Wilderness as Prayer

On the Art of Listening, Surrendering, and Letting Earth and Soul Shape Us

On my first wilderness quest over two decades ago, the juniper and piñon forest whispered that my purpose was to be Braveheart. It was not a comfortable message. Often, we are asked to do the very thing we fear the most.

On my second quest, I had a dream that I was getting married. I wasn’t sure what it meant—until the land spoke again: I was to marry my own heart. Not in romance, but in fierce fidelity to my soul.

These moments—wild, untranslatable, sacred—are not just stories. They are prayers I was asked to live. Each one a thread woven into the deeper pattern of my belonging.

Listening

Prayer is not merely something we do—it’s something we become. A living, breathing communion with the Earth. A dance between soul and the sacred wild. It lives in our bodies—in movement, stillness, and presence.

There is a kind of listening that only the wild can teach—slow, subtle, and rooted in ancient silence.

Beyond the hum of technology and the weight of expectation, past the paved roads of routine, the wilderness awaits—not as a destination, but as a living being—an elder, a mirror, a medicine.

I’ve seen people enter the forest carrying questions too heavy for words. The trees receive them without judgment. As the land holds them, something begins to soften. To stir. To speak.

A wilderness quest is not about solitude alone—it is a prayer in motion. A soul laid bare before mountain and moon, seeking not answers, but relationship—for something to meet what aches, what longs, what waits within.

The wild doesn’t care about eloquence or identity. It asks only that we arrive whole-heartedly—willing to step into the unknown, to feel, and to listen.

What emerges is rarely what we expect. Revelation comes like rain on dry ground—surprising, nourishing, alive.

Revelation Asks Everything

My third and fourth quests brought deeper initiations. The trees began to speak not only in messages but in love stories—inviting me into a richer, more nuanced intimacy with the wildness of my soul.

Two juniper trees showed me how love lives on through death. A fir tree named Twist taught me that love can survive loss and betrayal—and that vulnerability is its most courageous expression.

I share these stories in chapters 10 and 14 of Wild Yoga. Each encounter stripped away what was false and invited me to embody what is raw, mysterious, and deeply authentic.

These lessons don’t come gently. They unravel what once protected us and ask us to stand exposed. But this is the way of the soul. Of prayer. Of being in relationship with the living world.

I’ve witnessed these kinds of encounters in those I guide:

A man, grieving the loss of love, awakens the sensual being he was born to embody. A woman, long honored for her mothering, is invited to love more fiercely—including herself. Another man, mourning the wounded boy he once was, reclaims an innocence he is now called to carry into men’s circles.

In these holy moments, we do not arrive in nature as strangers—we return as kin. We are not puzzles to be solved, but mysteries to be witnessed and honored.

Lean Into the Mystery

Faith, within a wilderness ceremony, is not about certainty. It is about surrender—leaning into the mystery with open hands, listening for the deeper story that’s been quietly walking beside us all along.

The wild strips us down to what is essential—beneath the grief we’ve buried and the callings we’ve postponed. It remembers us, even when we’ve forgotten ourselves.

In Wild Yoga, I explore the art of deep listening—not just with ears, but with bones. Transformation begins when we stop trying to fix ourselves and allow the wild to witness us.

A wilderness quest isn’t a tidy retreat. It’s a soul journey—meant to unmake, reshape, and re-member us.

The sacred lives in the ache in your chest, in the longing in your dreams. It is not outside you. It is within and all around—alive in bear, salmon, moonlight, and the mythos of your soul.

As a guide, I invite people into relationship with what is holy—to hear the planet’s song, meet the images rising from their dreams, and walk the mythopoetic path their soul longs to follow.

Each encounter remakes us. Over time, we are woven into a sacred tapestry—not alone, but as part of the soul of the world.

Following the Call

If you are in a season of unknowing—
if your faith feels more like a question than a conviction—
go to the wild.

Let the Earth hold your ache.
Let your tears be your prayer.

Let yourself be held by something vast enough to carry it all.
Let your life become a living prayer—
not polished or perfect,
but raw, trembling, and true.

Go to the wild not to escape, but to come home.
To listen.
To be undone.
And from that listening, rise—
not just for yourself,
but for all whose lives are braided with yours.

WELCOME!
I’m the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration, & Advocacy for the Earth. My newsletter, Radical Dreaming, invites readers to listen to their bodies, nature, and dreams—while illuminating power imbalances and the root causes of ecocide.

You can enjoy this newsletter for free.
As a paid subscriber, you’ll receive:

— Deep Imagination Journeys (a few times per year)
— Online gatherings to explore our radical dreams in community
— Early glimpses of my next book, Playing & Praying

You’ll also be supporting me as a writer and guide—so I can continue creating the work we both love.

Upcoming Programs

Women, Earth & Soul

With Rebecca Wildbear & Claire Skye (Dunn)

June 5 – July 17, 2025

Five Thursdays | 7–9 pm MT | Online

Are you longing to reconnect with your soul's wild stirrings, creative aliveness, and the living Earth?

Join us for a soulful five-week immersion where women gather to remember what it means to live in a sacred relationship—with ourselves, one another, and the more-than-human world.

Through ceremony, dreamwork, embodied practice, and wandering in nature, you'll be guided to slow down and listen to your body's wisdom, the rhythms of the Earth, and the quiet invitations rising from deep within.

This is a space to:

🌿 Reclaim your instinctual, intuitive knowing

🌿 Engage the world as alive, imaginative, and full of meaning

🌿 Remember your belong to the great web of life

🌿 Connect in an intimate, sacred community with other women

Together, we'll explore how to live in a rooted, reverent, and soul-led way.

Step into the mystery—and allow yourself to be transformed.

✨ All sessions are recorded. You're welcome to join even if you can't attend live.

Private Wilderness Quests

Summer & Fall 2025 • Southwest Colorado

For over two decades, I've guided soul-rooted wilderness ceremonies—fasts, solos, and sacred immersions—for those called to remember who they are and listen for what life asks them now. Held in the wild beauty of canyonlands and alpine forests near Mancos, Colorado, these quests are intimate, trauma-informed, and offered with deep reverence.

People come when they are:

• Standing at a threshold—of identity, grief, purpose, or transformation

• Longing to listen more deeply to soul, Earth, or the sacred unknown

• Seeking clarity, healing, or the courage to live more authentically

• Needing to shed what no longer fits and root into what is true

If you're carrying a quiet ache, a deep longing, or a whispered yes—you are not alone.

These ceremonies offer a way to cross into the deeper story your life is longing to live.

✨ If you feel the pull, let's begin the conversation.

📩 Email me directly at rebeccawildbear@gmail.com

🌎 More at: www.rebeccawildbear.com

Gratitude to the Artists: Top Photo from Unsplash by Alex Gorey, Wild Woman Image by Kat Ashworth, and Bottom Photo from Unsplash by Jack Church.