Reader Survey: A ReWilding Self-Exploration
Today we’re posting Part 6 of Wolf’s seminal ReWilding essay, the conclusion of what we hope has been a revealing and inspiring read. The material will be broken up and expanded for both the upcoming book, and the now developing ReWilding Correspondence Course with its related questions and assignments. Those of you who have enjoyed this series – and some who have yet to read it – may find the following sample of Course questions interesting… a Reader Survey that can be a very useful tool for self exploration. We encourage you to post your considered responses to the questions here, by going to the actual page and clicking on the Comments button. If you find you are served by this process, you may want to consider applying for in a ReWilding, Medicine Woman, Path of Heart or Shaman Path course: student-application-form.doc We wish you a wild and wonderful week! -Kiva
ReWilding Self-Exploration: A Reader Survey
by Jesse Wolf Hardin (www.animacenter.org)
1. What connotations did the word “wild” hold for you before reading this piece, and what does it mean to you now?
2. In what ways does the wildness in you and around you frighten or threaten you, and in what ways does it feed, nourish, fuel, excite, embolden or deepen?
3. In what ways do you allow the wildness of nature to inform and invigorate you?
4. What characteristics or qualities of wild nature (such as alertness, self knowledge and self respect, authenticity, refusal to be caged or controlled, vigor, sensuality, eroticism, creativity, balance etc.) do you sense and value in yourself? In what ways are you able to express, utilize, maximize these qualities and traits in your daily life and interactions?
5. When have you felt most wildly present, and what were the effects on you as well as on what you were doing?
6. When has logic failed you most? Describe how “being reasonable” has at times compromised your truth, spirit, needs and purpose.
7. Describe any situations in which you may have perceived, evaluated and responded out of your wilder mind (such as wordless intuition, the throwing off of preconception or dogma, self authority, unbidden visions or unexpected creativity), and what the results, benefits and other consequences might have been.
8. Describe your wildest vision of yourself, your ideal way to be, and what you might do if you were without obligation or restraint.
9. Talk about how comfortable you are or are not in your own body. Describe what makes you feel more at home there, as well as what causes you to feel embodied and happy with yourself.
10. Describe how any bodily needs have affected you, whether discomforting or pleasing. What is your relationship to your wild, unrepressed bodily self?
11. Describe your sensual engagement with the world, with both what you find rewarding and what you find unpleasant. To what do your senses awaken you? What are the challenges that come with intensely sensing?
12. What causes your senses to open up? What seems to trigger your shutting them off?
13. Describe what you do, or are you willing to commit to doing soon, in order to reward your senses (such as asking a lover wash your hair, savoring flavors or scents, indulging in the feel of silk on the skin, the sun coming through the window, the touch of a stimulating wind…)?
14. Describe the ways in which your relationships are wild, free, conscious, discerning, responsive and fully expressed… and the ways in which they are not. Explain the results of both.
15. In what ways do you personally encourage a wilder society and economy (affinity groups, teaching, entertainment that motivates more than entertains, libertarian or bioregional politics, social or ecological activism, crafts, barter, community gardens, mending instead of buying and so forth)?
16. What is the difference between obligation and response-ability?
17. To what do you owe allegiance, and in what order of priority (government, spirit, earth, your self, beliefs etc.)?
18. What conditions, situations or unhealthy patterns of your own have most contributed to stripping away your belief in your own authority, and what kinds of experiences have shown you the importance and value of answering to yourself first and foremost?
19. Describe how insulating comfort, placation, avoidance, denial and distraction, habit and preconception have held you back from taking a further wild leap – taking risks to make changes in your world, awakening and tuning into your senses, meeting your untended natural needs, embracing the adventure of growth and the challenges of meaningful purpose?
20. List at least 10 things that you are willing to commit to doing in the immediate future to rewild, reawaken, reconfigure, repair, restore, fully realize and pleasurably reward your self and your daily life (anything from pledging to not talk while eating so you can more intensely taste your food, to expressing your sexuality, taking lingering candle lit baths, reconsidering your job or your relationship, following what you thought was an impossible dream, refusing to be told what do do when your heart and instincts know better, getting out into nature a certain number of times per week or initiating a plan to find and then move to a place that frees your spirit and fuels your vision and purpose).
(Wild Strawberry photo (c) 2008 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)
Categories: ReWilding, Reader Surveys, Understanding & Practicing Animá
Dave
The word ‘wild’ reminds me of the fable of the wolf and the dog. The dog has his food, a warm home, his masters voice and a collar.
The wolf has the moon the woods and himself. I b elieve he is the richer of the two. But I do love dogs. lol
I would like to think I will find myself at your place some day.
I found an embryo of this thought and practice in 1969. Today you have produced something, perhaps not finished, but growing that I see so much in.
I found Kiva’s site by Googling ‘harvesting cottonwood trees’. A serendipity to be sure.
I’m retiring in March, and moving to the North Coast of Oregon in April. I hope I will see you folks some day.
Dave