People Are Nature Too

Last week I joined Mary Grace Allerdice’s ReWild Self Care solstice event online. She led the guests through a guided meditation in which we individually explored our inner landscapes. What came up for me was a wooded, mountainous area with rocky cliffs along the sea with a small strip of sand between the two. We were then instructed to take a wider perspective—a bird’s eye view. That’s when I saw an approaching clipper out at sea. Mary Grace guided us to ask our landscape what it needed to re-wild. Here’s what my inner landscape said it needed—people. I “heard” it say that people are nature too and that it’s too sterile without people. People don’t just take—they give and add meaning. Allow them to play on your shores and share their stories by your fires. I could then see a shore filled by children running and playing as well as families and friends gathered around fires to share meals, laugh, and tell stories.

Those of you who have been burned by people—even those who were supposed to love and protect you—you’ll know that this re-wilding request is no small task. Sometimes we find ourselves thinking life would be so much simpler without the “complication” of people and everything that relationship entails—other emotions and perspectives, different communication styles, diplomacy, integration, cooperation, and an awful thing known as compromise (ha!).

Thankfully we attendees were to have some guidance on how to go about this re-wilding process. We were instructed to pull three cards. Most people had tarot decks I think; but as I have three oracle decks and no tarot decks, I chose one card from each oracle deck. Instead of depending solely on what the textbook meaning for each card is, we were encouraged to just use our intuition and see what the colors and objects were saying to us.

First card (Now/Present): Snow Leopard. On this card, I noticed the color green (the color of growth) was speaking to me. The way the leopard was positioned with all four feet on the ground, but top-half elevated on to some rocks, I felt the message was to be grounded but find an elevation to see more clearly. There is a push upward.

Second card (How to Get There): “Push to Surface". This was a whale surfacing towards the light dancing on the surface of the water above.

Third card (Where You Want to Go/What the ReWilded Landscape Looks Like): Fixed Moon “Hold Your Vision”. On this card I saw ground, mountain, stone—common themes with first card. It spoke to me of height, elevation, looking up—themes shared by both prior cards. With the moon up in the sky being slightly more lit than in darkness, I got the message that even though this human experience is one of paradox and dualities, I will want to look at the glass as always being half-full rather than half-empty.

In closing we were to write a letter to our inner landscape. I only had a few moments so my lines went like this:

Dear landscape,
Thank you for your lushness—your wildness. Thank you for the reminder that my inner landscape welcomes ‘the other.’ Help me welcome connection, sharing stories, play, song, and laughter.

As to how the message from the cards and the meditation intertwine, I’m still exploring that more fully; but as I go forward, I will try to stay grounded while ever pushing upward even when (or especially when) the watery, emotional depths with which I have so much experience would seem to overwhelm me. I will hold to a beautiful vision of what community and service looks like; choose to see the silver linings, and rise to new heights from that open heartspace. Join me?

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Mary Grace Allerdice. She is the host of the Home—body Podcast and writes some of the best, most soul-nurturing newsletters out there.
Oracle decks: Messages from Your Animal Spirit Guides (Farmer/Sturgis), Whispers of the Ocean (Hartfield/Golovanova), and Moonology (Boland/Rowan).