My Journey Into Wild Consciousness: Full Moon Story Time

[Music] [Music] hello beautiful people i'm chris maddox founder of the wild woman project and wild woman fest and i'm speaking to you today because we always meet like this on the moon times so the full moon will arrive depending upon your time zone on september 1st or 2nd and for this full moon i wanted to make a little offering of story time so in this noisy tumultuous technological sphere that we meet in i know there's like a culture of skimming and scanning and hurrying and rushing to the next thing and it's like hopping to the next lily pad you know so i want to encourage you at this full moon time as a little gift to yourself to do something to signify that you're actually going to be present for this so obviously i think full screening it is good and maybe if you can sit in your favorite spot and light a candle or sit out on your porch or your front stoop or under your favorite tree to take this in and maybe have a little journal next to you so you can catch any thoughts or feelings or memories that come through as we sit together so make any adjustments you're welcome to pause me if you want and make any adjustments to the space move where you want to go and we will sit together so i want to start us by lighting the candle if you have a candle you can light with me if not i light it for us let this flame represent the wild spirit which burns within each of us as we awaken our own wild spirit we awaken the collective spirit so we're going to talk today about sort of like what what i mean when i say wild and a little bit about my journey and to kind of understand meeting that word and what it represents and kind of growing in my rewinding process or unfurling or untangling however you want to think of it there's a lot of ways that you can sort of look at the process of going from a state of domestication or you know being civilized uh being a part and a product of modern society modern thought processes um systems economic systems like capitalism and uh you know systems of government like um democracy i'm from the united states that's the that's the form i grew up in and you know uh the the culture that we have ingested through our educational systems and which is different depending upon where on earth you are and who was teaching you and what perspective and what kind of religious doctrines played into you know play into any of these systems so the the process of moving from being a product of modern thinking consciousness ways and systems to stepping into an orientation which turns us toward nature and nature you know is there is a kind of chatterless communion or communication that can happen when we find ourselves in the natural world and you know the deeper that we journey into places in nature that have been less touched and in some rare cases untouched by modern systems and modern you know industry and and ways of thinking it you get access to something very very uh primal timeless and deeply it's nice it's um it's almost so sacred that you can't name it but it is a window into you know our ancestors you know who have been walking this earth for hundreds of thousands of years and lived in all kinds of different ways had all kinds of different stories that we have never heard that have been lost on modern consciousness and the modern systems but you know perhaps their memory lives in you know the earth where their bones where their ashes lay you know under layers and layers and layers of earth and one of the things that you know most of our ancestors had the gift and and and challenge of was living in real intimate relationship with the natural world you know archaeological and anthropological evidence shows that you know hunter-gatherer tribes all over the world you know they existed like that for hundreds of thousands of years moving around the concept of staying in one place wasn't in the consciousness the concept of owning a piece of land was not in the consciousness but they walked around and found in nature everything that they needed you know they looked at the natural world as the bestower of so many gifts shelter food water and yes they had to become you know strong and agile to navigate you know moving around like that uh building shelters for sleeping hunting foraging and um you know we can only really imagine what our ancestors what their kind of consciousness was like what their rituals were you know there is some evidence and there is some and there is some remembrance in certain indigenous tribes and traditions that still you know do their best in this industrialized world to hold and pass down their traditions and their stories you know in spite of great efforts to destroy them and their way of life and their stories throughout history up to modern times so when we talk you know about wild i think it's that was the name the wild woman project came to me in 2011 and we officially launched the wild woman project on january 1st 2012 and at that time you know that word wild like if you would have asked me then and you could go back on our website years and years and years you know i was just beginning to walk through the door of um or the threshold i should say of this journey that i will be on for the rest of my life which is walking deeper and deeper into uh deeper and deeper into this almost like primordial consciousness that i'm trying to find um because i'm a person living in the modern world i didn't grow up like you know the majority of people on this earth did not grow up in an indigenous tribe um where we could have where we can ask our elders or our teachers or to tell us the stories show us the ways but the the opportunity of this moment for modern people as we feel the rumbles of a lot of the very new systems like capitalism like like democracy you know in terms of our big span of history capitalism is like a few hundred years old and it's not doing well it's it's harming and um you know there's a lot of really smart uh people economic anthropologists um kind of trying to teach us about different ways that we have organized and different possibilities and um so that's not my that's not my area of genius it's an area of curiosity and i and i really hope it is for everyone else like how do we how do we um how do we continue to live here without killing the planet and killing one another is a really really important question it's a it's a question of our time if you're alive right now it's a question that um is in the collective it's a huge question so unless i got a little yeah okay so i was just beginning to to walk into my curiosity and i want to tell a little story about my rewilding process in honor of and the reason i want to tell this story today is it's the full moon the last full moon of this year-long focus that we've held as a larger community this theme of rituals of rewilding that we've been exploring moon cycle after moon cycle circle after circle wild woman school after wild woman school you know and just held for so many of us in our consciousness so i've been holding this just like every one of you who have been holding this you know circle leaders and circle participants and those of you who have been coming to a wild woman school or following along on our social media or on our newsletter um i wanted to talk about this process because i really believe in telling our stories and that's part of the beauty of being in circle and that's why it's so such a it's like the primary focus for us at the wild woman project is is you know encouraging and helping and tool building so that we sit and circle together whether um that's in person or whether that's online that we get present with one another and have time to reflect on our life's adventure you know our life's journey and to be able to be witnessed in our stories and also to witness others because when we sit like that when we sit in story time there is that amazing thing that happens which is no matter what we usually find a way to relate let me say like some aspect of the story like oh yeah you know i felt the version of that or my best friend went through something like that or you know whatever it is we find a way to relate and that relation is really um intrinsically connected to this whole thing of entering that threshold that portal of the wild consciousness untamed undomesticated there is a sense when we walk into nature that we can feel that we are connected and everything else is connected to everything else is connected to everything else so that stirring and resurrecting of the we is part of it so that's why i tell my story today so that we can have a little um connection on that level relation so i want to say that you know back when i was 26 i think i was yeah i was 26 at the time i was living in new york city i'm not from new york city but i you know i ended up spending a decade of my uh young adult life there and it was a place i felt really called to be from childhood it was like a dream come true to live in that exciting dynamic um spot which i conceived of like you know i understood as just culture at its best you know um people from all over the world coming together and and making things and creativity i just like wanted to be a part of that incredible human energy and you know it is not lost on me that when i was 26 that name the wild woman project came to me in that place which is literally um not that it's the center or the epicenter of civilization it's certainly i i'd say it's um you know debatable but i think it's like we could say it's like the center of capitalism or the symbol of capitalism on a global level um so that's sort of like an interesting piece you know like in so many stories myth and folklore and fairy tales and movies and comic books um songs even there's there's symbolism you know so here i am a young woman 26 years old living in the center of capitalism the concrete jungle you know and i remember i was i had been on my my spiritual journey for a few years then i had been just reaching for you know learning about things um spiritual paths i studied yoga i began to teach yoga um i was a little baby yoga teacher you know just sort of reaching for something deeper and doing a lot of healing work as is important i think for all of us to do um in those early years and you know to continue to do for for a long time so i found myself at a bookstore which is a place where one of my favorite kinds of places in the world and then certainly in the civilized world uh it was actually the borders bookstore in columbus circle rest in peace borders um and i had heard you know several different people had suggested that i read women who run with the wolves because i had began leading a women's circle so they kept making connections you have to you know people who knew that book you have to read this book chris you had and after the third time i heard it i was like okay i'm going to buy the book so i went to that borders and i remember really strongly sort of like this visceral memory of like running my fingers across the book titles and i saw women who run with the wolves and it was a black book and dr estee's name was written on it and i pulled it out and the physical energetic sensation was so strong that it felt like there was electricity coming through my body through my hands and that was like you know very exciting and sort of like a what is this yes so i i remember opening up the first pages and going to the i don't know if it's the introduction or the chapter one i think it may actually be the introduction where dr estes goes into you know this comparison of the wolves and the way modern society and industrial growth and modern consciousness has come to um devalue to misunderstand uh the wolf you know you think of stories like childhood stories like the big bad wolf you know this dangerous um savage um thing you know it's a derogatory it's there's like a derogatory cons uh con yeah like a like a stigma there right and um she talked about the wolf's nature being in instinctual being uh caring of the pack you know like that idea of the the pack and um she goes on throughout that whole book women who run with the wolves you know like really pulling that as a thread through each chapter you know why in modern consciousness do we do we put down that which is wild that which is you know instinctual that which is connected to nature and poses some kind of a threat you know to um a lot of the systems that wish to stomp that wild force out in favor of uh newer systems and you know even you know plowing down you know plowing down plots of land ancient trees to put like what a target you know um [Music] she made a comparison between the wolf and women and how in so many ways our instinctual nature has been stomped out has been seen as a threat in the exact same way as a threat to the systems that want control over and we know that you know the witch burnings in europe coincided time wise with the transit with a slave for the nemo is a trans atlantic slave when people went and stole people from africa violently and brought them here those were happening around the same time okay that's like the same period of time as we moved into a capitalist framework the abuse and the stomping down related so as i stood in this borders and i held this book everything in my body was just like i could feel um like this current of energy and i thought you know i want to keep following this kind of like invisible thread so the book for me because i didn't live in a place where i could go for a hike into the wilderness or go sit underneath um a tree or really you know immerse myself in the ocean really and truly and and put my concentration there this book this gift of story um was my beginning and i went through a process of you know almost becau almost starting to have like an allergic reaction to new york city it was like the more the wilding process rewilding process got going the more sensitive i became to the concrete to the noise to the you know being you know apartment style in that context you're literally like stacked up you know and the more sensitive i became the more i felt that we and feeling the we consciousness in new york city is a special challenge and it's an amazing dynamic city it's like much love and respect to new york city but you know if you're really feeling the we you know and you're on a subway that's a lot of energy to be working with so i started to feel like i can't even hear myself think like it became so loud and i ended up moving to western massachusetts as my first step out of the city and that's when i started to deepen my relationship to the natural world by going on hikes in a place that was less built up a little more wild you know that was a deep process and it was during that period that i began um initiated the wild woman fest up in the berkshires um our columbia county like right uh it's so close it's like right at the edge of new york and and massachusetts um and you know started there and that was a very deep many of you have been a part of that uh annual ritual which we've done for us we've done seven festivals in six years and that process of being on a mountain together and being in a ritual together and dancing around a fire and howling and you know doing all sorts of stuff that you know my that might seem really weird to the modern consciousness but but actually feels really strangely right and of course it doesn't you start to study history as i began to go further back like further back not not ancient greece but further back history you know really thinking about you know the um goddess worshiping tribes for instance uh that existed all over you know especially in like mesopotamia and old europe um and sort of just had my world opened up just it just it's like as i started to walk into the wild consciousness it's like you're peeling off layers you're going oh wait the history that i've learned is like just like 2 000 years almost maybe 10 000 years like maybe that's like the max but human beings have been around for approximately 300 000 years that's nothing you know so just that idea of being being around the fire with the women at wild woman fest and and dancing that's what our ancestors did that that had to be part of it it had to be part of it because they needed fire for warmth and that's why that the concept of circle is ancient because there was a time in our human history no matter where you are coming from on earth where your people are from where your ancestry goes back you know they got together in circle over and over and over again warming by the fire and um so there's something in us that knows that knows that you sort of get there and you remember something and um i ended up you know so that that step into western massachusetts i ended up really having call and making a choice to go and live in what was for me like my favorite place from childhood which is the blue ridge mountains my father grew up here and and um in the summers starting from about the age 9 or 10 we'd come out to the blue ridge mountains for a week and it was in terms of place my fairy favorite i just it felt like like like like a hug like home like um like a yes you know the body said yes i loved it so i uh moved and and that was in 2015 which is you know i was about five years ago like oh my gosh it was five years ago like now wow that's so funny my first lease began on september 1st 2015 cool i just put that together and my five years here have been the same [Music] process of like pulling back the layers untangling so the further i got away from you know that sort of new york city modern consciousness and and followed my particular call which is not going to be everybody's particular call that had a place in my heart because that's where my dad grew up you know there's a there's a something there a thread so you know each and every person it has a different place that feels like that hug you know so i followed my truth with that and have in the past five years you know my life has become more and more and more and more uh connected to that i want to say it's like a pure energy that comes through being surrounded by mountains so i'm pointing to the mountains around to the trees to the green to the creek to the water flowing by to be able to have access to these amazing gifts which are state and national parks and go hiking and be in the woods and build fires regularly and allow the process of being in deeper and deeper communion with nature to to work on me as it works on anyone who opens to it and there's been in my process you know this whole time everything i've just just described is like i the wild woman project raised me just as as i tend it as i tend to this project as i always think of myself like a servant like a guardian like a protector as i tend to it it offers uh gifts back and and um it you know the wild woman project i didn't know it at the time but like it my life became that like walking into that wild feminine and like doing it in a creative way and with intention that idea of like a project like okay i'm gonna really i'm gonna do i'm gonna do something i'm gonna focus on something i'm gonna dedicate myself here and i see where it takes me in and the more that i walk the path which is not always easy it has a lot of challenge in it but it offers more uh you know way more uh love and gifts and blessings and offerings and soul nourishment um to me than it does the challenge you know uh the fruit is so sweet that you know it it makes me just want to continue to do the work of walking with any women who are interested any women who feel that that call for that wild that you know that feel like some that invisible current of energy through them and feel called for whatever reason to join um us for anything whether it's you know for a session of wild women's school online or circle leader training or going to their local circle or participating um you know watching a video doing these little you know offerings or journaling exercises or whatever i send you know just little treasures i try to send out to give back because the more i walk into that wild consciousness the more the we is it's not even something i have to think about anymore it's something that's visceral that we are together in this and there is a lot of crazy stuff going on and people are under a tremendous amount of pressure and in this country especially this year with the the way the pandemic has um challenged us as a human family and you know in the united states has put specifically you know put a lot of pressure and shown us a lot of the flaws and the weaknesses in the system that you know that's been our the very new organizing system that we've been doing capitalists and the american exp experiment you know this like democracy [Music] it's very volatile in the we right now so i want to keep for myself and for anyone who ever wants to sit with me like you're sitting with me right now to help us to keep dropping down into you know like thinking of the strength of the wild consciousness the remembrance of our ancestors we couldn't possibly name or know to connect ourselves to the natural world which is always trying to give to us and always trying to take care of us no matter how we collectively abuse her she's trying to help so to tap into that wild to tap into that wolf that instinctual consciousness that knowing it offers an incredible amount of power and not power in a egoic sense but the power of life itself and life itself is connected to everything else so it's fast so as we connect into wild consciousness as we take our time to study ourselves and whatever rituals that we have to plant the souls of our feet on the earth to take time to slow down to to share space even if it's virtual with the people that are our heart people our soul people that as we do that as we connect to the we as we connect to the wild as we connect ourselves to this great big strength if it's true that we're all connected and science would tell us yes most spiritual traditions would tell us yes that there is an interdependence between all things then us connecting into that wild consciousness taking time to go deep not be reactive but go deep into the level of like um you know i think of it like the soul's voice versus the mental the soul's voice a deeper presence then if we're all connected we are sending that out into the great big vast being that we are and isn't that a beautiful offering so that's a little bit about my story my understanding of the word wild you know which like any word is completely and totally inadequate to the task of naming such a great big force and i hope that in another 10 years that i'll be talking to you and looking back on this way i understood it the word wild you know and go like oh wasn't that sweet i barely knew and that's the essence of re-wilding you know re is again and again and again and again and again and again so if we are re-wilding it never stops it just goes round and round like the moon like the earth around the sun like the seasons like days and nights like all the things in nature goes round and round and round so i want to encourage you if you do have your journal to take some time and ask yourself in your process in your adventure and your journey what have been your moments of touching the wilderness you know your points of rewilding and especially if you've been following this focus rituals of rewilding for this whole year i really hope that you take some time to write down your points of rewinding that have happened in this whole year you know i have i have a couple pages in my journal where i've just made bullet points i'm like whoa i'm totally thinking about this different and whoa isn't that more in tune with the wild and how interesting and and that you know those kinds of things that we cognitively sort of process the experiences that we have that helps us to grow and to continue to walk our path with awareness so take some time you know and you can journal about it but if you have like a best friend or a fellow wild woman that you want to call or a relative that you can talk to about such things and you'd like to talk with someone you should you know pick up the phone call you know and see if they want to have a little conversation say i want to tell you a little story is there something about telling our story and being heard that's really really sweet so i really thank you for listening to me today tell my little story tiny little story and a great big vast expanse of time and space so it's um yeah it's with great love that you know i say we have two more weeks of this rituals every wilding series and we'll start a whole new one on the next new moon a new point of focus which i'm really excited about i've already told our circle leaders and they're preparing their circles um so i'll tell you i'll tell you and on the new moon so i hope you look forward to that that surprise and and um we can continue to grow together so in honor of this rituals of rewilding close out we're having our final wild woman school of this series which will happen on september 10th it's online you can join from anywhere and the theme for the community ritual is resurrecting the primordial feminine so we're gonna really walk into the wild together with the tools that we have our body our breath our focus our attention our presence and we will be together in this you know in this vast space you know coming together online and um just so you know like cameras are turned off we really tune in on an energetic level lead you through meditation breath work there will be music and stories and journaling and contemplations and all sorts of fun things and sharing so i hope if that seems like something that calls to you that you'll join us and let's choose your own price and there are scholarships available if you need one don't be afraid to ask okay and um yeah yeah so link below this video for that and i want to make an announcement of something coming up really soon so we have circle leader training coming this fall and circle leader training begins in november on november 2nd it's seven weeks it's online from anywhere it's extremely rich with content you know it is in part like personal development and cultivation in the way of the wild woman into this instinctual self and knowing and all the things that come with that and then it's part skill building to prepare you should you wish to facilitate a circle for your friends uh for your community members uh for you know for larger audiences um you know if you have already like a you know you're a helping professional of some kind a coach a therapist uh et cetera if you want to add a circle to what you're offering so if you do it professionally like it really runs the gamut in terms of some people take it just for their personal development and maybe they lead their closest friends or family members and some people you know have public circles that happen at community centers and yoga studios etc so it will prepare you to facilitate in your way where you feel called and all in the way of the wild woman so we've been leading this training i've been first one i did was even before i launched the wild woman project back in 2011 i've been leading it regularly we're really really proud of the program and we're told over and over again how valuable it is for people and yeah so if that feels like something you want to be a part of please check it out uh registration is going to open up on the equinox september 22nd at noon eastern time so i'll put a link below this video and if it really if you really want to get in there i recommend um putting your name on our email list that's on the page that the link is at um because i will email you that list which is a smaller list of people and and tell you exactly when um when registration opens in the last mini rounds like the last 13 rounds or something have totally filled up so if you want to be a part of it i do recommend getting prepared to act more swiftly um yeah and there are scholarships available for that and payment plans and we keep it really affordable in the first place but please if you feel the call i hope that you'll go for it and you can always email us at support the wild woman project if you ever have any questions uh about anything and about that program so those are my couple of announcements and uh i just want to send you some love and encouragement and a remembrance that you know you're not alone if you're feeling overwhelmed in pain if you're struggling which you know the the statistics are showing people really are right now and you know i know in my personal sphere like you know let's take care of each other okay and i just want you to know you're not alone that you're loved and that nature loves you and um there are so many different ways that you can connect to nature and her unconditional love so thank you so much if you have your candle lit please join me in blowing it out happy full moon we go inhale exhale oh

Channel: The Wild Woman Project

Views: 200

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: wild woman, wild, woman, witch, zodiac, moon, luna, new moon, full moon, transformation, story, feminine spirituality, feminist, feminism, the wild woman project, la lobe, la luna, women's wisdom, women's circles, intention, wild woman school

Id: MbDuW4LIKXU

Length: 47min 36sec (2856 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020