If this masterpiece had been published in the Middle Ages, it would certainly have been in the Index Librorum ProhibitorumThe book is on the list of books banned by the Catholic Church. What a fortune to live in a time when we are free to absorb such wisdom of awakening. Clarissa makes it clear right at the beginning of the book: "Wildlife and the Wild Woman are both endangered species". And from there she explains how the wild woman has been tamed by civilization and how to reconnect with the ancestral woman in all of us.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés translates the real meaning of what it means to be a wild woman. She goes deep into the bowels of every woman's soul through poetry in text form, brilliant and precise in pointing out and explaining in detail the wounds of the feminine spirit. Not surprisingly, Clarissa is a poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist with 48 years of clinical practice with people traumatized by war, exile and torture; and as a journalist covering stories of human suffering and hope (http://www.clarissapinkolaestes.com).
“It's not by accident that the pristine wilderness of our planet disappears as the understanding of our own inner wild natures fades (...) My life and work as Jungian psychoanalyst, poet and cantadora, keeper of the old stories, have taught me that women's flaming vitality can be restored by extensive "psychic-archeological" digs into the ruins of the female underworld. By these methods we are able to recover the ways of the natural instinctive psyche, and through its personification in the Wild Woman archetype we are able to discern the ways and means of woman's deepest nature“.
Women Who Run with the Wolves is a compilation of myths and tales from different parts of the world about the archetype of the wild woman. In each chapter Clarissa tells a tale and then expresses the meaning of all the elements narrated there. It's not an easy or quick book to read, it's a dense read and requires extreme attention. It carries a great spiritual charge and a complexity that, in principle, many women are not prepared to understand. It's not a book to be read once in a lifetime, on the contrary, the first reading is just to familiarize yourself with the stories told, you don't need to have a rational and logical understanding of its ideals. However, the good thing is that you don't have to read the whole book in one go to understand it. The chapters are different tales and can be read separately and in no particular order, as each one is a book in itself.
Clarissa brings out the deepest layers of our being, uncomfortable and uncomfortable, but with immeasurable healing power, she will speak directly to your naked spirit and open your eyes to your shadow. It's the kind of book that every year, with every experience, you'll understand a little more than the last time you turned to its wisdom.
Among the many things Clarissa teaches, some of them are how to kill the dark man who lives in women's minds, the importance of honoring your scars, being obscene, treating your story like medicine, the importance of life and death cycles as an essential part of life, the honor and privilege of the female body, love is about facing a scary part of yourself and the other person and how this is fundamental to building a happy and lasting relationship, the addiction to daydreaming can kill your spirit, find your tribe and embrace who you really are, surrender to the higher power that exists within you, don't sell your soul for security, trust and develop your intuition and overcivilization is the death of the soul.
I found myself crying at some of the passages where it felt like Clarissa was talking to me. It was the cheapest therapy I've ever done and the most challenging. I stopped reading for a while and then came back, it's completely normal to take a break, if you can't concentrate, take a break. I hope this brief text has planted a seed in your heart for you to give this incredible read a chance.
And don't forget...
Woman, you are free to read it.