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.
Read MoreTern Teachings: Guests that Nest & Give
It is not only humans that tell stories. . . In the voice of bright white feathers and a charming black cap, a story darts its way through gusts of wind off the coast of Massachusetts hatching out of makeshift nests of pebbles and dry grasses. during the months of April and May. It is a seasonal story with themes of reciprocity and interdependence between the arctic tern, a migrating bird, and local coastal cloudberry flowers suggesting that even temporary guest can still contribute to a landscape’s thriving.
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