Live Your Wild Soul Story with Mary Reynolds Thompson

Air Date - 27 May 2024

Join us on Voice Rising with Kara Johnstad as we journey into the wild depths of the feminine soul with author Mary Reynolds Thompson!

Mary Reynolds Thompson will be sharing insights from her latest book, “The Way of the Wild Soul Woman,” guiding us through the transformative power of reconnecting with the untamed aspects of our inner feminine power. Yes, how can we untame our story, connect with our authentic voice and re-wild our lives?

Discover the five archetypes of the Wild Soul Woman’s psyche, each representing a powerful initiation rooted in ancient Earth wisdom. From letting go of what no longer serves us to nurturing new dreams and honoring our deepest longings, Mary shares with us rituals and tools to embody the ways of the Wild Soul Woman.

Hosted by Voice Visionary Kara Johnstad, this episode promises to inspire, uplift, and reconnect us with the wild wisdom of the Earth and our own souls. Don’t miss this opportunity to reclaim your wild soul story and align with your true purpose!

Tune in to Voice Rising on the OMTimes platform for a soul-stirring conversation with Mary Reynolds Thompson. Together, let’s journey into the depths of our wild souls and emerge transformed.

#MaryReynoldsThompson #creativewriting #writingrituals #voiceempowerment #storytelling #KaraJohnstad #VoiceRising

To get in touch with Kara Johnstad, go to http://www.karajohnstad.com/

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to Voice Rising with Kara Johnstad. Enjoy weekly conversations with leading luminaries,
pioneering visionaries, singers, poets,musicians, and sound healers as we explore
the profound role our voice plays onthe path to self realization and global enlightenment.
The internationally acclaimed singer, composer,author, healer, recording artist,

(00:25):
voice expert, creator of Voice YourEssence, and founder of the School of
Voice, Kara Johnstad uses her extraordinaryspiritual gifts to empower others. Everything in
this world vibrates, everything has afrequency. A pioneer in the field of
voice work and transformational songwriting, herbreakthrough methods are helping thousands of people worldwide

(00:48):
fine tune their body, mind,spirit system and unlock the energetic frequencies of
limitless creativity, health and abundance.Share your voice, ask your questions,
join in the conversation, receive lifechanging positive transformation, and rise together to
create a sound world. And here'syour hust Kara Johnstad, Hi beautifuls.

(01:15):
Today we are diving deep into thewild and soulful journey of reconnection with none
other than Mary Reynolds Thompson, abeacon of wisdom in the realms of nature
based healing and inner transformation. Asthe author of a brand new book,
The Way of the Wild Souled Woman, Mary guides us through the profound initiations

(01:40):
of the earth Woman archetypes, offeringrituals, exercises, and meditations to awaken
our fullest, most authentic salves.With her work, Mary bridges the gap
between outer and inner nature, invitingus to reclaim our wild wisdom and embody
the lessons of our true nature.So grab a tea or something lovely to

(02:06):
drink and join us on this transformativeexploration with Mary Reynolds Thompson. She's with
me now. Welcome Mary to theshow. Thank you, Kara. So
it's a it's an absolute pleasure.It's a pleasure Mary to have you with
us today, and I'm so curiousto know more. I also read that

(02:30):
you had a pig that used toride around on in south of Italy,
so that's gonna you'll have to you'llhave to share that with us. But
your work in rewilding the soul andconnecting to our authentic voices is inspiring.
And you do have a new bookwhich I had the pleasure to read share
with me. And our listeners alittle bit more about your own personal journey

(02:54):
of reconnecting to your wild soul andhow it inspired you to write this new
book. Well, like many ofus, I think I was very connected
to my wild soul when I wasa child and you know, riding that
pig along the dusty trails above Positanaon the Mouthy coastline, and I got

(03:19):
to sleep in caves as a child, I learned to swim in the Mediterranean
where there are flying fish and incrediblegrottos, and this sense of deep enchantment
got sewed into my soul. Andthen, like so many of us,
I lost touch with that. Andas I grew up and started thinking about
boys and began to worry more about, you know, how I was presenting

(03:45):
than what I was actually experiencing.In many ways, I fell into alcoholism,
and from the ages of about sixteento twenty seven I drank really alcoholically.
I mean it was like right fromthe get go, and I think
in a very funny way that wasmy way of trying to find myself back

(04:09):
to wildness, but in a veryunhealthy way. And so, at age
twenty seven now living having been bornin London, now living in San Francisco.
I was a week sober, andI was standing on the bluffs above

(04:29):
the Pacific Ocean on a really stormyday, feeling terribly afraid, not knowing
how I was going to live withoutalcohol, looking out at this churning ocean,
and this thought came to me thatthe ocean was incredibly channed up and

(04:50):
wild and whipping against the rocks,but it was also very strong, And
this thought entered my head, soperhaps despite all the churning inside of me,
I was very strong too. Andat that moment I tasted salt in
my mouth, and I didn't knowif it was the ocean spray, I

(05:14):
didn't know if it was my owntears. And I felt this complete sense
of connection with this immense body ofwater, and I knew I was going
to be all right, which hasbeen true for the last forty years.
But I felt myself as part ofsomething immense and powerful and extraordinary, and

(05:40):
that sort of began another journey ofrewilding. That's beautiful. We are oceanic.
I think anybody who's ever felt thosesalty tears striped down their cheeks can
imagine that that place chose for thisbook to work with archetypes, and I

(06:04):
believe you call them earth archetypes,And so what led you to work with
these archetypes? So the ocean orthe water energy is probably one of the
many archetypes that we might imagine,but people know archetypes also different archetypes.
So what brought you to these verystrong, this very strong connection to nature

(06:26):
and writing this book around five archetypes. Well, first of all, you
know, my connection with nature wasreally so deep, and I began,
as I got sober, to godeeper and deeper into nature. And then
I discovered poetry therapy, and Istudied poetry therapy for period of two years,

(06:53):
and I was immediately drawn to thenature poets. And what I realized
was that those that are was onouter nature, they always returned to inner
nature. So this dance between ourinner wildness and outer wildness began to fascinate
me. And in the book thatcame out in twenty fourteen, Reclaiming the

(07:15):
Wild Soul, I worked with fivearchetypes deserts, forests, oceans and rivers,
mountains and grasslands. But then afew years later I was asked to
teach a course on the archetypes throughan ecofem organization called Tree Sisters, which

(07:39):
raises money for planting trees but alsolooks towards women's leadership. And I realized
that in teaching the archetypes and inpresenting the archetypes to women, our way
of experiencing them and embodying them wasdifferent. So that led to this latest

(08:03):
book, The Way of the WildSoul Woman, where the archetypes the king
now desert woman and forest woman andocean and river woman, et cetera.
Because the way we hold them isjust different from the way men experience them,

(08:28):
because of our history. Yeah,I always I always said that when
I do songwriting with my clients thatit doesn't matter how many times I try
women simply if if they're allowed tobe like rewilding their writing. They write

(08:50):
often very very differently from the formand the shape that the song takes on.
Right. It might it might bezigzag, it might not have a
bridge, or it just is adifferent deep a deep flow deep often a
deep deep flow. Yeah, yeah, which I find interesting because it doesn't
fit into the radio format. Soeven my writing too, it doesn't fit

(09:16):
in anywhere. You know. So, but women are you know, we
are half of this world and webring life to all of its beings.
So it's very interesting that that theway that we move and the way that
we experience is not what is inthe not often with the industry, at
least for music honors or wants.Yeah, yeah, and I think that

(09:41):
that's really true. And I noticedone thing that really came to the fore
when working with women from all overthe world, different ages, different cultures,
was that every woman had this commonexperience of feeling caged, of feeling
camped down, shamed, silenced,and a feeling that there was more to

(10:05):
them than the present culture, youknow, really encouraged or allowed for.
And so there was this very fearsense of unshackling, of unleashing all of
the moreness of who we are.And I think for women is that the

(10:30):
patterns in our culture, the normsof our culture, don't serve the way
we are emotionally, intellectually, spirituallyin the world. You know, this
linear path, this which you're referringto, you know, in Bori's Woman,
I taught you know, the bigshift is that we move away from

(10:50):
the linear path to the spiral pathin this sort of widening circles to this,
always coming back to our own feralwisdom and intuition and knowing, and
then circling out from there to discovermore, but not walking from A to
Z and missing so much along theway. I always stand and stare at

(11:16):
tree limbs or river tributaries right,all these arms, I mean we literally
call them arms. We call ita body of water. We do we
do understand somewhere that that we areconnected. And I think, yeah,
what about linear path? I mean, everything in nature is like, you

(11:37):
know, the branch goes in thisdirection, then a little branch in that
direction that is connected here, andsuddenly the branch falls off and grows a
new one over there. And yetwhen we ourselves, uh, it's hard
for us to give ourselves to permissionto live life in that enchanting style,
to say I'm gonna, you know, I'm going to start a company.
Oh it doesn't work, I'm gonnaI'm gonna twe get a little bit and

(12:01):
invite other people in and maybe I'mgoing to move to a different city where
I like the weather more. Ittakes a lot of courage. It takes
a lot of courage, I thinkto really follow the inner voice and the
inner guides that are with us.What's your experience, Yeah, yeah,
I think it very much takes courage, and I think that to be a

(12:24):
rewild hood woman, you know,to claim our wildness is an act of
tremendous courage because essentially the world rewardsyou for sticking to the straight and narrow
right right. You know, itsays, if you do this, you'll
get this, and then you'll gofor that, and then you'll receive this,
and sometimes we get material things,right, but many of us get

(12:48):
to a place in our lives wherewe go but I'm not happy. Why
am I even doing this? Butthe world says, keep going. You
know, at the end you'll besafe. You know, you'll be secure,
you'll be okay. And meanwhile,you know, our souls are suffering
because we aren't following our energies,our intuition, are instinct or the part

(13:16):
of our true soul journey, whichis very different from the part of the
ego. Yeah, talk to usabout storytelling and narrative and how they play
a role, how storytelling and tellingour stories and maybe sharing our stories with
each other plays a role in thiswork of rewilding our soul. You know,

(13:43):
there's a wonderful quote that I'm aboutto misquote by Muriel ruck Heiser,
the poet who says the world isn'tmade of atoms, It's made of stories.
And I think what she's speaking tois how profound important storytelling is,
because storytelling essentially frames the way thatwe see the world. It creates worldview.

(14:11):
So in order to change the trajectorythat we're on right now, which
I think many of us would agreeis pretty terrifyingly bad, because we need
to change the story. And we'vebeen living under the story that tells us
that humans are superior to and separatefrom nature, that we can do anything

(14:39):
we want to the earth, thatthe earth is an infinite resource, that
certain people are better than other people, and on and on it goes.
So that's where that story has gottenus to this point. So what are
the stories that we want to tellthat give us a possibility of shifting the

(15:05):
trajectory, as I said, ofwhere we're going. And my great belief
is that we don't need one monolithicstory that's the problem. We need a
diversity of voices with a diversity ofexperiences or adding to the chorus, of

(15:26):
life. I mean, a treehas a different experience than a spider.
A spider has a different experiences experienceof life than you and I, and
we need to hear and understand eachof those stories human and other than human
in order to begin to create thisrich sort of chorus that can sing the

(15:52):
world alive again. I always lovethat the word enchantment comes from chante interesting
to think yes, and that youknow, really to get back into storytelling
is to begin to sing the worldalive as long as those stories are rooted
in the understanding that we humans arepart of an earth community. We are

(16:18):
not you know, a collection ofobjects. We are a community of subjects.
And I think that shift from thinkingof the world as a resource to
a relation is so key to thestorytelling that is going to help heal us.
Yeah, I think you're so rightabout that. That this whole movement

(16:44):
in Berlin where I'm sitting now,there's a very very strong movement with the
climate activists really risking their lives towake up the governments and blocking you know,
highways and airports and all these things. But I always think that unless
the people themselves understand their relationship ortheir deep connection and are in awe of

(17:08):
the air that they're breathing is thesame air always, This always is so
amazing, you know, the sameair. We are breathing, the same
air even though we're miles apart,but literally from you know, Rilka to
Marilyn Monroe to Martin Luther King,we all breathe that air, whether we're

(17:30):
in a body or not. Imean, it's just mind blowing. The
water the rivers and suddenly it goesup into a cloud, moves on over
and comes down somewhere else. It'sjust phenomenal. And I think if we
don't touch those those magical places andfind that connection, we can't do it

(17:53):
only through climate activism because the peoplethey literally don't get it. But if
they lose their fresh water or ifand that's the problem, that then it's
too late, right, or it'salmost where it's too late. But that's
the thing. If they would losethe sun. Let's say the sun doesn't
rise, it goes on vacation.The sun says, I'm fed up with

(18:15):
you guys. I'm not going torise today and I'm going to go I'm
going to sleep. You know,I'm going to join the new moon,
Like, why should I rise?I'm going to be a new sun and
and go you know, a littlebit longer eclipse. It's so funny,
And what would happen? People wouldgo into absolute you know, they'd be
terrified if it was the earth suddenlywent dark. But to respect these things

(18:42):
like the beauty of the sun orthe magical qualities of the moon, or
the rivers or the trees, thisdoes take practice. Because we've all I
include myself, and this I've spokenof this very often on shows. My
great grandparents they came from Scotland andfrom Norway and from Sweden, and they

(19:06):
were farmers and they knew how tofarm with you know, rocks, right,
I mean, very harsh climates,and they landed in Wisconsin. And
so I grew up in Wisconsin ona huge piece of property, five hundred
acres an un beknownst to us,all we bought our food at a at

(19:29):
a you know, we farmed theland, but the crops got sold on
the stock market to whoever. Andmy mother went into town and bought groceries,
the iceberg salad, the whatever itis, the pop tarts, I
don't know what. And I amtrying with a little community garden to rewild
my soul now and to learn aboutyou know, perma culture and mixing all

(19:56):
these different plants. I'm planting flowersnext to herbs, and I literally think
in the last in two generations,if not three, my lineage is absolutely
disconnected from how to grow. Imean, yes, we know how to
plant a seed, but you know, really, if we would have to

(20:17):
live from the garden that I plant, at least we would be starving.
No, it's an experiment, butI mean that's how quickly it is.
It's it's less than one hundred years, and humans have been thousands of years
surviving, so our disconnect has justit It's been so quick. The last

(20:38):
hundred years have really really done somuch damage. You know, it really
has seven us and I think,you know, I mean it is so
ironic to be living on a farmand buying produce and buying not factly healthy
produce at the local markets. Butthe other it really shows is how farming

(21:04):
became part of the modern industrial complex, so that it wasn't to feed community,
it was to participate in the largercommerce. Right, So you know,
you plant whatever is going to getyou the best return. And it
becomes monolithic planting, so you're allcorn or all this or all that,

(21:29):
and it's completely unsustainable in the longrun. And it's just it's the way
I think again, of shifting awayfrom the understanding that the earth is our
relations that it nourishes us, andwe in return need to reciprocate and nourish

(21:52):
it. And of course you've hadthis huge shift to urban areas, so
we now have more of the world'spopulation living in urban centers than on the
land, which again, as yousaid, is an incredibly swift migration.
I mean, it's just staggering.And now we're moving into virtual reality,

(22:15):
which takes us even further away fromreality. Reality. There's a wonderful book
by a woman called charine' Spreadnet calledThe Resurgence of the Real, And I
think that is so key that ina way we say we're materialists, and

(22:36):
we are in the sense that we'rea consumer society, but perhaps we're not
enough of materialists. In other words, we have ceased to honor, revere,
respect the material world, the worldthat grows food, where the sun
does rise and give us its energy, and all of these things, and

(23:02):
we dismissed that and we've gotten thishuge mind work that somehow were so clever,
was so technologically astute, that wecan survive even as the ecosystem collapses
around us. I mean, thatis a profound disconnection. Well that's where

(23:26):
it's going when people start making youknow, gmo plant burgers or plant food,
right. And I always say thatthat, I mean, this is
a very crazy thought. But youknow, this is how I'm rewilding myself.
I had an interesting meeting with atop politician here in Berlin and she

(23:48):
told me the story. She said, Yes, we had a garden,
and when my children went to kindergarten, we were asked to bring apples,
and so we brought apples from thegarden. And teacher said she was a
secretary for health right just by theway in Germany, and the second and
the and the kindergarten teachers said,well, these these apples, they have

(24:11):
spots on them, and our childrendon't eat them, and so please go
to the store and buy apples.And I said, I find, as
the health minister that that was youknow, obviously horrific, right. And
what I'm trying to say is thatbecause of the way, also every zucchini

(24:33):
is the same size, Every bananais the same size, every apple is
the same red. Every cole Robbielooks more or less the same. When
you go into a store. Everything'sbeen normed on mass levels. Then how
when we when we put that foodinto our body, how can we look
at people and see diversity as somethingpositive? You know? I think it

(24:57):
starts on the plate, true,and suddenly somebody has a freckle or they
have a mole in the middle ofthe nose. I mean, that's like
the most beautiful garden apple you canhave, right, and and we're like,
oh, we have to we haveto go to plastic surgery where we
have to change this. Right insteadof saying, wow, those freckles are
so beautiful, You're so beautiful,Like look at your eyebrows, they're all

(25:19):
bushy and crazy. You know,it's like wonderful. But it starts with
our food because everything, the bread, everything's the same size. The windows
have all become normed, and weused to have stories in the architecture and
the windows and the I think inAmerica it's so possible, but in Germany
it's very difficult. Everything's been normedright, and there we lose our wildness.

(25:45):
We do lose our wildness. AndI love what you're saying here because
I think it's part of this rewildingis a rebellion against conforming, yes,
an ideal of what beauty is,or what a good apple is, or
any of those things, because it'ssaying I refuse to become plastic. I

(26:08):
mean, you know, what you'retalking about is a kind of a plastic
sensibility that everything has to be moldedin exactly the same way, including our
psyches and souls. And yet whatwe know about nature is the more diversity
there is, the healthier and ecosystem. And that is really true of our

(26:30):
own cultures, and now, ofcourse it's certainly in America. We live
in what's called the great thought.Right. It's like, you know,
you have your evangelical Christians living overhere, your Liberals over here. You're
you know, let's put old peopleall together in retirement homes. So we
literally are sort of diversity adverse,and yet diverse cultures and diverse human cultures

(27:00):
are also incredibly vibrant and alive.And I feel very deeply at the whole
heart of rewilding the soul, right, which is the thing that I am
obsessed by in a way, isthis desire to feel alive, to be

(27:21):
fully present to and open to thisextraordinary journey of living in a body which
is made of exactly the same stuffas the whole earth out of which we
emerged. And what does that feellike? And here you have a plastic

(27:42):
apple which is barely nutritious, andyou have one, as you said,
with the dark spots and everything likethat, which is healthy and full of
earth. Which one is more alive, which one gives more life in the
world. And I think there hasto be this deep rebellion within us against

(28:04):
being silenced and shamed and tamed andtold that we need to fit into these
tiny boxes because we don't want tobe in boxes. No, we don't
want to be in boxes. Wewant to wear the shoes and not the
boxes exactly, or we want togo barefoot. I was thinking now before

(28:26):
we take a break, I wasjust thinking, it's it's so funny,
and a rebellion has the beautiful wordbell inside, which is a sound and
diversity and universe of course is verypoetic because we are connected to verse and
as you say, stories are yeah, are connecting us and our as presents

(28:49):
all the molecules and atoms that aredancing in our bones. So Mary,
we're going to take a very veryshort break, and then we're going to
be back for more about your newbook that you just brought out. Conscious
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(29:15):
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(29:38):
all over the world. Kara John'sdad knows that your voice is the missing
link to more authenticity, abundance,creativity and health. An internationally acclaimed voice
expert, Kara's breakthrough methods have helpedthousands of people successfully heal their voice wounds
and extinguished the story of self doubtand forever. Join in group trainings,

(30:03):
attend online sessions, schedule one onone time and invite Kara to work with
your organization and community. Get startedtoday. Go to www dot Kara johnstand
dot Com and receive a special guidedmeditation designed to fine tune your inner voice
and welcome you on the voice journey. This is Kathy Biele, host of

(30:26):
Celestial Compass, featuring astrology. Youcan use Celestial Compass points you to what's
going on in the sky and whatyou can do with it down here on
Earth. We also explore fun,effective and cosmic tools for navigating this adventure
we call life. Join me thefirst and third Monday of the month at

(30:48):
five pm Eastern Time for Celestial Compass. It's enlightening, entertaining, and empowering.
Host your show on IOMFM, theradio network of ome Times Media,
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(31:11):
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(31:34):
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(31:56):
friends and family and subscribe on yourFavorites platform to stay updated with all our
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Times Radio they're all there. Sonow let's dive back into our conversation with
Mary Reynolds Thompson. Welcome back,Mary, thank you. Well. There

(32:20):
are so many yeah, so manytributaries to follow, so many limbs to
kind of scoot out on and hangout on with you. So let's go
for overcoming core wounds. How cansomeone overcome a core wound using your new
book and connecting with one of theEarth archetypes as they explore the book and

(32:47):
some of the rituals and exercises.Yes, so each archetype as an offer
a look at it, challenge,a shift and a way and the challenge
is really that core wounding inflicted bythe patriarchal culture on women. So it's

(33:17):
really about then looking at the waysin which we hold the hurt and the
shame that is part of the culture'sprojection onto us. So, for example,
in desert women, so much ofthat is believing that we're enough.

(33:40):
So we live in a culture thattells us as women that we have to
be so nice, so giving domore. We're often the ones who are
doing the unpaid work or the chronicallyunderpaid work, and we have to do
all of this in order to gainthe approved, the applause and the affection

(34:01):
of others. So that's a corewounding, and so we're always doing more.
I mean, you know, witheach passing year, more and more
women are suffering from chronic fatigue andother diseases that tell us that we are
completely burnt out. So Desert Womanhas us look at that and really begin

(34:24):
to ask this question. You know, what is it to be enough?
To simply in your beingness be enough? And if you were to do that,
what would that look like? Whatwould the shift be for you?

(34:44):
Right? And if you were toembody that aspect of desert woman, that
is self sufficient, that is comfortablewith solitude and silence and spaciousness. Who
do you become in the process,Because for women, this idea, that's

(35:05):
why desert woman is the first archetypewe encounter on the journey. It's because
sometimes separating and I'm not talking abouthaving to literally, you know, leave
your job, leave your family,but you need to feel the contours of
your own soul separate to everything elsethat puts demands on you. So there's

(35:29):
this way you have to be finedfive minutes of meditation, you know,
allow yourself, even while doing thosedaily tasks of washing up, making beds,
doing all the things that we doin life, to touch in with
yourself, to really get to knowyourself in the bone. So that's an

(35:51):
example of a core wounding that wouldhappen in the desert archetype. I love
that yourself in the bone. That'sa powerful that's a powerful phrase right there,
miss poet, know yourself in thebone. I actually loved opening the
book and starting with the desert becauseyeah, because I also I think after

(36:21):
the collective shift between twenty and twentytwo and we in Europe were I mean,
I'm an artist, I'm a singer, and so so many things were
shut down and closed off, andit would be nice if one could say
it gave us time to relax,but you know, being an artist meant
we were in amazing survival scare.I'd have to say that feel it in

(36:49):
the bone. And when I openedthat chapter, I had to think of
Georgia O'Keefe. I had to thinkabout her lush, feminine paintings in the
middle that were in the middle ofthe desert, and I had to connect
because I've actually have never spent alot of time in the desert, and
it kind of scares me, totell you the truth, it does kind

(37:14):
of scare me. And yet theway I was guided through that chapter,
I suddenly was trying to sense exactlythat the spaciousness of the sky, the
immense strong contrast of maybe color rightbetween a sky and the sand, or

(37:37):
it really made me think. Itmade me think more because I think I
would be more forest and river andocean and deep flow. But I know,
if I was being really honest,that I have felt it the last
years that the bones were dead dry. You know, it's like there's no
juice left, and that is what'sso fascinating in the desert, all the

(38:01):
song lines and all the people thathave really managed to thrive in a way
in a very what I would say, a more harsh environment, but a
very the way you describe it inthe book was yes, very connected to
solitude and very very going deep within. Put it like that, Yeah,

(38:30):
And I think you know this aspectis there's a woman too, which is
to discern between the mirage and theoasis. What you know you to be
in the desert. It is scary, right, We know that you could
die very easily in a desert.In fact, the desert is littered with

(38:52):
bones, right, But people whoare familiar with that aspect, they know
where to find water. They knowhow to find that precious liquid to survive.
And in a way, that's thepower of desert woman, is that

(39:13):
even when times are hard, aslockdown, COVID all of those things that
you're referring to was so hard onso many of us, she knows where
to find those small wells of waterthat can nourish and she doesn't need much,

(39:38):
but she knows how to survive.And I think that's a very powerful
thing, is she knows how tostay alive even under the harshest conditions.
Exactly what are some of the unashamed, untamed and unstoppable aspects of true feminine

(40:00):
power? M So, again,they're sort of reflected differently and spoken about
differently in each of the archetypes.But I think, as I say,
for desert woman, it's like,hey, I'm enough stuff asking me to
do everything, you know. Theforest woman it's like, hey, I'm

(40:21):
going to take my own path throughlife. I Am not going to be
walking this path. I am goingto go into the deep, dreaming darkness
of my soul to discover what itis that I am here for the seed
of my purpose, and I amgoing to give it the time and the
space and the dreaming it needs totake root in me. So don't rush

(40:45):
me, don't put me on yourtimetable. Then tell me when I have
to produce XYZ because I have myown way. Very strong statement from forest
Woman. Ocean and River woman isand those a woman is like the barren
worlds. Forest woman is the darkwomb, and then we encounter Ocean and

(41:07):
River woman, who's the breaking watersand she is about following our passion,
following you know what, Joseph Campbellcalled our bliss and finding out what brings
us alive. And I'm damning ourselves. So we've been damned spelt both ways,

(41:27):
particularly as women. You know,keep it down, don't be so
emotional, don't But a rewilded Oceanand River woman says, you know,
feeling is like my superpower. Youknow, I trust my emotions. I
am willing to surrender to this deeper, deeper longing of my soul and see

(41:50):
where it will take me. Soit's it's And surrender is such a tricky
word for women because we've been usedto surrendering our way, surrendering our desires
and stuff like this. But thisis surrendering to the deepest knowing of our
souls. And then in Mountain Women, it's okay, And I love everything

(42:14):
you say about voice. It's aboutspeaking out. And it was interesting as
I was writing Mountain Women, itkept coming back to essentially showing up and
speaking out and really exploring all theway that women have been silenced and how

(42:36):
that speaking our own truth is oneof the most extraordinary, powerful things we
can do because we are so usedto saying what other people want us to
say, what will help us fitin and women when they like Greta Thunberg

(43:01):
Simon Wiles, like women who havejust stepped out and told what they're experiencing.
They don't sugarcoat it, they don't. They speak from that deep,
deep place that's rewilding. And thenthe grassland woman is and mounted woman is

(43:24):
giving birth. And then the grasslandwoman is really nurturing what's been born on
us in the on the journey thatwe've been on, and hers superpower is
a kind of deep persistence, asense that I have returned from this journey.

(43:45):
I have sacred medicine with me.I want to offer it to community.
Now I have to find that community. And it can be very much
the most challenging thing that as wechange, the people among us actually don't
want us to change. Right.We were all excited about this and that,
and they're like, oh, Ikind of like the old U.

(44:07):
Right. So it's about that willingnessto keep showing up, keep offering our
gifts, to stay that dedication untilwe find a community in which the very
fullness of who we are can bebrought forth. So and that's a rewilding,

(44:30):
and that's the rewilding that seeds otherpeople's rewilding. It's about living in
reciprocity. It's about giving of ourgifts and receiving of gifts, and it
has to take place in community.You know, we can't just be,
you know, sitting on the topof the mountaintop anymore. We have to

(44:53):
be in the world giving of ourgifts, because that's the time we live
in. Of us can afford notto give up our gifts, whatever they
be. And again back to diversity. What you give, what I give,
what other people give, all different. But if it comes from that
soul place, then it is meantto be part of our larger community.

(45:17):
And to go back to what yousaid at the beginning of the interview,
I think it was so beautiful thisto embody spirituality, to understand that we
come from the earth. We haveiron in our body, we have salty
tears, we have all the mineralsare in our body right. We have
air, we have breath, wehave everything possible. We are made from

(45:42):
all these elements. And the onlyway we're going to be able to move
forward is not to be on thatmountaintop and try to transcend it all,
but to really embody it and bein the muck and play in the mud,
play in the mud. Here's timefor mud bath. It was like,

(46:05):
it's gonna be fun. It's gonnabe really fun. Actually, yeah,
And what ways you see the principlesof the beautiful principles of rewilding this
all intersecting with these broader social andenvironmental movements we talked to you know,
you mentioned Greta and there's a lotof great people out there creating communities.

(46:28):
How do you see that intersection happening. Well, it's very interesting. I
think I'm one of those great believersthat you know, the shift of consciousness
has to occur before the way thatwe sharp and act in the world is
aligned with the greater good of all, including the Earth herself. So for

(46:52):
me, it's about honoring all thesequalities that the earthhole to be true,
like diversity, like reciprocity, likeauthenticity, like this way that we work

(47:13):
together and collaborate. So these areall things that the Earth is doing naturally
all the time. And in eachof the chapters I sort of talk about
particularly how each archetype has a planetarypurpose, Like if you think about desert
woman and surviving unless she is somebodyto call on when you know that you're

(47:39):
just buying too much. You've hookedinto the consumer culture and you keep thinking
you need this and you need that. She knows how to live lean and
all of us need to learn that, right we all do so if we
can call on her when you know, the desire for the next X,

(48:00):
y Z is kind of calling tous and you say, no, you
actually you have everything you need.It's a huge thing for us to do
as people. And Forest Woman isvery much about realizing and dreaming new ways
of being. One of the thingsthat we really lack, I think in

(48:21):
this big transition is a vision.I mean, it's all very well to
say we need to change, butchange to what? And what would that
look like? And how would weeven start that? And Forest Woman is
that deep dreaming place where we getto imagine and be in the fecundity of
our imagination to start dreaming new dreamsfor the world. And Ocean and River

(48:46):
Woman is about discerning between the mainstreamwith its powerful current, and the deeper
soul yearnings. Because when we showup in the world, you know,
dishing other people, buying staff,being the good consumers, being the good

(49:06):
capitalists. It's because we think it'sgoing to solve something in our souls,
right, an Ocean and River womansays, no, there's a deeper current.
Go there, solvent at that leveland your behaviors will change. And
then Mountain Woman is really about kindof changing the entire landscape. She's very

(49:28):
interested in structural change. She knows, you know, we can't just you
know, shift seats under Titanic,right, we need to rebuild all of
our structures, which is terrifying.But she's the one who has that vision,
you know, that big vision ofknowing that the structures themselves has to
change. And then Grassland Woman isthe one who keeps asking this question community,

(49:53):
community, community, Is it goodfor the whole? Is it good
for the whole? If I dothis, how does it serve the whole?
And so these are all ways inwhich rewilding shitsa a way of seeing
and being in the world in away that is very, very different.

(50:15):
But has us really think about theimpact that we have. I'm so much
looking forward to this world. Itell you, I'm just very excited.
I'm getting very excited just the thoughtof everybody going back to regenerative Garden and
sharing their pumpkins with each other andright and walking barefoot and looking up at

(50:44):
the stars that are so beautiful.Mary, you obviously are working also in
workshops and retreats. So where canpeople get to know a little bit more
about your work? And maybe wherecan they pick up a copy of the
book if they would like to?Ah, thank you? Well. The

(51:04):
best way to find out about everythingI'm up to is to go to my
website, which is Mary Reynolds Thompsondot com, so it's just my name
dot com and you'll find a listof all the events that I'm doing in
the workshops I'm giving. You canbuy the book anywhere books are sold.
It's actually going to be coming outin German nice in September, so any

(51:29):
any of your brother and friends listeningin Yes, in September, it'll it'll
be out under New Aired Press inGerman and yeah, so's it's available anywhere
books are sold. Of course,it's always lovely if you go to your
independent bookstore and asked for it,or to your local library to see if

(51:52):
they would get some copies, soyou know, all for that and if
Amazon is it and Amazon too,right, I think that's the thing,
right, wherever you are you haveaccess to the books, but of course
you want to support your local communitiesand independent booksellers there doing an amazing work

(52:14):
out there, keeping sacred spaces forus to just relax and browse and stumble
upon things that we might not stumbleupon with the algorithms that are leading us
in a certain direction. I amaddicted to bookstores of all kinds and shapes,
and yeah, I want to thankyou so much for sharing your wisdom

(52:38):
and your insights with us and creatingbeautiful safe places for women to deep dive
into their poetry and stories and rewildtheir souls. And like I said,
I really would love to see usco creating this earth and this planet that

(52:59):
you have envisioned in your books.And to all our listeners out there,
please remember to subscribe to Voice Risingand share the love that we have here
with your friends and family, andyou can join us next time as we
dive into the world of music andare going to meet the composer, pianist

(53:20):
and singer songwriter Rebecca Harold. Untilthen, thank you Mary again so much,
and stay tuned, keep your VoicesRising. Bye Bye gets badest time

(53:43):
time listen timet me, we haveh