Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth's Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness

by Mary Reynolds Thompson, Sophie Brudenell-Bruce (Illustrator)

Overview

"In the pages of Reclaiming the Wild Soul, the forests and mountains, the deserts and the oceans, the rivers and the grasslands find their voice. Once heard, we can never forget what they have to say. Nor do we want to. May we all follow the summons and embark on such a journey. Thompson's field guide illuminates the way." -Clare Dakin, Founder, TreeSisters

"Woven with enchanting stories and wise counsel, Reclaiming the Wild Soul lavishly supports us, at this time of global crisis/opportunity, to return, emboldened, to Earth and to our own human wildness." -Bill Plotkin, author of Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche and Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche

Beyond the chaos and stresses of our modern age, there lies a forgotten yet primal terrain rich in wisdom, healing, and wholeness. In Reclaiming the Wild Soul, Mary Reynolds Thompson takes us on a journey into Earth's five great landscapes as aspects of our deeper, wilder selves. There, where the inner and outer worlds meet, we discover within our souls:

• the silence and simplicity of deserts
• the mystery of forests
• the flow of oceans and rivers
• the inspiration of mountains
• the regenerative spirit of grasslands

Once awakened, these "soulscapes" reveal the beauty and magnificence of our own true nature-and a path of personal transformation aligned with the healing of the wild Earth. Reclaiming the Wild Soul is simultaneously self-help and a courageous call to action for our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780982889404
Publisher:	Wild Roots Press
Publication date:	07/05/2019
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	190
Sales rank:	190,643
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

MARY Reynolds Thompson Is a facilitator of poetry and journal therapy and life coach dedicated to bringing forth the Wild Soul Story. This new story is rooted in our oneness with nature and a vision of a world in which the wild landscapes of both Earth and soul can thrive. Her own connection to the sacred Earth has been key to her thirty-year recovery from alcoholism and grounds her in an understanding of how we can all awaken from the addictive trance of the modern world. She is also author of Embrace Your Inner Wild: 52 Reflections for an Eco-Centric World (White Cloud Press, 2011), as well as numerous essays on eco-spirituality. Core faculty for the Therapeutic Writing Institute and founder of Write the Damn Book, she conducts writing and eco-spirituality workshops and retreats throughout the world. Born and raised in London, England, today she lives in her beloved landscape of Marin County, California, with her husband, Bruce. www.maryreynoldsthompson.com

Sophie Brudenell-Bruce is a painter and printmaker working and exhibiting in London and France. After twelve years as a garden designer, Sophie returned to full-time painting in 1992. The human figure remains central to her work, but exploration of other media, in particular printmaking, has given her the freedom to investigate the realms of controlled abstraction. She is married with four children. Sophie can be contacted through her website, www.sophiebb.com.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpt
This excerpt is a chapter from the Desert Soulscape.


Simplicity

A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything.)
––T.S. Eliot

***
In the desert water is a gift. When it arrives, the air fills with surprising birdsong and the land erupts in robes of flowers. Escape-pod seeds, dormant for years, await the first generous rains to burst forth and bloom.

And all this is more beautiful, because it is not an everyday event.
What is it you truly need?

***
I sit watching the sunrise by Balanced Rock in Arches National Park in Utah. The steely morning air hints not at all of the heat that will follow. In this moment, it is just the bare shape of the rock and me, its every crevice slowly revealed as the sun begins to lift from behind the horizon.

A thermos of tea, earmuffs, a pad to sit on. In the desert morning, joy grows in my spirit like wildflowers, as rocks come alive, take shape, run red. Like blood and gold. Perhaps I can be more present, because in the desert the earth is more present—each thing perceived more clearly than in other regions where contours are masked by vegetation. I am somehow more aware of––more visible to––myself.

Absence of clutter––and the capacity to hold something back––are what make the desert beautiful. The empty space in a sculpture is as important, or more important, than the clay or stone that remains. As I sit here, I know that the American Dream as it exists today will not survive the desert. This unquenchable desire for more––for greater things and constant growth––seems to have no place in this unforgiving land. Las Vegas, in the end, will be no match for the Mojave. Over time, the essential desert earth will refuse to sustain it.

This land, after all, is beautiful, but that beauty is precarious. Like a long pause after a bar of music, or a Zen-styled room free of any extraneous object, its grandeur—and its survival––is predicated on restraint.

A student of mine once told me the desert reminded her of a beautiful woman without any makeup or artifact, just fine bones. And I think this is true. Less is more, where there is beauty at heart.
What is it that I need?

Simplicity and necessity, the lack of clutter or excess, bring us closer to something vibrant and alive. The prickly cactus bears life-giving juice at its center. Life without illusions, based on simple needs, can yield a tremendous inner riches.

We come to the desert, in part, because we want to know who we are without all our external paraphernalia. This is a profoundly spiritual way to live, in the lean, bone marrow of life. The way light streams upward on a bare rock face, like melting gold—nothing standing between it and the simple form of the rock.

All things are eventually illuminated in the desert. The light scours all. There is nowhere to hide.
In the desert we get clear on what truly matters to us––water, food, shelter, love, family, community, meaningful work. The rest blisters and burns away under the relentless heat of day, under nights exploding with stars.

Freed from excess, our lives can begin to mirror the exquisiteness of a night-blooming saguaro. In the dead of dark, with no person to witness it, the cactus will unfurl a single, lavish bloom, the bleached bone of moonlight and the fragrance of musk. Lesser long-nosed bats rise up and seek her out, their long tongues licking up the syrup. This is sweetness so miraculous, so rare and astonishing, the bats will travel thousands of miles, often leaving their pups, to feed.

This is the way of the desert: beauty that waits, lavishness that is restrained. Moments of exploding sensuality, bordered by long stretches of severity that don’t take away from life’s bounty, but highlight it…turn a simple sip of water into a moment of grace.

What is it you truly need?

Simplicity Exploration
Create a desert corner in your house. You might find some interesting rocks, cacti, or a miniature sandbox to decorate. The main purpose, however, is that this particular area be as uncluttered as possible. The kind of place that feels serene and understated.

If you have children, tell them about this special space. Let them know any member of the household is welcome to visit, but mustn’t leave anything behind. It is to remain mess-free. If your home doesn’t allow for this, find a space somewhere in your neighborhood where you experience ease and simplicity.
After spending time in your serene space, write your responses to these questions:
What do you notice about your internal terrain when you are in a clutter-free space?
How can you incorporate more simplicity into your life?
What might you need to let go of?
What is it you truly need?

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword
Preface: My Own Wild Soul Story
Introduction: The Journey of the Soulscapes

Part 1: Deserts
1. Silence
2. Thirst
3. Simplicity
4. Clarity
5. Emptiness
6. Impermanence

Part 2: Forests
7. Mystery
8. Wisdom
9. Uniqueness
10. Shadow
11. Rootedness
12. Emergence

Part 3: Oceans and Rivers

13. Originality
14. Depth
15. Flow
16. Expressiveness
17. Ebb and Flow
18. Desire
19. Balance
20. Generosity

Part 4: Mountains
21. Solidity
22. Extremity
23. Mindfulness
24. Perspective
25. Humility
26. Friction
27. Influence

Part 5: Grasslands
28. Belonging
29. Sensuality
30. Resilience
31. Freedom
32. Beauty
33. Openness

What Next? Walking the Wild Edge
Additional Resources
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Artist
Notes

Editorial Reviews

"Reclaiming the Wild Soul touches on so much that makes us more deeply human. But even more, we are invited into a new way of being human. Mary Reynolds Thompson identifies the most powerful qualities of our Earth's great landscapes. She then magically guides us back into a nearly lost realm where we truly feel that our imagination, our inner lives, and our physical selves are an integral expression of the planet herself. To go to the Earth for guidance, we simultaneously go inward to our deeper self and outward to the Great Self of oceans, rivers, deserts, grasslands, mountains, and forests. It is here, as the author writes, 'we learn to live the questions, rather than rush the answers.' Reclaiming the Wild Soul reminds us that beyond the flurry and chaos of our cyber-age, there is a primary yet forgotten terrain where we may seek guidance, healing, and wisdom. In doing so, we retrieve our wilder, deeper selves. I read this book with a sense of gratitude. It is a beautiful, passionate, and trustworthy handbook for deeper transformation." -Lauren de Boer, Executive Editor, EarthLight, a magazine of ecology, cosmology, and spirituality.

"Mary Reynolds Thompson's book works simple magic to bind our broken souls back into full-round rapport with the more-than-human terrain. And as the land restores our sanity, we're empowered to work with new clarity to replenish the many-voiced vitality of the animate earth." -David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous

"Reclaiming the Wild Soul leads us on a journey of exploration, through imagery, poetry, story and creative imagination, to connect back to the five archetypal landscapes in Nature, and reconnect to our own inherent Nature." -Angeles Arrien, author of The Four Fold Way

"Mary Reynolds Thompson has written a lyrical and potent field guide to reclaiming the wild soul. Her intimacy with Nature and her longing for the reader to experience such intimacy is the golden thread that weaves through every page. Imagine a world in which all women claimed the forests, mountains, oceans, and deserts within our own psyches. It would surely lead us all True North in our quest for personal and planetary wholeness. In Reclaiming the Wild Soul, the forests and mountains, the deserts and the oceans, the rivers and the grasslands find their voice. Once heard, we can never forget what they have to say. May we all follow the summons and embark on such a journey. Mary's field guide lights the way."--Clare Dakin, Founder, TreeSisters

"With ingenuity and subtlety, Mary Reynolds Thompson guides us in ways both old and new to enter Earth's archetypal wildscapes and allow them to infuse us and make us whole again, fully human. Woven with enchanting stories and wise counsel, Reclaiming the Wild Soul lavishly supports us, at this time of global crisis/opportunity, to return, emboldened, to Earth and to our own human wildness." -Bill Plotkin, author of Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche

From the Publisher