“You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.”
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Chapter 4 serves as a call to you, to all the women, and to all the men who are ready to wake up to their own inner feminine aspects and support the people in their lives as they follow more of the wild stirring in their hearts. To be wild with creativity. To make a vow to express, not repress.
To be wild is simple. To be wild is to be true.
As a teenager, Rochelle had never met her father and was yearning for fatherly guidance, and one day, had a brilliant idea: Bob Dylan would become her imaginary father. He was a Gemini, like her. He was from Minnesota, like her. He was a poet whose perspective initiated a revolution. What better human being to get advice from?
Any resemblance?
Like Anchoring South, you often can’t reach the heart of your creativity unless you have the courage to look into the heart of your darkness. Inversely, you often can’t reach the height of your creativity unless you also have the courage to look into the height of your light (which is limitless).
This happens naturally as you listen more closely to your soul: your experience of joy will increase and so will your experience of sorrow. Expanding your capacity for pleasure will also enhance your capacity for experiencing pain. Fear will deepen, but your courage will rise to meet it.
Here are some photos from the tender time in Rochelle's childhood she writes about in Chapter 4.
Reclaiming the Divine Feminine
Here are some photos Rochelle's Pilgrimage to Reclaim the Divine Feminine she writes about in Chapter 4. May they inspire you to seek out earthly expressions of the divine feminine on your next trip, or even in your local community.
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MOVEMENT: SHAKING
So often, we try to solve our problems through analysis, but if the ego is where they were created, we need to access a higher state of consciousness to heal them. Qoya uses the body as a portal to that higher consciousness. Instead of struggling with the story in our heads, let’s see what is possible if we get back into the intuitive, wild wisdom that lives in the body.
Many people come to Qoya seeking guidance, advice, or healing. As they share their challenges, Rochelle has noticed that so many are caught in a mental loop. Their minds circle with lists of complaints and justifications while they struggle for things to make sense. We all do this at times. When you are in the midst of a challenge, when your body is filled with irritation, your brow furrowed, and your jaw clenched, try an experiment to see if this movement works to reset you back to your center, to your essence, to your truth.
RITUAL: FIRE CEREMONY
“The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. ”
A fire ceremony invites us to connect to a millennia-old tradition with our ancestors, who gathered around a fire to keep warm, cook food, share stories, and glimpse an understanding beyond what the eye usually sees.
Fire ceremonies will support transformation and help you release old patterns and beliefs.
Click here for full instructions.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION: EXPRESS YOUR WILD ESSENCE
To be wild is not to dance on a bar top in Miami. It’s not dating a man you know isn’t good for you. To be wild is to be like a wolf: loyal, fierce in one’s self, trustworthy in relationships, conscious in your boundaries, and righteous when boundaries have been crossed.
To be wild is to be aware of this world’s injustices, of our cultural lies, and to have courage to howl on behalf of others. The wild woman knows she is not wild solely for herself, but also for her tribe, her pack.
To be wild is to recrown yourself with an authority that can only come from within. To be a healthy leader is to take a stand and be a beacon for love in your life, in your relationships, and in this world. It’s not about Kings reigning over this world or Queens reigning over this world – it’s about Love reigning over this world.
What does this mean for you as you read this book? Qoya – the word and the movement – invites you to sit on the throne that is your life.
So many of us are waiting for outside permission to sit on our thrones. We are waiting for the touch of a sword on our shoulders, for an official coronation day hosted by those around us. But you are the only one who can give yourself that throne, that crown.
It can be a flower crown or one of jewels.
It can be made of stars.
It can be yours.
Gather your group with 3 to 13 people to create an evening of doing the exercise in the book.
Wildness is the courage to express instead of repress. The first step we take away from the status quo is vulnerable and fearful for the ego, but we return stronger, not only because our voices have been heard but also because we have spoken.
Here are some images of when Rochelle expressed versus repressed the life force inside her.
PILGRIMAGE: MEETING YOUR MOTHER AGAIN, AND AS IF FOR THE FIRST TIME
As we reclaim the power of the divine feminine, we must look at the way we relate to our own mother – both our metaphorical mother (Mother Earth, the sisterhood of other women, and Goddess as Mother) and our literal mother (the woman who birthed us and/or the women in our families who raised us). For some, this may be simple; for a great many, this pilgrimage may be one of the most confronting ones in this book.
You may not know your birth mother, like Rochelle didn’t know her birth father. Maybe your mother has already passed from this world. Try to make it simple. Go and see your mother. This visit might be to your literal mother – sit down and share a meal with her. It might be a visit to her grave or reflecting in front of an altar with her photo. It might be a phone call. It might be a letter written to her and then released by ritually burying or burning it. The details of the visit are up to you. This pilgrimage could also be traveling to your metaphorical mother. In a shamanic healing ceremony, Rochelle was once told that in certain tribes, children were raised by their biological parents until puberty. Once they had their rites of passage into becoming an adult, the earth became their mother, the sun their father, the moon their grandmother, the stars their brothers and sisters. You may choose to go to the metaphorical Mother Earth in place of your birth mother. You will know exactly where to go.
Here are some photos of Rochelle going to meet her mother and also Mother Earth.
*Click here to purchase a copy of Qoya: A Compass for Navigating an Embodied Life that is Wise, Wild and Free.