Wild Wisdom Reunion
Jan’s Medicine Wheel Mosaic – ‘a beautiful depiction of the diversity of wild wisdom’ – Sam
After a gap of some 18 months, we met again just after the Spring Equinox for a loving reunion at Juliette’s lovely, peaceful house. Together, we remembered our journey through the Western esoteric traditions from pre-history/herstory to present times, and we opened the wisdom pot to receive our shared experience, thoughts and feelings.
We heard about the need for simplicity, having something to eat and people to be in relationship with, and recognising that we did not need much more. And the importance of silence, even though it is sometimes very difficult to be with it.
We held the grief that comes from death and illness, hearing with compassion how life can feel like a life sentence when we feel wholly trapped by our commitments. Grief too at what is happening in our country and the world: so much anger, division, separateness. – a feeling that we are constantly in mourning.
And we talked of the gifts that life can bring even at its most difficult times, of the vulnerability and compassion that can arise from serious wounding. Of the special and particular support of women for women; of the wonderfully grounding experience of nature which calls us back from the edge of the darkest places. We heard of the courage to go on pilgrimage, to travel as a way of embracing our confusion and finding healing, and of the healing power of community.
Grandmother Salmon, from one of our earliest stories, was a recurring motif: from the simplicity of the tribal life in the story, to an acknowledgement that there is purpose to swimming upstream and to sacrifice. As ever in our sharing, we wove together stories of bright and dark wisdom born of bright and dark experience.
As the sunshine streamed through the open doors and windows, we acknowledged the life springing up around us, and the need to be honest about what is life-giving and what is not. The earth is gathering energy and growth is every where. And, in order for us to grow, we too need to do some gathering, of the parts of ourselves that we have had to forsake.
Like the birds singing in Juliette’s garden, we understood the need to take each day as it comes. And to be free to experience God in a way that feels real to each of us within our traditions.
Words and image by Jan
