Since the first dreaming of the world, there have always been stories in which the earth found a body, a voice, and a face through which to enter our human world, dreaming herself into human form. Creaturely heroines are not merely figures who move through the landscape but an expression of the courtship of human imagination and the earth, the way the land births herself into being in the storied world, this marriage-place of worlds. Through the creaturely heroine’s ecstasies and griefs, her shapeshifting and return, we are welcomed into an imaginal realm beyond the limited scope of our human experience, and we begin to see see the world through the wild’s eyes. She is the earth’s emissary, the way the wild enters into our world embodied, drawing us into an emotional kinship felt before it is understood.
Read MoreCreaturely Garments & Secret Transformations: Furs, Pelts & Cloaks in Folktales & Fairytales
Where does the human heart go to be remade when our current lives cannot cradle us? In the world of folktales and fairy tales, pelts, furs, and feathered cloaks do so much more than adorn and protect —they cradle the heroine through moments of quiet transformation, guiding her from disempowerment to agency, from a borrowed life to one lived in truth. Whether it is Mossy Coat wrapped in living moss, Allerleirauh cloaked in many furs, or Kråksnäckan in raven feathers, these woodland garments become living sanctuaries. Within the safety of their folds, the soul unravels, heals, reassembles, nurtured by the living wild. Through Deep Time these tales whisper of a woodland wardrobe, always patiently waiting to cradle us anew.
Read MoreThe Sacred Seamstress: Weaving the Web That Holds Worlds Together
In these shadowed and fractured times, when visions of one world rise against one another, we must remember the Sacred Seamstress who eternally weaves worlds back into belonging. She appears as Na'ashjé'ii Asdzáá, Spider Grandmother of the Navajo, or as Amaterasu Omikami, the Japanese Shinto sun goddess, or the Valkyries of Norse legend just to name a few . . .This feminine archetype dwells in the shadows wearing a thousand forms and names. Perhaps she awaits within you? Now is the time to call her forth, and she will rise; nourish her, and she will flourish. Explore a few of her many faces and wisdoms in this blog.
Read MoreTide, Tears and Transformation: How Ocean Myths Mother Grief into Meaning
Many maritime myths are stories of love and loss, where the ocean is not just a backdrop but a character in her own right. Like a great mother who bears witness to sorrow, her saltwater depths cradle and honor the tears that fall. Just as salt has long been used as a healing salve, the sea itself becomes a balm—ritualizing grief and softening it into something the heart can hold, both for those who live the tale and those who witness it.
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.
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