"We are all filled with a longing for the wild. There are a few culturally sanctioned antidotes for this yearning. We were taught to feel shame for such a desire. We grew our hair long and used it to hide our feelings. But the shadow of Wild Woman still lurks behind us during our days and in our nights. No matter what we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Cheyenne, Wyoming
I came across the book Women Who Run With Wolves in an article years ago. It sounded really cool and I felt pulled to read it. I ordered it on Amazon and couldn't wait for it to arrive. As soon as it landed on my doorstep, I ripped the cardboard box open and started reading it. The quote in the forward resonated so much with me. There were times when I felt like a wolf and wanted to run as fast I could and not stop. I really felt a connection with wolves. Through the interpretation of story, she used psychology to explain how poetry and stories change the lives of people in a soulful, magical and unique way.
One of my favourite parts of the book is the Introduction. It's called Singing Over The Bones.
It's one of the best introductions I've read. I felt inspired and like she was talking to me. She talks about women and their relationship with nature, how similar women are to wolves and how they were treated as the times were changing. This is one of my favourite parts of the book and which I think still goes on to this day.
"My own post-World War II generation grew up in a time when women were infantilized and treated as property. They were kept as fallow gardens ... but thankfully there was always wild seed which arrived on the wind. Though what they wrote was unauthorized, women blazed away anyway. Though what they painted went unrecognized, it fed the soul anyway. Women had to beg for the instruments and the spaces needed for their arts, and if none were forthcoming, they made space in trees, caves, woods, and closets.
Dancing was barely tolerated, if at all, so they danced in the forest where no one could see them, or in the basement, or on the way out to empty the trash. Self-decoration caused suspicion. Joyful body or dress increased the danger of being harmed or sexually assaulted. The very clothes on one's shoulders could not be called one's own.
It was a time when parents who abused their children were simply called "strict," when the spiritual lacerations of profoundly exploited women were referred to as "nervous breakdowns," when girls and women who were tightly girdled, tightly reined, and tightly muzzled were called "nice," and those other females who managed to slip the collar for a moment or two of life were branded "bad." ... "
There are many more parts of the book that I could quote, but the whole book is totally real and fascinating. Some of the stories in the book are:
1. La Loba ( Wolf Woman )
2. Bluebeard
3. The Doll in Her Pocket: Vasalisa the Wise
4. La Mariposa, Butterfly Woman
5. The Withered Trees
Dr Estes uses stories as medicine. It really does feel like medicine. Whenever I feel that I need some soul or to re-connect myself, I pick up the book. I'll leave you with one more quote from the afterword.
"Whenever a fairy tale is told, it becomes night. No matter where the dwelling, no matter the time, no matter the season, the telling of tales causes a starry sky and a white moon to creep from the eaves and hover over the heads of the listeners. Sometimes, by the end of the tale, the chamber is filled with daybreak, other times a star shard is left behind, sometimes a ragged thread of storm sky. And whatever is left behind is the bounty to work with, to use toward the soul-making ..."
-Clarrisa Pinkola Estes
