✨🧜♀️To Capture a Selkie 🧜♀️✨
To Capture a Selkie
There are stories from the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland - Scotland) about mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. These tales are also connected to merpeople (mermaids).
A typical folk-tale is that of a man who steals a female selkie's skin, finds her naked on the sea shore, and compels her to become his wife. But the wife will spend her time in captivity longing for the sea, her true home, and will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. She may bear several children by her human husband, but once she discovers her skin, she will immediately return to the sea and abandon the children she loved.
I see great symbolism in this story about a man who is in essence trying to capture the free spirit of a womyn. (I choose to spell womyn like this as it is free and independent the root of ‘man’.)
Do you know that the true meaning of a virgin is a ‘FREE woman - independent, autonomous, untied’?
For thousands of years western culture has been dominated by patriarchy. Our schools, religions and dominant paradigm have been framed from the viewpoint of the white militant man. This is the way in which we are taught to see the world. It requires an unwinding of your foundational way of thinking to break through this mental framework. 🌀
To bring it back around to the selkies: If you want to capture a free womyn, a selkie, you have to metaphorically steal her seal skin. 🧜♀️
You can’t truly ‘own’ anyone. Marriage can be akin to stealing a selkies skin.
‘The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting one woman and one man dates from about 2350 B.C., in Mesopotamia. Marriage’s primary purpose was to bind women to men, and thus guarantee that a man’s children were truly his biological heirs. Through marriage, a woman became a man’s property.’
Speaking from the perspective of a womyn who has an independent nature, if and when a man starts acting in a possessive manner towards me, I will gallop away at full speed in the other direction. I don’t want anyone capturing my sacred selkie skin.
Celebrating freedom of self is important. I’m not condoning marriage & relationships here. I’m encouraging healthy relationships where each individual is allowed true freedom of spirit. This is up to each unique person’s perspective.
I like to look at the root cause of belief systems & question the why and how of cultural norms.
You are free to create your own reality.
You do not need to settle for anything less than what supports your highest expression of self.
I realize this piece may be a bit controversial. I was inspired to write it as I see so many wimmin settling for unhealthy, toxic relationships where there is an acceptance of constant criticism. In sharing this I am not lumping all men into being the perpetrators of belittling wimmin. It takes two to tango. The patterns can also be reversed where the womyn is constantly criticizing a man. As mentioned above, we are all psychologically molded by an unhealthy cultural paradigm where fear and violence are rampant.
I write this in acceptance of all men and wimmin in their healthiest expression of self,
whatever that may be. I believe it is necessary to bravely look at cultural conditioning & examine our foundational thinking.
I support selkies of both sexes being present in relationship with no capturing of seal skins necessary!
Free the selkies!
✨ 🧜♀️✨ 🧜♂️✨🧜♀️✨🧜♂️✨🧜♀️✨🧜♂️✨
To check out more of my writing, videos & photos sharing my selkie/mermaid life on Kaua’i with my beloved beasts check out my Instagram page.
Please share comments and feedback if I’m inspired, I always love hearing feedback!