A peek into the sketchbook:
As I woke the other morning and made my way out the bedroom door, I saw my Dutch rabbit sitting in the middle of the hall giving me the side-eye. I laughed. He bounced off into another room. A bit later that same morning, I was leaving my dwelling for the studio. As I came to a set of stairs, a wild cotton tail rabbit darted out from under a bush and stopped right in front of me. I laughed. He bounced off into another yard.
My current fascination with WILD vs DOMESTIC was born. Or, more appropriately, the concept of the assimilation of the two to create a balance. Usually, I examine this through Lilith and Eve. (Neither of whom ever find joy in that archetypal journey). I, however, cannot ignore the rabbits: archetypal symbols of femininity, the lunar cycle, fertility, longevity, moving toward the future...
These beasts are associated with Artemis, goddess of wild places. . . they symbolize the transformative cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes states: Without [the Wild], we become over-domesticated, fearful, uncreative and trapped.We become STUCK.
The Old One/The One Who Knows, is within us: She describes her home as that place in time where the spirit of men and the spirit of wolf meet - the place where mind and instincts mingle.
We have been domesticated. This domestication is not necessarily supposed to be our primary mode of operation. Domestication has little to do with our authentic/wild self and a lot to do with conformity and fitting in.
It has little to do with what our heart and soul desires and more about being enslaved.
The Wild Self is the Authentic Self.
One must question all the things we have been taught. We must let go of judgment, self censorship and comparing. We must move toward acceptance of self and others, of saying what is on our minds and not worrying about what others think. The Wild is not about molding ourselves to fit in and feel accepted. It IS about finding ourselves.
“To adjoin the instinctual nature does not mean to come undone, change everything from left to right, from black to white, to move the east to west, to act crazy or out of control. It does not mean to lose one’s primary socializations, or to become less human. It means quite the opposite. The wild nature has a vast integrity to it.” -Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I can still see the hints of The Wild and instincts in my Dutch. I, however, am not sure about seeing the Domestic in The Wild. The Domestic is in the image of The Wild...
The Wild is where the Divine dwells.
