In Chap. 4 of KISSING THE LIMITLESS, Thorn continues to examine how our connections to & in the physical affect our spiritual quest. She urges us to examine how we relate to home, work, money, & the natural world. It is the latter that brings up one of my favorite quotes “We are part animal, part human, and part divine, & the moment we forget the possibility of any one of those, we are lost.” The final reflection ask us “Listen now to your animal soul, the part most closely connected to your body & your instincts. If you could be wild for one hour or one day, what would that feel like; what would that look like?” That is the thought I leave you to ponder this wild Spring day! “What does your animal soul call for?” @WeiserBooks

I like this question. A lot. As others (like @TeoBishop) have mentioned, Reading Kissing the Limitless and talking about it in a book club format is really poignant to a lot of my life at the moment. I have some thoughts on that specifically, but later.

What does your animal soul call for? This is a great question, particularly at the moment, because I’ve been feeling a bit overburdened for a few days. Overburdened is probably the wrong word. I’m an introvert by nature. I tend to enjoy spending time at home, relaxing and enjoying the company of my family and being able to recline or retire. A result of this is that being out and active in the world for prolonged periods of time can be very draining to me, particularly when i’m dealing with scheduled tasks or events, or with large numbers of people.

So when I run into a tightly scheduled set of days or weeks, I have a little trouble finding the time to reconnect to my home, to my roots. I’m in the middle of a viciously scheduled period right now. I’ve got:

• Karate twice a week
• rehearsals for a ritual
• preparation for an initiation
• plans to make for moving
• an apartment to find
• 9 people staying with us next week
• a very full load at work

And that’s just the next couple weeks, and it’s skipping a few things I can’t talk about, and the fact that I already haven’t had an evening free in 5 days. This is an almost untenable schedule for me.

So I was just thinking today about what my animal self needs. I often consider myself to be a deer. Most often a doe, placid, observant, caring, tender. Sometimes though, I am a hart or a stag. Proud, needing to prove myself, aggressive, wild, and sometimes possessive. When things get too bound up in order the wild part of me needs the wildness of nature. It doesn’t have to be real wilderness. I don’t even really have to spend time outside. What I need is chaos and order in a struggle with each other. I need to become the stag and dive into activity of any kind so long as it’s about me. I need to take time and throw myself aggressively at a project that belongs to me and only me. I need to argue and fight, butting head/antlers with anything that comes before me.

Just laying here to write helps more than I have the language to express.

Thorn talks about the different parts of the soul, and keeping them all in sight. I understand what she means, and it is something that I strive to do at all times. Remembering our wildness, our animal truth, while also connecting with the divine and remaining living here on this plane can seem like a daunting task. For certain, it is not one that comes easily or naturally to most of us. But I think it can be easier than we want to believe. This is a lesson that is difficult because we make it difficult.

I believe that each of us has something we do that reminds us of all these parts of ourselves, and helps bring them together, even if only for a few moments. For me, it’s writing. Just sitting down with a pen and paper, or a keyboard, and writing brings me to a place of peace and balance.

On the one hand I am accessing the wild force of deer, sometimes doe and others hart. When I’m writing, the vast majority of the time I don’t have any great control over my words. They come out of me in a rush of thought and feeling and I have to catch them in my fingers and shape them before they have run away, hooves pounding the ground in the distance.

But I am also accessing the divine. When I write there is a truth that I often feel moves through me, perhaps riding the wild nature of deer, more likely flying above him, the wind of the wings sending sparks of inspiration and light into the raw power that is crashing through me. Sulfur and Salt. Wild chaotic force and the tempering stillness of the light.

And the human, me, caught in the middle. Never forgotten, both the crucible in which the alchemy is wrought, and the mercurial element which communicates the force and form of creation, stabilizing it into words and images, and ultimately also transmits it to the perceptions of the world around me.

So making time to scribble even a few lines of a poem or a story, or even write something completely practical and how-to-ish brings me into that connected point, and from there I can find the peace I need to move out into the world.

I postulate that each of us has something we do that helps us be touched and reminds us of all our parts. I’m sure most of us have several things, that take us there. (There are other things that make me feel similar to writing, it’s just my most familiar and easily accessed modality.)

As I mentioned previously, I find it interesting that so many people are having synchronistic experiences as we read this book together. We’re experiencing very different events in our lives, but we find that the wisdom in Kissing the Limitless is poignant and effective to each of us regardless of circumstance.

To me, this is not really surprising. Interesting yes, but not surprising. It’s the result of a well written work, of real wisdom that speaks to us on a deep level. I think that the work Thorn has laid before us is the caliber of work and thought that can be worked at many times in our life, from many places, attitudes, and beliefs. It is the caliber of work, of thought, that can aid us no matter where on the path we are, and that speaks volumes for the quality and strength of Thorns own work, and her voice in this volume.