Sealskin/Soulskin

 


In Native North America it is said that orca and wolf are the same spirit wearing different shapes for land and sea...

In any place where there are seals, there are legends of the Seal Folk who take off their skins to walk on land in human form...

Storyteller/psychologist Clarrissa Pinkola Estes Ph.D.., in "Women Who Run With the Wolves" talks about the problem of losing your "sealskin/soulskin", and how faerie and folk tales teach us the answers...

Orca looms large in the myths of the Northwest Coast, and there are stories of the whale folk who take off their fins to walk on land in human form. The fin becomes a boat...

Orca: also known as: mak-eh-nuk, keet, skana, swordwhale (zvaardwalvis), agliuk, niss'onkhgessyak, pictwhale, epaulard, kosatka drava, vaghund (hunting together like dogs), akan, grampus, svinka, innuatu, sadshi, repun kamui (master of the open sea)...and in Australia & New Zealand, just orcs.

In the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Elves, in the end, sail west to the Blessed Realm, leaving humans to their world of Middle Earth. In my tales, and illustrations, they are still here, disguised perhaps, but very much involved in teaching, making connections between humans and the rest of the Natural World. Bringing us back our sealskins, soulskins, our lost fins.

I've been drawing animals and the natural world, and telling stories, since I could hold a crayon. I am a voracious reader (especially fantasy, and non-fiction: nature, biology, history), but draw from experience. I live with several cats, a small team of sled dogs, and a lot of books. When I'm not training horses or dogs, you might find me in a mosquito infested salt marsh, in my sea kayak, Makenuk's Fin.