Available now9-MODULE, ONLINE COURSE

The Wild Feminine

Explore the voice of the feminine in its diverse forms and expressions

The voice of the feminine in its diverse forms and expressions is rising and being heard again.

Hosted by advaya

Trailer

Course modules

Module One

What is the Feminine Principle and How is It a Vision for a Better Future?

In this module, we hear from Jungian analyst and renowned author, Anne Baring. Anne gives a historical overview of the causes of the loss of woman's voice, beginning with what she has called the Lunar Era. We are also joined by Liz Childs Kelly, a writer and researcher of the Sacred Feminine, which she cal...

Module Two

The Suppression of the Feminine Through History

This module, we delve further with feminist historian Max Dashu into the legacies of the female Divine that were ripped away from us in patriarchal history, and how that was accomplished. Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous public speaker talks about 'The Method, Importance and Effect of Ending "Rape Culture...

Module Three

Feminine Mythology: Archetypes, Goddesses and Queens

Archetypes have the ability to connect us to our inner power and help us strengthen who we really are. In this module, we are joined by Jean Shinoda Bolen, a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and author, as well as Nwando Achebe, a Nigerian-American academic, feminist scholar, and multi-award-winning historian.

Module Four

A Balance Between the Masculine & Feminine

In this module, we hear from Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining), feminine/masculine integration expert Sarah Poet on ‘Loving the Masculine: the Sacred Feminine Heart’, and Dr Elizabeth Kerekere of Māori descent who is a New Zealand politician, LGBTQ+ activist and scholar.

Module Five

Embracing the Body

Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, co-founders of Red School and authors of Wild Power, explore how your menstrual cycle is your ultimate guide to belonging, connection and trust. We hear from physical therapist, Tami Lynn Kent, who helps women move on from shame and trauma to activate the energy in...

Module Six

The Feminine Power to Create and Nurture

In this module, Fiona Shaw, a midwife and doula, speaks about her work alongside women in the birthing process, enabling them to be more present and connected. Leilani Birely, a Hawaiian Priestess and ceremonialist shares her own journey into the sacred feminine started with the birth of her daughter. Amis...

Module Seven

Finding Your Voice as a Feminine Leader

What does it mean to lead from the feminine principle? How do we do that in a world that is still not quite transformed from the old system of patriarchy? Writer, psychotherapist and political entrepreneur, Indra Adnan discusses ‘The Feminisation of Politics’. The public sphere was designed by men, but tra...

Module Eight

Honouring the Ancestors

In this module, we hear from Carmen Vicente (Carmita), a revered Medicine Woman who has been sharing Indigenous Wisdom Traditions around the globe. Author and poet, Angharad Wynne, also shares how she uses stories as the starting point for deep inquiry and a source of timeless wisdom and healing.

Module Nine

Connecting With the Land

We are joined by award-winning writer Sharon Blackie. She introduces the wild and powerful women who were fierce guardians and protectors of the land, and the ways in which they inspire us today. Explore power through a feminist paradigm that connects patterns of nature with patterns of personal and social...

Module Ten

Connecting Through Faith

We are joined by the first woman to be ordained into Tibetan Buddhism, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, who left Bethnal Green in London at 18 and took a vow to obtain enlightenment in female form. We also hear from Yeye Luisah Teish, an Iyanifa and Oshun Chief in the Yoruba tradition and one of the best-known Yorun...

Module Eleven

Connecting Through Practice⁠⁠

Hear from the author, Susun Weed, who speaks about ‘The Three Traditions of Healing’. Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, an educator, herbalist, founder of the Moon Mother Apothecary, explores the idea of change, evolution, and mirroring our needs to meet us where we are at any given point in our lives.

Module Twelve

Connecting Through Ritual & Ceremony

For the final module, we are joined by Chiara Baldini, a researcher and curator from Italy. Chiara introduces questions such as who were we when we were indigenous to the lands? What were our rituals? Which were the practices that allowed us to be in constant dialogue with nature? We are also joined by C...

Course information

About the course

After centuries of suppression, the voice of the feminine in its diverse forms and expressions is demanding to be heard again.

This shift in consciousness from the dominant masculine to a balance between the two energies, as well as beyond that binary, has long been predicted as part of the solution to the chaos our planet currently faces.

Such a transformation will beckon a new paradigm where dominance over the natural world is replaced by a recognition of the connection of all living things, while at the same time recognising the importance of such qualities as instinct, trust, nurture, creativity, and other forms of power left out of wider cultural conversations.

Over the course, hear from prominent authors and activists; amongst them inspirational matriarchs, Anne Baring and Jean Shinoda Bolen, indigenous leaders Elizabeth Kerekere and Carmen Vicente, prominent healers, Yeye Luisah Teish and Susun Weed, and well-known workshop practitioners, Jewels Wingfield and Chloe Goodchild, among many other incredible speakers and teachers.

Each module, a new speaker introduces us to a different aspect of the feminine and take us on a journey to hear more about the violent history that kept women silent for centuries, from the brutal takeover of Christianity to the horror of the witch-trials, to female infanticide and FGM, and finally to the violence that continues against both women and the feminine spirit today. We inquire into contemporary issues around the feminine, in particular the 'wild feminine' and what we might mean when we say ‘the feminine’ in the context of gender liberation.

Why the wild feminine?

The Wild Feminine is an archetypal aspect of ‘the feminine’, popularised by the psychologist, author, and curandera, Clarissa Pinkola Estés in her bestselling book ‘The Women Who Run with the Wolves’ in 1989.

This archetype is present throughout a diversity of cultures and traditions, and speaks to particular aspects of the feminine psyche and experience that have often been called ‘sacred’, ‘divine’ and/or ‘wild’. The word ‘wild’ has been problematic when used to describe women, and the feminine spirit in general, both in the past and present. We understand ‘wild’ to mean free of patriarchal oppression, embodied, expressed, and present, and possessing the absolute freedom to be in a world that often demands the opposite. It is a reclaiming of the inherent nature of the feminine principle.

This course is, in part, a collective inquiry into this multitude of meanings. We also recognise the limitations of gender binaries, and at the same time seek to include notions of the feminine spirit in our wider conversations around gender liberation. Our conviction is that each and every one of us has the capacity to embody the feminine, masculine, and everything between and beyond that binary. Through this course, we hope to create space so that the feminine in all its forms can be expressed, contemplated, and inquired into with genuine curiosity and good faith.

Course Includes

12 Modules

60 Sessions

30 Speakers

Curated readings, resources and embodied practices

Community discussion area

Video and audio available

Teachers

Anne Baring

Anne Baring is a Jungian Analyst, author and co-author of seven books including The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image. The ground of her work is an interest in the spiritual traditions of different cultures and the psychological causes of human suffering.