Be Wild

“The aspect of the wild shouldn't be sublimated, but rather channeled.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

These are times with great uncertainty, division, and anxiety. Such times call for powerful gifts, and the archetype of the fierce feminine – the ‘Wild Woman’ – is certainly one of these.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés brought her up from the oppressed and veiled places and into the hands of everyday women back in 1992 when she released her best-selling book, Women Who Run with the Wolves – Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype.

The Wild Woman is possibly the most misunderstood, vague, and incomplete archetype. Depending on which Jungian psychologist you ask, the Wild Woman has deep instinctive qualities and is Mother Nature herself; she is highly sexual, perhaps malicious; crazily ambitious and detached; or where deep suffering dwells.

She is Kali, the goddess of darkness, destruction, and death, who speaks to embracing uncertainty, being ok with chaos and having the rug pulled out from under us – not clinging, when clinging won't help.

As the symbol of Mother Nature, Kali is timeless and formless, representing the creation of life and the universe.

But she is also Vajrayogini, the archetype of primordial wisdom, whose fiery, naked body speaks of our natural goodness and the power of our bodies as women. She whispers that rather than being a handicap, being born/identifying as a woman puts us in touch with some very powerful alchemy for awakening.

However we define her, the Wild Woman is an important response to a dominant culture that has brought us to the precipice of destruction. What wisdom awaits us here? What can these archetypes teach us about our own inner wild woman? And how can we embody her powers for something bigger than ourselves?

An invitation

You’re invited to explore these questions at our next Supper Unyoked, an evening of beauty, insight, and inspiration into the Wild Woman archetype with Buddhist nun Ayya Yeshe.

She will take us on a journey of powerful mythology and practices to help us embody fierce wildness.

Our aim is not to seek to control this embodied fierceness – this wildness in the gut, centred in the body, in the dark, is where our power lies. The power to let the forces of this dark, untamed, fierce and protective love direct your course and give you endurance.

‘The connection with the wild outlives age,” says Clarissa Pinkola Estés, “and it grows along time and becomes richer as a woman becomes older.”

If you are on verge of taking a risk and daring greatly, then this is the table you need to sit at, remembering that when a woman is in touch with her wild instinct, that is when she is released from captivity.

This supper is supporting The Bodhicitta Foundation. All proceeds go towards enabling women and girls in India to attend school.

ABOUT OUR SPEICAL GUEST VEN. AYYA YESHE

Ayya Yeshe has been a Buddhist nun for 22 years. She founded Bodhicitta  Foundation, a grassroots charity working with "ex untouchable" people in  the slums of Central India and lived in India for 17 years. Ayya is an  international Buddhist teacher, author, feminist and contemplative. She  wrote "Everyday Enlightenment" (Harper Collins) and has 120k hits on  youtube with "Dakini" the sacred music album. Ayya has also started  Bodhicitta Dakini Monastery, in the Unesco world heritage area  wilderness of Northern Tasmania.

Her maxim is: “Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle.” (Gandhi)

https://ayyayeshe.wordpress.com

https://bodhicitta-monastery.com

http://www.bodhicitta-vihara.com