Healers•Teachers•Saints
March 7, 2021Animals were the first beings they had to negotiate their own relationship with, on their own terms.
Category: animal spirit
Drawing Out Poison
January 27, 2021We already knew how to lay down together, wrap our tails around each other…
Wonderment Education
November 29, 2020I’d be teaching my kids wonderment, full time.
Killing Magic
March 4, 2020I suspect that is all magic really is: our relationship to true wildness. It is in the movement of water over rocks, the way fire travels, the song of soil remaking itself across eons.
Carried
September 18, 2018I would like to carry her
down this hallway,
my sometimes tender
often edgy bird,
to lay her on the waiting bed.
Dream-Children
January 5, 2017To look into Cear’s eyes was to stare into your own soul. Once upon a time… there was child born into the world of dreams….
The Grace of a Daily Shapeshifting Practice
October 17, 2016How do you reclaim wildness, when you are part of a culture hell bent on minimizing or destroying everything wild? How do you embody the presence of an animal to call forth your humanity?
Wonderment Rituals
January 10, 2016I suspect somehow that our wonderment actually feeds the Earth.
The Curious Tale of How The Seals Came to Be
October 9, 2015“What are you on about man…why are you trying to keep out the Ocean with that thin wattle?” The youngest Cian often spoke without thinking, as was typical of young people then, just as it is now.
Grieving Slain Dragons
August 4, 2015To finally destroy them in our culture they first had to be painted as physically real, then evil, then slain, replacing many Gods with one God. But if Dragons are larger forces of nature, they cannot be slain anymore than you could kill the rain or wind.
Selkie Dad
June 24, 2015This is the journey available to us if we open to it, the yearning we feel for something more profound, and the answers nature offers us.
Wrestling Saints
May 15, 2015Our two year old has developed a seriously respectable roar in the last few months…
Mud Heart
January 2, 2015Since the big rains came, the Mushroom People have come out in numbers I’ve not seen in a decade. Everywhere I turn a new village appears, populated by fascinating folks.
This Storm
December 12, 2014I’d almost forgotten how deliciously ferocious our weather can be.
The Interesting Thing About Power & Sacrifice
December 3, 2014It was for that reason I was acutely aware of the power released as the roosters spirit passed.
Frog Says Screw the Anthropocene
September 24, 2014To acknowledge that the old way is dying, to grieve it and the many losses that go with it, but realize also…
Life, Death & Screaming Kids
September 15, 2014Now being loved this much is of course AWESOME, the first 5,000 times it happens.
Evidence of Dragons
August 8, 2014Its finally happened, the Dragons are waking up after sleeping for millennia. Halfway around the world three Dragon lairs have appeared this summer, proportedly first swelling then blasting their way open.
Playing With Snakes
July 22, 2014By the time I caught up with True, she was carefully examining a tan, three foot long Bull Snake stretched elegantly across the front path.
This Boy Blossoming
June 3, 2014The heartache I feel when my son is just away for the day at school still takes me by surprise. I want to hold his fierceness tightly, bury him in my heart until his hysterical laughter blows everything wide open.
Omens
March 21, 2014I was wide awake at the wheel when the Elk danced into my headlights. He was big, just under 300 lbs from the sheriffs report. I moved to the right to avoid, he dance to the right, I moved back, he jumped back.
Children Sleep With Dragons
February 10, 2014There is nothing like holding a child, feeling its breath move through you and out into the world. It is the essence of hope, and what flows from that is peace – deep peace.
Born To Ride Dragons
July 26, 2013It took a lot to create a world free of real magic, a world free of true wildness.
The Way Things Could Be
June 3, 2013Our fosterling squeals with glee as I lower her onto Bella’s chest. She immediately latches on to the thick black fur…
Rebuilding The Circle
March 19, 2013All dance is shapeshifting, that was the latest 4am baby-feeding gift.
On The Kindness of Ravens
January 29, 2013You joined the meeting about ten minutes in, slamming up against the plate glass again and again.
Santa Solution: Restoring Our Guardians
December 24, 2012Agencies, institutions and laws do not heal people, that much is clear. At best they can provide opportunities for transformation, guide books, the names of mentors, directions to journey in. They are not in and of themselves, healing. That is the work of our fellow human beings, and the compassionate spirits who offer their wisdom and support.
Paying Your Coyote Tax
November 27, 2012The coyote tax liability we’ve built up is far greater than any national debt could ever be.
No Pests
February 9, 2012Over the months the spirits I work with have continued to teach me more about how to trap gophers in a way that cares for their spirits.
Who Gets to Have a Soul?
October 4, 2011The shamanic journey awakens us to the spiritedness of all things, and to the special responsibility we have to creatures we kill for food.
Mending Our Animal Ways
September 20, 2011I wanted to find a way back into the Earth, deeper into an authentic spirituality.
Blessed Bees, Magical Beets and Slain Lambs
July 12, 2011The sweet earthy flavor of the beets felt the same as the energy of the dreams. Flavors and feelings mingled with the soothing breaths of sleeping wife, son, dog and cat. I swear those beets gave me the dreams.
Every Seal a Selkie
May 5, 2011These stories harken back to a time when the boundaries between people and other creatures were woven …
When Animals Talked
April 26, 2011The Celts were able to hear the voice of the Seals only a few centuries ago because the spirit world was not so far from their daily lives.
Healing Song of Spring
April 19, 2011I have handled more frogs and toads in the last few weeks than I have seen on our land since we moved here. Most were bloatish and leathery, as big as a softballs and stuffed with pomposity.
The Selkie Clan
March 8, 2011I have met Selkie in all the worlds, excepting this one. I believe they have well traveled paths to cross over to wherever they need to go.
February Seal Pup
February 15, 2011I dreamed about a seal pup last night, it was scrawny, groggy and a little snippy – just like I felt. It was the day after my first February swim in the Pacific.
Swimming Cold
February 8, 2011For years I swam the Pacific in winter. The water was so cold I had to spend five minutes submerging my head until the pain gave way to numbness, just so I could do a mile.
Skins
January 25, 2011… despite our toxic times there are still creatures that live on land but respirate like fish.
Journey With The Amphibians
January 18, 2011My new years resolution is to become an amphibian.
Selkie Dreams
September 21, 2010Its not hard to see a Selkie in every Seal or Sea Lion you meet alone in the Ocean. They treat you as an equal, as kin.
The Victory of The Dove
August 30, 2010Omens are a way life can change who we are. They are not just messages, they are reworkings of the place where our spirits and the material world connect.
Stepping Over The Edge: Coyotes Formula For Change
December 7, 2009I felt like my head had been cut off, filled with hysterical laughter and put back on upside down.