BLUSHING WILD

Blushing Wild by The Wild Mystics

BY HILLARY RAIN

“You have crossed a sacred portal into a kind of embodied sensuality that awakens you to a lush, abundant life where you will taste, laugh, feel and freely explore the deep, wet river of your feminine wild.”—The Wild Mystics, Blushing Wild

I am as unlikely a woman as there ever was to write about sexuality.

I grew up in a conservative, Biblical-fundamentalist Christian home. As the oldest of 11 children and well-versed in the fruitful ways of family and farm life, what I knew about sex was what I needed to know: how to make babies. That my body belonged to my husband, that my delights were for him alone and that in his sexual enjoyment of me, I would find sexual joy.

I entered marriage at 22, a virgin, shy but eager to embrace my new identity as a wife with a husband to care for and sexuality to explore within the safe boundaries of wedlock. I had only faint clues about what to expect; the little I knew was that newly-married men usually wanted sex everyday, that sex was this magical delicious thing that waiting until marriage somehow blessed with extra-ordinary bliss, and that I was to expect something enchanting and mysterious called an orgasm. 

My new husband did not want sex everyday.

Sex was not magical, delicious or blissful.

In fact, for a very long time it hurt.

I did not have an orgasm.

And in the 12 years since, I’ve not made a baby.

(Above excerpt taken from the upcoming eCourse Blushing Wild—A Sultry Embrace of Erotic Awakening, www.thewildmystics.com)

Blushing Wild by The Wild Mystics

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As a self-proclaimed mystic I have long-embraced the non-dualism of a both-and approach to life … the necessary cycles of life-death-life, the paradoxes of mystery and knowledge, dark and light, pleasure and pain. Spirituality and sensuality, however, have taken longer to embrace as a whole, perhaps because for so long my approach to life was a denial of the self and rejection of the flesh. And even though I knew that sexual pleasure was good, it still reigned below the superiority of spiritual pursuits.

Blushing Wild by The Wild Mystics

And yet as I fleshed out my spirituality in the dark shadowlands of my soul, it came as no surprise when the topic of sexuality arose. “I’m questioning everything,” I said to my Wild Mystic co-creator Mandy. “I expected things of a spiritual nature but I had no idea that my sexuality would come up, too. I don’t know what to think about this.” 

“The dark has always been sexual for me,” she said. “Deeply sexual.” 

“What if we did an eCourse on this erotic sensuality? Because, um, we need to talk about this. And if it’s coming up for us, it has to be for others, too.” 

She did not hesitate. “I think we have to.” 

Blushing Wild is born out of our own need to incarnate a desperately-wanted conversation. We’ve always created the very thing we most need to find, and a sultry embrace of erotic awakening is one of them. This six-week eCourse features steamy reading and creative journaling assignments as we explore our psyches and ourSelves through soulwork and chakras, erotic poetry and succulent rituals, meaningful movement and provocative stories. Our very first launch begins August 24th and if you need this embodied experience in your life, if this is a conversation you’re craving or a journey your heart desires, we invite you to join us as we explore the deep, wet river of our feminine wild. Come with us? 

Read more and register at www.thewildmystics.com/blushing-wild. All who register will be entered to win one of two original canvas artworks by Mandy Steward of Messy Canvas. 

Please note: we are not licensed professional counselors or sexual therapists. Please speak to a mental health professional before embarking on this sojourn. 

Hillary Rain is a wild mystic who writes about spirituality, sensuality, and embodiment of the soul at www.spiritsoulearth.com.

THE TAROT WITHIN // GUEST POST

The Tarot Within by Elle North

The Tarot Within - An 8-week Journey through the Tarot with Elle North

I fell in love with the Tarot slowly.  We had a long and lingering courtship.  I would play with my friend's deck and get lost staring at the imagery in each card.  I would get my cards read at a local cafe once a month and during my first reading, with The High Priestess, The Hermit, The Hierophant, the 2 of Swords and the Queen of Swords on the table, the Tarot reader said to me, "I have never seen these cards come together for one person.  You should read the Tarot."  Finally, with my own deck in hand, I would shuffle the cards every night and pull a card.  I would study it, write down what I saw and what the little booklet that came with the cards said.  What I was most intrigued by, though, was my own interpretation.  I liked looking at what the book said, but I wanted to get to know my cards on my own too.  So I studied.  I listened.  I trusted.  My friends and I would sit on the floor, drinking Spanish wine and asking questions.  I'd lay out the cards, and the words would come pouring out of my mouth.  Sometimes I didn't know where I got the information from...it was just there.

The Tarot Within by Elle North

To be honest, when I opened up that box of 78 cards for the first time, I was intimidated.  I mean -- that's a lot to memorize, to read into, to figure out.  But instead of letting that overwhelm me, I decided to do things my own way.  & what resulted was a deep understanding of not only the Tarot, but of myself.
 

And that's what I've pieced together in my 8 week course, The Tarot Within.  It's full of meditations, journal prompts, soul-searching, goal-setting, ritual, and ceremony.  In this way, you connect to each individual card and not only develop your own meaning of the card, but also are able to apply the message of the card to your life.  This helps you to integrate it into your memory with ease.  It's a journey with the creative soul in mind.
 

The Tarot Within E-course is for you if you want to...

>>Be guided forward on your spiritual quest

>>find clarity on your path

>>connect to your intuition

>>gain confidence with Tarot readings

>>connect to your Tarot deck

>>immerse yourself in a deep & personal learning experience
 

In this course, you'll get daily emails for 8 weeks leading you to a special password protected course area.  You can start the course at any time.  You'll get a chance to develop your own interpretation of each card along with learning the traditional meanings.  You'll have a feeling of clarity when you pull a card from your deck, and you'll be supported by other students in a special-access Facebook group for students.
 

// & as a special gift, I will give a 1-card Tarot Mini Reading to everyone who signs up for the course.
 

Are you ready to start your journey?  Learn more here.

>>>Use code ROOTSANDFEATHERS to save 15% off The Tarot Within E-course<<<

The Tarot Within by Elle North

Elle North combines her intuitive skills with her work as a Reiki Master/Teacher, Tarot Reader, Crystal Healer, Artist, Yoga teacher, Meditation teacher, and general energy worker to create unique offerings at DrawingWithin.com.  She offers insightful Intuitive Reiki Readings, Crystal Essence anointing oils, and other ceremonial acts of healing to her clients online.  She knows that everyone has the ability to heal, to overcome, to be in touch with their highest self, and to connect to their inner divine.
 

THE WILD MYSTICS

The Wild Mystics
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves

You know how in the movies, when a little girl enters a shadowy forest alone, the music grows dark and she begins to hear hissing, whispering voices from all sides? So she starts to run and branches tear at her hair and she falls and her dress catches on thorns, leaving a path marked by tatters and threads as she moves deeper and deeper into the woods. Tears streak her face. She hears footsteps, but sees no one; hears a cackling laugh, but she can't pinpoint from where. Her world spins. Night falls. She is cold and shivering.

Anytime you do something unconventional it can open the door to your shadow side. Anytime you leave a well-marked path for that which only makes sense to you you can find yourself poised for descent. Whenever you embrace all that is unknown it can thrust you into the wild.

I plunged into my mine this week as I left the conventional world of steady paychecks and glistening corporate ladders to crash into the dark wild forest otherwise known as “the rest of my life.” What I didn't expect, as I gulped sweet, heady breaths of liberty, was instant resurrection of my shadow.

In a recent letter to my tribe I shared an exchange with a friend.

“What does it mean when you can't handle it anymore?” I said, talking about leaving my job but really talking about the sneaky shame which flares up anytime I rebel against imaginary conversations with people who sound like my internal mom. “I mean, for some people there comes a point when you really can't handle it anymore. And then what? Do you have to start slicing up your arms to prove it?” ... Now I'm backed into a corner with a mob of angry, imaginary conversations spitting words into my face: Wait, you're in debt, you have bills and you still quit? What, you're a little baby and you can't deal when life gets hard? You think you're too good to put your fingernails in the dirt? Well, news for you sweetheart: other people do hard things every day. Other people don't bail when life gets tough. Other people sacrifice their dreams because they act like adults and do what needs to be done! Who do you think you are?

Sharing the way shame slathers me with guilt as I take steps to burst into my own living is vulnerable, but I want it to be known. Because shame has reared his head again. Shame says, “I can't believe you told them about me. You talk about helping people and yet here we are! All that soulwork you do? All that “healing?” (Insert exaggerated “air-quotes” here.) What kind of healer are you? You call yourself a soul-doula ... what is that, anyway?!”

Right now I'm staring out the window as a flirty breeze makes love to my windchimes. Before me is a glass jar filled with fresh flowers: cheerful gerbera daisies, long wild grasses, perky leaves with sweet little peeks of magenta tucked in. My husband bought them for me. Every couple of weeks or so he comes home with a new bouquet, sometimes with the “reduced for quick sale” label still attached.

I have to trust this. I have to trust that I'm worthy of fresh flowers. I have to trust that I'm loved.

On July 6 I'm going dark. I'm intentionally seeking descent into this vicious onslaught of shame so that I can dig through its sordid roots. My friend Mandy Steward and I have created a way to do so through our intense, guided eCourse called Into the Dark Night—A Guided, Creative Descent into the Shadowlands of the Soul. I need this right now and Laura has graciously invited me to share this with you in case you might need it, too.

As The Wild Mystics, Mandy and I see ourselves as wild women of the wilderness. We have dreadlocks and feathers in our hair. We follow the seasons of the moon. The night air whips our skirts into chaos until they shiver like prayer flags in the wind.

Love, consider this your invitation to join a gypsy tribe, a motley gathering of the poet and the prophetess, of artists, dancers, seers and mystics, earthen sisters unafraid to mine the seasons of life / death / life and seek the wanton truth packed in our bones. As your wild gypsy guides through the shadowlands we are here to hold a mirror for you to peer into the wild fields of your Self. We provide an array of soul-prompts and assignments to help carve your truth from the wildlands within. We gather with you in provocative ritual. We press our knees to the earth. We light incense and howl and listen to the wild.

We plunge into the dark forest together, so we each are not alone.

The Wild Mystics

Hillary Rain is a gypsy mystic who sees her life as a shadowy bohemian tale of mystery and grace. “I want my own language,” she says. As a writer and artist she considers herself a soul-doula who bears witness to the renewal of life and the holy-hush fleshing out of soulskin.
Hillary is the founder of Wild Mystic Magazine, a holistic lifestyle magazine for the feminine mystic (launching late 2014) and the co-founder of The Wild Mystics. Her writing is featured along with a soulful Bohemian Collective of gypsy artists + moon sisters and she is co-mama of Soulsigh, a sacred experience for women designed to honor the creative feminine through ritual and rebirth. She writes about sensuality, spirituality, and the shadowed nuances of her creative life at spiritsoulearth.com.

MARIA CHANNELING GUEST POST

Today I am welcoming my sponsor Maria Channeling to share some thoughts with you.  Enjoy! 

This is an except from a Zurac chat, where he’s addressing the concept of feeling driven to assist others:

“... there are many messages received from many different sources about perhaps, I will use this word ‘should,’ what one should be doing. I encourage you to remember, to recognize that assisting others can come in very many different packages. There are perhaps some very obvious methods of assisting others... However, also remembering that simply smiling at someone who is not smiling can be, I will say, this can be a blip in their day. This can be something that creates a tiny shift for them that will then have a domino effect of tiny shifts. This does not necessarily have to be the most wonderful thing that has ever been done for a person. However, these small things add up. This is a very important; I will say a bit of an undervalued behavior. People are often friendly for the sake of being friendly or because it is considered that this is simply what is done. This is what is polite. It is not necessarily about taking the step to be more polite than one already is. Rather, it is about taking the step to be conscious of what perhaps this politeness is accomplishing, that this is more than simply what is done because you are at the store and this is how you behave with other people when you are at the store. It is recognizing that you are taking the time to connect with another at a level that is more than superficial, at a level that is, I will say, energetic in nature, in regards to the fact that you recognize them as a being.  

All beings have struggles. All beings have happiness. All beings have health, be it poor or good. There are things that are shared among all of you. You are all individuals and have special pieces to you, as well. However, there is a shared aspect to being human that you all have. The extra step is simply remembering that this person across the counter from you or next to you on the bus is human, in regards to... I would like to say this is a recognition that many people do not often receive. This is a deep form of kindness to be seen in this way. It's a moment of seeing someone without judgment, without caring that perhaps they were not very nice to you, or without caring that you do not like the color of their shirt, for example. It is a kindness to, for a moment, see them as a being and recognize them, and I will say, energetically inform them of this. This is something that all can do that will, as I said, create perhaps a very tiny domino effect. However... these things add up.”

And December’s outlook from Zurac:

“Yes, take a deep breath. You may have had quite a lot, emotionally speaking, on your plate last month. This may continue into the earliest part of December. However, then, you will experience a bit of a letdown. There will be less “old” rising to the surface. However, instead of this feeling like a relief, it may feel a bit like something is missing. This is because you have achieved some release of the old, and you have not yet, I will say, grown accustomed to what the “new” feels like. You understand, old belief systems, while often not particularly pleasant, are still very familiar, and can still feel like “friends” of  a sort. This may be a time where you are experiencing the loss of these “friends.”  

 “It is important to recognize this is what is happening, and to consider yourself a bit in transition, and to recognize that your new version of this life experience is just around the corner. This transition will not take long. It is a good time to ease off pressures on yourself; pressures to perform, or to look or act in a certain way. It’s a great time to be especially kind to yourself while you transition.  

 “Also, take the opportunity to consider what you want the new version of your life to look like. This will assist in creating new beliefs, instead of perhaps falling back into the old ones, which can occur. Energetic release is a wonderful experience. However, falling right back into old thought patterns or behaviors can encourage the, re-growth, I will say, of these belief patterns. Consciously considering what you’d like life to be like assists in forming what I will call new, more affirmative belief patterns. Spend some time on this, this month.”

Find more of Maria Moraca here.   She channels an entity named Zurac who excels at offering insight. He’s here to assist you in clarifying YOUR path and empowering you on your journey.