The Meandering Path of the Wolf
This month I am proud and somewhat astounded to be finishing the maiden voyage of my course, "Path of the Wolf." Four months of teaching about wolf mythology, biology, apocrypha and magic, wherein I am as much a learner as my students in so many ways.
This is the first long term course (4 months) I've ever designed completely on my own and it has been an incredibly exhilarating⸺and exhausting process. I'm so glad I pushed through my procrastination and finally brought this work into being.
Today I was going through old journals and magical writings, and found an entry I made in 2019 during my year of Skydancer Priestess training in the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple. I am so glad I never succumbed to my usual urge to burn or throw away old journal writing, because this entry means so much to me now!
I'm transcribing it word for word below, with the addition of some line breaks for easier reading.
(image by Carmen Sanchez)
Path of the Wolf
It came to me recently that I might start a blog on Patheos Pagan. The idea for Path of the Wolf started as a title for a book, or teaching of some kind, arising from my work in Woman Shaman Priestess with the Wolf. I am thinking of ways in which I can cement my work on the Wolf path, and what does it ultimately mean to me?
Courage. Wolf is the Path of Courage.
Of survival against the odds. Of being simultaneously feared, reviled, and revered in our culture. My exploration would be based around European and Eurasian Wolf lore as that is my heritage. I would respect Native American lore and touch on it occasionally for contrast and context. Wolf as an archetype for feminism in the 21st century. The struggle against patriarchy, its domination over ecology and the forces of Nature.
The Wolf is essential to all ecology: the apex predator. So powerful in its natural state, and yet hunted, feared, and shunned when coming into contact with human worlds. So similar to Woman's power. The power of life, primal and fiery...but you cannot wield it without the most vigorous resistance by the "established order." The Order seeks to suppress our movements, relegate us to the fringes of society where the hostile elements keep us alienated and impoverished. They try to stay safe from our hunger, from our ferocity...but we endure. We resist, we repopulate, we endure despite the hardship and constant onslaught of oppression. The pack survives.
How can we harness the power of Wolf and marry it to the Power of Woman?
Do not be tamed, do not give up the essence of who you are...your wild grace...for the safety of the Order. The Order will crush and enslave you. Find your pack, support your pack, survive with your pack.
How do I have a real effect on the wolf spirit in the realm of the Middle World? Join conservation group? Share stories? Commit to Wolf organizations? There must be a balance between work in the world and work with the Spirits. Animism, ecology, wisdom, justice. Primal heart.
What form does your courage take? Courage does not always mean running into a burning building to save a life. Courage is found in words, in relationship, in sharing, in standing up for what is right, especially if the Order wants to push you back down.
And so here I am, circling back to the genesis of this spiral path. Never did sign up on Patheos, but I did create this blog and named it Path of the Wolf. I'm already deepening my Path of the Wolf course for 2025. I know this work will continue to evolve with me and with the world, because that is what we all must do.
Would you like to come along?