From the introduction to Reclaiming the Wild Soul by Mary Reynolds Thompson
The Journey of the Soulscapes
Remember the earth whose skin you are…
––Joy Harjo
Every spiritual journey is at its heart a quest for wholeness. We long to feel a part of the vast and unfolding mystery of life. We yearn to feel alive, engaged. We are seeking our place and purpose. But how do we proceed? How do we remember who we are? What path will carry us home?
This book maps a journey into the wild environs of the soul through five archetypal landscapes: deserts, forests, oceans and rivers, mountains, and grasslands. I call these “soulscapes,” for they are the merging of inner and outer nature—the meeting place of self and Earth. As you enter their depths, you will awaken the metaphors of the landscapes within you and lay claim to the wild wisdom and power at the core of your being.
Humans, after all, weren’t placed on Earth; we emerged out of the Earth. Every day, we consume part of the Earth in order to stay alive. The great landscapes of the planet are our ancestors; they arose from the Earth just as we did, and their energies evoke deep feelings and potentialities within us at both conscious and unconscious levels
Since the remarkable appearance of self-reflective consciousness around 200,000 years ago, we have been primed to connect with these regions—they are resident in our collective unconscious, part of our primal birth matrix. The cultural historian Thomas Berry puts it this way in Dream of the Earth: “Beyond our genetic coding, we need to go to the earth, as the source whence we came, and ask for her guidance, for the earth carries the psychic structure as well as the physical form of every living being upon the planet.
Today, as concern grows about how far we have distanced ourselves from the natural world, we are encouraged to spend more time outdoors, walking, gardening, or simply being in nature. These things are hugely important. But this book asks something more: it invites you to awaken to the ancient Earth-consciousness that resides within you—within us all—that you can access at any time, in any place, even in the midst of the busiest city.
The landscapes you will explore in this book are not external or extrinsic to who you are; they are woven into the core of your being as surely as elements from the stars or the salty depths of the oceans. For this is the amazing truth: four billion years of Earth wisdom are embedded in your cells. It is time to awaken to the whole magnificent geography of your soul.
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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 the world in which the wild landscapes of both Earth and soul can thrive. She is author of Embrace Your Inner Wild: 52 Reflections for an Eco-Centric World and Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness. Her books are available through Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Wild-Soul-Landscapes-Wholeness/dp/1940468140 and White Cloud Press: http://www.whitecloudpress.com/reclaiming-the-wild-soul.html You can learn more about Mary by visiting: http://maryreynoldsthompson.com.