I’ve been reading Women who run with the wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés that delves into Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. This book has been sat in my room for years with my sincere hope I would read it. My friend Anais who is about 5 years older than me gave it to me when I was around 25. She had told me how transformative and powerful it had been for her and she knew I would need it one day. I had picked it up a few times however I would read a bit of it then I’d stop and lose interest, being a tad frustrated that it didn’t seem to click.
5 years later since I had been given this book I had reached a tripping point. I had become spiritually empty and knew the only way to survive was to start refilling. I tried to read the book again and suddenly the stories and explanations were finally clicking.
The first chapter is about La Loba, the wolf woman, the collector of bones which is a mythical tale set in Mexico’s northern deserts. This woman devotes her life to collecting bones of sacred animals. Bones represent the indestructible force. They are extremely hard to destroy, they are even hard to burn. The bones represents the indestructible soul spirit. The soul can get injured but is nearly impossible to kill. The wolf bones represent the indestructible aspect of wild self - the instinctual nature that lies within regardless how hard you have to fit into society and enact expectations, and go against our wildness. Within the human woman is the animal instinctual self. It is so common to loose sight of this instinctual self deep within the psyche but she always remains. The self has to have freedom to move, to speak, to be angry and to create.
The story is set in mountains and deserts. In the book she talks about how the ancients called the desert the place of divine revelation. She goes on to talk about how life is very condensed in a desert and how the roots of the living plants have to hold onto that last tear of water. A type of flower hoards its moisture by only appearing in the early morning and late afternoon. A lot of what is occurring in the desert is underground and deep under the surface, a lot like the lives of many people.