08/18/2025
In 2005, two phrases came to me at a retreat that would shape the course of my life: midwife of death and fireseed.
At the time, I had no idea what they meant, only that they carried both mystery and responsibility. Later that year, I made a drum and stepped into my first shamanic class, following a thread I could not yet name.
Looking back, I see how I was being led—by Spirit, by soul, by something ancient and unseen. My life slowly turned toward helping others rediscover their power: not power over, but power within. Out of that seed grew Fireseed Center—a gathering place to explore cycles of the Earth, to heal in community, and to remember our connection to what is sacred and true.
Twenty years later, the phrase midwife of death has matured within me. For years it frightened me, felt too big for me to hold. But all along, life was preparing me—through service, through loss, through learning—to step deeper into the thresholds of grief, letting go, and transformation.
For a time I thought the call meant becoming an end-of-life doula. I trained in grief education, death literacy and as a death doula. Yet the truth revealed itself: my work is not only at the end, but in the living. In the silences we avoid. In the conversations we resist. In the spaces of death, dying, grief, loneliness, and disconnection where power can still be remembered and reclaimed.
From this truth, Woven Roots was born.
It is the continuation of Fireseed, now grown into a tree whose roots run deep into soul, lineage, and community. Roots that remember. Roots that hold. Even when branches are broken. Even when fire scorches the bark. Even when winds rage—still, the roots remain.
The pandemic cracked us open, exposing our fragility and our strength. In that pause, many of us remembered what is elemental: Earth, creativity, care, and communion. We were reminded that true healing does not happen in the branches, but in the soil, in the unseen places below.
This is where Woven Roots lives—at the depth, at the root, at the soul.
Here, healing is not about fixing what is broken. It is about remembering what has always held us, and allowing ourselves to grow into what is truer, wiser, and more alive.
Together, we weave healing and remembrance. Together, we listen for the whisper of the roots. Together, we honor the thresholds of life, death, and being. This is where we are going and I would be honored to share this path with you.
Grounding you in love, Katharine @ Woven Roots
(Fireseed Center is now Woven Roots. If you would like to be added to our newsletter please reach out. If you were on our Fireseed Center newsletter it will carry over. Check the website for more
info: www.woven-roots.org)
