11/17/2025
✨ELEN of the WAYS: Finding Clarity in the Shifting Seasons✨
✨ During this time of year, my focus on the psychological safety of empathetic women leaders moves to the more intimate spaces of the home and hearth, where traditions of HEALING, GATHERING, and GUIDING take root.
✨ As a former clergy, I’ve always questioned a strictly Christo-centric lens to the season and find meaning in a more expansive approach that celebrates the divine feminine, the CYCLICAL MOVEMENTS of nature, and the powerful shifts associated with the approaching Winter Solstice.
✨ I’ve been especially drawn to the tradition of ELEN of the WAYS, an ancient Celtic goddess associated with migratory pathways and journeys. She is an important archetype dating back to the Ice Age, when hunter-gatherer communities relied on deer herding patterns and celestial movements to find their way.
✨ Elen of the Ways is often depicted with deer antlers, flying through the night sky revealing ancient "trackways" and "leys," a symbol of GUIDANCE, INTUITION, and sacred movement across both physical and spiritual landscapes.
✨ Western depictions of Santa’s reindeer build on this narrative. However, while modern understandings assume the flying herd is male, they are more accurately female. Reindeer are the only deer species in which females grow antlers, which remain through the winter months to forage for food, while males lose their antlers in the fall.
✨ Recapturing the feminine tradition of Elen of the Ways brings new life and opportunities for BELIEF and IMAGINATION during a season that can be easily overlooked by more dominant narratives.
“Lady of the ancient track, be by our side when the stars are dim and few” ~ Prayer of Elen
