* Each link in this entry points to a different website with information on the book.
By the time I walked out of the store, I was so captivated by this book that I walked home with it open in front of me, reading. I don't think I've ever done that with a book before or since, not even later in university when delving into books was my full-time occupation.
Dr. Estes is a story-teller ("cantadora" in Mexican), Jungian psychoanalyst, poet, therapist, and more than anything a woman with an unnervingly accurate reading of my own spiritual reality. Women Who Run with the Wolves has sold more than a million copies so clearly there are others who get a similarly good shake-out from her.
For a good four or five years after I bought the book, I read and re-read Women Who Run with the Wolves regularly, in whole or in part. It was my go-to book if I ever felt too tired, discouraged, stressed, frustrated, creatively dry, or whatever, which were things I felt quite often in my late teens/early twenties. (It was great to be that age, in many ways, but I wouldn't choose to live it over again, or be twenty-one forever, that's for sure. The belief that I will age gracefully and calm the hell down has always been the hope of my life.) I would never have lent Women Who Run with the Wolves to anyone or put it anywhere where it could not be picked up at a moment's notice.
It was only after graduating with my first degree (at age 22) that I began to feel like I was outgrowing Estes, a little. It was a natural process. I encountered Seamus Heaney, St. Augustine, and Thomas Carlyle, among others, and I also felt a deep recognition of their voices. I became one of the many people who reads Old English (Anglo-Saxon) literature and feels like an explorer discovering an ancient, lost continent, but one that is at the same time marvelously new. But every reading of a great book can be like that. In my case, learning the grammar of a dead language was one of the most liberating things I had ever done. (Life is not necessarily what you expect.)
So, I stopped reading WWRWTW so often, though I know it remains in my mind. Once I became a bit more knowledgeable of who I am, I could accept that other writers than Estes could also reach me on a similar deep level. Still, she was probably the first writer I encountered as semi-mature person who helped me to see that there is a community of like minds "out there," who gave me the courage to look for them and keep looking. Many of Estes' quotes are never far from mind. "An artist is an artist from the moment she picks up the brush. A runner is a runner from the moment she laces her shoes." My friend Knate gave me the same idea in six succinct words: "You are what you are becoming." The perfectionist in me needs to hear that, so I don't tear my work to pieces before it is begun.
Anyway, after the brief conversation with my friend, I decided to read Women Who Run With the Wolves again, just for the heck of it. And it's still a great read. It's still a book I would recommend.
This being the age of the internet, I decided to see what I could learn about Dr. Estes now. Google wasn't around when I first read WWRWTW. I discovered she's still doing lots of good work around the U.S.A as a trauma therapist, among other things, and encountered a few intelligent blog entries about current events. Of course everybody is blogging these days, but Dr. Estes is the kind who takes the time to discuss the background, share some knowledge, and really explain her point of view, instead of just spouting off. Always appreciated.
I also discovered this link, which is a closing address to the 2004 Call to Action conference (CTA is a movement within the Catholic church that works for "equality and justice in the Church and society. ") I make no endorsement of Dr. Estes political or religious views as such; I don't know enough about the CTA to say much about it either way. I did enjoy this account because I learned about the life of a woman whose writing has connected very deeply with me. Her story is one of those you can sense before you read the details of her life, because she has distilled experience into her craft. But it's also interesting to learn some of the details, and I gain more respect for her as a person after reading her personal story. And I love the energy of belief and spirit that comes through in her account of herself. She is a fighter, a woman who has been through some dark times but is not afraid to hold up a light, however small, to show a way to others.
So I share. And it gives me an idea for this blog, too. I've not been inspired with any subjects lately. I'm going to do a series on my heroes, and try to find an article or a poem or essay or a piece of music by them that really illuminates who they are. I could also call the female heroes (of which there are many) "heroines," but "heroine" has a rather brittle sound to my ears. I think I would rather call them "girly heroes." :-)
Anyway, we'll call Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes the first of the series, which chronologically, she basically is. Here she is in her own words, talking about herself.
The Church Beneath the Church.
When we walked to church with my grandmother and were in view of the church, she would often say, “See that church?” “Yes, we see that church,” we would say. “That’s not our church,” she would say. “Yes it is, grandma, that’s our church.” “No, no. Our Church is beneath that church. We don’t belong to that brick church. We belong to the Church underneath that church.” (more)
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