Have you heard the tale of the selkie woman?

A woman who, with her seal pelt intact, has the power to move between the realms - the mysterious and elemental depths of the sea and the hearth of land?

Her story actually begins with a lonely fisherman, a domesticated man. One who had lost touch with the wild and numinous until, one night coming back with his boat, he sees the selkie woman and her sisters, women of unnatural and untamed beauty, dancing naked in the light of the full moon.

You can probably imagine what he felt in that moment, because you’ve probably felt it, too, when you encounter something you want for yourself, something you’re missing and hungry for deep inside. And perhaps you can relate to our lonely, domesticated fisherman, too, when he doesn’t know how to soothe that hunger other than trying to possess it and make it more like him. Oh, the things we do when we’re scared to let life change us and instead try to make it fit us!

So, bewitched and filled with his own soul’s longing, he snatches up her seal pelt and when the time comes to return to the sea, she cannot.

He begs, cajoles, refuses to give it back, demands pity as only one who doesn’t know their own power can, until she - for whatever reason (perhaps fear, curiosity, compassion, an impulse towards deeper experience and wisdom no matter the price?) - agrees to marry him and stay with him for seven years.

Within a few, there is a child, a son. And as the child grows, no matter how much the selkie woman loves him, no matter how much she adapts to her new life of hearth and home, her body and spirit begin to dry out and fade. She is living a half life and a part of her goes unnourished. She is meant to swim the depths and cannot survive a life confined to the surface.

One night, after overhearing a fight between his mother and father with the father refusing to give her her pelt back, even though more than seven years have passed; the son begins to hear an unearthly voice calling to him. He follows the voice only to find the seal pelt his father had hidden away. He takes it back to his mother and she is once again able to go back to depths and be nourished by her people, the water, the mystery; and to instruct her half-human, half-selkie child on how to be a world-bridger.

**version written by Kate Powell

We are these world-bridgers.

In fact, we are each all of these characters. Male, female, somewhere in between, or somewhere outside… doesn’t matter.

We’re meant to be able to move between the surface and the depths.

Our deepest work in these times, and in the moments when we’re feeling torn between burning down something in our lives or dying ourselves, is to bring these selves back into right relationship within us so we can feel more alive in the lives we have and be the change we want to see in the world.

Perhaps you loved going to church until you felt like there wasn’t room there for your untamed nature?

Or perhaps you’ve been setting your needs aside while raising the children and loving your kin and you’re feeling dry and parched yourself?

Perhaps you’re moving into a different life season, your relationship to work and home are changing, and there’s a deeper sense of urgency to live a purpose which feels beyond the smallness of our soul-starved culture?

Or maybe you find it hard to keep living from your heart in a world designed to pull you to your head and you want some accountability and support navigating that?

Whatever the case, you’ve probably felt your pelt come back at least once, or something close to it (*note: if you are new to this type of work and experiencing your first awakening to your wild self, please consider starting with 1:1 work and joining the group later. This is not designed to hold people in the middle of an acute initiation process)

and you’re hungry for a place to go beneath the surface and nourish your deeper soul; a place of no demands where you can belong with others, to the world, and to and by yourself.

Designed based off of the best of what church can offer - but for wild souls and witchy humans - there will be

• ancestrally-rooted myths and stories told as medicine,

• deep conversation,

• quiet contemplation or creation,

• sharing and being witnessed

Supported

Basic

Sustainer

Monthly: $20/ month

Pay In Full: $120

Monthly: $35/ month

Pay In Full: $210

Monthly: $50/ month

Pay In Full: $300

Your host and guide:

Hi! I’m Kate - an old soul who tried both being ‘numb and normal’ and the queen of burning it all to the ground; but found being a semi-feral mystic at the wild edges of right here and now was the only rhythm of aliveness which worked for me. Now I support other humans who’ve lost their spark and want it back to find their wild edges and whole-hearted aliveness - in the life they have. You can find out more about me here.

I’m glad you’re here.