Lineage of Thought

I (Stephanie) am a white woman working within a soul parts practice. My lineage and spiritual practices are a patchwork of Nordic, Scandinavian, Irish/Celtic through ancestry, rich with animism, balance, story, and guides. I, like many, was born into the disembodiment of whiteness, a gross inheritance from too many of my ancestors who gave up parts of their souls in exchange for assimilation. This is not something I hold lightly.

It is undeniable that the practices, tools, and rituals of BIPOC people are appropriated within white spiritual spaces and beyond. I have learned from Rebecca, The White Woman Whisperer, that one way to interrupt the patterns of whiteness is to learn who and where we ourselves have come from. I have taken this to heart as a mapline leading out of assimilation and into a long-awaited return. I won’t pretend that I have eradicated every last drop of whiteness from myself (I’m often heartbreakingly aware I haven’t), but I make an ongoing vow to never stop investigating, naming, and dismantling the oppressor within as Audre Lorde has taught us to do.

So, in alignment with my integrity and always evolving in understanding, I practice what is mine, honor what is not, and revere collaborative energies. I teach Inner Territory from my own practices and invite you to explore it through yours.

As exploratory as I am with the spiritual practices of my pre-colonial ancestors, I am wildly cautious about who I learn from, knowing that many European spiritualities have been co-opted and distorted by white supremacy. I reject that insertion and oppose it with my entire soulbody.

My deeply revered lineage of thought is always evolving and has included Merlin Stone, Audre Lorde, Gina Pollard, Octavia Butler, Joy Harjo, Mel Gentry Bosna, Sean Kane, Perdita Finn, Holly Ringland, adrienne maree brown, Toi Marie Smith, Rob Bell, bell hooks, Ivy Mulligan, Andrea Gibson, Sophie Strand, Emily Dickenson, Ada Limón, Henri JM Nouwen, Carl Jung, Louise Erdrich, Jesmyn Ward, Chimamanda Ngozi Aidichie, Cole Arthur Riley, Chidimma Commer, Alok V Menon, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Malialani Dullanty, Holly Gilman, Clark Strand, Monjica Sjöö, Barbara Mor, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Maya Angelou, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Adrienne Rich, Jaiya John, St Therese of Lisieux, Glennon Doyle, Mary Oliver, Jovie Hawthorn Browne, and Elianne El-Amyouni. This well of influence is always evolving, but it is important to name the voices, minds, and lives that have, over time, impacted, softened, and helped birth all of the writing you will find here.

I have deep respect and appreciation for the kinship of soul work across many lineages and encourage you to learn from teachers who are living libraries of wisdom. Where and who do you also come from? Those mythlines are wildly important to learn so that your own spirituality and living begin to work in tandem to dehydrate the thirsty beast of whiteness.

White cishet women will not rebuild the world. We will not usher in a new way. Black and Indigenous women have spent lifetimes building and preserving the scaffolding and liberatory foundations of a better world. They are the captains of these ships.

It is deeply important to me that, as you come to my work, you understand that I am not, cannot ever be, an architect of worlds, but I am a diehard believer in a better one. I can see its shape and substance within the Inner Territory, within myth and folklore, within movements and resistance, within books and newsletters written by the women and others I have listed below, within the overlapping waters of past and present, within people, within Nature itself. I am a student and a recipient of the wisdom I’ve absorbed from Black, Palestinian, and Indigenous women, as well as trans and nonbinary People of Color who will, for a long, long time be, and are now, leading us.

With all my heart, I point you in the direction of these world builders and visionaries of a better world. Draw from them first and foremost. And, if Inner Territory work, as I’ve learned and teach it, calls to you, please come and find me. I’ll be here. A deckhand, not a captain , as we steer ourselves home.