…through my eyes and ears
i tap softly on the door and silence answers
the song sparrow and i, we walk through
and together, we are on our way home

- From “Part of the Silence”

The narrative that follows is a revision of a construct I like to call “The Natural Healer”. I first wrote about The Natural Healer in February of last year and, like The Gardener, she is one of my favorite archetypes. She’s also, I think, one of the most dominant in my personality.

The Natural Healer, as I picture her, is a mixture of wise woman (or wise old woman), medicine woman, wild woman, mystic, and witch. I was actually motivated to write this narrative today by the image above. She was included in a bundle of images I purchased on Etsy yesterday (courtesy of FairyNestDesigns), and I love her. As soon as I saw her, I thought, “Oh, yes. I have one of those in me.” 

This brings up an interesting point about self-fashioning narratives: sometimes, I look for an image to coincide with a particular metaphor or construct, and sometimes I let the image lead the way. If, for example, while searching for goddess imagery, fairytale-inspired art, or images of women engaging in activities like dancing, gardening, etc., I come across an image with which I identify so strongly that I think, “Part of my soul looks like this.,” then I know that image is pointing me in the right direction. And that is the vision I need to cultivate.

I actually think that, for anyone writing these kinds of narratives for the first time and not quite knowing where to begin, imagery is the perfect place to start. I look through a great deal of goddess- and fairytale-inspired art to help me create these portraits of the feminine. I also love art deco and art nouveau women. I’m pretty sure I have a few of them in me, as well.

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The Natural Healer calls me to return to nature. Her roots are deep. Her hair is wild. Her eyes are serene and untamed. She knows perhaps more than she should. She is not old; she is timeless. She is gentle, yet mysterious. Eccentric, yet remarkably grounded. There is wilderness beneath her skin. The Natural Healer knows how to listen to the silence and make it speak. 

She is a gateway to spiritual and archetypal experiences in nature. She understands that stillness is fertile ground. She encourages me to look, to listen, and to witness in the forms of the natural world the miracle of my own soul being reflected back to me. This is what it means to allow the silence to speak. 

The Natural Healer knows that nature is medicine. When I need to sit quietly and watch the birds, when I need to get lost in the forest, or stop to appreciate the beauty of a flower or a butterfly, she asks me to put down my work, to quiet my mind, and allow my soul to rest.

The Natural Healer reminds me that wisdom is rarely found by seeking or by using the powers of the intellect, but by having the eyes to see what is already in front of us. Her eyes are those eyes. 

If there is a shadow side to this archetype, it is probably the propensity to lean too heavily on the spiritual, or to seek spiritual knowledge or wisdom such that we are neglecting responsibilities in the physical world. It could also look like a desire to isolate or withdraw into nature or into our inner world when the outer world feels too loud, too cruel, or too chaotic. The latter is an experience I’ve had to deal with before. When the world doesn’t make sense, nature does. Natural forms speak the language of the soul, and The Natural Healer is, to my mind, a bridge to that symbolic dimension of experience.

And lastly, The Natural Healer lives according to her own inner guidance, which makes her something of an outlaw. She is not afraid to wear flowers in her hair or to adorn her home with trinkets, like stones and feathers, that she’s found in the woods. These objects are imbued with magic if she says they are. She is the architect of her own rituals. She has her own symbols, and they are personally meaningful. She has little use for what the world tells her she should be, how she should behave, or what she should believe in. She encourages me to listen to my own soul and trust my inner knowing.