Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

582 Pages·2017·3.39 MB·english

by  Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Praise for Women Who Run with the Wolves
“A deeply spiritual book…She honors what is tough, smart and untamed in
women. She venerates the female soul.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“Women Who Run With the Wolves is not just another book. It is a gift of
profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows.”
—Alice Walker
“The work of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, rooted in old and deep family ties and in
archetypal psychology, recognizes that the soul is not lost, but has been put to
sleep…This volume reminds us that we are nature for all our sophistication, that
we are still wild, and the recovery of that vitality will itself set us right in the
world.”
—Thomas Moore, author of
Care of the Soul
“An inspiring book, the ‘vitamins for the soul’ [for] women who are cut off from
their intuitive nature.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“I am grateful to Women Who Run With the Wolves and to Dr. Clarissa Pinkola
Estés. The work shows the reader how glorious it is to be daring, to be caring,
and to be women. Everyone who can read should read this book.”
—Maya Angelou
“This is the work of a born poet – oracular, salvific, and luminous with the
natural prayer of the soul…I am in awe of its sheer fluency, moving between the
languages of spirituality, myth, and medicine, with such clarity and courage. No
one has written this before, no one has dared to transgress so many boundaries of
thought.”
—Carolyn Forché, author of
The Country Between Us
“Millennia of humans have gathered around fires to hear words that transferred
hard-won wisdom and allowed dreams of unlimited possibilities. In a modern
world that limits wisdom to ‘facts,’ and women’s access even to those, Dr. Estés
has restored the fire – for all of us.”
—Gloria Steinem, author of
Revolution from Within
“With lyrical power and grace, Clarissa Pinkola Estés brings forth the ancient
wisdom of our ancestors and applies contemporary insight that makes these
stories jump with meaning for our spiritually hungry souls. She invites women
and men alike into the realm of the Spirit of truth, a Spirit that heals, awakens,
challenges, connects, and laughs. This book will be honored in generations to
come as one the truly profound spiritual testimonies of our time.”
—Matthew Fox, author of
Original Blessing
“Rare is the scholar who also has the don of story-teller poet, as Estés
demonstrates with such unrelenting eloquence. This is a contemporary codice –
extraordinarily precious not only for its immense wisdom but for its wealth and
mastery of language. Clarissa Pinkola Estés is a formidable writer.”
—Ana Castillo, author of
My Father was a Toltec
“Clarissa Pinkola Estés has brought forth, through the wisdom, struggle, and
riches of her life, a groundbreaking text in Women Who Run With the Wolves.
As a Jungian analyst, a poet, and a cantadora, she has cracked open the
dominant culture and exposed in myths, and, in the process, given us new ones.
With each story, if we dare to face our wild nature, we begin an excavation of
the soul. Dr. Estés’ courage to unmask the truth allows us to realize our own.
She demands, through the depth of this brave and holy work, that women
confront what we fear the most, our own power. I believe this is a book we grow
into and through.”
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of
Refuge
“My copy of Women Who Run With the Wolves came to me as a gift from one
who not only knew me well, but loved me well. ‘You need this,’ she told me.
When finally – far away from home and terribly worn down – I pulled the book
out and dipped into it, I realized she was right. Estés gives story as sustenance…
vital to the survival of the soul. What Clarissa Pinkola Estés has done is more
than give us stories and parables by which we construct our stronger selves. She
has given us a vision of life as a shared enterprise, the female heart not just
embattled, but vibrant and open to hope. It is a book I, too, give to those I love.”
—Dorothy Allison, author of
Bastard Out of Carolina
“This is a terrific book! Dr. Pinkola Estés has hit the dark rich center. I thank
her!”
—Natalie Goldberg, author of
Wild Mind and Long Quiet Highway
“A fascinating collection of transformative stories with feminist-oriented
interpretations, both enlightening and empowering for every woman in search of
her own inner spirit.”
—Barbara G. Walker, author of
The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
“A heary, spicy stew to feed all women who are feeling burned-out, stifled,
sluggish, or just plain old tired. If those descriptions hit home, take a bowl of
Estés stew to cure what she calls hambre del alma, starvation of the sould, and
read on…Women Who Run with the Wolves is a feminine manifesto for all
women regardless of age, race, creed, or religion, to return to their…roots. Look
in the mirror… Estés argues that our similarities outweigh our differences…She
is a cantadora, curandera, midwife, mentor.”
—Hispanic Magazine
“As I was reading this, the Gypsy tapped me lightly on the left shoulder,
sleepwalked me across the room, and pulled out a scratchy orthophonic
recording of Ma Rainey singing Trust No Man, Bessie Smith with It’s Right
Here for You and St. Louis Blues, and Ida Cox belting out Wild Women Don’t
Have the Blues. ‘Talk about archetypes,’ she told me, as she laid the record on
the turntable, ‘Estés has been there and back.’”
—Claribel Alegria, author of
Family Album: Guerrilla Poems of El Salvador
“Through myth, fairy tale, and an extended ‘soul conversation,’ Estés calls back
into life the wild neglected places of the feminine psyche. This is an inspiring
and compassionate book.”
—Jules Cashford
Jungian Analyst, London
Coauthor of The Myth of the Goddess
“Dr. Estés …traverses vast territories in her work – from the core of the psyche
to the full spectrum of human experience. She is a poet who penetrates the depth
of these worlds with acute intellectual, intuitive, and spiritual sight. She is a
humanist who gathers up what she has perceived in a strong embrace.
Ultimately, she is cantadora – keeper of stories – who…will gladly journey to
the psychic regions where her stories reside and bring one back to apply as a
potent medicine. What a gift she is.”
—Psychological Perspectives Journal
“Dr. Pinkola Estés reawakens our memories of other places, other times, and
other long-suppressed ways of being; she deepens and expands stories and myths
until they take on the power of a psychological force within us.”
—Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., author of
Women and Madness
“Full of wonderful, passionate, poetic, psychologically potent words and images
that will inspire, instruct, and empower women to be true to their own nature,
and thus in touch with sources of creativity, humor, and strength.”
—Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of
Goddesses in Everywoman and Ring of Power
“A mesmerizing voice…Dramatic storytelling she learned at the knees of her
[immigrant] aunts.”
—Newsweek
“Recommended for men who dare to run with women who run with wolves.”
—Sam Keen, author of
Fire in the Belly
“Stands our from the pack…a joy and sparkle in [the] prose…This book will
become a bible for women interested in doing deep work…It is a road map of all
the pitfalls, those familiar and those horrifically unexpected that a woman
encounters on the way back to her instinctual self. Wolves…is a gift.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Women Who Run With the Wolves has had a profound effect upon American
culture. It is being discussed at length by thousands of reading groups, academic
seminars, religious scholars, psychoanalysts, writing teachers, sports
competitors, literary critics, talk show hosts, friends, lovers, artists and dancers,
and an occasional media detractor, as well as several trainers for the grueling
Iditarod.”
—The Bloomsbury Review
“This isn’t some snappy self-help breeze-along packed with one-liners about
mining the ‘inner you.’…It’s five hundred pages, filled with fairy tales [that]…
offer serious lessons for…[those who] have lost touch with their instincts.”
—Albuquerque Tribune
“Capture[s] the individed attention…the minds, hearts, and souls of so many…
Women are reading and rereading…searching for new and different meanings
each successive time.”
—The Arizona Republic
“Nuggets of wisdom on how to deal with crises, disappointments, and self-
defeating behavior…Women Who Run With the Wolves tunnels deep into the
psyche…open[ing] new paths to spiritual freedom.”
—New Woman
“A book that entertains, educates, and touches as we work through the various
layers of consciousness to the inner voices that speak in the very marrow of our
bones. These voices tell us to celebrate even the tragedies of life…Rich with the
belly laughter of women.”
—The Vancouver Sun
“Blends the academic, the lyric, and the personal into a single passionate voice.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“This book articulated things I had felt…but not named or spoken with such
clarity and wisdom until now.”
—Wilma Mankiller,
former Chief of The Cherokee Nation,
author of Mankiller
ADDITIONAL BOOKS AND FOREWORDS BY CLARISSA PINKOLA
ESTÉS, PH.D.
Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Love for the
Wild Soul [Sounds True Books–2011]
The Faithful Gardener: A Wise Tale About That Which Can Never Die
[Harper Collins, SF–1995]
The Gift of Story: A Wise Tale About What is Enough [Ballantine, NY–
1993]
Forward for: The Tales of the Brother Grimm facsimile edition [Quality
Paperback Books edition, NY.–1999]
Forward for: Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell [in honor
of 100th anniversary of Joseph Campbell’s birth] [Princeton University
Press /Bollingen Series, NJ–2004]
W W
OMEN HO
R W
UN ITH
W :
THE OLVES
Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1992, 1995, 2017 by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
All rights are reserved, including performance, derivative, interpretative, representational, animation, film,
musical, lyrics, illustration, art, theatrical, pictorial, electronic, digital, study and educational, anthology and
all other rights reserved to author, publishers and agents. This work is registered under Domestic,
International, and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of the book nor images, may be used,
modified, reproduced, or excerpted in any manner without written permissions applied for and finalized
beforehand. Legal agent: [email protected]
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers for granting us permissions to
reprint here brief excerpts of previously published material:
Houghton Mifflin Company: Excerpt from “The Red Shoes” poem in The Book of Folly by Anne Sexton.
Copyright © 1972 by Anne Sexton. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. All rights reserved.
Macmillan Publishing Company and Methuen London: Excerpt from for colored girls who have
considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange. Copyright © 1975, 1976, 1977 by
Ntozake Shange. Reprinted by kind permission of author and publisher Macmillan Publishing Company
and Methuen London.
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. and Adrienne Rich: Excerpt from “Diving into the Wreck” reprinted from
The Fact of a Doorframe, Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984, by Adrienne Rich. Copyright©1975,
1978, by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright ©1981 by Adrienne Rich. Printed by kind permission
of the author and the publisher.
E-book Formatting: Lisa DeSpain
Cover artwork by clarissa pinkola estés. ©2017, all rights reserved. “For the new e-book cover, I’ve
rendered a blessing for readers who enter here… in the image of a pregnant wolf—representing the wild
nature carrying all kinds of new potential, howling her true self into being [again… or for the very first
time]. You too… And with love…” cpe
History of Editions: Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype:
First Ballantine Books Hardback Edition, May 1992; First Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition,
September 1995; ISBN for Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition, 0-345-39681-2; Library of
Congress Catalog Card Number for Trade Paperback 95094418, September 1995; First Ballantine Books
Mass Market Edition, 1996.
First River Wolf Press E-book/ Digital Edition, February 2017
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Subject Classifications: Literature/ Social Sciences/ Gender Studies/ Women’s Studies/Psychology/
Mythology/ Folklore/ Fairytales/ Creative Life
DEDICATION
A kedves szüleimnek
Mária és Joszef
Mary and Joseph,
Szeretlek benneteket.
y
Para todos los que yo amo
que continúan desaparecidos.