Media Kit - Mary Reynolds Thompson

Media Information
Title: Reclaiming the Wild Soul:
How Earth’s Landscapes Restore
Us to Wholeness
Author: Mary Reynolds Thompson
Genre: Nonfiction
ISBN 13: 978-1940468143
Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Pages: 160
Price: $15.95
Publisher: White Cloud Press
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Synopsis
Reclaiming the Wild Soul takes us on a journey into Earth’s five great landscapes —
deserts, forests, oceans and rivers, mountains, and grasslands — as aspects of our
deeper, wilder selves. Where the inner and outer worlds meet we discover our own true
nature mirrored in the Earth's wild beauty and fierce challenges.
A powerful archetypal model for transformation, the “soulscapes” return us to a primal
terrain rich in knowing, healing, and wholeness. To guide our path, each soulscape
offers up wisdom in the form of soul qualities the modern world often undervalues and
even undermines. We see how deserts model simplicity and silence, how forests help
us make peace with uncertainty, how rivers and oceans reveal the power of flow, how
mountains inspire our highest purpose, and how grasslands teach us about giving back.
Weaving personal story with poetry, imagery, and explorations, Reclaiming the Wild
Soul is simultaneously self-help and a courageous call to action. It is written for all those
disillusioned with our hyper-paced, high-tech world, who decry what we are doing to the
Earth, who feel the tug of their own wild souls longing for discovery and mystery — a
new, yet ancient, way of being human.
Praise for Reclaiming the Wild Soul
“Mary Reynolds Thompson explores 'the breath of wildness,' the reality of kinship that exists just
beyond the reach of our senses — or at least our most familiar senses. She has rolled up her
sleeves and commenced what Thomas Berry called the Great Work of the 21st century:
reconnecting to the rest of the natural world, for meaning. For soul.”
Richard Louv, The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods
“Mary Reynolds Thompson's book works simple magic to bind our broken souls back into fullround rapport with the more-than-human terrain. And as the land restores our sanity, we're
empowered to work with new clarity to replenish the many-voiced vitality of the animate
earth.”—David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous, Becoming Animal
"With ingenuity and subtlety, Mary Reynolds Thompson guides us in ways both old and new to
enter Earth’s archetypal wildscapes and allow them to infuse us and make us whole again, fully
human. Woven with enchanting stories and wise counsel, Reclaiming the Wild Soul lavishly
supports us, at this time of global crisis/opportunity, to return, emboldened, to Earth and to our
own human wildness."— Bill Plotkin, author of Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human
Psyche and Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche
“Reclaiming the Wild Soul touches on so much that makes us more deeply human. But even
more, we are invited into a new way of being human. Mary Reynolds Thompson identifies the
most powerful qualities of our Earth’s great landscapes. She then magically guides us back into
a nearly lost realm where we truly feel that our imagination, our inner lives, and our physical
selves are an integral expression of the planet herself. To go to the Earth for guidance, we
simultaneously go inward to our deeper self and outward to the Great Self of oceans, rivers,
deserts, grasslands, mountains, and forests. Reclaiming the Wild Soul is a beautiful, passionate,
and trustworthy handbook for deeper transformation.” —Lauren de Boer, executive editor,
EarthLight, a magazine of ecology, cosmology, and spirituality
“Reclaiming the Wild Soul leads us on a journey of exploration, through imagery, poetry, story
and creative imagination, to connect back to the five archetypal landscapes in Nature, and
reconnect to our own inherent Nature.”—Angeles Arrien, author of The Four Fold Way and
Living with Gratitude
“With the urgency of Rachel Carson and the lyricism of Terry Tempest Williams, Mary Reynolds
Thompson brings startling clarity to the myriad ways the earth's archetypal landscapes mirror
our own pain, struggles, resources and triumphs. Simultaneously self-help and a courageous
call to action, Reclaiming the Wild Soul is a vibrant and necessary addition to the literature on
ecopsychology, Gaia consciousness, and the thinking person's interior life.”—Kathleen Adams,
director, Center for Journal Therapy, Inc.; editor, Expressive Writing: Foundations of
Practice
“Reclaiming the Wild Soul is a gateway into the great spiritual journey of our time: that of
nondual consciousness, also called spiritual ecology. These moving stories and images and
poetry of Reynolds Thompson will carry you into a fresh, though ancient, realization: the deserts
and forests and mountains are there in the universe, and yet simultaneously, they are vibrantly
alive in the depths of our souls.”—Brian Swimme, author of The Hidden Heart of the
Cosmos and The Universe Story (with Thomas Berry)
Q&A with Mary Reynolds Thompson
Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. I’m quite frankly bored by most of the environmental talk today. It’s all gadgets and grand
schemes. I want the vision of our future to hold poetry, beauty, mystery—and wildness. What
excites me about this book is that it is shows that rewilding our souls is a first step to healing the
planet. I chose the topic for many reasons: I connect to spirit in Nature and have trekked many
remote regions of the planet in search of the sacred; I’m a poetry facilitator and so know the
power of nature’s metaphors to shift our consciousness; and I long for the breath of wildness to
fill our days and forge our future.
Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. Almost a decade. I had to rewrite it from scratch. The first time through I was so upset by all
the environmental damage I had encountered in my research and wanderings that I wrote from
that place of pain and anguish. The second write, I spent a lot more time listening to what the
Earth wanted me to say!
Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. Finding the right balance between the personal and the planetary, the spiritual and the
ecological. When I finally hit on that balance, everything flowed more easily. It became a book
written for people, not at them.
Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A.I did a lot of research and reading about nature, the environment, ecology, and
ecopsychology. I also read a lot of nature poetry (Joy Harjo, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, William
Stafford, Gary Snyder, etc.) because nature poets focus on the natural world and then invite us
back into our inner nature. It was this outward/inward dance that I wanted to achieve in my own
writing. I also share a great deal of my own experiences in the wild landscapes, having explored
all over the planet, from the Himalayas to the Andes. I share my clients’ stories, too.
Q. What surprised you the most about this process?
A. I began to realize that once I had taken in all the information, I had to be guided by the Earth
herself. I went to each landscape and offered up a prayer asking the landscapes to offer their
wisdom and guidance to me. In doing so I had to let go of control, and of how I expected the
book to look. As a result the landscapes have different numbers of wisdom qualities and
chapters that are very short and then longer. It appears they didn’t want to be tamed into neat,
equal-length, equal-number chapters!
Q. Did you have any notable experiences when writing your book?
A.I had many. I think among the most notable for me was in introducing the archetypal
landscapes to others. It was then that I realized the true power of these archetypes to awaken
us to the depths of our own wild souls. As well, it seemed that while I was writing the book I had
more dreams and experiences in nature that offered insights into the work I was doing. On one
memorable occasion, I was walking in the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains when I
asked the trees what they thought of the way humans were treating the forests. Out of nowhere,
a violent wind came and the trees swayed and roared like an ocean. I felt their pain and anger in
my body. The wind disappeared and that was the only violent gust all weekend long. These
instances happened over and over while writing the book. I share some of them in RWS.
Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. When we connect to Earth’s archetypes, reclaiming them as part of our own wild soul, we
become whole. A missing part of us—the part that knows that we are one with the Earth—
returns. We experience a deeper, wilder, and greater sense of self that makes us long to protect
the wild spaces of Earth and soul.
Q. What other projects are you currently working on?
A. I am halfway through writing “Write the Damn Book: The Heroic Journey from Procrastination
to Publication.” I am also working on creating a book of “Wild Soul Stories,” in which different
people share a defining moment in nature that has in some way has shaped who they are and
how they live. I believe that in sharing these stories, we break through the illusion of our
separation from the Earth.
Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I am certified life coach and facilitator of poetry and journal therapy. I run workshops, poetry
groups, and writing groups both here and abroad. I am founder of Write the Damn Book, helping
other would-be authors on the heroic path from procrastination to publication. I am also core
faculty for the Therapeutic Writing Institute based in Denver, Colorado.
Q. When can we look forward to your next book?
A. “Write the Damn Book” will come out in Spring, 2015. “Wild Soul Stories” will follow soon
after.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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New Books Takes Concept Of Spiritual Ecology To The Next Level
Learn how to use nature as a guide for self-exploration, self-improvement, and a more
balanced existence.
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) – Mary Reynolds Thompson, author, certified life coach, and facilitator of poetry
and journal therapy will be releasing Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Return Us to
Wholeness on September 9, 2014.
Reclaiming the Wild Soul takes readers on a journey into Earth’s five great landscapes — deserts,
forests, oceans and rivers, mountains, and grasslands — as aspects of their deeper, wilder selves.
Where the inner and outer worlds meet we discover our own true nature mirrored in the Earth's wild
beauty and fierce challenges.
A powerful archetypal model for transformation, the “soulscapes” return us to a primal terrain rich in
knowing, healing, and wholeness. To guide our path, each soulscape offers up wisdom in the form of soul
qualities the modern world often undervalues and even undermines. We see how deserts model simplicity
and silence, how forests help us make peace with uncertainty, how rivers and oceans reveal the power of
flow, how mountains inspire our highest purpose, and how grasslands teach us about giving back.
Reclaiming the Wild Soul:
Guides the reader on a journey through five archetypal landscapes that connect our inner terrain
of psyche and soul with the great landscape archetypes of the earth
Connects the environmental crisis and soul crisis in ways that expose our shared destiny with
wildness everywhere
Empowers the reader to access the wisdom of the wild in order to align with the deep creativity of
the planet –and thus to evolve in a way that serves the good of all.
Weaving personal story with poetry, imagery, and explorations, Reclaiming the Wild Soul is
simultaneously self-help and a courageous call to action. It is written for all those disillusioned with our
hyper-paced, high-tech world, who decry what we are doing to the Earth, who feel the tug of their own
wild souls longing for discovery and mystery — a new, yet ancient, way of being human. Find out more:
http://reclaimingthewildsoul.com
Title: Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Return Us to Wholeness
Author: Mary Reynolds Thompson
ISBN 13: 978-1940468143
Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Price: $15.95
Publisher: White Cloud Press
WHITE CLOUD PRESS
PO Box 3400 • Ashland, OR 97520 • whitecloudpress.com • 541-488-6415
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Steve Scholl
White Cloud Press
Ph: 541-488-6415
Email: [email protected]
New Book Explores Earth’s Landscapes
As Pathways to the Wild Soul
Ashland, OR – June 23, 2014 — Marin writer, poet, and earth advocate Mary Reynolds
Thompson’s new book Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to
Wholeness (White Cloud Press, October 2014) will release with a book launch celebration at
Book Passage in Corte Madera on Sunday, October 5 at 1 pm (51 Tamal Vista Blvd.).
In this rich and captivating work, Reynolds Thompson’s magically guides overwhelmed modern
souls to reengage their inner lives with the archetypal dimensions of Earth’s five great
landscapes—deserts, forests, oceans and rivers, mountains, and grasslands.
There, in the wild, where the inner and outer worlds meet, we discover our own true nature
mirrored in all the wild beauty and fierce challenges of the Earth herself. These “soulscapes”
return us to a primal terrain rich in knowing, healing, and wholeness. We see how deserts model
simplicity and silence, how forests help us make peace with uncertainty, how rivers and oceans
reveal the power of flow, how mountains inspire our highest purpose, and how grasslands teach
us about giving back.
Reclaiming the Wild Soul is Reynolds Thompson’s second book, following on her 2012 release
of Embrace Your Inner Wild: 52 Reflections for an Eco-Centric World (White Cloud Press), a
book of meditations and photography she collaborated on with photographer Don Moseman.
Whether you are an activist seeking wisdom and boldness, a writer who wants your words to
flow from deep within, or someone who simply longs to put down the tired mantle of conformity
in order to live your deepest truth—this book provides a comprehensive and clear path to begin.
Reynolds Thompson’s love of the Earth is palpable. She has run with pigs in Positano, trekked
the Himalayas, and been battered by the winds of Patagonia. Roaming the far reaches of the
planet her message remains the same: The wild landscapes of Earth are under siege. Their
survival–– and our own––requires that we reclaim our wild souls.
Reclaiming the Wild Soul is gaining strong advance praise. David Abram (The Spell of the
Sensuous) writes how her “book works simple magic to bind our broken souls back into fullround rapport with the more-than-human terrain.” Bill Plotkin (Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the
Human Psyche) observes how “Woven with enchanting stories and wise counsel, Reclaiming
the Wild Soul lavishly supports us, at this time of global crisis/opportunity, to return,
emboldened, to Earth and to our own human wildness.” And Richard Louv (The Nature
Principle) notes that Reynolds Thompson “explores the ‘the breath of wildness,’ the reality of
kinship that exists just beyond thereach of our senses. She has commenced what Thomas
Berry called the Great Work of the 21st century: reconnecting to the rest of the natural world, for
meaning. For soul.”
Reclaiming the Wild Soul is simultaneously self-help and a courageous call to action and will be
available nationwide with distribution by Publishers Group West.
About the book:
Paperback: 186 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1940468020
Original Trade Paperback: $16.95
Published by White Cloud Press (October 2014)
www.whitecloudpress.com
Distribution: Publishers Group West/Perseus Book Group
About the Author:
Mary Reynolds Thompson is a facilitator of poetry and journal therapy and life coach dedicated
to bringing forth the Wild Soul Story. This new story is rooted in our oneness with nature and a
vision of a world in which the wild landscapes of both Earth and soul can thrive. Born and raised
in London, England, today Mary lives in her beloved landscape of Marin County, California, with
her husband, Bruce. She is also author of Embrace Your Inner Wild: 52 Reflections for an EcoCentric World (White Cloud Press, 2011), as well as numerous articles on ecospirituality. In
2008 she became core faculty for the Therapeutic Writing Institute. To learn more about her
work, please visit www.reclaimingthewildsoul.com.
About Mary Reynolds Thompson
Mary Reynolds Thompson is a fresh voice in the spiritual ecology
movement. She helps people to experience a deeper, wilder, and
more creative way of living than is readily available in our hightech, high-stress world. As an author, life coach, and facilitator of
poetry and journal therapy who is passionate about the Earth, she
creates a bridge back to our wild souls by helping her readers and
students awaken to Earth’s landscapes as part of their own
psyches and souls. Using poetry, metaphor, and immersion in
nature, we discover a manner of living that allows us —and the
planet—to thrive.
Learn more at http://maryreynoldsthompson.com
“We have become a little too tame, a little too willing to settle for what appears to be safety,
rather than entering the wild mystery of life. This book is a clarion call to reclaim our wild souls in
order to live in oneness with the Earth and discover a manner of living that allows us—and the
planet—to thrive.
Ever since I tried to escape my crib at the age of two, I have longed to feel alive and a part of
everything around me. I sought that sense of aliveness in the shadow wild of alcoholism. In 1983,
newly sober, I had a mystical experience while standing on the bluffs of the Marin Headlands in
Northern California that was to redirect my path. Looking out at the storming oceans, I realized
that the sea was wild and churning, as I was, but it was powerful too. I wondered if I might also be
powerful, despite my inner churning. I tasted salt in my mouth and didn’t know if it was mine or
the ocean’s; I felt completely at one with that deep body of water. Since that day the natural world
has mentored me and helped me remain joyfully sober.
I wrote this book because I believe that until we reclaim our oneness with the Earth, we will seek
to feel alive and whole in unhealthy ways—what I deem the “shadow wild.” Increasingly
abstracted in our thinking and in our high-tech lifestyles, we work harder and consume more,
while always feeling that nothing is enough—that we aren’t enough. We feel alienated, tamped
down, and sometimes recognize our own tameness. We don’t realize that in separating from the
Earth, we have lost a part of ourselves.
If we are to restore the power of wildness to a too-tame world, we need to start by rewilding our
own souls.”
-- Mary Reynolds Thompson, on what inspired her to write Reclaiming the Wild Soul
Contact Information
Mary Reynolds Thompson, Author
[email protected]
www.maryreynoldsthompson.com
White Cloud Press
Steve Scholl, Publisher
[email protected]
www.whitecloudpress.com