Dialogues with the Wild: Exploring the Transformative Power of Journalling

by Glennie Kindred

I've always loved writing in a journal and have been doing it since my early twenties. I have a pile of them! A catalogue of my dialogues with myself as I try and make sense of the world around me and my journey through this life…

A journal is not the same as a diary… it is written intermittently. I always date the entries, which is really important so that you can understand the writing within the context of when it was written… Journalling provides a moment of pause in our busy lives. I use it as an opportunity to sit in stillness, gather in the moment - look back, assess, and from that assessment, choose a path forwards. For me it is also about making time to simply write - for the pleasure of writing, to  observe and log my thoughts and feelings in that moment, or to tune into a place, a tree, a plant, a river, and see what comes up from the depths of my subconscious. I think of it as a dialogue with my wild inner knowing, my deep inner wisdom, my intuition, my inner guide. As part of my regular spiritual practice, journals provide a lasting anchor for my journey.

A regular anchor for my journalling are the eight Earth festivals. These fall every six weeks and help me to see the overview of my journey through life. Regular journalling such as this helps keep us in touch with the cyclic nature of the Earth and the energy shifts that are resonating around us and within us as we flow from one season to another. Each of the Earth festivals is an opportunity to look back on the last six weeks since the last festival to see what has occupied your time, thoughts and feelings, and to look forwards as to what you wish to develop, make happen or walk towards as the next new season unfolds. At each festival I take oracle or tarot cards, asking for the wisdom of the cards, and record them here.

I also keep a Moon journal. Each New Moon and Full Moon (every two weeks) I write in my journal and take a card from an oracle pack… (My favourite pack for this is The Sacred Traveller cards by Denise Linn. They are very heart-connecting and positive). The card precipitates more thoughts and more writing… It's a very immediate and in the moment process…

I use journalling as a kind of self-help therapy session with myself. I let my thoughts flow and try to write what comes to me in a very immediate way… akin to automatic writing. This allows the truth of things to rise from my subconscious. Being a Virgo I am very analytical and I like to pick away at something until I get to the bottom of it… the root cause of the situation… break it all down until I see its component parts. I can then put it back together again, finding the positive solutions and the path of the heart, and consciously choose my route forwards from a place of Love and compassion. I have used this practice all my life and found it absolutely invaluable to my survival in this crazy mixed up world, and it has been an integral part of my personal and spiritual growth. By writing it down, both the good times and the difficult, the wild and the gentle, you have your words to look back on, and you have your assessments and ways forwards to look back on. It can really help keep you on track!

I also have a Walking the Land journal, which I take on walks with me and sketch in, and write in when I find a place, tree or plant that moves me to write… I record where I find native plants, natural springs and ancient trees. It also ends up being a place of poetry, a herbal medicine and plant spirit log and all things that create connectivity to the Earth… It's an invaluable reminder of my growing relationship with the subtle and subliminal, the experiences that help expand our awareness that there is more to life than our surface everyday reality…

Designing and producing the Earth Pathways journals grew out of my own love of journalling. The six illustrations and writing are meant as inspirational guidance. The faint watermark pages somehow help the flow of writing, and the pages are numbered for easy referencing should you want to… So far we have two… a Tree Journal and a Mandala Journal. I find them a joy to use and I hope you do too!

Glennie Kindred July 2022