Thursday, January 9, 2020

Open to the Wild in You


True Wildness

Opening the gate in the tall deer fence, I stepped through into the soggy field with its newly sprouted carpet of vividly green English wheat. The sky skimmed blue overhead and a sheer, golden light illuminated bare trees and the rolling Downs in the distance.”
L. R. Heartsong (excerpt from “Meet the Green Man: Archetype for a Wild Soul, Good Men Project website, July 26, 2015)

When you read the paragraph above from L.R. Heartsong's article about the Green Man archetype, do you feel it resonate in your mid-section. Can you see in your mind's eye that green field of wheat, the golden light on bare trees? If you wish you were the one stepping through the deer fence, you may just be feeling the rumbling of the wild soul within you.

There is a Wild being in all of us—not the one that thinks it's great to go down to the brewery on Saturday night and get sloshed and act a fool—but the one who is the true steward of the natural world and of all living beings in it. The Wild Man archetype, like the Wild Woman archetype, is the heart and soul of the true masculine and feminine. It is instinctive, intuitive, unafraid and unashamed. It is not brutal, and does not seek to dominate, control or abuse others. In fact, it is the protector of all things tender and vulnerable.

When we abandon the wildness in us—the part of us connected with the natural world—we lose a great part of what makes us human. Ironically, when we lose our wildness, we become more brutish—not less—toward our fellow-humans and to the earth. When we are aware and living from the wild man or wild woman part of us, we have no need to belittle, goad or denigrate anyone or anything. We stand in our own truth and walk our own path and allow others to walk theirs.

You don't have to be Tarzan of the Jungle to experience your Wild Man or Wild Woman. You just have to get in touch with that part of you that loves nature, that feels strong and true. It's there inside you, whoever you are, and it will sing you back to health and sanity if you let it.

                                                           In the Spirit,
                                                               Jane

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