the heroine’s journey
the heroine's journey
is not straightforward
not a linear (or even circular)
path
it is
spiral descents
alive flowerings
dismemberment
shedding
dissolution
death & breath
black hole & birth
finding home
with the other-than-human
navigating
by intuition
& desire
journeying
into underworlds
wild
body
earth
a journey
into and down, in and in and
through and blooming
again
and again
and again again again
this is not a pretty process
it is deepest beauty
& everyone
is welcome
Many frameworks exist for the heroine’s journey. They give us some orientation, but they are not the territory.
We are the territory.
Together, we’ll co-create a mythic map that has never before existed.
in our six-week journey:
Guided by old tales, group councils,
body-knowing, Earth-listening,
& the wise trickster wisdom
of our own storytelling
we will conjure, unveil, imagine,
& tell of how we feel
the heroine’s journey
unfolding in & as our lives
What can we find in these stories & ways
to help ourselves & others
navigate the fertile dark ?
How do we dance even deeper
with the unseen
& body & Earth ?
What
can we offer one another
on this mystery path ?
nourishment & guidance
& in this season of the course,
we’ll open especially into
finding home in the other-than-human worlds
body, earth, & unseen as initiators
& what underworld
might truly mean…
our itinerary
wednesdays, june 3rd – july 8th, 2026
11:30 am – 1:30 pm pacific
zoom
We’ll start our journey by weaving our own ritual container as we begin to weave ourselves as a group. We’ll council about what’s calling us together; learn some about our own and others’ existing ideas of the heroine’s journey; speak to the powerful and necessary ways it contrasts with “the hero’s journey”; and walk through some of how the heroine’s journey has shown up in myths, old tales, and the cultures in which we’ve grown.
As the sessions unfold, we’ll dive even deeper into three old stories (very likely “The Descent of Inanna,” the ancient Irish tale “The Madness of Mis,” and “The Handless Maiden,” though these might shift depending on what comes through our particular group. ) We’ll hear them aloud, and we won’t listen passively; instead, we’ll move, growl, keen, cackle, and express ourselves during the story as much as we wish, inviting body, emotion, eros, and the wild alive fully to the fire. After each story, we’ll council about the experience and how it might illuminate our tracking and mapping of the heroine’s journey in our own lives and the wider worlds.
We’ll also explore through personal storytelling, guided inner journeying, ritual, writing, time outdoors + with the Earth, altar-and-art-making, and other practices our group might bring.
For those who can’t make it to live sessions, recordings will be available (for registered participants only).
These sessions are open to everyone,
no matter your gender.
The heroine’s journey is part of us all.
join the course
To join the Spring Cohort,
click here to answer a few registration questions.
Course fee: $600 – $200 sliding scale
Cohort limited to 13 participants (10 spots left).
(Please note that a deposit of $75 is required to hold your spot, with full payment due by May 30th. All details at the registration link!)
Payment plans available, as well as limited scholarships.
sliding scale
Choose what level feels right to you.
$200 • Community rate: For those experiencing financial hardship, underemployment, or for whom cost is a genuine barrier to participation. No questions asked. We want you here.
$300-400 • Solidarity rate: For those who can meet basic needs comfortably. Covers the actual cost of offering this work.
$500-600 • Sustaining rate: For those with financial privilege and/or disposable income, whose full contribution helps others participate.
questions?
Email Kirsten right here.
about your (human) guide
Kirsten Louise Webb is a professional storyteller, theatre and movement (and other sorts of) artist, writer, and facilitator whose work emerges from the crossroads where imagination, body, story, mystery, and the living Earth interweave in infinite ways. Through long seasons of living nomadically and entirely on the land, chronic illness & healing, underworld journeys, soul-soaring beauty, working with wise teachers, and always always making art and ritual and story, she has learned (and is still learning) to deeply listen for what wants to emerge through bodies, human and more-than-human ecosystems, creativity, and life itself.
She was a co-founder, original faculty, core storyteller, and former head of The School of Mythopoetics; has guided women’s circles throughout the world; and graduated from Yale, where she studied anthropology, queer and experimental women’s literature, writing, and theatre. Kirsten is also a wildcrafter
and herbalist, has assisted with initiation and
wilderness rites-of-passage journeys, and is
a trained carrier of Way of Council. After the
past year following intuition throughout the
world, she’s gladly landed for a bit back amidst
the cedars, mountains, eagles, berries, and seas
of the Pacific Northwest.
All non-photo images are via Pinterest,
and are the artists’ original work.
All writing and other content ©2026 Kirsten Louise Webb