Women who run with "Women Who Run With the Wolves" Book Club
Join us while we read and explore the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.
We choose our stories.
We receive stories from our internal minds, our family, our culture, our society, our religion. We live in these stories because it feels like we don’t have a choice. We think:
I need to do this…
I should be…
I don’t want to disappoint…
I’ll do that when I finish this or that…oh and the other thing, then I can…
These stories pull us in all sorts of directions. Until one day that wild part in us says — enough. No more! This line and no further. We start cutting away what no longer feels right, we release them, we burn them and look around and ask… where am I?
Then, there are stories of the soul.
Stories that honor who we are. Stories that shine a light. Stories that point out the darkness. Stories that cultivate faith and trust in the lives we create. Stories that expand our horizons and love beyond our wildest imaginings.
You are the storyteller of your life. You are the narrator, the hero. You are not a side character swept away by events. Within your grand story you will find little nuggets of other stories folded into yours. Stories which are powerful bringers of change and ah ha’s and comfort and challenge.
Fairy tales store the collective wisdom of humanity. Fairy tales and myths speak to our unconscious, our very souls. through them we elicit the truth. We also know this truth can look so different from person to person. Yet these paths lead to the same destination. They are truths all the same, something that brings us back to our soul, our authentic self, free of the stories that don’t serve us.
For me, Clarissa Pinkola Estes says it best:
“Because matrilineal lines of initiation – older women teaching younger women certain psychic facts and procedures of the wild feminine – have been fragmented and broken for so many women and over so many years, it is a blessing to have the archeology of the fairy tale to learn from. What can be derived from those deep templates echoes the innate patterns of women’s most integral psychological processes. In this sense, fairy tales and mythos are initiators; they are the wise ones who teach those who have come after.”
Our time together...
In this book club we will be reading Women Who Run with the Wolves. This book is an invaluable treasure and yet still explored by many women who could benefit from its pages. When working with women I often say, “It’s time to read this story in Women Who Run With the Wolves.” Women can revisit chapters as they feel called. Sometimes we can get through them gracefully, sometimes the process they elicit takes weeks for us to fully integrate into our lives. Each chapter can be a healing balm or grand shove into a more authentic life.
The container I have created includes:
- Monthly video chat to discuss our current selection. (Join us on the 2nd Sunday at 2pm PST/11am EST every month)
- Questions 2-4 weeks before our meeting so you can reflect as you read. I encourage you to journal your thoughts.
- A telegram group to chat outside the video meetings
Every chapter will have a different impact. For some a chapter will bring no special insight, it is not a story you struggle with – you are already initiated into that bramble. For others the same chapter may turn everything upside down and inside out. This is the power of meeting in a community. We will be wise wild women together, learning from each other, bringing the love forward and uncovering chapter by chapter YOUR story.
