Wild Free Woman Chapter 4: For the Love of Learning

Learning is a gift, and many of life’s secrets are held within books.Recently, a friend asked me how I made it through a challenging upbringing, and my answer was this: my love of learning.

From a young age, I always loved learning. I loved school for the safe structure it provided, the sweet friendships I found there, and the daily adventure of adding something new to my brain. When I was in college studying chemistry, I ended up teaching alongside a professor who specialized in how people learn. He applied his research to the general chemistry program at the University of Montana, and I became a benefactor of his wisdom. His theory was simple and profound: people learn by doing, and by being able to check their work and be redirected when they’re moving toward the wrong answers.

I still apply this wisdom in my work today. So much of what I do with others is about inviting them into activities so they can learn as they go. But in my trainings, the focus is less on right or wrong answers and more on discovering what works uniquely for each person. That’s where I feel traditional schooling often falls short. In my experience, there was usually only one “acceptable” path to success, which didn’t truly honor each individual’s strengths and perspectives. Thankfully, learning itself always felt like an adventure to me, so it wasn’t until my last year of undergrad that I really felt the constriction of traditional schooling.

Emma Jaqueth, at an ancient stone circle in Ireland, summer solstice 2023.

As someone who loves to learn, I naturally found myself teaching—a lot. The best way to learn is to share what you know. I taught my friends in high school during study groups. I taught college students, and eventually taught the teachers. I taught yoga to students and to those training to be teachers. I taught Reiki (a Japanese energy healing technique). I mentored children in transitional housing. I taught herbalism. I taught people about death as a hospice chaplain. And now, I offer trainings informed by all my years of teaching. Learning and teaching are among my greatest joys, because they unlock new perspectives and reveal layers of reality. Education can completely change a person’s life—this is true in my own story, and I’ve witnessed it in many others.

Learning invites the development of new skills, different techniques, and ultimately, the possibility of creating a new life for oneself. Of course, we learn from those around us in childhood, but as adults we have the choice to continue learning and to move beyond the consciousness of those who raised us. Learning creates opportunities for evolution and joy.

In the Wild Free Woman training, learning supports you in working with your natural strengths, attractions, and longings so you can create a life that feels more joyful. When we work within our strengths and listen to the longings of our own soul, life begins to feel more easeful. Challenges will always arise, but when we are rooted in our power, those challenges feel more like an adventure than a daunting task.

For me, the love of learning quite literally saved my life. It kept me away from the addictions that run through both sides of my family. It brought—and continues to bring—beautiful friends and mentors into my life. It informs so much of what I do as a Priestess in my community and beyond. Because learning is one of my greatest strengths, and because I somehow had the wisdom to lean on it from a young age, I was able to overcome great adversity and now live a life of gentle power, confidence, and adventure in the face of any challenge.

Entry into the ancient stone circle in Ireland.

The trainings I offer today have been deeply shaped by my lifetime of teaching. What I learned, more than anything, is that the greatest power of a training is inviting someone to experience and trust their own wisdom and power.

This is a very feminine way of teaching, and it is why I focus my work on those who have, or have had, wombs. Anatomically, as womb keepers, we have direct access at all times to the cosmos, to the source of life, to mystery, to all wisdom that ever was or will be. The practice is to listen to that wisdom moving through you, and to pay attention to where you feel drawn—so you can hone your own skills and strengths. Most people have some sense of their strengths, but I’ve found that it often takes many repetitions through play (and many more through not-play) to truly know one’s current wisdom and power.

I wonder if this is because so much of modern colonial society was built on uniformity rather than diversity. This is part of why I named my work Wild Free Woman. Wildness speaks to something in its natural, uncultivated state—something untamed. To me, being wild is being your truest self before anyone told you who to be. Being wild means being who you came here to be.

And then the etymology of free enters as well. To be free is to act of one’s own will—to be noble, joyful, beloved. My intention with the Wild Free Woman training, and with all my work, is to support people in being who they truly are, not who they were taught to be.

My love of learning saved my life and continues to inspire me daily.What are the strengths you rely on that help transform your challenges into adventures?

Sacred Ash / Noin tree on the edge of the Sacred Stone Circle, Ireland Summer Solstice 2023.