9 Signs You’re a Spiritual Wanderer

Recently, Mateo and I were discussing the essence of the lone wolf.

It’s obvious that the lone wolf has been the guide and archetype that is at the heart of our work here on lonerwolf.

But we wanted to go deeper into the core of lone wolf.

We discovered the essence quite quickly:

That of the Spiritual Wanderer.

As I explored in my previous article on Domicide,

When we zoom out and look at the essence and spirit of being a lone wolf, we see that they play a vital role in society: that of the Spiritual Wanderer.

I also wrote,

The hermit, the mystic, the shaman, the witch/warlock, and the sage, are all aspects of this archetypal essence of the Spiritual Wanderer.

Today I want to look at the Spiritual Wanderer a little more closely.

What is this mysterious identity and role? 

And are you a Spiritual Wanderer?

What is a Spiritual Wanderer? What is Their Purpose and Role?

A Spiritual Wanderer is a person whose soul yearns for freedom, love, truth, connection, and spiritual wisdom.

Such a person is a lone wolf whose spirit has refused to conform to societal norms and who, therefore, finds themselves as an outsider or fringe-dweller.

As a free spirit and rebel, the Spiritual Wanderer is often called to voyage into the unknown places within themselves.

Their purpose or ‘path in life’ is to navigate through the spiral of the spiritual awakening journey.  

Their role is to help, support, guide, and mentor others after exiting the fires of the death and rebirth process of the awakening path. 

As wounded healers, Spiritual Wanderers are called to transmute their pain into power and give back to society the wisdom they have gathered on their journeys.

Spiritual Wanderers are typically highly sensitive, empathic, free-thinking, and they may feel old in spirit, as if they have lived many lifetimes (see: old souls).

Examples of Spiritual Wanderers in Fiction and Real Life

The Spiritual Wanderer identity, role, and archetype is complex, encompassing many layers and types.

Here are a few examples of Spiritual Wanderers in fiction and real life. 

Please note that not all examples below perfectly fit into the Spiritual Wanderer archetype, but they do share a similar ‘flavor’ in some regards.

Fictional/myth

• Gandalf the Grey (The Lord of the Rings)
• Neo (The Matrix)
• Dumbledore (Harry Potter)
• Galadriel (The Lord of the Rings)
• Inanna (Mesopotamian Myth)
• Chiron (Greek Myth) 
• Merlin (Arthurian Legend)
• Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Real life

• Gautama Buddha
• Jesus of Nazareth
• John the Baptist
• Hindu Sadhus (wandering ascetics)
• Rumi (poet)
• Julian of Norwich (mystic)
• Hildegard of Bingen (mystic)
• Spiritual mendicants 
• Alan Watts (spiritual writer/speaker)
• Terence McKenna (ethnobotanist)
• Unmani (spiritual teacher)
• Paulo Coelho (writer)
• Thich Nhat Hanh (zen master)

These are just a few examples.

Can you think of any that I may have missed?

9 Signs You’re a Spiritual Wanderer

What I love about the term ‘Spiritual Wanderer’ is that it not only represents the inner essence of the lone wolf but also captures the spirit of the awakening journey.

To embark on any quest or path, we need to not only travel outwards, but inwards – in other words, we need to step into the shoes of the Spiritual Wanderer.

Here are the signs you may be a Spiritual Wanderer:

1. You’ve experienced a painful existential or spiritual crisis of some kind (aka., domicide)

Whether you want to call it an existential crisis, spiritual emergency, traumatic spiritual awakening, or dark night of the soul, you’ve experienced a terrible disintegration of the old structures in your life.

Essentially, you’ve gone through some form of soul loss and disconnection.

This loss of a sense of inner and outer home base is known as domicide – or the loss of a sense of home.

As a result, you may feel lost, alone, or as though you’re aimlessly wandering through a dark forest or falling through a groundless abyss.

Perhaps you’ve moved past the initial suffering of your existential collapse, but you still carry an inner wound of feeling like an outsider who can never quite fit in and doesn’t quite belong anywhere. 

2. You are a lone wolf who feels drawn to go on a spiritual journey of some kind

Deep within you, there is the urge to find some kind of spiritual truth, guidance, or direction. You can sense that there’s more to life than meets the eye.

Perhaps you’ve even had an unexpected mystical experience or revelation of some kind like the experience of temporary ego death or kundalini awakening.

When you look at society, you realize how profoundly sick and fragmented it is, and you desperately want to avoid living by its soul-sucking rules and conditioning.

3. The seeker energy within you is strong

Within your heart and soul, you yearn for “something more” in life.

The seeker energy within you is strong and you will feel compelled to go looking, hunting, and questing for all manner of answers for many years, even an entire lifetime.

For instance, you will have the intense desire to find out who you are, what your purpose is, why people suffer, how to feel spiritually connected, and many more existential and metaphysical questions.

There will be a ‘holy longing’ within you to discover your True Nature, authentic purpose, and place in the greater scheme of life driven by an inner sense of soul loss.

4. You’re sensitive, attuned to energy, and intuitive

In many ways, you feel more sensitive and ‘aware’ than those around you, perhaps because you’ve gone through a spiritual awakening and the veil of delusion has been torn from your eyes.

Being highly attuned to energy and empathic, you often feel overwhelmed by the fast-paced, hyper-stimulating nature of the world that is designed to numb and tame you.

You’re also intuitive and perceptive, and you can pick up on things that others can’t quite see or notice, which can further lead to feelings of ‘being different’ and alone.

5. You’re a freethinking old soul 

Some part of you feels as though you’ve seen and done this all before, causing you to feel like an old soul.

Because you feel older than your age reflects, you often don’t value what the people around you value, and there is a craving within you for spiritual wisdom and purpose.

Having the ability to see from a unique perspective, you tend to be a freethinker who doesn’t accept anything as the truth unless it has been carefully considered.

6. You’re haunted by the question, “Is there something wrong with me?” 

Because you see things differently from most other people, have different values, and walk a different path, you may be haunted by self-doubt, low self-worth, and anxiety.

You might wonder, “Is there something wrong with me?” or even “Am I crazy/broken?”

If others around you are unsupportive, gaslighting, or judgmental, this thought and feeling will intensify within you, sometimes leading to depression. 

At some point, you may conclude that you’re just a weirdo who “can’t fit in with the normal people” (note that there’s no such thing as ‘normal,’ just typical). In extreme cases, you may even reject yourself as being “too sensitive,” “traumatized,” or “unworthy” to live a fulfilling life.

Even if you have balanced self-esteem, you may still be plagued by a sense of anxiety, hesitancy, and distrust, often wondering if you’re going the right way – which comes with the territory when you’re blazing your own trail!

Because social validation is something we’re all conditioned to seek out, there may be a split within you that wants to be affirmed on one hand by those you love but also wants to desperately rebel.

7. You feel most at home when you’re alone in wild natural places

Your innermost being feels drawn to wild and natural spaces untouched by human presence.

It’s often only when you’re totally alone and surrounded by nature of some kind that you feel most at home – whether that is the beach, mountains, forests, wetlands, woodlands, or the desert.

When you’re in nature, you feel the most alive, relaxed, free, and spiritually connected to all of life. It’s not uncommon for you to have deep realizations and moments of mystical awe when in nature.

8. You’re attracted to the hermit, mystic, shaman, witch/warlock, and sage archetypes

Whenever you’ve read a book or watched a movie, you’ve always felt most drawn to and connected with the hermit, mystic, shaman, witch/warlock, and sage archetypes.

Unusual fringe characters frequently feel the most relatable and intriguing to you. Typically, characters who have a mixture of being both insightful and wise but also strange and different feel most compelling to you.

The reason why you’re instinctually drawn to these characters is that they mirror your own deeper nature and purpose, and your subconscious is trying to alert you to that fact.

9. You have some kind of deep spiritual purpose to fulfill 

Much of your inner path has been defined by the quest to find your soul’s purpose or destiny.

You may sense that you have some kind of spiritual role, place, or space to fill, but you don’t know what, and that can lead to lots of frustration and sometimes depression or despair.

When you look at the general form that the life of a “normal person in society” is meant to take (study, marry, get a job, have kids, work, retire, die), you know that your life is destined to be a little more unconventional.

Even if you have followed the socially approved format of how life is “meant” to be lived, you often feel deeply dissatisfied, and you know you’re destined for more.

The reality is that you have a unique path to follow and a spiritual purpose to carry out, but it might not be quite so clear to you at this moment.

In This World, But Not of This World

Not all those who wander are lost.

– J.R.R. Tolkein

In this world where soul loss and, as a result, domicide (the loss of a sense of inner and outer home), is becoming more and more the norm, the age of the Spiritual Wanderer is upon us. 

The Spiritual Wanderer is at the heart of the lone wolf and the spiritual awakening journey. 

This is an archetypal energy within us that, due to circumstance, feels compelled to go searching for answers and possesses a wild spirit in search of truth, love, wisdom, and freedom.

The Spiritual Wanderer is multi-faceted and contains the hermit, mystic, shaman, witch/warlock, and sage roles within its essence – figures that are both in this world but are not of this world.

Are you called to be a Spiritual Wanderer? 

To go deeper into this topic, I recommend taking our Spiritual Wanderer Test.