Women Who Run with the Wolves
This page is dedicated to
Clarissa Pinkola Estes,
and to all Wild Women,
with love and gratitude.
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Women Who Run with the Wolves was one of those very few, very special books that had, and continues to have, a profound influence on my life. Estes has touched on the very heart of the dilemma for contemporary Wild Women: an ever-widening separation from our Wild Selves. Through myth-making and story-telling, she shows how it is that women are led astray, captured often as a result of their own goodheartedness and generosity of spirit. Estes gently leads women back from alienation and dividedness, to a whole--and healed--Wild Self. We are sisters to the wolves, and we have their wildness inside of us. It is that which makes us creative; it is that which nourishes us from within and sustains us when all else is gone. To say "Yes!" to the Wild Self is to say "Yes!" to the best that we are and can be. We deserve no less than this.
This book struck a chord deep within me, because I have been "different" and "out of sync" for so long, and believed that I was the only one, that it was evidence of some terrible flaw in me. I have always been aware of the wildness within, of the power that I have commanded. But others feared and hated that power and that wildness, and tried very hard to extinguish it, by methods both fair and foul.
I see myself today as a "feral" woman: I was captured once, many years ago, and nearly tamed, but I escaped, I have my freedom and it is sweet and precious to me, and I have vowed never to be captured again. My nonconformity is no longer an enemy to be wrestled with. It is a badge of honor. My uniqueness is mine alone, and I cherish it.
I have spent many years searching for my pack, and I know that someday I will find them. But no longer am I an "ugly duckling." I am a graceful and beautiful swan, and I watch the skies for others like me. I know there are a few; I have found them. If there aren't many, I can live with that. I have become, in recent years, emotionally self-reliant, and I would much rather be alone than with someone who cannot appreciate Wild Women.
My wildness is my strength and my shield. I no longer fear it; in fact, thanks to Estes, I now celebrate it. If it keeps people away because they are afraid of wildness, that's unfortunate, but it isn't really my problem.
Estes encourages creative work because it is healing and life-giving. I have known this for many years, and it was great to see this belief affirmed by someone so intuitively in touch with who I am.
I recommend this book without reservation to everybody I know. It has become my "bible" and I turn to it often when I am troubled. Always I find some words of comfort, of encouragement, of affirmation, a story that illustrates perfectly the crossroads before me and the consequences of each possible choice. Each stage of the journey has guideposts, in story, in mythology, in fairy tale, and I am able to see where I am and where I need to go.
Thank you, Dr. Estes. Your work changed my life.
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