Overview
The wolf within | How long ago...
…have you roamed unseen through the forests of oblivion? How long have you felt – locked in a cage of rules, duties, prohibitions, and ideals that you strive to live up to? How long have you already rejected your natural beauty, grace, wildness, and inherent liveliness? How long have you been tamed, kept away from life, freedom, and the playful pleasure of lively exploration? Yes, for how long? How long have you forbidden yourself from calling for the moon with devotion to the mystery of life at the top of your lungs? Out of fear that you might be heard, that you might attract attention, that you might be hunted down again and put back in a cage.
The inner cage
This Cage is lived. So many times, in so many places. By so many – in so many situations. The Wild is not welcome in our time. Too unpredictable, too dangerous, this naturalness!
We are expected to meet standards, are measured, compared, rated, trimmed. Could it be that we have internalized this? Could it be that this cage is actually an inner cage? Could it be that prohibitions now come from within? Maybe quite quietly and secretly? A quiet, constant voice inside that forbids you from living your true wild nature, expressing it? A voice you’ve gotten so accustomed to that you’re no longer aware of it? Could it be that you’ve locked away your Wolfman, your Wolf Woman? That you’ve learned to impose conventions on yourself? That you’ve turned this wolf in you into a lapdog instead of honoring your true, dignified beauty? Just to “fit in,” to avoid being rejected?
Maybe it 's time...
In every man, in every woman, there lies this wild, indomitable part of our true nature – a wolf man, a wolf woman.
In each of us lives a natural primal instinct that is connected to a mystery beyond our domesticated mind’s comprehension. Our rational minds may fear it. But this part wants to live! It wants to be released – not to harm others, but to stand and live in its true and dignified nature. This wolf is not a lone one, nor a ruthless one.
Perhaps he has been for a long time – condemned to loneliness in the inner cage, cornered by prohibitions and taboos. Yes, he may become angry, snarling, even frightening if he hasn’t found a place yet – a dignified place.
Naturally, he lives for the good of his pack, his clan, which he feels connected to. A community that values him in his true nature and recognizes him. A place where he doesn’t have to adjust or pretend. Where he doesn’t need to pretend to be a lapdog or even a sheep. A space where everything has its place – light sides and dark. But maybe he’s never had the chance to be part of a pack because he’s never been free.
Maybe it’s time to begin. To release your inner wolf. I invite you to welcome your wolfman, your wolfwoman. Let him run free through the woods of life, let him howl loudly and instinctively hunt. Maybe it’s time to welcome this wild side into your heart and thereby into freedom. To stop trying to trim or tame him, to impose prohibitions and taboos. Perhaps it’s time to get to know your true instinctual nature, to build a relationship, to learn from him, to bring him home. Maybe it’s time to awaken the beauty of your true, wild instinctual nature.
And perhaps – sometime soon – the full moon nights will be filled with the beautiful songs of all wolfmen and wolfwomen, expressing their powerful presence and joy of inner freedom under the night sky.
With gratitude, I dedicate these lines to the author Clarissa Pinkola Estés (The Wolf Woman) and to all the wolfmen and wolfwomen out there!
All the best – see you soon under the full moon! <3
Yours Kristina
Picture Credit: Photo by Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash
Invitation
If you’re considering being accompanied through the mirror process of inner work, you can book a free preliminary talk in my booking calendar at the top right of this page or below this entry.
The model assumptions are based on years of professional observation, personal experience, and knowledge from psychoanalysis, psychodynamics, and developmental psychology. For more information, please refer to the Copyright notice. The articles, including assumptions and hypotheses, may be shared freely, but please always provide attribution (my name and the website).
