We are all filled with a longing for the wild. There are 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 where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed. - Foreword by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
To even attempt to review such a tome as this feels like a sacrilege; a great disrespect to something sacred, omnipotent. For no words - no written language - can begin to convey the wholesome power that weaves within.
'Women Who Run With The Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman' is my favourite non-fiction book of all time. It is in my heart as well as my bookshelf; it is my spirit guide; it is a big part of my book lover's life.
Normally I don't read texts that have to do with spirituality and psychology, and this one doesn't exactly call itself feminist (though there are undeniable elements told), but all good scrolls possess inner beauty; in that not only do they keep giving profound knowledge unto their readers (about the world - and themselves), but each reread is a new experience. It is a continuous cycle - stories about unburied treasures, new discoveries of the human mind. These kinds of texts trust readers to think for themselves, and to build upon and reach their own divine journeys.
'Women Who Run With The Wolves' is this kind of experience. It is like ambrosia encased and bound in literature form. It is magical, it is mysticism, it is imagination, it is healing, it is transcendence, and it is transformation. It is an oracle, a mother, a shaman, a forest path into lands unknown. It is a phenomena waiting to be thirsted upon by everyone.
And when that first brilliant nourishment is finished, you realise that life isn't over, it only just begun when you first picked the book up. Never again should you feel compelled to be "normal" and confined in a society which shuns individuality. In any backdrop or province, never feel ashamed to be creative, to be different and an outsider. To be a woman.
To be wild and free. There's no pejorative language here. Let us shake off the various forms of toxic, oppressive shackles, and feel pure as a newborn pup again, in body and soul.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés' masterpiece is about freedom in the human psyche. And about the medicine in stories.
I won't say it will change your life, which would be a lie. It tells you your life is already changing, all the time: It is set to change for your own good, for the wellbeing of your wild, ungrounded soul (which itself never changes). You just need to recognise, by unrepentant intuition, that such power within you has always existed. It wants to be free; and it may tell you so in the ways communicated in dreams.
'Women Who Run With The Wolves' warmly teaches you how to make contact with and set your "Wild Woman" archetype running, fighting and howling. It teaches you to never give up on creativity, to preserve it, to never break down and give in to procrastination and the mundane; and feel self-confident and overflowing with love through and through.
It could help women dealing with depression and anxiety. It could help them to wake up and save themselves, to not live as prey, and be their true selves.
This wonderful codex also contains everything I love: Stories. Analysing obscure fairy tales and fables and their symbols. Animal symbolism. Digging into human psychology, and how the mortal mind works in layers. Exploring the unconscious. Female positivity. Healthy family and friendship positivity. Analysing and feeding the soul and its latent characteristics. Analysing people's relationships with each other, and with life and death.
It is about women and their potential - in a world wishing to cage them like animals.
But all animals, and their instincts, deserve to be free. Such confinement and stigmatisation is not natural.
Even if you are not religious, or don't believe in anything to do with spirituality, read 'Women Who Run With The Wolves'. I may sound preposterous for saying this, but it is impossible for this book not to have a soulful effect - an impact - on people.
Really it deserves no review or criticism. It is an experience.
For that reason, I have decided not to give 'Women Who Run With The Wolves' a score. I firmly, tearfully, heartily believe such things are rendered irrelevant when it comes to this beauty. It is to be held lovingly in hands, arms and paws. It is a teacher whose lessons shall be followed, print by print, sprint by sprint, forever.
While I’m not perfect, and have a lot to learn, and starve still, I feel comfortable in calling myself a wild woman. Hear me howl in the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment