What does it mean to be wild in a crumbling world?
On authenticity, alignment, and our vision for change
At the Academy, we talk a lot about what it means to be wild. The concept of wildness can bring up many differing ideas, but for us it’s all about finding our true core essence, the wild flame at the centre of our being. It’s a process of reconnection with this part of self, and a journey of reclamation that can often feel like a homecoming, as we peel back all the layers of societal narratives and conditioning.
It’s wound up with words like authenticity and alignment, but while this wild within speaks to the wholeness and uniqueness of each individual, it also acknowledges that we do not exist in the world alone: each of our wild sparks form part of a bigger flame, intrinsically interwoven with the health and life force of the earth, as well as our human and more-than-human kin.
So what happens when the earth and these kin are in crisis? What happens when we see haunting news every single day, when children starve, when the wild world is flooding and burning, when the decisions made by those in power are destroying lives and land? Holding an ecosystemic perspective invites a response that honours our connections, that knows our ability to live and thrive is bound up with that of all others on this planet. Essentially, as Lyla June Johnston reminds us: “the body of the earth and the body of the people are worth fighting for. And in this time, we have an opportunity to become instruments within that battle”.
For some, your role in this fight may be very clear: a direct disruption through protesting or responding on the frontline, perhaps. For others, and particularly for those unable to take physical action of this kind, it can feel difficult to know what to do, how to help. But as the wild world models, diversity is key. There are multiple roles we might take in supporting the paradigm shift, and in tending to the health and vitality of the earth and its kin. The Social Change Ecosystem Map from the Building Movement Project is a really helpful tool here, and suggests a number of alternative roles that may help you to contribute in different ways, ranging from healer to storyteller, from visionary to builder, from weaver to caregiver. You may even recognise yourself in a few of these already.
To be wild in a crumbling world, then, is to know and trust in kinship, interconnection, and a web-like (rather than hierarchical) view of the the earth.
To be wild in a crumbling world is to welcome the multiple, fluid roles that are open to us in support of its healing.
To be wild in a crumbling world is not to reject being human and give up on humanity as a lost cause or a species that is merely a plague on the planet - but to see and know that we are interdependent, and to hold on to the hope for change, for a new paradigm.
This is our vision. What about you?
Thank you for this. We are living in a time that seems especially heartbreaking to those of us with wild hearts. I try to take hope that the heartbreak is also creating more wild hearts, that more and more people are seeing how much we need each other and the planet. But the cost is so tragically high. Thank you for creating a space to mourn and to reconnect, remembering that we all have important work to do. 💖