How do we live with the parts of ourselves that pull in opposite directions—whether it is the pull between duty and desire, safety and freedom, or comfort and becoming? In this offering, I trace the golden thread of Celtic horse mythology as it winds through stories of the Goddesses Rhiannon, Macha, Epona, and Étaín—each a mirror of the human soul navigating paradox. These ancient tales don’t hand us tidy answers, but they illuminate how true power often lives in our willingness to hold tension without collapse—to honor both wildness and wisdom, longing and responsibility, light and shadow. These goddesses don’t flee contradiction—they ride it—and in doing so, remind us that wholeness is not found in resolution, but in the courage to live braided, broken, and beautifully whole.
Read MoreSelkie's Son: The Boy of Both Worlds, The Root of Her Return
What becomes of the child born between sea and shore—who must choose whether to hold on, or to let his mother return to the sea where she belongs? Reimagining the tale of the Selkie from the perspective of the Selkie’s son, a liminal figure who carries love and loss in equal measure we come to see the deeper currents that give the story its enduring power. As his mother reclaims her stolen self, he is left to navigate the ache of her absence. Woven with archetypal insight and rich folklore, the story moves like the tides under the pull of many moons—revealing different phases of the whole depending on the vantage point of each character in the story. We descend into the sacred depths of loss, witnessing the grace of a soul who restores what is stolen, frees what is held captive, and weaves back into wholeness a shattered world.
Read MoreSelkie & Dragon: Reclaiming The Pelt For Our Times
What wild and precious part of ourselves have we lost and forgotten in the ocean between and betwixt our domesticated divisions, that finding and reclaiming will bring us to a deeper sense belonging? Exploring the synchronicities between two oceanic folktales, the Irish Selkie and Vietnamese Dragon & Crane, is a journey of self-discovery and a form of maritime medicine. Reconnecting these folktales requires that we swim fluidly with the restorative tides of underworld love magic and surrender to the cross cultural currents that transcend our modern national and cultural categories, shifting the way we think of people, place and belonging. . .gifting us with wisdom to weather the stormy seas of our times.
Read MoreIn the Belly of a Whale: Archetypal Monsters and Mothers in Maritime Mythology
In ancient maritime folklore from around the world, being confronted by a whale serves as a symbol for life’s greatest challenges. Ancient seafaring stories about whales invite us back into a mythical relationship with what overwhelms us, and we discover what the experience is asking of us. In so doing, we discover whales have not just served our physical survival needs throughout the ages, but they have helped us to psychologically grow. Learning the wisdom of whales we enter back into right relationship with the wild, a timeless and enduring shared human value that weaves us back into belonging with the world.
Read MoreBoreal Bears and Feral Females: Twin Bear Folktales from East and West
The Norwegian folktale “East of the Sun West of the Moon” and the Japanese (indigenous Ainu) folktale entitled “Crescent Moon Bear” are folktales featuring fearless young women who dare to engage in greater intimacy with a bear whether it is marrying a bear, or having the courage to pluck the whisker of a bear. Both involve traversing a formidable boreal forest landscape to save their husbands from a “spell”. These folktales are so strikingly similar in theme and shared values, giving voice to their parallel nature deepens our sense of interconnected history, and rekindles a feeling of belonging to a shared storied boreal landscape, weaving together people, bears, ancestry, stories and hearts. . .
Read MoreBaba Yaga: the Autumn Witch and the Power of Letting Go
October is a vitally mystical and folklore-rich time of year, a between and betwixt season of transformation characterized by the changing colors of the leaves and filled with heroes and heroines who symbolize our own transformative potential. One such folk heroine is the quintessential enigmatic wilderness witch Baba Yaga: a courageous crone who dares to dance with the dying and also the mystical old mother who midwifes new life. She resonates with the spirit of Autumn telling us we can be beautiful as we let go of our old selves to make room for what is waiting to emerge, vibrant and gold . . .
Read MoreFox Woman: The Shapeshifting Woman at the Threshold Between Worlds
Fox Woman, also known as Kitsune in Japanese folklore, is a shapeshifting trickster character who resembles the elusive, clever fox from the wild. Although this folktale comes in many different variations and her story is told in many tongues, what they all have in common is a trickster character who shifts between human and fox, sometimes androgynous, living in multiple worlds, questioning the order of things through her mischief, playfulness, wit, deception, magic and defiance of authority. The tale of Fox Woman is almost always makes visible the tension between the need for order, and its reinvention.
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