2-7-2012 The Wild Self

by Kristine Lavender Love

This is a subject that I sort of don’t like to write about because to talk about it is one thing.  To live it is something quite else, and I’d much rather live it.  Talk is easy.  To really live it -- for me -- has meant less words, more grunts; more time spent outside in the chaparral and less on Facebook.  Grubby bare feet.   No nice linens or dishes.  Make-up only for performance and special occasions.  Many cats.  The complete disregard on occasion for human convention such as doing dishes, wearing clothes and making beds.  And lots of wild animals walking around, indoors and out. 

But I'm going to talk about the Wild Self because I CAN talk about it.  I know it intimately.  I’ve found my way back there.  It’s not something separate from me.  I AM ONE with that part of my being that is in a passionate harmonic relationship with Wild Nature.  Consciously.  Because I chose it.   Because I live it.  Because I love it.   Because I walked towards it and embraced it, even when it scared the living daylights out of me, on more than one occasion, on more levels than I can consciously name.  Because I was booted further and further in that direction by provocative circumstances in life.  Sometimes, turning towards Nature with my jagged wounds and pain has been the ONLY way I could go to find solace and healing.

Maha, contemplating my chainsaw use

So what does this mean?  you ask.  It means that I’ve found a way back to the raw depths of pure animal-like feeling and the realm of instinct.  It means I can go totally out of my thinking mind into primal being.  Without automatically becoming a T-Rex.  Now if I WANT to call up T-Rex, that would be another story.  I don’t need T-Rex,  I’m a Capricorn, and I’ve got Maha walking around out there, that is quite enough to deal with at present!

This is the little one...

This is the big one...

  There certainly are degrees of finding one’s way back.  One doesn’t start with 85 acres of forest and a mountain lion.  If bonding with Nature is all new, you start with house plants on your deck, and walks in the park.  You learn about gardening and the wildlife around you.  You pay attention to the Elements and try to spend some time each day in communion because it is important.   And if it really calls you, you start observing the holy days, the power times of full and new moons and celestial doings, the ebb and flow of the seasons and their tides of power.  They can be worked with.

         

I happen to have the added enhancement or challenge of being a priestess of the Goddess this lifetime, which has brought in extra ability to work with Nature, plus I live right out in it on purpose and am surrounded by it for many miles.  There's lots of gold in the ground, quartz rock all over the place, mighty trees, mountain lions and other wild critters walking around...  And of course a few neighbors, at some distance.  So you see, I have a lot of elemental forces to work with.

"There they are, the slippers of gold!!!"

Don’t ever think that She - Mother Gaia - doesn’t know who you are.  She does.  If you are alive and walking this Earth, Mother knows about you.  If YOU don’t know about HER realm, then the thing to do is take off your shoes and go walk on the grass.

Rats they don't fit

I have taken up the path of an Earth-keeping priestess in this lifetime, where I alone know what has passed between magical Nature and myself -- that is, what little I do know and understand.  I have chosen to ally myself with the forces of Nature, to champion Her kingdom, be guided by it, guard it, work with it, preserve it, defend it from defilement whenever possible, and reweave myself and this realm back into Eternity one ceremony at a time, one holy day at a time, with each bardic utterance spewed in the woods, with every perennial planted, with actions and intentions both ordinary and magical, in the privacy of my home space facing Sacred Nature alone, out in my little rural community, and now beyond, out into cyberspace.  

Looky what that brat did

It has not been an easy path.  But that’s okay, I accept Nature’s -- and other -- challenges.  She’s a master at dishing them out.   When you petition to walk in the realm of 
Ancient Power, it is fitting that challenges lie there; the secrets and blessings of that world are only given to those of pure heart and integrity, they cannot be wrested by force.  Nature will cooperate with the human world -- is mandated to -- but there are limits.  I believe.  She has parameters for us to work within.  We can’t just keep fouling up the nest with endless weaponry, mindless consumerism and violent aggression towards everything, that’s for sure.  What She really wants is for humanity to love Her.

Sunrise in the mist
 at my house

Right now on this Earth we are in a most difficult, intense, confusing, chaotic and stressful passage that marks the convergence of many cosmic cycles as we move into Planetary Ascension and a completely new paradigm and frequency.   This is stressful to everyone and everything.  Coupled with some appalling misuses of Natural Forces going on.  You think that HAARP thing is just a conspiracy?  I can assure you the Elements have informed me otherwise in no uncertain terms.


It seems like just about every region on Earth  has had to deal with some kind of challenge from Nature in the last years.   This could so be mitigated and eased if more people would go out and make contact with the Elements with love and consciousness, which is the way you also gain access to more of the Wild Self.  How?  You ask? 

Okay, here’s an example from my own life.  I often say there is a whole pack of Syphs who hang out above my house.  You think I’m just being whacky?  What do I mean, you ask?  What’s a Sylph?  A Sylph is a nature spirit of the air, an Elemental spirit who can take the shape of an air-like formation, be it a whirlwind, a cloud, a mist, a breeze, a tornado -- and don’t forget all the winged ones who are intimately connected to the Sylphs.  They definitely all work together as Forces of the Air even though different species of creatures have their own overlighting Deva.

Those goofy Sylphs

The realm of the Sylphs includes all things mental, new beginnings and ideas, the dawn, the Spring, Inspiration, Vision and of course air-related weather, to name a few of their correspondances.  

Where I live in the Sierras, I’m in a little micro climate.  My place is an energetic vortex within a larger geographical vortex.  It’s totally visible by watching what the weather does, especially if there is frozen precipitation.  The way that the hills align has produced a region where forces collect and swirl, a natural vortex.  The local pack of sylphs seems to like to hang out around my house because we are in a co-creative relationship that has developed over 17 years, and because my house is in the center of this little vortex within a vortex.  They give me all kinds of inspiration and ideas.

New Windows

Plus I work with the them.  I talk to them.  They talk back.  One of our favorite ways of communing is for me to sit on the roof top where we can have a nice chat and I can see my near gardens, orchard and far hillside. I like to brush my hair up there.  The cats join me.  I keep a ladder permanently in place where I can hop up there anytime, day or night.  It’s a GREAT place to talk to the Maha when he comes prowling around at the dread hour of 3 am  -- “Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhf!!!”   But now I’ve got these new loft windows, I don’t even have to leave my bed to greet the cat. 

Up the Ladder to the Roof,
where we can see Heaven
much better

But back to the Sylphs, Maha and his antics needs a blog of its own.  


I have communion with the Spirits of the Air while I’m sitting up on the rooftop, Sipping on tea and brushing hair pommade into my locks.  They love that.  The breeze just loves to play with hair.  What do we talk about?  Whatever is on my mind, of course.  I also talk to the Sun.  Quite a bit.  It’s like, when I go up there, it all goes “Oh, she’s here, is she going to turn the water on today?  What’s she going to talk about?’   And then I just start talking -  I hold a dialogue with surrounding Nature.  The birds start swooping, the trees nod, the breeze might come up, there may be a little whirlwind in the dust.  I had one follow me the other day.

Four big pines out back

Whatever Nature does in response is part of the conversation:  The antics of the cats -- any sounds I might hear -- the clouds -- the feeling I get from the great entourage of trees around me in the distance-- anything the sun might be doing -- It’s this unfolding process.  Nature is part of my alchemical process for understanding myself, life, the mystery.  When I sit up there I really feel I’m in an attendant entourage of natural forces of all sorts, not just Sylphs; however, it puts me very much in the energy of their realm.  I don’t go there when I need Pan and the depths of the forest.  Then I go to the back 40 and hang around old trees.

Like my office??

So how does this relate to the Wild Self?  It takes connection to the Wild Self to be able to commune with Nature.  Nature IS the source of the Wild Self.  It’s just a different way of tuning yourself.  Almost everyone these days has a tech self.  Oh yes, we plug right into our computers like we’re human-USB interfaces.  I’m not throwing stones, the last years I’ve been an absolute Tech Maniac.  Lost time to make up for I guess.  But I also am still one with the Wild Self, and if I get too bogged down by the human - tech world, all I have to do is get up and go out into the woods.  I can see it from my windows.  Just get up, put on shoes and walk 50 feet.  If I stay around my house I don’t even have to put on shoes, just pick myself up and go out.  

Medicinal moss and fungus
 found in the woods

Ahh, the Wild Self.  I think I’ll go out and prowl around in the woods for some medicinal Turkey Tail mushrooms and Usnea moss, to make a tincture.....   Oh I LOVE to get down in the woods. GIT DOWN!  Woo Hoo!!  And I mean git down, you have to crawl around on all fours sometimes to get around in the manzanita.   Like a lion.  I’m a master at it.

Kristine and her infamous
squat posture

You think I’m joking?  You should see what I teach people in yoga class.  We love to do the Lion Posture.  You should hear some of the ferocious growls and shrieks that can come out of the most mild-mannered people’s mouths.   Sounds they probably would never otherwise make.  I’m a hatha yoga teacher of many years.  Think it’s an accident there are SO MANY ANIMAL POSTURES???  NO way.  These postures, besides having many wonderful benefits, are also very useful for plugging into the Wild Self.  I’ve got folks crawling around on all fours, pouncing like cats, balancing on toes, jumping in the air on one foot, swaying from side to side with eyes closed, twisting this way and that like a snake, balancing on all the tips of their finger and toe tips, doing The Geek (That’s a Kristine posture by the way....)   Yeah.

Wild Girl does wear nail polish
on occasion

Tapping into the Wild Self is empowering.  It does have some pricetags though.  It’s not compatible with most of the current Civilization’s forms and modes.  In fact, it’s been pro-actively shoved down, pushed out of sight, made dirty, unclean, evil, sinful, bad, ugly -- you name it.  You know the primal self I’m talking about.  We are all socialized and civilized right out of it.  So it’s work to find your way back.  And in the process there may arise some dilemmas.  Tastes will change.  Priorities will change.  Friends will change.  Well, let me say, they CAN change.  I’ve found that a lot of human nonsense has just dropped away -- things like a sense of self importance based on what stuff I have or what I do for a living.  Who I am in society.  If my hair is a mess.  That kind of stuff.  I could not care less.  I polish up nice and can play the game.  But guess what -- I prefer the grubby bare feet and timeless freedom of the Wild Self ANY day to whatever crap the Civilization of Yuckdom would just love to seduce-reward-entice me with if I amputate it and play that game.  Sorry, NEVER AGAIN!!!!!

The Wild self is a Pearl of Great Price, when integrated consciously.  It can also be a tremendous liability if one is ruled by it unconsciously.  We all know people who surely have come back in the wrong form and would be much more suited to T-Rex.  No, I’m talking about consciously integrating the Wild Self, with wisdom, so you don’t get all ferocious and kill anybody.  That’s the secret, finding your way back there takes you smack dab into primal feelings and emotions.  Do you wonder why I carry on so about trips to the Underworld?  It’s one thing to feel these primal urges and process them deeply so that no harm comes of them to the self or others; and quite another to act out unconsciously from these depths, usually resulting in harm, violence and more down-ward spiralling karma.  

Amon Ra nurturing his Wild Self

Once you start gaining access to the Wild Self, it requires nurturing and attention.  It just wants to be.  It is found more in being than in planning or thinking or scheming.   It doesn’t want your time schedule and will likely flat out refuse to come out and play if you tell it “Well okay I’ve got an hour between 4 and 5 so will you please show up and perform, Wild Self”  No, it probably won’t, unless you know how to step into that part of yourself effortlessly.

Amon Ra demonstrating
Leisure & Simplicity

It  likes simplicity and natural, sensual things.  No have-to’s.  The wild Self is also jungle smart.   And I do mean jungle or forest smart, the realm where survival of the fittest does rule, and if you are walking around out there, never forget that you as a human are subject to the Laws of the Jungle.  This of course can also apply in cities.  Street smart and Jungle smart are really the same thing, just tuned differently.  

Red Clay Mask, herbal skin care
made from purified mud and plants

Tapping into the Wild Self is a way to know freedom and sovereignity, and great creativity arises when in touch with it.  The difficulty comes in bridging it with the more humanized, socialized self.  They are quite at odds in this culture.  The culture doesn’t like the Wild Self.  It’s always trying to kill it, trap it, seduce it, mold it, rape it, use it,  cut it off, drug it, encourage people to act out from it unconsciously, all the while basically demonizing that part of us.   This is a travesty, because the Wild Self is the connection to Gaia and Sacred Embodiment.

Aloe Vera is a miracle plant
for health and beauty

So I encourage you all, especially women, but you men too - let go of some of those layers of civilization.  Don’t worry that you won’t look and feel attractive.  I can tell you from experience, that if you can make the transition away from most of those yucky products the culture tries to foist on us, especially as women, there are  wonderful natural alternatives that will keep you clean, healthy, vibrant, shining and radiant with more life force than will EVER come out of a tube from some laboratory some where.

Feed Your Hair and 
Cultivate Your Wild Head, 

I sez with love

and don't forget your 
Cat Stretches, 
Aaaaaarrrrrrghhhhhhfff!!!

Blessings of the Wild Self!!