Photo Credit: Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash.

Where the She-Wolf Howls: Awakening the scattered fragments of our wild humanity back into belonging

May 1, 2024

There is an ancient folktale from the desert Southwest about “a woman who was a wolf who was a woman” also known as “Loba Girl” or Wolf Woman who climbs the canyons, and sifts through the arroyos or dry riverbeds, gathering wolf bones over which she sings, until they spring back to life and run off laughing with the voice of a woman. Inspired by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ retelling of this story in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, this folktale invites us to call back to life those buried and discarded parts of ourselves, so that we can find our true voice again.

Power Beneath the Surface: The Psychic Waters of the Unconscious

March 5, 2024

The ocean is a prominent and enigmatic feature in many folktales around the world including: the Irish folktale of the Selkie, the Inuit folktale of Sedna, and the Vietnamese folktale of Dragon and the Crane. According to Carl Jung, the radical and inspirational psychoanalyst, we can explore the meaning of the ocean as a symbol of the unconscious and through this process we can find ways in which the characters’ struggles and transformations resonate with our own illuminating the path to our own self-discovery, forging a deeper connection to our own true authentic identity and our full potential.

The Mitten: the undercurrent of synchronicities that connects us all together

January 22, 2024

There is a folktale about the importance of generosity when faced with a scarcity of resources that can be found in both Ukrainian folklore and in Abenaki folklore. In the Ukrainian version, woodland animals try to fit into a mitten to stay warm even though it is too small, and in the Abenaki version they are all coerced into a bag to feed a hunter and his grandmother even though taking all of them exceeds the hunter’s needs for the winter. Myths and stories that reveal shared values and themes despite having originated from two distinct cultures and landscapes reveals a collective consciousness: an undercurrent of synchronicities that connects us all together.

Skye's Feathered Weavers of Worlds: Dream Carriers, Winged Messengers, and the Liminal Magic of Migrating Birds

October 26, 2023

The old Scottish folktale of the Dreammakers from the Isle of Skye whispers a quiet knowing: that beneath our feet and beyond our sight, migrating birds carry more than wings. As they journey across shifting skies and ushering in the seasons, they bring us our dreams, weaving the outer world with the inner landscape of vision. Resting on the edge of worlds, they remind us that our true belonging rests at the meeting point between here and there. . . from the threshold loom of the open sky where feathers and wings thread landscapes together.