Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi, I’m Rachel, born and bred in North Wales. I am a author, writer and historian as well as a sacred dance teacher, and flower essence and empowerment coach. I am passionate about creating bridges between history and well-being, mythology and mindfulness and this is this guiding light for the ways I choose to be of service to the world.

I am the creatrix of my wisdom school, Wolf Woman Rising, where I guide my students in exploring and embodying courage, trust and authenticity, through embodied mythology, and working with the tools, wisdom and healing of nature and the divine.

I love travelling and always like to explore somewhere new and experiencing and learning about different cultures and traditions. I am happiest somewhere warm, with my toes in the sea, sand or grass. I also love to sing and dance and enjoy expressing my myself and identity through these mediums.

How would you describe your spiritual pathway?

Flexible and adaptable. I offer myself allowance, and gift myself the compassionate understanding that I change and what I need changes and that putting myself in a box or giving myself a label can be confining and limiting, as it also can be to others. I understand that people want to know exactly what I am loyal to and what I choose as my pathway but all I can say is that I am dedicated to my own growth and devoted to freedom and choice, while also loyal in my love and respect for the earth and the divine (in the many and varied forms it can and does take).

How and when did your spiritual journey begin?

I think the roots are in my solo adventures as a young child in the garden, where I created and lived in homes for my ‘invisible’ friends and fellow creatures of the wild. I felt at home in a tree more than anywhere else, and more than with anyone else. But my conscious choice to live my life in service to the divine came with two experiences. One was making a pledge to the Goddess Minerva at Bath at a very dark time in my life, she was my anchor and hope in the darkness and my service now, on behalf of the divine feminine, is partly as a thank you to her. Secondly, again I found myself in a dark night of the soul following sexual assault and it was the Goddess Inanna who came to me while I was healing on a retreat here in North Wales and she led me on a pathway out of being lost, into choosing live and myself again. Both experiences taught me the power and importance of alchemising pain into wisdom and nudged me to acknowledge my experiences as sacred by using them as teaching tools.

You are the creator of Wolf Woman Rising, would you share what this is all about and the concept behind it?

Wolf Woman Rising™ my wisdom school & community where you enjoy & learn about:

~ My books, which are all about ancient mythology, empowerment with nature & connection to the Divine inside and outside of ourselves.

~ My new courses, workshops & retreats.

Wolf Woman Rising was created so that I can share ancient & historical wisdom & knowledge with my students in a modern way that is inspiring, enjoyable & empowering for you in your life, right now.

It’s about you overcoming self-limiting beliefs and judgements & all those constricting conditions & doubts you and others have placed upon yourself. Together we will transform & transmute them so that you can stand proud & confident in who you are, what brings you joy & what you have to offer.

My teachings incorporate ancient mythology & my embodied & lived wisdom that I have accumulated, learnt & researched over 18 years as a teacher and coach and as someone who has a degree & masters in history and over a decade of experience working as a learning officer in the heritage sector.

It is WOLF woman rising because I believe Wolf is a truly powerful archetype, energy and essence worth emulating and embodying! They embody and inspire courage, ferocious love, protection and devotion, teamwork, inclusion, diversity and the paradox of being strong but gentle and wild, yet family focused with nurturance at the heart of pack values. These are my values and the values of my school.

You studied history and religious studies at university, how has that impacted on your spiritual journey?

Studying for both my undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications has given me a really good grounding in in-depth research and a keen interest in unpacking layers and depths of understanding and perspective.

It also satisfied my natural curiosity for learning about different viewpoints and I believe that learning about other’s belief systems and traditions, whether current or historic, opened my eyes and heart to the importance of diversity and inclusion. Difference is not bad or wrong, it just demonstrates the many potential threads and pictures possible on this great tapestry of life; multitudes of threads that in their difference give the tapestry its beauty and value. 

I understand that sacred dance plays a big role in your life, can you tell us a bit about how that works?

I remember as a child dancing on the lawn, reaching up to the sky to weave my hands through the clouds and moving my arms like birds and leaping and spinning like horses and squirrels. It brought me so much joy. Later as a teenager dance also brought me healing and a reclaiming of my self-respect and value.

I found belly dance at 14, an age at which I was exploring what it meant to be a girl transforming into a woman. I was trying to understand my body, my sexuality and was becoming very aware of how my value as a woman could be judged and confirmed solely by my appearance. I was very uncomfortable with the idea that my body was not mine, but others, and they believed they could claim a right to criticise, shame or devalue it. Belly dancing reminded me of the joy of my body and how I was entitled to feel that joy and reclaim my body as my own. Through dance my sensuality and sexuality was confirmed as mine, and mine alone. It gave me confidence to not just love myself but to respect and value myself. It was such a gift that at 16 I decided I had to share the empowerment it has offered me and took my teacher training and then began teaching others. At 18 I combined dance with meditation and was creating guided meditations for women’s confidence and self-love through movement and 18 years later I still continue to share dance and its healing potential with a passion!!

Dance, or movement, allows us to get out of our thinking, rational brain and into our bodies and it offers us the opportunity to live life looking from the inside out, rather than the norm of looking at ourselves from the outside in. In movement you can find freedom of expression, learn how you move, what you need and dance yourself into listening deeper to your body and come to a place of respect for all that it can and does do for you.

Why the Wolf and what does it mean to you and your spiritual journey?

Wolf for me is the wild, untamed parts of ourselves, the essential self that we are at our core when we strip away all the layers of judgement, conditions and obligations from society, family and even Self.

Wolf throughout history has been judged as a deadly predator, the bad guy, the evil one. This I believe is partly because they are unknown, living on the outskirts of society and we often label that which is unknown to us as dangerous, deadly. Also, they are a predator, they do kill for food, but this is not all they are. We are also predator, perhaps more deadly ones – but does that fact that we also kill for food make us evil? Wolves are affectionate and gentle creatures, that teach us about pack values, inclusion, and diversity. When you work with Wolf energy and archetype it invites you into reclaiming the parts and aspects of you that have also be labelled as wrong, bad and ugly and will empower and inspire you to heal, respect and offer compassion to all the ways and elements of yourself that have been shamed, felt shame or discrimination.

Wolf is also a powerful ally in that they embody the paradox of shadow and light, predator and yet gentle loving creature. Likewise, we are never either, or, shadow or light, but a beautifully unique mix of both. Like wolf, we can be kind, and ferocious and gentle yet strong.

Wolf can represent the unique part of ourselves that longs to be acknowledged and empowered. In the Wolf pack each member is valued and contributes their difference, and so they can inspire you to acknowledge your own difference, and celebrate it. They can teach us how important it is to be our difference because we are an essential part of the jigsaw, a shape and contribution that we alone can make. Our difference is needed.

Who is Lupa and what is her history?

Lupa was made famous in the foundation story of Rome, where she is the She-Wolf that rescued, suckled and protected the twins, Romulus and Remus, who later went on to found the settlements that became Rome. Her wolf cave was converted into a shrine, one of the most sacred places in Rome and a pilgrimage site for many. She was honoured and remembered throughout Roman history and her symbology, story and cave played a significant part in the ancestral festivals and celebrations of the month of February. 

The romans deified her as Goddess Luperca, for her role in the foundation of Rome and her continued protection of that city and its people (although of course she was essentially divine before we felt the need to label her so!).

We can connect to her now as a Goddess of destiny, purpose and protection.

What can we learn from Lupa and how can she help us?

Lupa offers us the same initiation and support as she did Romulus and Remus. I came to know her through my own journey in the cave of the she-wolf. Like them I met her at a place when I was lost and uncertain, fearful of the future and she took me into her cave, a dark night of the soul, so that in that darkness with her I could come back to my essence, strip away the judgements, fears and conditions that were suffocating me and gain clarity and alignment with what was whole and holy, sacred and sovereign about me. From this place she helped me to navigate the onward and upward path out of the cave, so I could begin to live my life on-purpose, with more fulfilment and truth. Before Romulus and Remus met Lupa they were vulnerable babies, after their nursing by her they crossed the threshold to becoming kings and founders. What is your destiny? She will help you to find out.

She is an ally and a teacher for all those that find themselves at a place of confusion, indecision, fear, doubt or pain and she will guide you on a journey of alchemy, transmuting all that was pain and discomfort into power and purpose.

How would you recommend folk begin their wolf journey?

I would begin with requesting a wolf guide or deity to support you on your journey, or if you already have one then getting to know them deeper and opening to further communion. You can use a guided meditation to meet wolf such as the free one’s I have available on my website:

www.wolfwomanrising.com/wolf 

Once you have that support you will, from then on, have an ally who can support you every step of the way, while you are meeting other members of the wolf pack and while you learn how to embody or heal wolf within yourself.

I would also try to gain some clarity as to the WHY Wolf appeals to you know or has shown up. What is it about Wolf that you most need right now? What characteristic is it that you have you need to embody within yourself, or perhaps there is an archetypal energy or theme that needs healing? Is it teamwork and sister wounds, fear and courage, or boundaries and self-responsibility? I would suggest using the quizzes in my book ‘Wolf’ to help you gain clarity around this and chapter 4 of ‘Wolf’ in particular.

Wolf is a powerful energy to work with and it will ask you to be honest and courageous – there is definitely no playing small when Wolf comes to play. If wolf is calling you are being asked to step into your authenticity and bravely share it.

Do you work with other deities?

Yes, I am grateful to have a council of deities that I work with, some ancestral or ‘home’ based and some connected to my soul journey or chosen by me in this lifetime.

I have what I call my ancestral deities, connected to my Welsh homeland, ancestors, identity and residence. The deities from where you grew up will be a part of your divine council and have guarded you since you were a baby and so they must be honoured. I think it is always important to first of all honour the deities and the spirit of place that are connected to the land in which you reside, as a form of respect to where you are and to anchor yourself into belonging and roots.

I also work with a mix of deities that have either been with me my whole life or some that support with me particular aspects of myself or stages of my journey. I have deities that are just mine, for me and my spiritual nourishment and connection and others that I work with on a more professional level in collaboration and as part of my service to the world. Minerva and Rhea have been lifelong allies and I also feel a particular connection to Mars Pater, Flora, Sekhmet and Apollo.

Who or what inspires you on your spiritual pathway?

Nature is my biggest inspiration. It was my anchor and I always find answers there if I need them. If I am feeling sad, confused, frustrated etc. I go out into nature and just breath with her and ground my roots to remind myself that I am not future, or past but present; I am here, I am me and this moment is this moment only. Observing her also reminds me that all things pass, so no matter what I am feeling, it is temporary. There is hope is nature.

My personal development is also inspired by being able to help others in a meaningful way. The more I learn and experience, the more wisdom I hope I have to pass on. Likewise, the more a grow, I hope I grow into a person that in more able to inspire, motivate, love and nurture others.

Music is also an inspiration for me, it is where I find peace, retreat, joy and it supports my access to my intuition and imagination.

What new projects are you working on?

I am currently writing book number 4 which brings together my personal and professional practice of working in collaboration with, and in service to, Goddess Flora. I hope this book will offer all those that read an access point to working with flowers as part of their spiritual practice and a way to deepen into a relationship with nature as the divine manifest.

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/rachel-walker