What does it mean to have a WildMind?
Humans originally came from natural wildness. This natural wildness still has a wholeness, and we are still part of this wholeness. This means we all have the potential to cultivate our WildMind.
A WildMind is a whole mind. Just like a healthy ecosystem, it has many interconnected and related parts that make up the whole.
A WildMind is a diverse mind, one that embodies all the complex aspects of our humanness. Since we are a part of nature, our minds are complex and wild like nature.
In Western culture, we tend to focus on our ‘deficits’ when we think about our mental wellbeing. We look for interventions, ways to fix what’s wrong with us. However, nature provides us with everything we need to be whole and fully human. Our WildMind lets us access all our multifaceted, unpredictable, extraordinary qualities, along with our wholeness.
What does a WildMind look like?
Depth psychologist and wilderness guide Bill Plotkin has created a map of the WildMind. It’s an eco-centric, nature-centred map that shows us how to cultivate all of the wild facets of our human psyche. Plotkin’s map uses the four cardinal directions, similar to the approach used in indigenous cultures all over the world.
The four cardinal directions also follow the map given to us by the four seasons, and the four times of day: dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight. There’s a north, south, east, and west facet to our human wholeness too. In this way, the WildMind map gives us a template that mirrors nature’s wholeness.
We also find these directional archetypes in stories and mythologies from all over the world. They are ‘in’ us, and they tell us something about ourselves and our potential to become fully human. The WildMind map gives us a way to explore and fully realise our own WildMind.
Join us to learn more about cultivating your WildMind
Our Intro to the Map of the WildMind webinar will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 27 November 2024.
Photo collage using photos by Barth Bailey and Howen on Unsplash
