Authors: Clarissa Pinkola Est?s
ISBN-13: 9780345377449, ISBN-10: 0345377443
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Date Published: February 2003
Edition: 1st Edition
"WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows."
Alice Walker Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.
Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.
Folklore, fairy tales and dream symbols are called on to help restore women's neglected intuitive and instinctive abilities in this earthy first book by a Jungian analyst. According to Estes, wolves and women share a psychic bond in their fierceness, grace and devotion to mate and community. This comparison defines the archetype of the Wild Woman, a female in touch with her primitive side and able to rely on gut feelings to make choices. The tales here, from various cultures, are not necessarily about wolves; instead, they illuminate fresh perspectives on relationships, self-image, even addiction. An African tale of twins who baffle a man represents the dual nature of woman; from the Middle East, a story about a threadbare but secretly magic carpet shows society's failure to look beyond appearances. Three brief, ribald stories advocate a playful, open sexuality; other examples suggest ways to deal with anger and jealousy. At times, Estes's commentary--in which she urges readers to draw upon and enjoy their Wild Woman aspects--is hyperbolic, but overall her widely researched study offers usable advice for modern women. (July)
The Bounty of Wild Woman | ||
Foreword | xvii | |
Introduction: Singing Over the Bones | 1 | |
The Stories | ||
1. | The Howl: Resurrection of the Wild Woman | 21 |
La Loba, The Wolf Woman | ||
The Four Rabbinim | ||
2. | Stalking the Intruder: the Beginning Initiation | 35 |
Bluebeard | ||
The Natural Predator of the Psyche | ||
Naive Women as Prey | ||
The Key to Knowing: The Importance of Snuffling | ||
The Animal Groom | ||
Blood Scent | ||
Backtracking and Looping | ||
Giving the Cry | ||
The Sin-eaters | ||
The Dark Man in Women's Dreams | ||
3. | Nosing Out the Facts: the Retrieval of Intuition as Initiation | 70 |
The Doll in Her Pocket: Vasalisa the Wise | ||
Task 1 | Allowing the Too-Good Mother to Die | |
Task 2 | Exposing the Crude Shadow | |
Task 3 | Navigating in the Dark | |
Task 4 | Facing the Wild Hag | |
Task 5 | Serving the Non-Rational | |
Task 6 | Separating This from That | |
Task 7 | Asking the Mysteries | |
Task 8 | Standing on All Fours | |
Task 9 | Recasting the Shadow | |
4. | The Mate: Union with the Other | 111 |
Hymn for the Wild Man: Manawee | ||
The Dual Nature of Women | ||
The Power of Two | ||
The Power of Name | ||
The Tenacious Dog Nature | ||
Creeping Seductive Appetite | ||
Achieving Fierceness | ||
The Interior Woman | ||
5. | Hunting: When the Heart is a Lonely Hunter | 127 |
Skeleton Woman: Facing the Life/Death/Life Nature of Love | ||
Death in the House of Love | ||
The First Phases of Love | ||
The Accidental Finding of Treasure | ||
The Chase and the Hiding | ||
Untangling the Skeleton | ||
The Sleep of Trust | ||
Giving the Tear | ||
The Later Phases of Love | ||
Heart as Drum and Singing Up | ||
The Dance of Body and Soul | ||
6. | Finding One's Pack: Belonging as Blessing | 164 |
The Ugly Duckling | ||
Exile of the Unmatched Child | ||
Kinds of Mothers | ||
The Ambivalent Mother | ||
The Collapsed Mother | ||
The Child Mother and the Unmothered Mother | ||
The Strong Mother, The Strong Child | ||
Bad Company | ||
Not Looking Right | ||
Frozen Feeling, Frozen Creativity | ||
The Passing Stranger | ||
Exile as Boon | ||
The Uncombed Cats and Cross-Eyed Hens of the World | ||
Remembrance and Continuance No Matter What | ||
Love for the Soul | ||
The Mistaken Zygote | ||
7. | Joyous Body: the Wild Flesh | 197 |
Body Talk | ||
The Body in Fairy Tales | ||
The Power of the Haunches | ||
La Mariposa, Butterfly Woman | ||
8. | Self-Preservation: Identifying Leg Traps, Cages, and Poisoned Batt | 213 |
The Feral Woman | ||
The Red Shoes | ||
Brutal Loss in Fairy Tales | ||
The Handmade Red Shoes | ||
The Traps | ||
Trap #1 | The Gilded Carriage, the Devalued Life | |
Trap #2 | The Dry Old Woman, the Senescent Force | |
Trap #3 | Burning the Treasure, Hambre del Alma, Soul Famine | |
Trap #4 | Injury to Basic Instinct, the Consequence of Capture | |
Trap #5 | Trying to Sneak a Secret Life, Split in Two | |
Trap #6 | Cringing Before the Collective, Shadow Rebellion | |
Trap #7 | Faking It, Trying to be Good, Normalizing the Abnormal | |
Trap #8 | Dancing Out of Control, Obsession and Addiction | |
Addiction | ||
At the Executioner's House | ||
Trying to Take Shoes Off, Too Late | ||
Returning to Life Made by Hand, Healing Injured Instincts | ||
9. | Homing: Returning to Oneself | 255 |
Sealskin, Soulskin | ||
Loss of Sense of Soul as Initiation | ||
Losing One's Pelt | ||
The Lonely Man | ||
The Spirit Child | ||
Drying Out and Crippling | ||
Hearing the Old One's Call | ||
Staying Overlong | ||
Cutting Loose, Diving In | ||
The Medial Woman: Breathing Under Water | ||
Surfacing | ||
The Practice of Intentional Solitude | ||
Women's Innate Ecology | ||
10. | Clear Water: Nourishing the Creative Life | 297 |
La Llorona | ||
The Pollution of the Wild Soul | ||
Poison in the River | ||
Fire on the River | ||
The Man on the River | ||
Taking Back the River | ||
Focus and the Fantasy Mill | ||
The Little Match Girl | ||
Staving Off Creative Fantasy | ||
Renewing the Creative Fire | ||
The Three Gold Hairs | ||
11. | Heat: Retrieving a Sacred Sexuality | 334 |
The Dirty Goddesses | ||
Baubo: The Belly Goddess | ||
Coyote Dick | ||
A Trip to Rwanda | ||
12. | Marking Territory: the Boundaries of Rage and Forgiveness | 346 |
The Crescent Moon Bear | ||
Rage as Teacher | ||
Bringing in the Healer: Climbing the Mountain | ||
The Spirit Bear | ||
The Transformative Fire and Right Action | ||
Righteous Rage | ||
The Withered Trees | ||
Descansos | ||
Injured Instinct and Rage | ||
Collective Rage | ||
Stuck in Old Rage | ||
Four Stages of Forgiveness | ||
13. | Battle Scars: Membership in the Scar Clan | 374 |
Secrets as Slayers | ||
The Dead Zone | ||
The Woman With Hair of Gold | ||
The Scapecoat | ||
14. | La Selva Subterranea: Initiation in the Underground Forest | 387 |
The Handless Maiden | ||
Stage 1 | The Bargain Without Knowing | |
Stage 2 | The Dismemberment | |
Stage 3 | The Wandering | |
Stage 4 | Finding Love in the Underworld | |
Stage 5 | The Harrowing of the Soul | |
Stage 6 | The Realm of the Wild Woman | |
Stage 7 | The Wild Bride and Bridegroom | |
15. | Shadowing: Canto Hondo, the Deep Song | 456 |
16. | The Wolf's Eyelash | 462 |
Afterword: Story as Medicine | 466 | |
Addendum | 474 | |
Notes | 479 | |
Education of a Young Wolf: A Bibliography | 507 | |
Acknowledgments | 514 | |
Index | 519 |