my blog as the place where I publish new online writing. You can upgrade to a paid subscription and get access to Zoom calls I host 2-3 times a month. But I’ll always post plenty of free writing that you can read anytime.

I call my newsletter “Anamchara” after the lovely Gaelic word for “soul friend.” It’s a word with deep pagan roots, ties to both Celtic and mystical spirituality, and relevant today as a concept that weaves together contemplation, spiritual companionship, interspirituality, and mythic wisdom: in other words, all topics I love and love to write about. If it reminds you of John O’Donohue’s classic book Anam Ċara, that’s no coincidence: he’s using the ancient Irish spelling of this word, where I’m using the modern Gaelic spelling.

Lately I have begun to call myself a feral contemplative. What does that mean?

Well, it does not mean I’ll bite you if you try to feed me, but it points to the fact that I like to write about a variety of topics, not all of which fit into the serene reputation of contemplation and mysticism. It’s important for me that my newsletter gives me breathing room to write about a variety of topics, from current events to popular culture to topics that might seem experimental or even edgy.

Substack offers me a simple way to section off my newsletter, so people who want to read my more untamed writings can do so—but if that’s not your cup of tea, you can configure your subscription just to get the more contemplative posts.

There’s four sections to this newsletter. The first two are the contemplative ones, followed by the ones that are more free-range (or feral).

Here are the four sections, divided into short meditations, longer posts, miscellaneous writings, and my edgy or experimental works:

Short Meditations

Mystical Journey: Contemplative Reflections consists of short, devotional/meditative writings designed to bring inspiration and encouragement to your spiritual practice:

• Quotes from mystics and other luminaries

• Devotional and inspirational meditations

• Reflections on living a contemplative life

• Centering prayer and other contemplative practices

• Prayers and meditations

• Celtic spirituality and wisdom

• Devotional reflections on specific spiritual lineages (Ignatian, Trappist, Franciscan, Buddhist, etc.)

• Visionary and nondual experiences

• Embodied experiences of the Divine Presence

Longer Posts

Fullness of Joy: Spiritual Essays and Articles. Here are my more thoughtful, lengthy writings, where I balance devotional reflection with more in-depth consideration:

• Essays and articles about contemplation and mysticism

• Theological and philosophical reflections

• Insights into the theory of mysticism and spirituality

• Contemplative values and ethics

• Affirmations of compassion, kindness, caring, and heartfulness

• Insights into ecstasy, excessus mentis, unitive experiences

• Commentary on specific theorists and thought leaders (Ken Wilber, Carl Jung, etc.)

• Balancing contemplation and action

• If “Mystical Journey” is heart, “Fullness of Joy” is head: theory rather than practice

Miscellaneous Writings

Breath of Beholding: The “Et Cetera” Section: my “open airy space” where I can write about anything I want, even if it’s not (obviously) “spiritual” in its focus:

• Any kind of writing that is not explicitly “spiritual” or “mystical”

• Book reviews, movie or music reviews, my take on current culture

• Hobbies and personal interests (record collecting, vegan cuisine)

• Poetry

• Mythology, mythic imagination

• Writing as a craft and business

• Travel writing and photos

• Vocational discernment

• Anything else that doesn’t seem to fit in any of the other sections of this Substack

Experimental or Edgy Works

Dark Wonder: Where I get to play with topics that might be bold, daring, or unusual: Not dark as in “bad” but dark as in “dark night of the soul” — which means a place where we can rest, but also a place where our illusions get stripped away.

This section is for my most creative writing, but also for writing that I suspect not everyone may like:

• Interspirituality and religious pluralism

• Alternatives to mysticism: magic, skepticism, secularism

• Doubt, agnosticism and atheism

• Criticism of institutional Christianity (or any form of institutional religion)

• Psychedelics and shamanism

• Anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns

• Queer experience and the spirituality of gender, especially nonbinary gender

• Current events, politics, the environment, artificial intelligence, concerns about ethics, morality, privilege, and justice

• Anything else I think is likely to be controversial, experimental or edgy

Personal Stuff

Boundless Skye: Where Things Get Personal: here’s where the family photos, the home movies, and the old diaries get stored (okay, that’s metaphorical, but hopefully you get the picture):

• Writing that is, frankly, about me, my family, my animal companions, or close friends

• Family news, personal updates, family photos and tidbits

• Memoir: stories, anecdotes, and recollections from any period of my life

• Anxiety, depression, gender, etc. — written primarily from my perspective

• Obituaries and memorials of those I love

• Recipes, personal belongings (like my books), or anything else about me and my life that I’d like to share with you and the world.

Obviously, some readers might love this kind of self-disclosure; others might understandably feel that it lacks relevance to their own lives. So this is the one section that I don’t automatically subscribe you to: if you want to get the updates, you need to opt in. For information how to do that, read on.

I know a lot of people will want to see all that I am publishing, so that “default” setting when you subscribe is to receive notifications on all but the most personal writing. But I also recognize that a lot of people might only want to get a few emails from me, focused on a specific section of my writing they find the most appealing. If that’s you, then please read on to see how you can customize your subscription to this newsletter.

Customize the Email Notifications You Receive from this Substack

Visit this link: www.carlmccolman.net/account — when you get there, you should see a page with content similar to the following image (to see this, make sure you are signed in to your Substack account, and that you are currently subscribed to my newsletter).

Under “Notifications” you can turn off (or on) alerts that are sent out whenever I publish something new in that particular section. If a section doesn’t appeal to you, simply disable its toggle switch. You’ll stop receiving email notifications for that section. Of course, you can still visit www.carlmccolman.net or use the Substack app to read anything I post, but you don’t have to get notified for posts that aren’t in your areas of interest.

I hope that’s clear, but let me know if you have any questions. And again — thanks for reading.

Your humble author on the gulf coast of Florida in 2026.