The Wild Dark. Why we must get lost to find our way.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes implores us to “Go out in the woods, go out. If you don’t go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.”
We are in the woods. And I don’t have to tell you why with everything that is going on these days. We are in the dark, leaves crunching underneath us, crows flying above us.
We are in the wild dark, as Bill Plotkin says.
What’s the wild dark?
It is nature and mystery.
It is symbolism and soul.
It is night dreams and deep down callings.
Entering the wild dark can happen at any moment, but typically there is an experience or event that tips us over. The ending of something that is known and familiar can be a door to the wild dark. A milestone birthday can be a door to the wild dark. Exhaustion can be a door into the wild dark.
This time in history is a door to the wild dark.
There are moments when I feel like I am Alice in Wonderland falling through a hole and there is nothing to hold onto, none of the familiar anchors, and the things that are familiar feel somehow wrong.
I am in the wild dark.
