Dear One,
The Moon is dark, signaling another beginning, or perhaps, an end. Maybe beginnings and endings are one in the same?
The late, great Patron St. of Wild Women, Mary Oliver wrote:
“Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it begins as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth.”
As we live through these times of extraordinary death and birth and growth and destruction, we need the artists, the poets, to help us to see and feel what is beautiful, what is possible, to help us to to grieve and cultivate silliness, and most of all: to help us to press our ears and our hearts to the original wilderness of the earth.
With this New Moon, here at The Wild Woman Project, we take on a brand new theme, a year long exploration called: Path of the Poets. We will be inspired by wild woman poets and allow their poetry to guide us, teach us, and generally have its way with us!
We begin today with this New Moon talk where we will wander through one of Mary Oliver’s poems and ponder, together!
Feel free to make yourself comfy, perhaps outside somewhere & let’s be together.
After you’ve taken in the poem & talk, in the comments here, I’d love to hear from you: How did this poem and pondering land for you? What is one gem of meaning are you carrying with you? ♥️
Community Happenings:
↠ Coming this Fall an intimate group will gather for Befriending Your Moon Cycle: A 4 Week Workshop Series! Facilitated by Nina Paris, this 4-week workshop series is designed to awaken the Wild Woman within by connecting deeply with our menstrual cycles and embracing our own cyclical nature, in community with other women. Space is limited & general registration opens this Thursday, September 9th! Learn more and sign up for email updates here.
↠ Wild Woman Project Circle Leader Training is coming this Fall! Bring some magic into your life – online, from anywhere. Learn to facilitate a women’s circle – online or in person. Established in 2011, Wild Woman Project Circle Leader Training is a 7 week journey into Wild Woman Spirituality & Circle Facilitation. Hear from others who have taken the journey & sign up to be the first to know when our Fall dates are announced. Check it out here.
↠ You’re Invited to attend a Wild Woman Project Circle. In these New Moon time circles, you can expect Meditation, Intention Setting, Ritual & Sharing, guided by a trained facilitator. Find a list of online circles below & find a complete list of public circles here.
Find a List of Online Circles Here:
Thank you for listening today.
Wishing you a soul-nourishing New Moon time!
♥️ & Howls,
Chris Maddox
Founder of The Wild Woman Project & Wild Woman Fest
On the Horizon
Join an international, intergeneration group of weird and wonderful wild-hearted Women in our online Cave (which lives on an app)!
We meet weekly in Circles, Workshops, Practices to keep our wild spirits lit!
Upcoming Weekly Gatherings:
Join us for an hour-long New Moon Meditation Adventure on May 7th!
Online, from anywhere.
Using a dynamic meditation journey, we will tune into the New Moon, to your own Inner Guidance, synced up with wild-hearted women from around the world. This offering will include music, storytelling, meditation, journaling prompts & intention-setting.
Can’t make it live? No worries. All participants will receive a copy of the recording with 24 hours of the session.
We have Wild Woman Project-trained Circle facilitators is 26 countries, and 44 out of the 50 United States.
Chris Maddox is the founder of The Wild Woman Project where she teaches women how to utilize the gifts of the Wild Woman Archetype in their everyday lives & how to lead women’s circles in their local communities. She is the organizer & facilitator of the beloved annual WILD WOMAN FEST, a women’s retreat-festival hybrid which fosters a deep connection to nature, a direct experience of the divine feminine & profound spiritual sisterhood among the women in attendance.
An ever student of the great mysteries of existence and nature itself, Chris believes women are holding innate gifts & tools that society at large needs – now more than ever. She is committed to helping women remember their special magic and to bring it forward into every corner of their lives, for the greater good of the planet.
I loved the poem and I love to ponder. The gem I took away was to be open, listen with your ears and your heart, and the Universe will offer you a spark of insight and connection.
Love that gem, Wendy. Thank you for sharing!
The first thought that came to me was the need to cultivate a reverence for the unknown.
“cultivate reverence for the unknown” Love that, Jenn.
This is so good. I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy the new theme for the year on walking with the poets, but it’s such a delicious treat and I can’t wait for the next one. Something I’ve personally grown a lot in, after some very intentional work (it didn’t come easily for me) is the wisdom in receptivity of women/feminine energy and in myself based on knowledge from how we are biologically concave to our ties to the moon cycle and how the moon is receptive to the sun’s light – it’s the only way we can see her – but Western culture and many parts of the world aren’t set up to honor time or prioritize value in BEING RECEPTIVE. So! I love the most about this video is how you, Chris, model receptivity for me as you take in this poem and clearly enjoy it. You are like Mary Oliver in that way as she finally becomes present and gets out of her head while listening to the wren sing – receiving – instead of thinking. So my gem takeaway is to become masterful at receiving this moon series. Maybe that is the answer, the power in being receptive. There is magic in it and I’m fully alive when I’m doing that, especially when I’m taking in nature. Thank you!
Yowsa, Emily! So much juice and wisdom here. Thank you for sharing it. My personal New Moon intentions we centered around receptivity. Good to feel the connection when reading your share!
May receiving during this series bring many blessings to you and yours!
I absolutely love this new theme! And your exploration of Mary Oliver’s poem was thoughtful and unique in its perspective…which is what you and the Wild Woman Project deliver consistently. So looking forward to what’s in store in the year ahead, and thank you for helping me get out of my head on this gorgeous afternoon in the northeast! ♥️
Yay Donna! So happy you enjoyed and got to take the not-so-long-long-journey from the head to the heart. Thanks for your kind words. May this moon cycle and the year ahead bring great and small blessings to you!
To ask, to let go and to make space to receive. A life filled with such open hearted curiosity has to be what it means to be fully alive! How can one not be drenched in enthusiasm when they have such a view!
… And the wren unabashedly declares her song! What a beautiful way to speak the divine…
Thanks for enjoying the poem with me, Jennie, and receiving it’s blessings.
Thank you – loved this and helped me just be in the present
You are so welcome, Danielle 💛 Thanks for watching and writing here. Xo
Chris, As I listened to your final thought about doing more of what makes our own hearts sing, I realized that watching you speak to us about connecting to nature and to our inner lives, and becoming aware of and aligning with the natural cycles of the moon and of our bodies, it is as if I am listening to Mary Oliver’s wren, singing her heart’s content. A prayer. Thank you for following your heart and encouraging and inspiring so many of us along the way.
I absolutely love the last line, ‘… pen in the air’ because it is so full of possibility. And perhaps it is from that uncertain place of unlimited possibility that we are called to discover our truths, to see from new perspectives, to heal, to share, to do great things, and most bravely of all, to simply be ourselves.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Michelle.
And yes, ‘pen in the air’ being full of possibility. Love that.
Thanks for sharing!