Selkie Sea Salt Blend (As An Everyday Anchor)

Sisters of the tides are we,

Bound by sand, and salt, and sea

Selkie, mermaid, siren daughters.

Priestesses of the holy waters

• Anonymous

It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to look into a seal’s big brown eyes and imagine a human woman looking back. I still vividly remember the first time I was close enough to a seal to connect my gaze to its, and how entrancing those dark eyes were to me at the time. It’s no wonder that there’s a whole mythology about selkies in Scandinavia, Scotland, and Ireland. Selkies are gentle souls who are seals in the water but can complete a transformation to human upon walking on the sands, carrying their seal skins with them. They have a gentle presence and are seen as quieter than the sirens or mermaids the world is more familiar with. Though their stories are often tragic, selkies represent the quiet moonlit nights at sea, at least to me, with water lapping on the shores and bits of seaweed dangling from rocks. Even a human might feel the transformation of the moon on the ocean and be compelled to shed their garb and dance the night away with these mythical beings from the sea.

The classical story of the selkie tells of one coming ashore on a moonlit night and shedding her seal skin, which is then stolen by a man who keeps it locked up and coerces the now-human selkie to become his wife. Many tales tell of her getting married and having children with her human husband, but always longing for her home in the sea. After several years of living outside of her ocean home and seal skin, she finally finds the key to the chest that holds her seal skin. She dons it once again and returns to her watery home, leaving her human family behind her. Some tales say she disappears to the waters forever, others say she comes back to visit her human children on some occasions, like once a year or during the full moon.

Perhaps the moral of the myth of the selkies is to never let anyone have so much control over you as to steal your “seal skin” - or the essence of what makes you truly YOU. It can be far too easy to lose yourself in the whirlwind of romance and then be left struggling to remember who you are once the love fades and you are left to yourself once again. If you are the type to be caught up in those rushing tides, set an anchor for yourself by attaching a mental reminder to something you use or see every day. Having a bottle of selkie salt around can be a subtle little reminder to stay in your seal skin; that is, to give yourself to romance, but never so much so that your own personal identity is forgotten, lost, or worst of all, locked away.

This salt blend is perfect for everyday use. Both of the seaweeds used in the blend have many great nutrients. Wakame is full of calcium, magnesium, and other trace minerals. It’s one of the few non-animal sources of vitamin B12 as well. Sea lettuce is high in iron, protein, healthy iodine, manganese, and nickel. Combined with spirulina, matcha, black mineral salt and sea salt, these oceanic accompaniments will help give your body necessary nutrients while also giving your food a richer umami flavor.

Selkie Layered Salt:

Mixture 1:

½ c. wakame seaweed (dried)

½ c. sea salt

¼ c. black mineral salt

¼ tsp. Blue spirulina powder

Mixture 2:

½ c. dried sea lettuce

¾ c. sea salt

½ tsp. Matcha powder

Directions:

1. Put the wakame and sea salt into a food processor and pulse until the seaweed has broken down into small pieces. Add the black salt and the blue spirulina and pulse just until evenly mixed. Pour into a bowl.

2. Add the sea lettuce and ½ c. sea salt to the food processor and pulse until the seaweed has broken down into small pieces. Add the remaining salt and matcha powder and pulse until evenly mixed.

3. Layer the two salt blends into a few small jars for a distinctive striped look. You can also just mix the two together and use that as a blend.

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