Body remembers the commons.
Every body remembers a way of belonging that existed before domination.
When relationship is intact, freedom doesn’t need defending. It simply lives in belonging.
Body remembers before colonization.
Colonization is not only the taking of land.
Colonization is the interruption of relationship.
It teaches body to distrust our knowing.
To fear our instincts.
To value productivity over reciprocity.
To inherit ownership instead of kinship.
No one living in settler culture escapes this unchanged.
Some bodies have carried the immediate violence of colonization for generations. Others have inherited the stories, institutions, and habits that made colonization possible.
The wounds are not identical.
Neither are the responsibilities.
Yet all living within the enclosure are shaped by the same rupture.
Body remembers before colonization.
Soul tending begins by trusting what body remembers.
It is the practice of listening.
Relationship is the original medicine. Soul Tending sessions are where we practice it. Together, we listen to body, dreams, ancestors, land, and soul until relationship begins to restore itself.
From Elder to Ancestor
Nature Kinship for All Seasons of Life
2025 Nautilus Silver Award Winner
A practical guide to becoming a good Ancestor by being a fit elder
Meet Kelley
S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.
Kelley Harrell is an animist, author, deathwalker, and death doula held by Tuscarora, Woccon, and Sissipihaw land. For the last 30 years, through Soul Intent Arts she’s helped others ethically build thriving spiritual paths. Her work is Nature-based, and centers soul tending through the Elder Futhark runes, animism, ancestral tending, and deathwork. She hosts the podcast, What in the Wyrd, and also writes The Weekly Rune as a celebration of the Elder Futhark in season. Work with her in the Runes for Change community or in her intensive soul tending training, The Spirited Path. Full bio.
#beyourcommunity ~ #youareecosystem
elder well, die well, ancestor well