Legend of Heathen Mysticism, Katherine North
Introducing Katherine North, the legend of heathen mysticism
SEASON FINALE - one of my favourite ever people and coaches - AND WHAT A STORY.
Buy her book for the full skinny and listen to this conversation to hear about her beautiful wild life.
“Women’s bodies are potent territory, you could even say that they have magical powers and so the urge to control them is about power.”
We are hilarious together - when coaches talk they get curious and ask questions so sometimes I go off a bit - it’s a conversation - please enjoy!
We had so much fun and pin-balled around time and topics from Religions (of course) to babies, abortion, parenting, marriage, name changes, transition, big families, small families, disaster, earthquakes, acting, Japan, truth, the embarrassment of me meeting her Mum, wild Tokyo in the 2000s, her memoir (please buy it - I’m giving one away - contact me if you’d like it), her ode to Christmas magic and so so much more.
“I didn’t know who I was in my core but I was very afraid of who I was in my core…”
Katherine is one of the best coaches I have ever experienced and I love a good coach. She has wild integrity and is a great story teller who has a flare for the dramatic without being pretentious - although I have nothing against the pretentious! I mean she is a badass who unfolds her life in such a real way and a way that has so much room for all that is inside it. There are many ways to lead a life.
Once upon a time there was a little girl who was terrified, who was raised in the church with her devout evangelical Missionary Christian parents, but she held a deep dark secret inside of her…
Moving from Middle America to Yokohama, Japan’s 2nd city as a child
It was like she grew up with a spotlight on her a bright halo of wild blond hair and giant blue eyes
Shapeshifting to cover to hide and to feel virtuous, pure and holy
Katherine’s crisis and how instead she blew up her life, drank bad gin, smoked loads of cigarettes and her brother’s floor
Pure desperation released her from the torture of her life but that was the most benevolent desperation that led her to change her life
What does she describe as ‘the ultimate privilege’
Japan was both a place where I was always a foreigner but also felt most at home - she returned in her 20s modelled, toured with a theatre company and became a voice actor along with some other wild jobs
Her abortion was a spiritual epiphany and find out how she knew when she was ready to birth a baby
After the 2011 Great Hanshin Earthquake her life was shaken up and she describes how an energetic chord with Japan was cut at that time and what happens next
Growing heart to include 4 more children was easy but what was SO DIFFICULT
How she met her now husband and their amazing love story from best friends with a soul connection, to a lesbian couple to their life as co-parents of 5
They bought their island paradise home sight-unseen and ended up on a Discovery Reno programme!
Katherine and husband Nick changed their names and are authoring their life daily - it’s a joy to behold and watch unfolding and they leave nothing our in the detail!
I’m trying to write my life as I live it…
I have been so inspired by Katherine and Nick and the way they navigate their marriage - I mean their love story is wild and unique and filled with rich beauty. And messes. Lots of messes. But they help me to believe that anything is possible and as I lie back on my sofa bed listening to the birds sing their sundown chorus and I prepare to go have a dip in the sea before dinner, I think about the deep joy in authoring our lives. In doing whatever you want to; changing your name, moving to an island, getting loads of chickens, writing books, falling deeply in love and moving and changing everything, in the joy of sex and sexuality and the miracles that our bodies are.
Links
Website
@declaredominion
Discovery Plus Documentary ‘Life Under Renovation’
Shout out to FEW
Just Another Beautiful Family
https://declaredominion.com/documentary
Books
Holy Heathen a Spiritual Memoir
and
The Secret Society of Saint Nicholas
We are taking a break over the summer from the Legends Interview Podcast. Have you missed any episodes? You can catch up on them all here.