The Way of the Wild Soul Woman

Foreword by Clare Dubois
Introduction

1 Desert Woman

Barren Worlds: The First Initiation
The Challenge: Knowing You Are Enough
The Shift: Mirage to Vision
The Way: Releasing the Old
Emerging as Desert Woman

2 Forest Woman

The Dark Womb: The Second Initiation
The Challenge: Rising from the Ashes
The Shift: Linear to Spiral Path
The Way: Cocooning
Emerging as Forest Woman

3 Ocean and River Woman

The Waters Break: The Third Initiation
The Challenge: Learning to Love Ourselves
The Shift: Dam/ned to Flow
The Way: Shapeshifting
Emerging as Ocean and River Woman

4 Mountain Woman

Giving Birth: The Fourth Initiation
The Challenge: Embracing Friction
The Shift: Broken to Reborn
The Way: Transformative Power
Emerging as Mountain Woman

5 Grassland Woman

Nurturing the New Life: The Fifth Initiation
The Challenge: Finding Common Ground
The Shift: Striving to Thriving
The Way: Reciprocity
Emerging as Grassland Woman

6 Walking the Way of the Wild Soul Woman

Seeking Wholeness

A Letter to My Readers
Acknowledgements
Notes
Journal Reflections, Rituals, and Practices
Index
About the Illustrator
About the Author

Mary Reynolds Thompson, CAPF, CPCC, is the founder of Live Your Wild Soul Story and an award-winning writer, internationally recognized speaker, and facilitator of journal and poetry therapy. A pioneer in the spiritual ecology movement and the author of Reclaiming Your Wild Soul, Mary lives in Marin County, California.

“In The Way of the Wild Soul Woman, Mary Reynolds Thompson reveals the manifold ways in which women find themselves reflected in the land, and find the land reflected in themselves. This wise and potent guidebook is a howl from the wild soul, a clarion call for transformation, a prayer to the soul of this beautiful, animate earth.” Sharon Blackie, author of If Women Rose Rooted and Hagitude

“The Way of the Wild Soul Woman is a potent portal for liberating our full flourishing through five archetypes of Mother Earth. Enter its luminous and rich terrain if you’re truly ready to reclaim your wholeness, and to blossom into who you were born to become. This book is an offering and a guide that’s profoundly useful, as the invitation into archetypal relationship with the Earth bypasses our mind’s layered and self-limiting conditioning and helps us connect viscerally to the source of what’s most sacred. Healing our own nature through deeply aligning with nature offers a pathway that resonates with soulful inquiry and the author’s unique and vulnerable journey. It’s a thrilling invitation for every woman, girl, or human who wants to strengthen their archetypal ‘feminine,’ and step more deeply into healing relatedness with our Mother, the Earth.” Nina Simons, cofounder of Bioneers and author of Nature, Culture and the Sacred

“A unique and imaginative approach to healing the wounds inflicted on all of us by a misogynistic culture. Invoking natural landscapes along the way, these chapters invite us to restore the close connection to nature that is our birthright.” Susan Griffin, author of Woman and Nature, A Chorus of Stones, and Out of Silence, Sound. Out of Nothing, Something

“In our deepest interior reflections, we know we are being summoned to balance a world in great peril, and for this we need the full aliveness of women—fierce, wild, tender, and wise. With gorgeous poetics and brilliant personal insights and stories, The Way of the Wild Soul Woman takes us on a sacred pilgrimage to the center of living landscapes that strengthen and teach us so that we can heal and stand up for all that we hold dear. Mary Reynolds Thompson is the perfect guide to take us on this timely and necessary journey.” Osprey Orielle Lake, founder of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

“Mary Reynolds Thompson has given women a map of the journey home to our wild, Indigenous selves. Skillfully weaving wisdom, stories, and practices, she points us toward the exits from our cultural captivity and whispers—no, shouts—‘Go!’ As The Way of the Wild Soul Woman makes clear, there’s a new world waiting to be born, and it will only emerge through our own rewilded voices, hearts, and hands. Let’s do this!” Lorraine Anderson, editor of Sisters of the Earth and Earth and Eros

“The path of the Wild Soul Woman echoes the way of the psyche and how women learn. I wept, I felt emotions I didn’t know were there, I raged, I had amazing dreams, I journaled, and the book opened up new parts of me.” Valerie Andrews, author of A Passion for This Earth

“The world has long had the Hero’s Journey as a model, but we women were excluded. All that is ended now with Mary Reynolds Thompson’s rich and life-changing The Way of the Wild Soul Woman. Here, finally, is a guide for our journey. From our barren Desert Woman beginnings to our bountiful and complete Grassland Woman, we travel through myth and mystery, ritual and rites, poetry and dreams, with practical guides and soulful blessings for our ultimate transformation to Wild Soul Woman. I cannot wait to share this book with other like-spirited women. Together we will travel, together we will heal the world, and together we will find Home.” Judy Reeves, author of Wild Women, Wild Voices

“A powerful initiation to the Wild Soul Woman through an embodied exploration of her five archetypes. Mary Reynolds Thompson sounds a clarion call to reconnecting with ourselves and the Earth. Back to belonging. Back to life.” Lucy H. Pearce, author of Burning Woman, Creatrix, and She of the Sea

SELF-TRANSFORMATION

“A wise and potent guidebook, The Way of the Wild Soul Woman is a howl from the wild soul, a clarion call for transformation, a prayer to the soul of this beautiful, animate earth.”
– Sharon Blackie, author of If Women Rose Rooted and Hagitude

Are you ready to become a force of nature? Trapped in a culture that shames and tames us, we often struggle to give full voice to our passions and purpose. But a Wild Soul Woman will not be silenced. Sourcing her strength from five Earth archetypes, she speaks her truth, stands up for her values, and becomes an eloquent defender of life.

Award-winning author Mary Reynolds Thompson takes you on a groundbreaking journey, showing you how to unleash your full feminine power, as you discover and learn from:

• Desert Woman—to let go of what no longer serves you
• Forest Woman—to seed new dreams and nurture them in your depths
• Ocean and River Woman—to ride the flow of your deepest longings
• Mountain Woman—to rise up in service of a vision
• Grassland Woman—to engage with community as your rewilded self

Woven throughout with the author’s personal story, the stories of other women who have blazed a trail, and enchanting illustrations, this is an inspirational how-to guide to exploring your inner nature. The Way of the Wild Soul Woman is also a blueprint for the next wave of feminism and its larger purpose—to reshape our culture and our institutions.

Together, my sisters, we are about to change the world. We are wondrous. We are rising. We are wild.

MARY REYNOLDS THOMPSON, CAPF, CPCC, is the founder of Live Your Wild Soul Story and an award-winning writer, internationally recognized speaker, and facilitator of journal and poetry therapy. A pioneer in the spiritual ecology movement and the author of Reclaiming Your Wild Soul, Mary lives in Marin County, California.