The Alchemy of the Land

Remembering true depth that only the wild lands may invoke. And in those journeys, emerging transformed. The soul's work is found within this untouched terrain. In the uncontrollable nature of wild.

As we walk, the road slips further away. The noise of cars is muted through the still sounds of silence. Frequencies only the forest may invoke. Time slips away into an eternal spiral of existence. There is only one step after another. The trail flowing out into timelessness. With no way back, there is only forwards. Onwards. We continue. Kilometres etched into our worn feet. There’s no end. No beginning. Only a massive expanse of wild. When was the last time you walked for hours in the depths of the forest? Too long.

One gets swallowed whole in these spaces. Here the land serves to test. “How deep can you go?”

The forest is a teacher. Singing the hymns of a spiritual chasm. The abyss. Through the forest one knows depth. One learns the truth of what it means to go deep. In the wilderness, there is nothing else. There you learn of yourself in ways nothing else may teach you.

Here I am reminded also of the initiation that is birth. These experiences parallel in many ways.

When you think you’re ready to drop to your knees, tears welling in your eyes, begging for a way out, thinking “I can’t”, your feet take another step, your body takes another rock of contraction, and you go on. Continuously breaking open into new boundaries. They reveal to you how expensive you can be. How strong you can be. How capable. Unlike anything before. Here the land is the tough lover. Hours, days, deep in the expansive wild of the earth, she teaches resilience. Kali ma comes forth to chew you up just for you to see how much you can endure. And spits you out transformed. This is the alchemy of the land. It is the soul’s work to surrender fully into this feeling of endlessness. And arrive home. This is how the forest teaches depth. You are in the belly of the beast. The cauldron of trees. There is no way out. There is nothing else but in.

Here one is alone. Not alone in the sense of no one else around. But alone in the sense that one else can do it for you. Only you may make it through, or not. Only you may walk the path. Do that work. Expand into those spaces. While being held within the embrace of creation. There can be trust.

The land offers an opportunity to witness how wild she can really be. How unpredictable. How gruesome. How terrible. It is a humbling reminder of her true power. This true power of wild places has been forgotten with so much of their depth being cleared and replaced with concrete and buildings. The few spots with bare earth have been manicured to suit the needs of a civilized nation. One forgets what a true wild forest actually requires of you. Presence. Sureness of step. Attention. One is reminded here that it is not all Disney characters within those depths. There is pain too. There is loss. The land tells us, “Don’t you forget who I am, I may swallow you whole into my depths, never to be seen again”. Humans, who love their control, are found stripped bare at the feet of the wild. Yet all this moving from a boundless space of love. Always love. In its truest form, that shows you to your full potential if you allow it to. That teaches you humility when you have become inflated. In these moments when you think you reached your limit is where you are cracked open into new unexplored territory. When you think you can’t, you do. And there you find unmeasurable beauty. Unsurpassed perfection. You are an initiate. Only you may see what the path reveals. Here one may rest under the canopies of the wild self and find ease in the comfort of the deep dark forest. Its power. Its Inspiration. Its medicine. How it mirrors these lessons that echo all throughout life.

In this I find myself thinking of the wild places of old. The homes of my ancestors. What it might have felt like to be so irrevocably held by the wild. There was no other way. A small village clearing in an otherwise massive expanse of wild land. A sky above full full filled with the light of the star nations. Gazing up to them as though they held meaning and influence over life. Walking into the dark of the dense forest and entering another realm completely. The awareness one must hold of the other dwellers of the land, that could devour me entirely. All my senses activated. Looking up to the rising trees and hearing the lurking shadows in the distance. Feeling the dampness in the air, the smell of rot and pine and moss. I can feel also my spirit activating, as in communion with a living place. With the spirit in all things. The aliveness that must move through such a place.

People have forgotten, what this wild feels like. This uncontrollable land of quests. Yet their lessons come to us in whispers. When we walk through a forest in our neighbourhood. When we see a shadow pass us by in the night. We are activated in wild ways. Ancestral ways. And changed forever. Or perhaps, re-membered, with our ancient ways. The way it has always been.