We are living through difficult times, and our connection to each other and to nature is needed more than ever. As you invite a deeper ocean connection into your life and honour the wisdom of the earth, so you develop the capacity to be the change that the world needs right now.
Pippa Best
I think I met my guest today, Pippa Best, through one of my mentors — Suzi Banks Baum (who introduced me to daily creative practice many years ago) — and when I bought a set of Pippa’s ocean oracle cards, I was in. I just completed a few months of her gentle guidance in a program called Ocean Altar: Sea for the Soul and wanted to pass along a bit of her wisdom to all of you. These are very much difficult — horrible — times, and I do believe there are positive things we can do to not just stay sane emotionally but to use our bodies and put them — literally — into the water, into the sea — and figuratively — into that sea within us. We can be activists, both inside of ourselves and outside of ourselves on this beautiful planet.
Here’s Pippa Best:
Perhaps the most important thing to share about myself is that the sea has changed my life, health and work for the better in every way – mentally, physically and spiritually…
I’ve always loved the ocean. But for the past eight years or so, I’ve swum (or just “dipped” when it’s very cold) in the sea most mornings, here in Penzance, Cornwall. I’m lucky to live just a few minutes away from Mounts Bay, a little pocket of sea that also holds St Michael’s Mount, an ancient castle and chapel on a rocky outcrop, reached only by a causeway covered at high tide.
These waters have become as familiar to me now as a shared back garden. Yet there is always something new to discover. In and around the sea, I feel a deep connection to something greater than myself. I find it easier to go within – and to create. Each swim brings a new gift – of courage, vitality, peace, belonging or something else altogether.
In 2018, an unexpected idea arrived on the tides – to capture some of the sea’s gifts as little blessings cards. For those who couldn’t physically get to the water, this could be a way to access the wisdom and magic of the sea. The words flowed, were sieved through my fingers like sand – it was as if I was translating something directly from the sea. And the cards appeared.
These popular little blessings cards evolved into the Sea Soul Journeys Oracle Cards, now sold all over the world. Then, the Sea Soul Journal: a Guided Journey, which shares some of the mindful tools and rituals I practice by the ocean, was published a couple of years later. It still amazes me to witness how these gifts from the ocean have rippled out in recent times – not just through my own life, but through the lives of others. And now, I somehow get to run a business, Sea Soul Blessings, where I do all the things I most love – by the sea!
I run beachside retreats here in Cornwall, coach (including Blue Health Coaching TM) and offer holistic treatments (in person and virtually). Much of my time right now is spent hosting and creating materials for Ocean Altar, my newest group programme. This offering arose as a call to step deeper into trust and intuition. Not as an escape from the horrors of the world around us, but as way to strengthen our capacity to be more fully present. Both to the current polycrisis and to the challenges of our own lives – so that we can find our way through them.
In Ocean Altar, I guide an international group to deepen our connection to the ocean, to our intuition, and to the divine within and around us. We approach this through the practice of creating and visiting Ocean Altars – here in Cornwall, in our own homes, and within ourselves. Each participant creates a home Ocean Altar where they pause regularly to honour themselves and the ocean (we’re all water after all…). As they do so, I offer weekly support to clarify and move towards their intentions, and share simple healing altar practices that we can all try in our own time.
I hold the sacred space for this group virtually - and here by the vast Ocean Altar of the Cornish sea. I’ve also taken our group Ocean Altar to Gran Canaria and to the Isle of Arran in Scotland, sharing these adventures in emailed love letters. Here by the water, I host rituals for the group on the full and new moons, and send distance reiki healing to help clear any blocks that arise.
I also offer an individual programme where we go deeper, which is my absolute favourite thing to do. I get to work with participants more directly, offering an holistic combination of individual coaching, personal oracle card readings, and one to one reiki healing.
We are living in what often feel like wild and scary times. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by life or global injustices, the sea resets my nervous system and my heart, guiding me to start afresh. The ocean supports me to go within, call in support, and listen to what my soul knows, deep down. From there, I can more easily reclaim my power, and step into compassionate action. For myself, and for others.
What does that look like in practice? In that moment, I might pause to remind myself of what I am already doing, and of what it’s reasonable to expect of myself as just one person. I will try to get clear on what it is that I want to bring to the world right now – and what’s within my power. Sometimes that will be fundraising for friends in Palestine, sometimes a beach clean, going to a protest, writing a letter or even a song. Sometimes it’s simply loving the people around me as deeply as I can. Sometimes it’s loving myself and letting my mind and body rest.
photo by Alice Bray
One of the things that often helps me to find a balance of activism and joy is eco-synchro swimming (very imperfectly but gleefully). My friends and I formed a synchro team, “Out of Sink”, in just six weeks so that we could perform during COP26. Our intention was to prove to world leaders that when we work together, we can all do hard things - like face the climate crisis, or learn to synchro swim as mid-life women. We loved it so much that we kept going, and now often work with environmental groups like Surfers Against Sewage to raise awareness of environmental issues. Like highlighting plastic pollution by performing in our local art-deco outdoor lido, Jubilee Pool, while it was filled with plastic bottles.
I believe that the more we connect with our inner knowing, and with the sea or nature, the more we deepen our capacity and desire to protect the earth - and to heal ourselves and each other. I try to build that connection and capacity through everything that I create at Sea Soul Blessings - and that too gives me hope.
I also want to live in right relationship with the living world, and to give back to the sea that has changed everything for me. In addition to ocean advocacy and beach cleans, I get to donate 10% of all my income to environmental causes. Each little donation has magically totted up to thousands of pounds over the years. It’s another potent reminder of the power of each step we take forward, however insignificant it may first appear. Within that tiny action lies the beauty of each wave that forms the sea.
If you would like to find out more about my work, the oracle cards and journal, or to join us at the Ocean Altar - please do get in touch at seasoulblessings.com. Ocean Altar is now open to new participants to start on 3 May. If you choose to subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll also send you a little taster of some of the ways that I connect with the sea.
Very interesting. She looks so vibrant! Thanks for sharing. Sending love your way. x0x0 N2
Thank you for this, Elizabeth. Very cool. Sounds like a gre at thing to do.