For me, the wild woman comes knocking when I need courage to break free of some situation, trusting my inner knowing, my inner-voice. Clarissa Pinkola Estes has dedicated much of her working life to this intuitive and resourceful archetype, living just beneath the surface in all women. I remember taking her book ‘Women Who Run With The Wolves’ on my honeymoon and being entranced by her rich, magical world of storytelling and wonder. I have returned to this book many times throughout my life, usually when I take a detour off the path and need reminding just how juicy my own personal resources can be.
One of these stories is Vaselisa. Estes helped me to understand how this story was relevant to my own biography and explained that this represents a single person’s psyche undergoing initiation. She then details nine tasks Vaselisa took to retire her wild feminine power.
Having an overview of this story helped me to see that I could take my journey one step at a time. It helped me to break things down into sizeable chunks, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead and also helped me to trust that I had the help and support of a higher power with me at all times.
Connecting to my wild woman’s voice through journey work and therapy, became an archetype that I continued to work with throughout writing my dissertation, she was called ‘Roots’.
Roots lived in a riverbank and was subsequently created from felt textiles. She helped me to become more aware of my own initiation process and empowerment. For me, painting, meeting, journeying and speaking with my own wild woman archetype helped me to gain a clear self-awareness of her presence within me and work through whatever block was holding me back from speaking out at the time.
Like many people, I went through my own dark night of the soul in my early forties, questioning parts of my life that I had become resigned towards. I was scared of speaking to her because I thought that this time, that she may tell me to do something unimaginable. I had stopped writing in my journal to repress her words.
In the end, she had to get my attention through the artwork I made myself and during therapy. It became clear that being resigned towards something, meant that I needed to voice my darkness. Through my own curiosity for her, I was able to retrieve my spark for life once more.
Compliance causes a showing realisation that must be registered by all women. That is, to be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others, and yet to comply with what others want cause us to be exiled from ourselves. It is a tormenting tension and it must be borne, but the choice is clear. ( Pinkola Estes.C, p85,1992)
I invite you to close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and invite this deep, instinctual part of yourself to be with you. Maybe your wild woman wants to meet you in a natural place you loved as a child. Maybe she gently knocks at your bedroom door and visits you during your dreams. She could call to you in the wind or as you watch the sunrise, she could swim with you in the river and invite you to walk barefoot in the mud.
However she appears, take heed of her feelings and her words and make a note of them. She has been long neglected in our product-driven western society. She has been waiting in the woodland just outside the city for a time when we work with or re-awaken to the creative and passionate depths of themselves once more.
I have been guided to invite women to gather as an online circle and honour our wild woman within, as well as many other Goddess archetypes willing to work with us at this time. We will be honouring the seasonal cycles of this time and cultivating the qualities of deep listening, inner peace, and restfulness. In this safe place, we will discover how these archetypes are interconnected and live within us. This place of the mythic is a sacred place of wonder and reflection, where we can trust and access our higher wisdom at all times. These archetypes look at our own personal stories with us through inspiration and creativity, suggesting how and where we can be helped back onto our life’s path. They sit with us in the places of the unknown, helping us to develop the qualities of freedom and authenticity, as well as empowerment and resilience.
We are especially aware of this work helping with anxiety, depression, stress-related difficulties, transition, fear, anger, frustration, and uncertainty amongst others.
In gratitude for the support of fellow practitioners: Psychotherapist Marie Helene Dalila Boyle UKCP, Massage and Reiki therapist Ali Walters and Shamanic Practitioner Lorriiii Dragon Dream to help me birth this project into being.
For more details contact enquiries@alirabjohns.com
