Our Shared Shelf discussion

Q (from Ross): Does she think the interconnected world we have now is better environment for expression of the wild women, freedom of ideas through the internet, or does the artificial detached nature of the technology impede the wild woman.

A: Dear Ross: I would say only this, one could Ross, write an encyclopaedia on the brain science, psychology, sociology of any new/disruptive technology such as the immense digital world. I train hundreds of mid-career professionals and helper/healer students from across the world every year, in my works. 
 
I emphasise ‘face to face’ works/exchanges always. For we are sensory creatures of at least 5 and some note, more senses that that, and we are in some ways like cameras and in other ways like mine sweepers as helper/healers, taking into sensory account the temperatures and colorations of the body in face to face engagements, the words not spoken by looking into the eyes, the embrace of hands to hands that convey warmth, healing, comfort of a kind that is immediate to body and heart, mind, soul and spirit…there is the very fragrance of persons cared for and loved, including changes in scent that occur under duress or in thoughtful contemplation. 
 
I grew up without television till I was a teenager, and with an 8-party line phone. We conveyed to each other in ‘the old ways’…in the presence and often shelter of one another. Often over a tea and a pastry, yes. Lol. I find the internet magical for many things, especially research into various that once we scholars/writers had to find means to travel to actual library, apply to see the rare collections. Now many are online and it is a feast, it is true. 
 
Facts on paper or in 1s and 0s, seems alright. And people expressing ideas online seems fine too. Much of our activist work would have taken days by snail mail and now takes often, nearly moments; so that is a boon too. And I hope to keep inoculating our readers with old school and ethnic ideas that have held for thousands of years: the hearts gathering face-to-face, beholding each other in full sensory consciousness. Tactile, sensory are the pillars of memories.


Q (from Emma):  What is your opinion on "the wild woman" for people who are transgender, agender, fluid-gender, or male - can they still find or be a "wild woman" (obviously with a different term needed) even if they do not identify as woman, or if they do identify as woman but are not biological females? 

A: Wild woman archetype is within the psychic reach of all persons Emma, just as is the archetype of Creation, or the Self. My sense of transgender, as you say, agender, fluid-gender souls, is that each is a creation, made from divine and mundane ingredients available to us all. I don’t find a ‘one size fits all’ in the beautiful creation of self.
 
I find as in nature, utter stunning variation and variegation. As each soul sees fit, in ways that are useful, helpful, strengthening, heart filled, caring, merciful, fierce and kind, and more. Our good instincts are basic I think to all, as are the talents/charisms of insights — and the way we put those together with our life experiences is a customised endeavour. 
 
Who is to say what is the final edition of anyone? I say with levity, now in my seventies, I am still waiting to see how/if I 'turn out.' Too narrow a carapace does not allow the being to grow beyond the walls the over culture seems intent to squash souls into inordinately small shapes when in fact the soul is wild and oceanic. There is not, as far as I know, and I have over my lifetime consulted with myriad crones, hobbits, faeries, gnomes and leprechauns, any final saying so about what is a woman, what is a man, what is an androgyny, what is whatever our newest words are to try to speak about the sacredness of each life. It is an ongoing work, and you are its creatrix.
 
We’ve plans in place to grant rights/licenses to collaborate with artists, film-makers, screenplay writers, illustrators, dancers, musicians we already know, and others to bring aspects of Women Who Run with The Wolves to new mediums. To portray, without cutting parts and pieces from the book, the many ways wild woman shows up. Surely there will be portrayals of those who are in process of creating themselves in time honoured ways --and also in ways seldom before seen and those who are resurrecting ways of creating their lives not seen since ancient times. The wild does not discriminate by cultural ‘norms.’ That’s why we call it WILD. And that’s a promise to strive to include all. I only ask for strength and life long enough to bring it. Sincerely, thank you.
 

Q (from Katrina): I know that there are a lot of women out there who are not feminists but fit into the "wild woman" archetype. I also read a New York Times article from 1993 where you were interviewed, and it says that you "cringed at the label of feminist." Is that still true 24 years later, especially in the world we live in today? What is it about the label "feminist" that makes strong women want to turn away from it?
 
A: Dear Katrina: The dear man who wrote the NYT article, as many an article about authors in the day, contained personal impressions held by the journalist. Dirk was one of two talented male journalists who interviewed me about Women Who Run with The Wolves 20-some years ago. The other male journalist was a gifted sports writer from another major newspaper. Both were delightful because they were ‘wildly’ interested in life and its twists and turns, and my works were far away from their usual beat. 
 
“...cringed at the label of feminist” are not my words, but are the journalist’s words apparently about his impression, though I’d respectfully not agree. I remember the conversation well about many topics [mainly because I was so knocked out that any journalist would want to speak with me about my life’s work after so many decades of working in silence], and when asked about feminism [huge amounts of the conversation did not make it into the article], I’d said that for the refugee/immigrant/deportee/ethnically cleansed surviving communities of my family and environs, that often what began over a hundred plus years ago with women trying so hard to make better lives for families and to enter into full rights in many ways…
 
That where we fastened our faith and determination was that we understood and supported that women ought ever hold voting rights, that women of any race were equal to all others, that taverns and saloons ought not be built practically atop schoolhouses in order to snag the young into things deleterious to their health, that substances sold to the unwitting family members that made them sick unto death including sprays and crop dusting of our food farms and fields should have transparency [telling the people what was actually in the poison and how it would affect their health and their food] and be regulated to spare the people and the plants, that mining and factory work and farm work ought be paid adequately and health conditions for all workers held as sacred…for men and for women. 
 
That was our way of being women of conscience; to care for all within reach in spirit and body. Much later, a wave of feminism that began on the east coast, about 1200 miles away from where we lived, did not reach our neck of the woods until most of us backwoods raised up, rural and semi-rural folk were already mothers trying to work, raise families and stay as reasonably well as possible, helping our parents, and cooking, cleaning and growing and preserving food and did I mention, sleeping? Yes, lol, that was in there somewhere too. 
 
If pressed to define bedeck of my soul, it would be love for humanity, although in our tradition, we tend only to call ourselves ‘the people’, and just ‘a person’ who hopefully strives to do good in the world. As an ‘old believer’ catolico, we were from childhood onward, steeped in social justice; meaning in whatever ways we are called and can to spiritually and in reality, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick, watch over the widows and orphans, comfort the grieving, heal the wounded. I’m not sure if there is a word label for striving to do those things, but those facets of our lives are what I hope through my works, can in some way touch, to leave behind a little better than when found, to be mended in a way that will hold. 


Q: (from MeerderWörter) Do you think that there are societies where the Wild Woman is cherished and nourished, and if so, where?

A: Dear MeerderWörter, I think in your heart, in the sacred wild heart of each person who vows to live out one’s charisms, one’s talents for themselves and for others. I call the people who follow my work, my "Tribe of the Sacred Heart: Scar Clan." The members are known to one another sometimes, but most times not. But if we are quiet and just feel our humanity with one another, we all can sense one another across the world, whether in Burundi, in Cairo, in Kinshala, in Johannesburg, in London, in Dublin, in Caracas, in the Arctic circle. We know one another’s hearts and we would recognise one another on sight. 
 
It is true there are some tribal groups where in women are cut and clamped down on in inhumane ways. There are also tribal groups wherein women have sway: and often within ancient cultural norms. Because of the diaspora of groups across the world, the breaking up of village life by wars  and in peacetime by a certain kind of gentrification, I think it is up to us dear MeerderWörter, to carry the wild heart wherever we go, and like kokopelli, the dancing enspiriter of human beings, ‘impregnate’ any who are willing with the beautiful, balanced wild nature that unleashed beauty and creativity and meaning into this world by the bucketful’s… for whomever has the eyes to see, the ears to hear...


Q: (from Colleen)  My question is what would Clarissa suggest about the wild woman in society today. With the political climate recently is the wild woman a necessity or an option?

A: Dear Colleen: Necessity. Ever. No matter the clime. Ever. Ever and ever. Wild woman is like a lush forest that provides shelter, a place for the young to grow to maturity, a desert in which all life is rich underground, an ocean filled with new life and life waning and life coming back again, a meadowland of wildlife and wildflowers, a guardian consciousness that rises up to care for and if need be, fight for. Ally with the lovingly fierce, the reasoned stalwarts. You already know what I say: This is our time: do not lose heart; we were made for these times. Go forward. Do not tarry.

Emma, my friend, this interview is a very big job. Thank you so much.

I love this so much:

"I don’t find a ‘one size fits all’ in the beautiful creation of self.

Your amazingly compassionate heart for ALL of humanity continually inspires and encourages me. Your words are not merely words. May they lift us all us when we're feeling low.