Grandmother Fires

Janice Penberth

You're lost.
You're bone tired.
You take care of everyone but yourself. The body in the mirror is that of a stranger. Your brain is hiding in fog.
Maybe you've just received a scary diagnosis.
Everyone expects you to carry on as usual but you are wondering why they chew so loudly.
And you just can't anymore.You're told to medicate it, get over it, accept it as aging.
It's not your fault.This...is a threshold. And thresholds have always required a different kind of help.Come...sit by the fire. I'll get my drum...

"Call your grandmothers. Tend your fires. Be human."

About grandmother Fires

Grandmother Fires exists because we forgot...We stopped listening to our elders. We stopped initiating our young. We stopped tending the fires that kept communities intact and kept humans...well, human.And now we're paying for it in ways we can't quite name but can absolutely feel.The fires are real. Literally. Your mitochondria, with their distinct mtDNA...inherited through an unbroken maternal line, mother to daughter for millenia. These... are your Grandmother Fires. They carry an ancestral blueprint for how a human body thrives.Modern life is putting them out.Shamanic practice. Ancestral knowledge. The Grandmother function restored. The science that confirms what the old ways always knew.For anyone at a threshold.
For communities coming apart at the seams.For those who know in their bones that there is another way...

About Janice

Who I Am
I am a shamanic practitioner and seer, by birth and trained from childhood. A lifelong bear dreamer...one who dreams with bears and learns from them. A grandmother of four. An anthropologist by education. An artist by heart.
My lineage traces to western Siberia and the circumpolar North...and to a woman a thousand years ago with a bear tooth necklace, buried in ochre. Her fires still ignite me today.
I grew up in the deep forests of western Washington. The forest is still my sanctuary, my teacher, my most steadfast companion.
I work through story, trance, ritual, and with eyes that have always seen differently.
I've spent my entire life learning to translate between worlds...science and spirit, body and soul, what's been passed down... and what needs to be remembered... while we still can.

The Framework

The Fires
Your mitochondria carry an unbroken maternal inheritance that sits in a circle and provides energy and warmth....and keeps you alive. They are held as tiny sacred fires. Tend them and they burn clean. Neglect them and everything suffers. This is not metaphor. This is biology.The Old Ways
Shamanic practice is the oldest form of medicine. Trance, soul retrieval, ancestral work...ceremonies in the liminal spaces...drums and rattles. These aren't primitive imitations of modern therapy. They're the original manuscript. We live in a modern world with a body that wasn't designed for it.. but there are ways to reconcile it.The Grandmother
Elder women were never meant to disappear. They were meant to hold memories, speak the truth, tend the community fire....keep coherence. As Grandmothers were systematically removed...so was the map.
But some of us remember the way...

You carry your grandmother's fire. It matters.

Offerings

Sessions
For anyone facing thresholds... when the usual answers aren't working and something needs to shift at a deeper level. You bring your story. I listen for what's underneath it and locate the broken threads. I work through it in ways the moment calls for...shamanic work, story reframing, practical lifestyle advice, or by kindly saying the truth out loud. Or usually...E. All of the above.
Something shifts. Convergence happens. Pathways open for healing to come through.
Traditionally, practitioners are cared for by their communities in return for the medicine they carry. A minimum suggested reciprocal gift of $200 honors that exchange. Sliding scale available.
Sessions are approximately 90 minutes but please allow up to 2 hours.
Email [email protected] to begin.
Note: Soul retrieval work is offered in person only and requires a minimum of two sessions.Deeper Work...
Some thresholds require more than one crossing. For those called to go further into ancestral work, significant life transitions, sustained pattern work... or simply wanting a slower pace with more integration... a series of three sessions holds more space for what needs to move.
Three sessions. Minimum suggested reciprocal gift of $500. Sessions are approximately 90 minutes each, scheduled across 4-10 weeks.
Email [email protected] to begin.Fire Circles
Small gatherings for anyone looking around at their life thinking "I hate everything and I don't know who I am anymore." Or for anyone moving through a threshold or liminal time. For anyone wanting a lecture from a feral matriarch...
We treat upheaval as initiation, not malfunction. I'll tell you stories...from Grandmothers, from the Forest, from the little power plants in your cells...and help you see where you are in the larger pattern.
Sometimes we talk about safely burning down what we don't need. Sometimes a controlled blaze makes space for something else...
For you to be you again.
Online and in person.
Email [email protected] to inquire.Art
One-of-a-kind, handcrafted rattles, spirit dolls, and talismans.
These are tools that help you remember and reconnect.
Each piece carries spirit and meaning.
Contact to inquire about specific pieces or custom work.Writing
I write about what happens when we disconnect from what sustains us...and how to find our way back. When we forget that we're humans.
Menopause as initiation. Ancestral inheritance. The Grandmother Fires that burn in your cells. Stories that help you see yourself and your life differently.
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Contact

Whether you're interested in joining a circle, spirit tools, booking a talk, or just want to connect around Grandmother Fires... I'd love to hear from you.
Email
[email protected]Response time: 2-3 business days. I honor boundaries and keep my schedule intentional.

Tucson Arizona