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Verbena, 2025
ISBN:978-1446315712
Reviewed by Debbie Rabia
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The Yearbook is an invitation to personal rewilding, described by Maddy and Eleanor as a search for a deeper relationship with both the Earth and the self. I was already subscribed to the online Wild Academy founded by this book’s authors when their first publication, the Rewilding Yearbook, launched. I was already impressed by their ‘Rewilding Wheel’ framework and their fresh, contemporary language. While the Wild Academy is specifically for women, the Rewilding Yearbook is for us all and I recommend it. I was intrigued to learn that the Yearbook’s authors had both independently graduated to Bardic grade Druidry and spent a year living ‘off-grid’, prior to developing the concept of rewilding the self. Just a few years ago, they founded the Wild Academy which offers a community where women experience a cyclical, nature-based path of ‘untaming’ or authentic self-discovery and empowerment.
The path of personal rewilding may variously be described as esoteric, sacred, spiritual, holistic. It is immersive, experiential and familiar to fellow-travellers on an eco-spiritual pilgrimage. I am particularly encouraged by the openness of the language. I know GreenSpirit members who remain uncomfortable with the word ‘spirit’, for example. Rewilding students are encouraged to seek the most personally meaningful language. The Yearbook is contemporary, accessible and word-rich in its approach. I find the Rewilding Wheel framework used in this book fascinating. Based on the Wheel of the Year, it explores a calendar of correspondences including the thirteen native trees of the Tree Ogham and Jungian archetypes which expand upon the Earth Mother in her many guises. We learn about the lunar cycles and animal guides and are introduced to seasonal ‘soulscapes’. I use both the Yearbook and online resources in my local GreenSpirit group celebrations of the Wheel of the Year festivals.
Maddy and Eleanor refer us to the collective ‘greening of the self’ called for by deep ecologist, Joanna Macy. They see our decisive moment or Great Turning, as a shift towards the cultivation of the wild self. The Rewilding Yearbook points us to the ‘fork in the road’ faced by humanity:
“Slowly, but surely, we’re beginning to question the long-established interpretations of what it means to be human…. We’re challenging the cultural narrative that places humans at the top of the hierarchy and defines‘nature’ and ‘the environment’ as separate and other; a resource to be dominated and exploited…
In its place, a rewilded perspective is unfurling that positions humans as an equal part of the interconnected web of life and also embraces the land beyond our walls and windows as our home.”