There’s a woman who’s body is the pristine wilderness of our planet. She knows the less-trodden paths that lead to no-where, because she made them. From the wild wood she inhabits the minds and hearts of us all, craftily watching and waiting for the moment when she can pounce, take off our shoes and reveal to us the paw, hoof and claw hidden underneath our feet. Then she invites us to walk and find our soul-footing in the world.
This is the Wild Woman archetype. Not an out-of-control, hysterical being. A being who is full of Soul with a keen sensing, playful spirit, a heightened capacity for devotion, relational by nature, inquiring and possessed of great endurance, strength and a deep intuition. Some call her the Woman who lives at the edge of the world, or She who knows. Let’s call her the Wild Woman in all of us.
There are times when we experience the Wild Woman in tasting something delicious and juicy. Or through the great beauty, sights and images nature provides; an amazing sunset or sunrise, a woodland seemingly untouched by human feet, a river’s narrow passage when the waters push through a gorge like a being in the birthing canal.
For some, the words wild and woman are a figurative knock on the door of our feminine psyche, summoning up a portal or passageway. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, “No matter where a woman is from or her cultural heritage, she somehow knows these words wild and woman, and that they belong together.” They are causal in recollecting who we are and what we are about.
No matter what these words conjure up, there is a longing that comes with them. A knowing that “I too have this in me and it needs to be let out!” One hears it loudest perhaps, when one has given little time to the mystical life; little time to wandering aimlessly in nature, or not enough time over to exploring the dreamlife. We hear it when one’s creative life has been paid too little of our attention or our true love’s such as dance, music, story, artistry and craft have been put off, let go, disregarded because we are too busy.
Without the Wild Woman, we women can easily loose the sureness of our soul-feet. She is the soulful heart of a woman, so maybe it’s time to let her in.
Author: Alexandra Hatfield
If you would like to join a very special 9-month long journey with the Wild Woman Archetype and a diverse and rich group of women visit http://www.wildrites.uk/wild-woman/