Join the Heroine's Journey, a 5-month initiation into your archetypal feminine ground ✨
Woman,
you are the wellspring...
Waking the Well | The Work of Brielle Elise, MA
mythopoetic imagination ✹ postfeminism & eros-reclamation ✹ emergent feminine leadership
When shown the model of the Heroine's Journey
by his student Maureen Murdock, mythologist Joseph Campbell said: “Women don’t need to make the [Hero’s] journey. In the whole mythological journey, the woman is [already] there. All she has to do is realize that she’s the place that people are trying to get to...”
This body of work is dedicated to midwifing women along their ‘Heroine’s Journey’ — back to the creative life-force, undefended love, and fierce wisdom of their archetypal feminine ground as they define and realize it, so that they can be healing embodiments of the Wellspring — of the otherworld in this world — through their work, play, and love.​
'Waking the Well' was an Old English phrase for the practice of holding vigil by a well to receive guidance from the waters, often practiced by women in the night.
Welcome, I'm Brielle.
Transformational Coach for women (PCC, ICF), Scholar of myth (MA Poetics of Imagination), Storyteller, Writer
Through a combination of storytelling, somatic practice, and transformational coaching, I midwife women along their Heroine's Quest: the archetypal journey of women's initiation away from the one-sided values of a false-masculine culture, and down and in to their archetypal feminine ground and true nature as they define & realize it, so that they can be wise, playful healers in the world, and undefended, blissful women in love. I draw from 9+ years and 2800+ hours of 1:1 transformative coaching and seminars, post-graduate education in the mythopoetic imagination, 10 years of study of Vedic spirituality, and the salt and grit of my own Heroine’s Quest into the paradoxical mysteries of the deep feminine. The vision of all my work is to advance women's evolution into what I see as the third stage of collective feminine consciousness: sacred interdependence, the holy union of opposites — masculine & feminine, this world and otherworld, ego and soul — so that we can be water-bearing women of the Aquarian Age, carrying water into a thirsty world through our work, play, and love.
My Approach
My work is woven of 3 core components:
Mythopoetic Imagination
Stories, symbols & archetypal images to hear the language and guidance of your soul. I help you bypass the limitations of your conscious mind by opening to the power and brilliance of the Unconscious to illuminate the next steps in your journey.
art by Harmonia Rosales
Postfeminism & Eros-Reclamation
Advancing women's collective consciousness from the 2nd stage of independence (feminism) and its shadow of disembodied over-functioning to the third stage of sacred inter-dependence and reclaiming Eros — vital life-force energy — in your body, imagination & heart.
Emergent Feminine Leadership
Leadership as deep listening, as apprenticeship to the Mystery. All of us as students to what the World Soul is speaking via the emerging present, and responding through the vessel of our bodies. Being water-bearers of the Aquarian Age, carrying water into a thirsty world.
“There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling... As women, we have come to distrust that power which rises from our deepest and non-rational knowledge... [but] the erotic offers a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation, nor succumb to the belief that sensation is enough.” — Audre Lorde
Begin Your Heroine's Quest
Through a combination of storytelling, archetypal exploration, somatic practice, and postfeminist mentorship,
I midwife women through these six stages of their Heroine's Journey:
01
Begin with "No":
Put Down "The Show"
& Embrace the Mystery
Say your first big "No" to what is not aligned in your life. Put down “the show” of the over-functioning, hyper-independent superwoman. Embrace your limitations, love and accept your masculine gifts, and come to understand the roots of your over-compensatory patterns and protective shells.
06
The Sacred Marriage:
Returning to the Aboveworld in
Sacred Union of Ego & the Deep Self
Sacred union of your masculine & feminine parts for the benefit of all. Return to the aboveworld in your more complete, true nature. Be the vessel — carrying water into this thirsty world through your embodied wholeness, clarified path, and reinvigorated gifts.
02
The Descent:
Enter the Womb — an Initiatory
Time of the Sacred Unknown
As we put down our over-functioning shells and reorient to the feminine, we enter a meaningful period of sacred uncertainty as tectonic plates shift deep within our psyche. Trust and lean into the Mystery with the help of stories, symbols and archetypal images to illuminate your path.
05
Wild Woman:
Reclaim Your "Yes"
and Liberate Your Bliss
Liberate your Eros — vital life force energy — through somatic practice, recentering play, and embracing sexual taboo. This is your permission slip for wild woman wholeness – to be sexual and spiritual; to play like a child again while being
an old, wise soul.
03
Rematriation:
Recenter the Great Mother,
the Feminine & Your Soul-life
Examine self-limiting beliefs and misunderstandings of the feminine. Prioritize your soul-life. Come to understand a more complete picture of the paradoxical feminine through myths, goddesses, and symbols (including her head-ripping, eros-dripping, ego-slaying, no-bs gravitas).
04
Open to Receive:
Healing with and
Restoring the True Masculine
Examine your masculine shells with love. Develop healthy masculine containment within yourself and with Life so you can feel safe and shine. Heal your mistrust in the Masculine as God, Life, and mortal man so you can open to receive and relax into a deeply supported, easeful life.
Embark on your Heroine's Quest.
Be the first to be notified about "The Heroine's Journey" —
a transformative 5-month initiation into your archetypal feminine ground
as you define & realize it. Coming soon.
“I’ve been a feminist all my life, but I don’t think
I’ve ever really allowed myself to be a woman.”
— excerpt from a woman in the book 'Weeds in the Heart'
by Nathaniel Hughes
Carry the Water:
Join the Newsletter.
Be the first to hear about our mythopoetic programs, storytelling journeys, writing salons & events.