If you’re reading this, chances are you have a wild mind.
Before we go any further, let’s define wild and mind.
By wild, I mean undomesticated and untamed, the same way we talk about “wilderness”.
The wild, or wilderness, in Nature is a miraculous entity, born of elements and time.
This “wild” isn’t cultivated or created by people.
But sometimes “wild” can refer to chaos, a haphazard lack of control that is unsafe, destructive and usually created and cultivated by people.
I don’t mean that.
Not at all.
Ok, so for the rest of this essay, when when I say “wild” I mean a wilderness, an elemental miracle, untamed and undomesticated.
Now let’s look at “mind”.
The mind is different from the brain.
The brain is an organ that functions kind of like a circuit board or a supercomputer.
Whereas the mind is an entity with personality and proclivities, a bouquet of tendencies, emotions, memories, qualia, and the conscious and subconscious; it’s how we “are”.
The brain affects the mind, yes.
The mind and the brain can both change, grow, improve, starve, stagnate, or atrophy.
But the mind encompasses our intelligence, the way we understand the world around us and relate to one another.
So, a wild mind is a wilderness, a sanctuary of Nature; an undomesticated territory of wisdom and personality.
In the same way that a wild woodland doesn’t grow in rows, produce flowers in time for consumer holidays, or is ever a “just right” manicured garden, the wild mind is untamed, loyal only to the elements and rhythms of Earth.
Many of us seek out the wilderness, marveling at its natural beauty and appreciating the way it soothes and regulates our nervous systems.
A wild mind does this for us, too.
How can you tell if you have a wild mind?
The same way that you can tell whether you’re in a mall or a wilderness.
Is your mind free to respond to the rhythms of Nature?
Is your mind a wonder to behold?
Is your mind beautiful? Is it a sanctuary? Does it regulate your nervous system?
Yes? Then you have a wild mind.
Or is it controlled by canned air, built for the use of others, existing to satiate a human desire for stuff and status; paved and stressy.
Oof. I hated even writing that.
A wild mind is a habitat, a harmony of elements that makes certain beauty inevitable.
For example, Darkwood is, well, dark, so it’s a great habitat for ferns, moss, and rhododendron.
That stuff just grows here. I don’t have to interfere or help it in any way for it to be miraculously beautiful.
But if I tried to grow something like roses, it would be an ill-fated frustrating waste of time; an uphill battle.
Same with my wild mind.
My wild mind produces the Darkwood pedagogy, the anointing oils, these Arche-telegram essays, and miles of poetry the same way this land grows ferns — if left alone, it is inevitable and beautiful.
But then I gotta apply for FEMA, pay taxes, and blah blah blah; about as natural as a puny, poorly placed rose in the middle of a rhodo thicket.
Chances are, none of us are just one or the other; wild or not-wild.
But we do get to decide which one gets more acreage.
When your wild mind gets more acreage, you get to experience the unique ways you understand and orient to the world, and we get to experience your brilliance.
When we see, think, and create through the wild mind, we are, by nature, outside of the proverbial box.
You know what’s a box? The friggin mall, surrounded by a paradise paved.
When you commit to your wild mind, give it some acreage, treat it like the sanctuary and miracle it is, you get the joy of being in wilderness, and we get the joy of being not-at-the-mall.
So, guess what.
Mystery Schools nourish the wild mind.
Mystery School can include any program or pedagogy that connects you to your own unconventional wisdom through unconventional means.
For me, the massage therapy program I attended in New Mexico in the 90’s was a Mystery School.
And I’d say that programs like the Black Mountain College could be in this ilk, too.
In fiction, Mystery Schools have included Hogwarts, Avalon, and EarthSea.
Mystery School all support and give sanctuary to the wild mind, where imagination, experimentation, and honoring what’s outside the box is the norm.
Because, wild minds need more that the mundane rhythms of office hours, tax seasons, spring breaks, and consumer holidays; Black Friday just doesn’t do it for us.
Like a horse in a pen yearning to unleash her strength as she gallops across wide open space, we wanna see what our wild minds can really do, and what else a life can be.
In Mystery School, you are a unique snowflake in a blizzard of other magical, unconventional beings, ready to refine and study something that some might call “crazy”, a waste of time, unproven, or mumbo jumbo, but is straight up scholastic to your wild mind.
The Darkwood School is a Mystery School.
It’s specific, and that will help you align with it (or not).
The Darkwood School teaches you how to embrace your own nature, your wild mind, then wield it.
It does this through a one-of-a-kind pedagogy based on archetypes, the Wheel of the Year, and sensory wisdom.
These are The Darkwood School’s tools
- anointing oils
- subconscious writing
- ritual
- divination
- noticing
These tools will help you learn to speak a language rich in symbol, meaning, and wild.
And Mystery School is school, not a weekend workshop, not a drop-in class.
You commit.
You get school supplies.
You have classmates, all with a wild mind.
And by the end of the school year, your wild mind has more acreage.
It becomes a sanctuary and a nervous system regulator.
You learn to enjoy it, seek it out, and wield it for your own benefit and the benefit of the whole world.
Enrollment in the Darkwood Mystery School is open for a few more weeks.
Darkwood 101 is the perfect place to start.
But you could also start with the Writer’s Residency.
If you’re a 101 graduate, you might like the in-person experience of Rest + Ritual.
And if your business or art needs the attention of your wild mind, consider the Mentorship.
Is 2025 is the year to tend and expand the wild acreage of your mind?
If so, I hope you’ll join the other wild-minded students and me in a Darkwood Mystery School.
love and community,
xo
kv
PS: Here’s me last Sunday with one of my dearest communities, Marshall NC.
We put on a fashion show using PPE suits and caution tape to celebrate the resilience of this river side town and the people who make it so special.
Wild minds unite! When we stick together, we make so much good happen.
