Wild Mind. Bill Plotkin
are, of course, born wild, in the sense of undomesticated — naturally, perhaps blissfully, ignorant of cultural conventions and niceties. We begin life with an innate human enjoyment of an intuited kinship with all beings and things. We’re as happy to trade speech with a bird or a brook as with a fellow human. And not merely speech: we naturally desire touch and taste, too. As children, we recognize ourselves as sensuous, breathing, animate creatures in communion with — erotically captivated by — other such beings.17
Later, in a healthy middle childhood, the Wild One is expressed and experienced in the sensuous, instinctive, earthiness of free play in wild or semiwild environs — building castles on the beach and forts in the forest, gorging on wild berries, and making golden dresses out of Scotch broom blossoms. The South Self is also seen in a child’s instinctive practice of imitating the gestures and calls of birds and animals, in her endless curiosity about bugs and trees, caves and stars, in her wonderment about her own and other human bodies; in his instinctive, enchanted, audacious response to song and games and dance, and in his readiness to surrender his body to the pulse and timbre of the assorted emotions that flow through him unbidden.
And in the teen years of a healthy adolescence, the Wild One manifests in sexual aliveness and a hormone-enhanced psychosocial curiosity and exploration of the infinite possibilities of social presence, personal style, and relationships. The healthy teenager also discovers her innate yearning to explore self and world from nonordinary states of consciousness — in part achieved through Southerly pursuits such as music, rhythm, extreme sports, entheogens (psychoactive substances), and yoga — because the Wild One has always known the world is far more enchanted than has yet been discovered.
THE SOUTH’S PRIMARY WINDOW OF KNOWING: FULL-BODIED FEELING
Feeling, of course, is the window of knowing that is native to the South facet of the Self, the window most resonant with the Wild One. I’m referring not only to the kind of feeling we call emotions but also to our bodily feeling, including our awareness of our internal organs (interoception) and the positioning of our limbs (proprioception and kinesthesia, or “muscle sense”), as well as to the “feeling in our bones” (premonitions, hunches) we get about particular social gatherings, city neighborhoods, or natural habitats, not to mention interpersonal vibes, sexual passion, and our general sense of corporeal well-being, malaise, or dis-ease.
To have heartfelt and gratifying relationships with our fellow humans, as well as with the other creatures and places of our world, we must proceed, first and foremost, by way of full-bodied feeling. True communion is impossible without feeling. The other beings indigenous to our world do not speak our human languages, but we can nevertheless come to know them deeply and intimately — through feeling, through a kind of nonphysical touching.18 Our Wild Indigenous One instinctively translates by way of feeling what’s being “said” by the nonhuman flora and fauna (and stones, rivers, and forests). This ability to know-by-feeling is the most natural thing in the world for nature-based peoples. And when it comes to communion with others of our own species, we must remember that we are at least as much feeling infused as we are linguistically inclined. What on Earth would our relationships be like if we couldn’t sense social vibes, read the emotional field, or discern the bodily states of our friends and family? (Well, actually and sadly, the worst of contemporary mainstream Western culture is an all too apt answer.) And certainly our sexuality is founded on our capacity to feel, in all senses of the word. To be fully human we must fully feel.
THE WILD INDIGENOUS ONE’S PLACE ON THE MAP OF THE PSYCHE
What is it about the cardinal direction of south that resonates so surely with the Wild One? The south (for people in the Northern Hemisphere, that is; for those in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the north) is the place of greatest warmth and light, the south being where the Sun is at its midday zenith. The south-facing sides of hills, groves, canyon walls, and dwellings are the warmest and brightest. At all times of year, the winds from the south are generally the most temperate and often, but not always, the mildest.
South, then, is naturally mated with the flowering and growth of plants, the early development of young animals, and the child’s emotions and vulnerabilities, as well as with his playfulness, delight, and sense of wonder. Because of its direct connection with the warmth and comfort of the Sun, the south is also affiliated with the warmth of the human heart and emotional connectedness. And in the warmth of the southerly season of summer, people are outside for longer hours and have greater opportunities to explore the other-than-human world.
Consonant with these qualities of the south, the Wild Indigenous One is emotionally alive and expansively at play and at home amid the fecund wonders of our more-than-human world. The Wild One celebrates its embodiment and its communion with all living things, just as nature does more generally in the warmer parts of the day and year. Both the Wild One and our experiences in the cardinal direction of south are lush, sensuous, abundant, energetic, and animated.19
PRACTICES FOR CULTIVATING THE SOUTH FACET OF THE SELF
Not everyone has well-honed access to their Wild Indigenous One. This is especially true of contemporary Western men who’ve been taught from the get-go that feeling is unmanly. Feeling is in fact a foreign faculty in immature men mired in macho and military misconceptions of manhood. The fully embodied man, in contrast, is in a sensuous and emotionally vibrant relationship with the diverse beings and things of his world, which enables him to be most empathically responsive to, appreciative of, and supportive of his fellow humans, the other creatures, and the shared environment in which they are all participatory members. This is, of course, equally true of the fully embodied woman.
Actually, it’s rare for the South facet of the Self to be well developed in anyone in the contemporary West, because of the culture’s pervasive alienation from the other-than-human world. Few Westerners experience kinship with undomesticated fauna. Few are deeply moved or inspired by rivers and mountains or by any flora beyond the garden. This is primarily due to a lack of exposure or interest. Too few families, schools, and religious organizations introduce children to their greater world in any meaningful or comprehensive way.20 As noted earlier, the Wild Indigenous One is actually a direct threat to industrial dominator societies. If a majority of Westerners were to viscerally experience the sacred kinship they naturally have with all life, we’d see an abrupt collapse of the extractive, synthetic economy and imperial politics on which contemporary Western culture is built. Egocentric, patho-adolescent culture has a major stake in suppressing the South of our Selves.
The good news, however, is that cultivating the Wild Indigenous One is not difficult. As with the North facet, the primary and most portable means of accessing the South is to simply call on it, because it is, after all, waiting within our psyches.
For example, sit outside, or even by an open window in your city apartment, and feel the wind or sun move across your skin. Let the distinctive mood of that place on Earth and its weather penetrate you like the sound track of a rousing drama. What feelings are stirred in you? Or, at any time and any place, very carefully observe your emotions and bodily sensations, even the subtlest ones, as you encounter another person — a stranger sitting across from you in a train, or your own beloved, or anyone else. What do you feel between you? What vibes do you detect? Or walk through un-domesticated country and offer your full-bodied attention to each unexpected thing you encounter — a flower, frog, rivulet, bone, stone. What is the particular feeling of that thing, your embodied knowing of it? While there, very consciously take in all the fragrances and whatever they evoke in you — images, memories, or bodily sensations. Do the same at home as you roam through your spice rack. Again, what feelings (bodily and emotional) are evoked? Or, if your circumstances permit, take off your clothes and let your whole body fully feel your world — perhaps in a meadow, your backyard, or your living room. What feels good against your skin? Not so good? What emotions or longings are evoked? Or offer your full attention to the sounds of the world, preferably while outside in a wild place, discovering the auditory nuances, distinguishing different pitches, melodies, and rhythms. Make a song of them. What feelings are stirred?
At any moment of the day, whether you’re at work in the shop or office or garden, at play on the field or court, at home with your family, or en route