Sanctuary
an online animist and ancestrally-rooted monthly gathering
for burned out and weary sensitive souls, seekers, and quiet revolutionaries
to
rest deeply;
nourish your body and soul;
and recommit your attention to what truly matters
photo by Jason Rojas
Have you heard the tale of the selkie woman?
A woman who, with her seal pelt intact, has the power to move between the realms - the mysterious and elemental depths of the sea and the hearth of land?
Her story actually begins with a lonely fisherman, a domesticated man. One who had lost touch with the wild and numinous until, one night coming back with his boat, he sees the selkie woman and her sisters, women of unnatural and untamed beauty, dancing naked in the light of the full moon.
You can probably imagine what he felt in that moment, because you’ve probably felt it, too, when you encounter something you want for yourself, something you’re missing and hungry for deep inside. And perhaps you can relate to our lonely, domesticated fisherman, too, when he doesn’t know how to soothe that hunger other than trying to possess it and make it more like him. Oh, the things we do when we’ve lost sight of our true nature! Oh, the hurt of having body and soul be mistaken for a resource rather than possibility for connection!
So, bewitched and filled with his own soul’s longing, he snatches up her seal pelt and when the time comes to return to the sea, she cannot.
He begs, cajoles, refuses to give it back. He demands pity as only one who doesn’t know their own power can, until she - for whatever reason (perhaps fear, curiosity, compassion, an impulse towards deeper experience and wisdom no matter the price?) - agrees to marry him and stay with him for seven years.
Within a few, there is a child, a son. And as the child grows, no matter how much the selkie woman loves him, no matter how much she adapts to her new life of hearth and home, her body and spirit begin to dry out and fade. She is living a half life and a part of her goes unnourished. She is meant to swim the depths, to be able to travel between worlds, and cannot survive a life confined to the surface.
One night, after overhearing a fight between his mother and father with the father refusing to give her her pelt back, even though more than seven years have passed; the son begins to hear an unearthly voice calling to him. He follows the voice only to find the seal pelt his father had hidden away. He takes it back to his mother and she is once again able to go back to depths and be nourished by her people, the water, the mystery; and to instruct her half-human, half-selkie child on how to be a world-bridger.
**this version written by me, Kate Powell
And you?
Do you resonate with the selkie’s slow fade?
Perhaps with how she loves her family and yet she can’t continue in the same way because she’s lost something essential?
Do you, too, long for the depths; for your own untamed mystery; and yet feel unable to find your way back?
See, burnout isn’t a personal failing or an inability to “find the right balance”. It’s your body and soul refusing to participate in dehumanizing conditions - conditions which don’t let you honor your true nature.
So burnout recovery isn’t about finding coping mechanisms in order to keep participating - selling off small pieces of both your humanity and your soul skin as the price to “making it work”.
Burnout recovery is an invitation to be initiated more fully into a harmonious marriage between our earth-bound human self and our shape-shifting soul. It's a calling back to love; reciprocity; belonging; and deep, sacred connection - starting with self and rippling out into every facet of our lives.
And in a society and systems which are actively working to steal our focus and our rest, to numb out our hearts and souls, it’s a quiet revolution; a re-rooting of ourselves into a living cosmology that sustains, rather than depletes, the spirit of Aliveness.
By taking an animist and ancestral approach…
by looking for deeper, sturdier, healthier root stock to graft our modern needs and concerns onto…
by embodying more of the connection, the softness, and the vitality we want (and less of the disconnect, fragmentation, overwhelm, and numbness which are symptoms of what isn’t working)…
we can perhaps start creating a world we won’t burnout in.
One where we don’t just settle for survival, but where we thrive.
So if you’re…
feeling pulled in a million directions, so overwhelmed your brain goes fuzzy every time you try to prioritize and focus in on what matters;
feeling dry and parched after an extended period of setting your needs aside while trying to be everything to everyone;
moving into a different life season and feeling a deeper sense of urgency to find your own voice, take up your own space, and live in a way which feels meaningful to your own soul’s compass (even if it risks disappointing others)';
feeling trapped in your head, unable to connect with yourself, your loved ones, your life; and you’re trying to find your way back into your body and more connection;
… perhaps Sanctuary is the place to begin shifting all that so you feel clearer, more rested and connected.
What You Can Expect in Sanctuary
The exact content of each month’s gathering will be intuited in the moment and responsive to who shows up and what feels most appropriate. Occasionally there will be guest facilitators.
But you can expect to experience a weaving together of shamanic wisdom and ceremony, movement, storytelling, guided journeying/ meditation, and other forms of holistic, spiritual healing and support.
When:
We’ll meet on the second Monday of each month at 12pm ET (9am PT || 5pm UK time)
How long:
Gatherings will be 45min and will follow the bones of:
returning to yourself;
grounding into body, breath, and present moment;
reconnecting and resting deeply within Source.
All with the aim of leaving you feeling more intact, present, connected, and refreshed.
There will be an optional extra 30min where the Zoom room will be open for informal community time and conversation. Take off when we wrap the more formal portion, if you need to; or have some food and/or warm beverage standing by and stick around for a chat.
Recording:
Our official 45min will be recorded and those will be available for you for four weeks in case you can’t attend live or wish to experience the call again before the next one. It is still highly recommended you attend live where possible - we like to be with you and see your face. The extra informal community time will not be recorded.
(*important note: this container does not promise to solve your burnout. It’s one piece. True burnout recovery needs significantly more commitment than one gathering per month and also needs us shifting the way we engage with the world so we create a way of living we won’t burn out from. This is also not designed for those going through a more acute initiation process - ie extreme anxiety and very charged/ activated trauma responses or deep depression states. Some of what we’re doing here might stir those up more, without the time and bespoke attention needed to see the pattern through to some repair. If you’re experiencing those and think an animist and ancestral approach is something you want to explore, let’s schedule a chat and see if my 1:1 work would be appropriate for you or if something else would suit you better.)
photo by david edelstein
To Register
Like a typical yoga studio structure, Sanctuary gatherings are available as:
drop-in classes, purchased one-at-a-time;
or a package, purchased six-at-a-time (gives a slight discount on each class).
The Packages
The packages of six sessions can be paid for with a one-time fee or in six monthly (consecutive) installments.
Package sessions do not need to be used in consecutive months, but if you choose to pay in monthly installments, those will be billed in consecutive months.
Packages are valid for one year - please plan to use your six sessions within that time frame.
To purchase a package, please follow the links under the “6 Sessions” section below. Once purchased, look out for a confirmation email which will have your code and a link to schedule the Sanctuary sessions you’d like to attend.
photo by Sean Stratton
Single session: $20 USD
**follow the link here or click “Book” on the session you want on the calendar below.
photo by Joeri Römer
Pay In Full: $108 USD ($18/ session)
Monthly Billing: $18 USD/ month for six consecutive months
Your host and guide:
Hi! I’m Kate - an old soul and highly sensitive empath who spent years burning out by trying to numb my sensitivity and tame myself to fit in… which ultimately gave me tons of practice finding my way back to aliveness.
Bridging the worlds of animist and ancestral reconnection, shamanism, movement, storytelling, and deep nature connection; I now guide burned out pilgrims and seekers, witches and intuitives, compassion-junkies and quiet-but-fierce revolutionaries.
Together, we embark on a deep journey to heal their overwhelm, disconnect, and exhaustion through resting into their soft heart, reclaiming their energy and power from their shadows and the shadows of modern society, and ultimately anchoring themselves in their rhythm of aliveness and a living cosmology they won’t burn out from.
You can find out more about me here.
I’m glad you’re here.