Mary Reynolds Thompson, CAPF, CPCC, is not your average wordsmith. A former copywriter turned life coach, author, and facilitator of poetry and journal therapy, Mary is the visionary founder of Live Your Wild Soul Story. Her mission? To bridge the artificial divide between Earth and self, outer and inner nature, helping people reconnect with their deepest creativity and purpose. In her groundbreaking works, The Way of the Wild Soul Woman and Reclaiming the Wild Soul, Mary invites readers to explore “wild language”—a powerful blend of Earth metaphors, archetypes, and symbols that inspire transformation. Through her unique blend of Earth connection, poetic expression, and coaching, Mary empowers others to live more connected and creative lives, becoming fully alive in their Wild Soul Story. In this Mystic Mag‘s interview, Mary delves into the sacred power of language, her personal journey of transformation, and how reconnecting with nature’s wisdom can help us reclaim our truest selves.
How did your journey from branding expert to facilitator of Wild Soul Stories help you understand the divide between outer and inner nature?
For over two decades as a copywriter and brander I helped to fuel our modern society’s addiction to consumption. I didn’t see it that way back then. But it’s what I was doing. Branding is a powerful thing. Companies would come to us before a product was fully developed to create a brand name. They understood the brand, whether it was the name of a car, or a face cream, or a computer chip, was as important as the product itself. Language, in other words, has power. As does imagery and archetype. A brand is a story. A story about why you should trust, like, and own a certain thing.
In 2001, the Twin Towers collapsed in New York City. The world was shaken up, and I was too. I questioned my life and purpose. But I had no idea of what I was going to do. I only knew three things: 1) the path I was on was not my path anymore; 2) Nature was my spiritual home; 3) I loved language.
With nothing but these three awarenesses––Life, the Great Mystery, the Divine––whatever you choose to call it, put me in the path of coaching and poetry and journal therapy. It was then that I began to blend my love of the natural world with my love of language into my program, “Live Your Wild Soul Story.” Stories that explored the relationship between inner and outer nature, and freed us to be our most authentic self.
What inspired you to write The Way of the Wild Soul Woman, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
The seeds of The Way of the Wild Soul Woman took root when I was asked to teach an online course for TreeSisters, a global non-profit with a mission to both empower women and reforest the tropics. I had explored the archetypal landscapes of Deserts, Forests, Oceans and Rivers, Mountains, and Grasslands in my book Reclaiming the Wild Soul, but now I was excited by the opportunity to work with a global community of women. Women’s relationship to Earth, after all, has always been different from that of men. Our moon cycles, pregnancies, childbirth––all these things align us with the rhythms and textures of the natural world. But landscapes, too, reflect different aspects of our true nature, and I was eager to find out how.
What emerged was the essential role of nature in our self-liberation as women. It is all too easy for us to forget that we humans have spent most of our 200,000 years of development living in wild nature. It is she who has shaped us deeply. Today, nature is tamed, subjugated, overly domesticated – and so is a woman’s soul. The Way of the Wild Soul Woman offers readers a pathway through 5 Earth initiations to uncover our wild nature again. These creative soul powers, these archetypes, lay bare the false messages of patriarchy and invite us to free ourselves to become the unashamed, untamed, unstoppable forces of nature that we are made to be.
What type of services do you offer?
My work mostly consists of workshops and retreats. I teach through several different organizations, including the Rowe Center, Kripalu Retreat Center, and the Eco-therapist training organization, the Tariki Trust. I am also launching a Wild Soul Woman Book Circle and Sisterhood membership program next year. I used to edit and coach other writers’ work, but now I have my handful writing my next book and keeping up with my workshops.
How do poetry and journal therapy work together in your practice to foster deeper self-awareness and healing?
Poetry and journal therapy enable us to reclaim our soul language. We summon our own images and express our own metaphors. We break the habit of language that is stale or stifling or superficial. Poetry also allows us to come at things slant. We write about heartbreak as a dried-out riverbed or explore the death of a loved one using winter imagery. Metaphor both engages our imaginations and reveals our unconscious, thus surfacing what needs to be healed.
In my work, I also view Nature as the mother of all languages. You can read the landscape as you would a poem. Or you could say the primary text of the world is the world itself. Healing and revealing metaphors abound in nature, inviting us to turn them into journal reflections or spontaneous poems.
How do you guide clients in discovering their own Wild Soul Story, and what transformations have you witnessed as a result?
Archetypes are powerful forces that can change lives in an instant. For example, a woman who suffered from co-dependency kept trying to get her sister sober while accommodating her abusive parents. As she familiarized herself with the archetypes, an image of a mountain kept coming to her. As she focused on it, she felt encouraged to set healthy boundaries with her family. Another woman who told me she lived a “bottled up life” began to take photos and write about water. Soon her own life was flowing in creative and unexpected directions. When you engage the Earth archetypes, they will both shake and wake you up.
In your book Reclaiming the Wild Soul, you explore our disconnection from the Earth. What steps can individuals take to rebuild that connection in daily life?
It’s essential we unplug from our computers and iPhones and spend time outdoors. It doesn’t have to be a pristine wilderness area. It can be a tree-lined street, a local park, a place where you can see a sunset or sunrise. The only way to reconnect with the Earth, is to spend time with her. Start with a few short dates and see how you get along. If you’re like me, you might find yourself falling head over heels in love.
