of Mud & Mystery: 
Field notes from my wanderings in the alchemy of mud and mystery as we engage in the slow magic of being human

Ever since I can remember, I have felt a strong pull toward the depths, toward the unseen forces that shape our lives. Throughout my life I have had many names for this other world: god, archetypes, goddess, creative daemon, the sacred, unconscious, wild soul. Sometimes I still like each of these in their own time, some more than others. But generally, I feel most at ease with the Mysteries or the Unknown.

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I’ve been astonished to notice how in my youth I felt the Mysteries draw me up and away from the mud of being here. But through the years I began to follow the Mysteries deeper into earth, body, and into this slow messy work of being the human part of nature. This is the alchemy between mud and mystery that I am so curious about… (I have whole essay on this, so if you are looking for a place to start this may be a good one!)

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Through the years I have wandered through many places… through growing up in a fundamentalist religious commune and then walking out of the temples of the white male god. Through the underworld for years of unmaking, where the songs and singing kept the embers in my heart from going out completely. Into new ways of knowing and being, into new images of the sacred. Through a long marriage and a crushing divorce. Through mothering an exquisite human. Through being found by seminal books that changed the course of my life and led me, eventually, to a PhD program in Depth Psychology. Into creating a small community of fellow travelers. Into writing books and making podcasts, and now into this experiment in field notes…

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Of Mud & Mystery is a letter devoted to deepening into and sharing field notes from all this wandering and exploring. Since you are here, I assume you are also curious about this alchemy of mud and mystery, earth and imagination, matter and spirit.

I trust our belonging to each other and am deeply grateful for the kinship we can find as fellow wanderers and curious souls.