at this moment i am reading Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (thank you, karen!!!) and i am THOROUGHLY engrossed ;)
"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. Though the gifts of the wildish nature come to us at birth, society's attempt to "civilize" us into rigid roles has plundered this treasure, and muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls. Without Wild Woman, we become over-domesticated, fearful, uncreative, trapped."
i just finished the chapter on La Loba, or The Wolf Woman - The Bone Woman.
La Loba
There is an old woman who lives in a hidden place that everyone knows but few have ever seen. As in the fairy tales of Eastern Europe, she seems to wait for lost or wandering people and seekers to come to her place.
She is circumspect, often hairy, always fat, and especially wishes to evade most company. She is both a crower and a cackler, generally having more animal sounds than human ones.
She is called many names: La Huersera, Bone Woman; La Trapera, The Gatherer; and La Loba, Wolf Woman.
The story goes that La Loba is a collector of bones and a preserver of things that are in danger of 'being lost to the world'. Her specialty is wolves. She collects their bones until she has an entire skeleton. Once she has decided on a song, La Loba sings over their bones and gives the creature life. As it runs away the wolf is transformed into a laughing woman.
The author then goes on to explain that the lesson that can be learned from this "myth" is that we are all collecting bones in some way or another, and assembling them into creation. it is what we create that defines us.
we have the capability to let die what needs to die, and let live what needs to live, essentially, within ourselves..be it the past, people, emotions, bad habits...we have the power to control what makes us happy and unhappy. we collect the means (bones) to awaken that power within us. we constantly create, destroy, and recreate ourselves with this power.
she also used the analogy of a woman applying mud to mud houses after the rain. the woman is the bone woman, rebuilding the house so it can sustain. without her, it crumbles to dust.
that woman lives inside us, the Wild Woman, or in my terms The Goddess. when we refuse her, our souls crumble and we become soul-less, heartless, empty.
which leads me to wonder, what am i collecting, what am i building?
how am i shaping myself, how far have i come, and am i happy with who i am now?
what shall i change next? will i create, rebuild, or destroy?
these questions perplex and console me more then i can say.
i am reconnecting with my primal nature.
and it feels fantastic.
what are you collecting? building? rebuilding? destroying?
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creative
peaceful
mellow