The Call of The Wild Woman

Today is my birthday. As I blow my candles, I have a single wish. It is this: to return to the wild woman within me.

Lately I have been learning more about the Female Jungian Archetypes: The Maiden, The Mother, The Queen, The Wild Woman, The Lover, The Huntress, The Wise Woman. I have always known that healing lies where there is wholeness. And wholeness is very difficult to achieve without acknowledging and accepting the different parts of us – their manifestations and their shadows.

I have lived a big part of my adult life as the maiden, the mother, the wise woman. Always doing what is expected of me, what is right, what will please others. Forever counting to three and not beginning. There has always been an urge, an impulse that is silenced and repressed. A desire stuck inside me, banging against the walls of myself, trying to find its way out.

I first heard about the wild woman from Mel Wells and her exploration of the Jungian archetypes. I have had the ageless classic Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Estes lying on my shelves for years. And only recently, I opened it up and its words spoke directly to my heart, in a language that the mind couldn’t comprehend.

I know that when I say “wild woman” you know what I mean. You remember when you’ve been her, met her, yearned for her. You know when you’re on your way to reclaim her. But for those who are still confused. Here she is: the wild woman is your instinctual nature. She is your intuition, your spark, your momentum. Your power, your beauty, your creativity. She is the sunset, the sunrise and how they make love with wavelengths of light. She’s the part of you that melts when you rub a baby’s cheek, when you marvel at the symmetry of grapefruits. She’s the one that plants her feet deep into the sand, buries her hands into the mucky soil, jumps naked in the cold water and converses with the moon. She’s the one that is guided by the cycles of nature, the howl of the wolves and the whisper of dreams. The one that knows there is more to life and the one who runs barefoot to find it.

She is the way you set your body free to the rhythm of music, or the transcendence you feel when you sing with your whole heart. She is the power that comes over you when you run free, the glimpse of inspiration, the kernel truth. She is your call home, she is who you come home to.

And my wish this year, is to answer her call. To follower her, to chase her, to be loyal to her.

There are so many ways to do so. And if you ask your own wild woman how to find her, I am sure she will speak back. But if you wonder how to begin, try this: do the thing you’d do if you were not afraid.

Love,
N.