the selkie’s homecoming
WRITING RITUALS FOR WAKING THE WILD SOUL
Sometimes the old stories are the best medicine. Sometimes we feel the hidden rhythm of our lives resonate between the lines of a poem. Sometimes we find a home within a myth, a forbidden sanctuary within a fairy tale. We are all shapeshifters, after all.
For both sessions, the only materials required are an oracle deck of your choosing, journal, and writing utensil. There are optional materials listed for the first event, but these are not necessary.
HERE IS A PLAYLIST TO INSPIRE
Session One: POETRY OF THE SELKIE’S STOLEN SKIN
Optional Materials: You are invited to build a “house” for this story in preparation for the ritual. This is a small altar that might include shells, sand, stones, saltwater, and a piece of fabric that represents your pelt, your soul-skin.
We have all been lured away from the soul-home. In this first session, Danielle will lead participants through a ceremonial storytelling of The Selkie’s Pelt, inviting them to see their stories through the lens of the Selkie’s journey. Participants will integrate the work by writing three poems marking the severance, the trial, and the return, drawing from their “poet’s palette” of words and symbols inspired by the story.
Resource Mentioned: Article on Rites of Passage by Malidoma Some
Session Two: BECOMING WORD-WITCH
During the second part of this workshop, participants will write their own short story ceremony, crafting a ritual to mark a transition or initiation inspired by the Selkie’s tale. Danielle will share the foundations of ceremonial storytelling and invite participants to self-design their own version of the ritual, to adapt the language to their own experience, to create a meaningful rite of passage, to become word-witch.
Resource Mentioned: The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Frances Weller