Putting the Sealskin Back On

There's a really ancient story about a seal who would, like all other seals, take off her skin and relax on the rocks in the sun, with her beautiful woman body (as all seals have been known to do) when a man spotted her there and instantly fell in love with her.  To keep her with him, he of course hid her sealskin and she had no choice but to come and live with him as his wife.  Of course, the story goes, she eventually started to get sick and craved the depths of the ocean again.  And so her son was able to help her find that long lost sealskin so that she could go back to her underwater home.

I told this story to my students today.  I mentioned that animal pelts have been highly symbolic for a long time, as each animal hair tends to raise up all by itself whenever there is the remotest sense of danger nearby.  In this way, an animal pelt is equipped with millions of 'eyes' to spot things not seen by the natural eye.  For a human to wear the animal pelt meant that he or she was able to use the 6th sense 'animal' power, elevating him/herself into a supreme state of knowing.  Shamans were therefore garbed in many overlapping pelts.

Losing one's skin means losing touch with this deeper sense of knowing; regaining it means becoming reacquainted with the soul.

As fall comes and the days are sheltered with cloud cover, I am getting ready for big dreams, dreams which will show me the way.