The Sea Maiden: A Selkie Tale
Imbas Dispatch #5
A Chairde, Friends,
I open today’s Imbas Dispatch with three questions:
Where is my sealskin?
Where is my fishscale cloak?
Where is my red-feathered hood?
These questions are inspired by three shapeshifters in Gaelic folklore and other island traditions beyond these shores. They belong to the selkie (sealwoman or sealman), the maighdean mara (sea maiden or mermaid), and the murúch (merrow, mermaid, or merman), and to each of you who yearn to reclaim your soulskin, even when it's one scale at a time.
‘... to be without the pelt [sealskin] causes a woman to pursue what she thinks she should do, rather than what she truly wishes… in a world that values driven women who go, go, go, the stealing of soulskins is very easy.’
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
How many of us have voyaged out to sea with no oars, no sails, only the tale of a shapeshifting sea maiden in our hearts, in search of the dán, the soul gift she has to offer us? A gift we have no words for, and yet we know it will come with a sacrifice—a holy one we’re willing to make.
Many of you reading these words will understand how this folktale has featured in my work over the years, central to my creative mentoring. I also offer a self-paced course, Rescuing Your Sealskin. This story keeps cycling back, and my own retellings keep changing, never static like the seawaters from which these shapeshifters emerge.
Today, I share an audio retelling inspired by the folktale of Thady Rua O’Dowd from Co. Sligo in the west of Ireland, a local chieftain who stole a sea maiden’s fishscale cloak and held her captive in his world. With the help of her youngest child, the mermaid retrieves her mantle and, with her magical wand, transforms each of her seven children into stone before plunging herself into the Atlantic Ocean. These seven stones, ‘The Children of the Mermaid,’ can be found close to the shore in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo.
You can find this folktale in our national folklore database, here is one version recorded in the 1930s.
I encourage you to invite in the element of water as you allow the words to wash over you, whether that be by listening near a water source or sipping a warm cuppa.
What bubbles up for you from this story of our shapeshifting sister?
Where is your sealskin?
Listen to The Sea Maiden
Wearing Your Soulskin
If you are longing for a space to tend to your soulskin, I have a creative immersion coming up this autumn with my soul sister Aoife Lowden of Leigheas Dé Danann. The theme is Dreaming Your Dán with the Otherworld. Dán (“dawn”) is a numinous Old Irish word for your soul’s gift, your calling in this life. Our ancestors believed that each one of us enters this life with a rare magical gem seeded inside of us that we must live into and gift to our world in our own unique way. This is a truth that burns bright inside both myself and Aoife, and we want to create a safe, intimate, and creative space for you to tend to this flame.
This is a residential immersion in late September/early October in the Boyne Valley (just outside of Dublin) for 8 women, staying in gorgeous accommodation and working in a co-creative spirit with soul, the Otherworld, and the land. We will spend time simmering on the soil of the ancient royal capital of Éire, Ireland, in Tara, and the neolithic temples of Newgrange and Knowth.
We will be releasing more information in the coming week or so. If you are fizzing at this prospect, please reply to this email, and we’ll make sure you’re the first to know once we go live, as there are only 8 spaces available.
Movement Classes for Creatives
Thanks a million to all who came to our Non-Linear Movement for Creatives classes, I hope you received whatever nourishment you desired from this experience. Over the summer, I will be focusing my energies on my never-ending book proposal (lol) and spending time with my two wee boys. However, if there is interest, I will run these classes again for you, along with other variations, in the autumn. Please click on the poll below to let me know.
Our next live event for members is our Co-Working with the Creative Otherworld on 18th July 2024 @13:00-14:00 Irish Time. You can register here.
Wishing you all a week of selkie magic!
Croí isteach,
Jen x
Gorgeous. As a deep apprentice to the Selkie, I am so grateful to hear another telling, with new and nuanced aspects, to bring the mythos even deeper into my soul. With much gratitude for your generous shares, Amanda
I’d be curious to know more about the murúch and the feathered cap. As well is the difference between the maighdean mara and murúch —are they overlapping identities? I wasn’t able to really conjure a mental image of murúch