Welcome to The Fortress
The Founder
Hello, I'm Brenda!
I'm a teacher and mystic, and I'm here to tell you it's time to remember who we truly are because we are at a crucial choice point in human consciousness.
The Fortress
Come on in! Here you will find maps for exploring story, symbol and soma. Join me for an archetypal adventure into the Mystery.
ABout Me & The Fortress
The Fortress
Like all things of the Great Mystery, the fortress is paradoxical — holding both light and shadow. It can symbolize psychic wholeness, safety, and belonging. Yet, as the Tower of tarot reminds us, the pursuit of fortress-level invulnerability can create an illusion of security that will eventually crumble. Our protections can become a form of imprisonment. It's time to set ourselves free with a paradigm shift!
The name From the Fortress also honors a dream and clairaudient message/dream I received, pointing to my namesake as my future. My last name literally means “From the Fortress,” making it a fitting title for this mystical, mythical, and nerdy passion project.
About Me
A few years ago, I left my career in education and stepped away from a relationship that unearthed old wounds. That breaking-open led me into full-time soul searching — a descent into shadow, myth, and mystery, with psilocybin therapy as a powerful catalyst for healing and growth.
Through that journey, I came to believe something vital: humanity has been intentionally led into amnesia about our sovereignty and magic — and now is the time to remember.
By venturing through story, symbol, and soma (the felt sense and deep knowing of somatic work and psychedelics), wanderers and seekers can reconnect with our souls and reclaim our personal power. My teaching background, lived experience, passion for myth and archetype, and devotion to meaningful mystical experiences allow me to guide others who feel lost, uninspired, or hungry for deeper meaning.
As we walk together through the collective shadow that is modern life, I offer both a hand to hold and tools to wield on the heroic journey, so that each of us can return with the medicine only we can bring.
My Experience & Qualifications
- Certified Somatic Attachment Therapy Practitioner through Embody Lab with teachings from Peter Levine, Gabor Mate, and more!
- Somatic Regenerative Alchemy coach training by Dr. Sarah Coxon.
- BA in Social Sciences (Psychology, Sociology and History)
- Credentialed Educator: 12 years of teaching, course creation, and group leadership
- Psychedelic therapy practitioner training through MycoVision
- Archetypal Immersion program with ReWilding with Sabrina Lynn
- 2 years of full time soul/shadow work with an emphasis on Jungian/depth Psychology, mythology, potentials of plant medicine and energy techniques for somatic healing, inner child work, and gnostic gospel teachings
- In-depth symbolic awareness study of the teachings of Caroline Myss and Paul Levy's works, including Levi's live Dreaming Ourselves Awake course.
- Certified Professional Organizer & minimalism-magic believer
- Many years of global anti-human trafficking education & community building work. Your contributions go toward this cause!
- 20 years of dedicated yoga practice (vinyasa, yin, kundalini +)
Mission & Core Values
My mission is to help people wake up and remember who they are; to overcome the distraction and division that keeps us from living this life with passion and purpose. I believe that deep self-exploration leads to healing, consciousness expansion, and far greater agency over one's own life. Break the chains!
🔍Curiosity
To courageously explore every aspect of your world, asking lots of questions as you do. To meet life with wide eyes and a wild heart- open to magic, mystery, and messages at every turn- paying attention and using keen observations to gather clues. To follow the breadcrumbs of wonder into the depths, even when there’s no map.
🎨 Self-Expression
To give life to your ideas and inspirations. To honor creativity as a force that moves through us- a longing and urge to take shape through our stories, art, voice, and being.To express the fullness of our humanity- the beauty, the sorrow, the wild truth of our experience- in a way that is authentically and uniquely you.
🌿 Wellness
To tend to what truly sustains us- body, mind, heart, and soul. To live in right relationship with ourselves, with each other, and with the earth. To remember that healthy connection is crucial, and that beauty, rest, ritual, nature and presence are forms of medicine.
👑 Sovereignty
To reclaim one's agency and autonomy; honoring and protecting our innate power, intuition, discernment, and truth as sacred. To choose with intention. To set boundaries. To live with integrity in pursuit of ultimate freedom. To remember that we are the authors of our lives, not subjects to fate or fear.
Experiences From The Fortress
Pillars of Empowerment
Symbolic Sight
Life is a heroic journey, a sacred adventure, and a Fool's quest, and a myth in the making. Your body and home are the vessels that carry you through the storms of life. Your psyche and the entire universe are one and the same. There are clues all around you—asking you to remember and live your magic.
Pay attention.
Reconnect with your bod
Life is a heroic journey, a sacred adventure, and a Fool's quest, and a myth in the making. Your body and home are the vessels that carry you through the storms of life. Your psyche and the entire universe are one and the same. There are clues all around you—asking you to remember and live your magic.
Pay attention.
Reconnect with your body's wisdom.
Be curious, courageous, and compassionate.
Expand consciousness.
Seek wisdom, wonder & wellness.
Integration
Soul (Psyche) Retrieval
Feminine Reclamation
Re-memberment
Kintsugi
Returning to Wholeness
Embodiment
The Thread
Individuation Process
Plant Medicine Integration
Shadow Work
Inner Child Healing
Attachments (Cords)
Experience the sovereignty, agency and freedom that comes from finding, reclaiming and restoring our lost, broken and relegated parts and energy back into our being.
Balanced Polarities
Balanced Polarities
Feminine-Masculine,
Yin-Yang,
Dark-Light,
Bitter-Sweet,
Mother Earth-Father Sky,
Ida-Pingala,
Lunar-Solar,
Warm-Demander,
Soul-Spirit,
Good-Evil
These archetypal forces are two sides to the same coin. We cannot have one without the other. All exist within us and our ability to see, accept and access both polarities is essential for holistic wellness.
From The Fortress
Step into The Mystery
What you'll find here is my best and humble attempt at integrating my psychedelic (soul-revealing) encounters with the Sacred. Sometimes these encounters arose from deep pain and sorrow, other times through beauty, dreams, synchronicities, whispers, divinations, and remembrances. They also surfaced through powerful readings, good counsel, and experiences with plant medicine. Each of these enchanted breadcrumbs has guided me on my ongoing quest back home to Wholeness.
From here, you can prepare to embark on a journey of reclamation and integration of your Soul.