Liberating the Naked Form

When was the last time you sat naked with yourself? With your lover? Outside of the chambers of sexual union. Our naked forms hold our most wild, primal selves. Here we remember their blessings.

What is invoked in you at the sight of a naked body?

What is awakened within your own naked form as it is held on the earth?

Nowadays, we walk around covered up, cloaked, wearing something that hides a part of ourselves from the world. And there is beauty in it, clothing is a potent expression of the soul that may be allowed its embodiment. Yet I see such a deep discomfort that lives in people now to be simply, holy, heartfully naked. One is not complete without the expression of the other. The scales tip, and something of importance is lost.

Even when one is alone. In our rooms. Or on a beach all to ourselves, there is still this thought that has been instilled in us to cover up. Protect. Be modest. This is a physical expression of a spiritual condition. How do you feel being fully in your nakedness? Standing tall, being seen in all that you are. How do you stand and face the wild self in its totality?

There is such a beautiful opening found within being naked, especially in the wild, on the land. This is where we belong, and how we belong to the land. In our bare selves. Masks off. Open. Feeling everything. Yet there is this unfortunate stigma around revealing ourselves in this way. When a naked body is nothing other than what it is. It’s a warped world that allows the nipples of a man their safe exposure but a woman’s as inappropriate. It is a deep failure in a world that is okay with a person pretty much naked, in a bathing suit, versus actually simply naked. And it is an individual that taints it with stigmas, judgements, and flaws. Only relatively recently in human history, even more so depending on through which cultural lens you look through, did this bastardization of the naked form become so prevalent. Unfortunate. And fatal for the wild self, that longs to bare it all to the world.

The sun longs to kiss every part of the body, the soul. The earth longs to hold in a sweet embrace every part of you. To feel your bare skin upon hers. As a mother does a child. Even those places that don’t often see the light of day. Some of the most potent healing one finds is laying bare upon the earth. That is significant. Meaningful. Speaking to the channels that are opened between us and all that we belong. How when we come back into its sweet embrace, we are made whole. And Oh, how these parts of us long to be caressed by the warm rays of light. Oh, how they long to dance within that warmth and bliss. It is the same for the soul. It is an intimate, sensual experience. Erotic even, when we dismantle the automatic sexualization of a body and simply feel the true depth of pleasure that moves through those spaces. The pleasure of life. The sweetness of embodiment.

If we can’t be naked in the privacy of our own home, well, how can we ever show ourselves truly to others in our fullness. No, I'm not talking about walking around in our birthday suits all around town. I mean that energetic reflection mirrored in baring our naked bodies and baring our naked selves. Why does it feel wrong to be naked in a wild lagoon or in the sanctity of the home? Why is there discomfort there, in one of the most natural things? How does this affect our capacity to fully share ourselves with others? Be it those we know or have yet to meet. How does this way that we meet ourselves affect the ways we meet others? In fully embracing pleasure and communion with the earth. To tap into our wildest, most innate selves.

May it be offered within the sweet hands of our own remembrance, a practice. A play within the naked form. A stripping away (literally and figuratively) of the masks we wear. A baring of our heart and truth in a society that has forgotten how to recognize both. Dropping the sexualization of a naked body in moments of simply being naked. We have forgotten that a naked form can exist outside of the context of sex. And so people have been made to feel unsafe in this form. It's a valid and lived experience. What I am sharing and offering here is a reclamation then. One that takes back our relationship with our bodies. Takes back a raw, wild, intimate communion of soul, flesh and earth. One that was stripped away from us as the lands have been stripped. As we've been placed in concrete boxes and made to forget, indeed, where we come from. A body is a body. In this joyous communion, we unravel years and generations worth of ingrainment that made us think a naked body is wrong, shameful, inappropriate. That we need to keep a tight leash on our wild selves. That we need to be obedient, modest, conservative. And instead, just be what we are. In moments I feel the most free are when I'm naked in a wild place. There is nothing quite like that. It is ancient. Innate. Ancenstal. HOLY. It is how we may commune even more deeply. It is how we may bare ourselves to the earth, to spirit, to ourselves, our loves, our friends, even more fully. In true love, we see each other in these spaces with admiration. With respect and with an enrichment that comes from knowing someone in their fullness. Being naked with friends is a potent way to deepen relations. Hanging out naked with our lovers is richness. All that we are is seen. Honoured. It starts with ourselves. Shedding the layers of fear that keep us closed off. And finally, flying.

Long live the free body and soul.