This time, eleven years ago, I was making bold choices and radical changes in my life in order to make way for the birth of The Wild Woman Project into the world. I was a young woman, only 27, who had received a crystal clear assignment from her own Inner Guidance. And for reasons inexplicable, I possesed an enormous drive to make it happen.
The very first mission statement I ever wrote for this *almost* eleven year old project was this:
“The Wild Woman Project is a global movement bringing women together, online and face to face, to create a space of support, healing, listening, dreaming, and feeling. Through this global community, women will empower each other to embrace their untamed, wild, intuitive, and creative nature. And by doing so, empower all human beings to do the same!”
My main idea, at that time, for bringing this mission to life was to teach other women how to facilitate New Moon Women’s Circles like I had been doing in my New York City neighborhood for the couple of years prior. To me, at that time, and to this day, I see how the stuff of Women’s Circles is soul-medicine needed for wild-hearted women in modern times.
Now, over a decade later, with Wild Woman Project Circle Leaders now in 24 countries around the world, in 43 of the 50 United States. Now with a very impactful training program, and dozens of other creations under our belts, I find my Inner Guidance nudging me again, nearly as loudly as way back then. It says: In order to go forward, you must look back.
This has not always been the message. Anyone who has been consciously dancing with their own Inner Guidance over a long stretch of time will tell you: the message always changes. There is no end to the evolution your Inner Guidance is walking you through.
I have been a primarily forward looking person in my life. My dreams, my goals have been among my most sacred inner treasures. They have over and over again pulled me out of pain and powerlessness and into the driver’s seat of my own life.
When you make something big, when you give life to something, it has a way of changing your life.
By creating the Project, I became a devoted guardian of it. And as it grew, so too did the care-taking, the helping along. And slowly, over time, the needs of the project and the wants of the people involved, began to slowly scoot into the driver’s seat with me. It happened at such a slow pace, I didn’t even notice. The driver’s seat became harder to sit in, the car, harder and harder to drive. I was having a difficult time reaching the peddles when I needed to, and the hardest time seeing through the mirrors and windows. In the last years three years, amidst the backdrop of radical global challenges, I reached a place of realization: I was no longer in the driver’s seat. I had become a servant to my own creation.
Now, I am all for sacred service as part of my work, but this felt different.
The mothers reading can probably relate on some level. And I am not actually saying there is anything wrong with this. It has just became clear to me, that a change in approach is now needed at this phase.
In order to go forward, you must look back.
So, I have begun the process of looking back – to the original vision for The Wild Woman Project, and to the very beginnings of it. What was that time made of? Who was I then? Where was the world then? The culture? AND Having been a faithful servant to the Project all these years, who am I now? What has the Project become? Who are the women who raised it with me? How are our lives (inside and out) different because of our time making this?
These are some of the questions I will be exploring now. My sense is, the remembering will help me to chart the course for the next leg of the journey.
Since 2015, the turning from Summer to Fall has brought with it a new theme for the year, here at The Wild Woman Project.
This year, September – September, it will be:
Remembering, re-imagining what it means to be a woman – untamed.
You may recognize these words as they have been our tagline for years. In order to go forward, you must look back. Remembering comes before re-imagining. In the year ahead you are invited to look back in order to look forward with new eyes, to remember & re-imagine. It is my hope that we women involved with The Wild Woman Project will step even deeper into our untamed nature. And the offerings we make will be our effort to support you, to support us all, in that aim.
For the first time ever, the Circle Leaders of the Wild Woman Project, with their thorough training & experience under their belts are tasked with the creation of their own monthly themes to bring forth in Circle – inspired by their communities, the land they are on, their own curiosities and Inner Guidance. They will be walking deeper into the wilds of their own co-creativity with the women in their local circle.
I will be facilitating more (my original happy place)! Starting with the guiding New Moon Meditation Adventures – each one, with a new theme for the Cycle. Join me for the first one on Sunday, September 25th!
We must learn from who we have been to find out who we are becoming.
Clues about who we really are and why we are here are hiding in our precious memories.
So, I hope you will join me in a year of remembrance, and re-imagining how we might further untame ourselves – mind, body & heart – together!
♥️ & Howls,
Chris
YOUR TURN
Please answer in the comments below and/or reflect in your journal:
Where were you 11 years ago? How are you different now? How are you the same? Were there any seeds of your current life in your memories from back then?
Please share as much or as little as you like in the comments below. Can’t wait to read them!
On the Horizon
Circle Leader Training
Join us online, from anywhere, for a 7-Week adventure.
“This was the best experience I’ve ever had with an online training! I felt seen, connected, and present.” ~ Gretchen Fellon, Graduate
Part part skill-building, part wildish personal-development, this course is sure to give you a deeper look into the Wild Woman Archetype, Moon Wisdom, Intuition and Inner Guidance, Circle Facilitation, and community building. With hundreds of graduates in 26 countries around the world, this course has been cultivated over 13 years to be our very best in Feminine Leadership Training.
We begin on May 6th.
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:
Waning Moon Circle with Chris Maddox
New Moon Meditation Adventure with Chris Maddox
Story Circle with Danielle Dulsky
5th Chakra Circle with Sara Goff
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.
Wild Woman Fest '24 sold out in record time.
We look forward 4 Days & 3 Nights of rituals & ceremony, yoga, circles, experiential workshops, meditation, music & art making, dance, connecting to the natural world, laughter, discovery, divination, wandering, swimming, hiking, bonfires, howling, and dreaming!
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.
Ah I was at the start of my healing journey. In a very religious container but the gifts and visions and love I received in that space will forever hold a special place in my heart because it began the shifting for me. I was in such a deep level of pain and that space began my freedom journey. Now I have been birthed into a version of me I was always trying to get to I just had to experience a lot of death and shedding to get here. This full moon on this year feels the most magical for me because I am me and I am in my power in a way I never could truly see and
The pain of my past is no longer painful so when I look back I have nothing but gratitude for the journey that got me here. I am completely different yet utterly the same, the me is there that was always trying to get free I have just released the things I wasn’t meant to hold and believe.
Oh Chelsea. I am so happy for you.
“This full moon on this year feels the most magical for me because I am me and I am in my power in a way I never could truly see and The pain of my past is no longer painful so when I look back I have nothing but gratitude for the journey that got me here.”
What a sweet part of the process you are in – well-earned. May you continue to savor it. I am honored to know you and so proud of you.
Love,
C
I love this idea of remembering! I went back 11 years, then my spirit followed the thread all the way back in high school (class of 77) and earlier… Wow! My true nature and my purpose have been there the whole time…showing up through all the ups and downs of life. What a Wonder to realize! Thank you for your devotion to your calling, Chris! Keep following your heart!
So happy to followed your memory back to find treasure, Eileen! Wow, indeed 💓
Thank you so much for sharing and for your encouragement. It means a lot!
Eleven years ago, I did something very brave: I travelled overseas for the first time on my own. I had to convince and push for it. It was something very uncommon and rather frowned upon in my culture. However, it was a time where I got to be unabashedly myself, to learn of freedom, of cultures and of a whole world.
Back then, I think I was starting to dip my toes into a world of possibilities. Now, I feel more confident in going after the things I want without feeling shamed about it. My self-confidence has grown, particularly in knowing I am capable of handling much more than I thought I could. My desire to travel has certainly remained the same, as well as that sense of adventure and independence.
Today, I am living in a place that I own – something I also thought I could never do on my own. My friend and I used to write stories for each other of our ideal future lives – and they came true. Those stories were my seeds.
That an inspirational story, Miss R 💜 Thank you for telling it. So happy for you. May your seeds keep bearing fruit 🙏🏽
Also, I wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your journey, Chris. It is remarkable how dreams sometimes turn and change to take on a life of their own. While I have yet to join the Women’s Circle (I’ve toyed with the idea of it), I have always loved reading your emails and watching your videos encouraging us to connect and reflect. Thank you for holding space – you have handled much tumultuous and tragic events and issues with grace and love. I look forward to continuing to witness your journey evolve and unfold into something even more beautiful. With love and gratitude to you and your journey.
Oh, Rafah, thank you so much for these kind words. I will take them into my heart as a blessing 💜
Thank you, thank you , thank you Chris for creating The Wild Woman Project. Eleven years ago, I was moving through my life at what I considered comfortable and fulfilling. Then, I attended a Wild Woman Circle and it felt marvelous. It has been sometime since then and I continued to grow my spiritual practice – I realized not too long ago, something was missing. I needed to feed my soul and did not even know that was what I needed. I attended Circle Leader training in the spring of 2020. These past six months, I have had some personal health challenges of which I am recovering. I asked myself, “what on earth did you do to hurt your shoulder so badly?” The answer was, I felt I was hanging on for dear life. I had to trust and accept the help that I had always had in my husband. Being a circle leader up until now ( as I sit here writing this) has been another tool for me. The meditations and nurturing you created for all of us has been incredible. I had a soul connection, you provided that. I applaud you for realizing you were no longer in the drivers seat. Bravo. And thank you for this very gentle nudge which is helping me to dig into that mess inside of me and to feed my soul even more to create – really create from deep inside of me, allowing that Wild Woman to truly emerge.
Thank you for this rich share, Darcie 💜
May you keep feeding your soul🙏🏽
Much love to you