Sea Hag shoot for Enchanted Living magazine.

This was a wonderfully fun photo shoot I did for the year of the witch with Enchanted Living.
Here is a snippet of the article that accompanied it...

The Sea Hag for me embodies all the Earth’s elements into a beautiful whole. She has ocean water in her veins, Earth’s sandy beaches under her feet, and abundant plant life from sea grasses above water to the kelp forests offshore. She works with animals from the mammals and fish swimming in the ocean to birds like osprey and sea gulls as well as a myriad of shoreline critters. She can create fire with driftwood and conjure magic that sparkles like sea spray in the sun.

She also has an exceptionally powerful connection with the Moon as the ocean tides are a constant reminder of our celestial Goddess’s pull on the Earth including the water within her own body. The face of the ocean mirrors back the phases of the Moon creating beautiful reminders of the cycles of our lives.

The term “Hag” has often been used as a form of disparagement referring to the aged and ugly old witchy woman living in a hut by the shore. I prefer Sharon Blackie’s idea of the Hag as a term of empowerment and affirmation. She speaks about the second half of life being one of the most powerful and beautiful time of life if we allow. This can be a time where we come in to the full knowing of who we are and what we are about, unafraid to use our powerful wise voices. Gone are the days of being a caretaker, of conforming to the stereo typical idea of what we should be or look like. Now instead of declining into old age we can get our Hagitude on and choose to be our powerful authentic selves and rewrite what “aging” means.

Now in my opinion this Hagitude is not simply for women in their later life. I view it as an aspect of the Feminine architype, one that all humans can embody as part of the make up of who you are. She is that part of you that is wise, centered in your knowing of who you are despite what society norms may say. She is connected to the elements and channels the magic of the Universe. We are each made up of multiple parts, with aspects of both the divine masculine and divine feminine.

Often the business of living can tear us apart, disconnect us from our true miraculous essence. In our growing wisdom as we get older, we can choose to own and make peace with all the different aspects of ourselves. It feels to me this is what true wisdom is, becoming whole and accepting ourselves in all our glorious messiness. Hagitude for me embodies this, thank you Sharon Blackie!