Women Who Run with the Wolves

In the American Southwest, people tell of an old woman known as La Loba, the wolf woman. She spends her time collecting the bones of creatures who are in danger of disappearing from the earth. Back in her hut at night, she assembles the bones and begins to sing over them. They take the shape of a wolf, and then the animal is reanimated. Finally, the wolf transforms into a living woman who runs away laughing into the night. Estés interprets this story as follows: “It promises that if we will sing the song, we can call up the psychic remains of the wild soul and sing her into a vital shape again” (24).

La Loba herself is the archetypal crone who exists in cultures across the world. She is the Life-Death goddess who dwells in the realm between matter and spirit. The author says that those who wish a deeper connection to their inner selves must visit this realm. “This is our meditation practice as women, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of ourselves, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of life itself” (29).

Estés advises the reader to tread cautiously in approaching the inner world. Such a realm is a dangerous place for the uninitiated to visit. The tale of the Four Rabbinim suggests how easy it is to become lost or deluded in the world of imagination. Despite this caveat, the journey must be undertaken if wholeness is to be achieved.

The story of Bluebeard illustrates the dark forces, both internal and external, that conspire to curtail the Wild Woman. Bluebeard, a wealthy landowner, wants to court three sisters in hopes of marrying one. All three form an aversion to his bluish-black beard, but Bluebeard entertains them lavishly and presents a pleasing demeanor. The youngest daughter succumbs to his charms and becomes his wife. Just before Bluebeard goes away on a journey, he gives his wife all the keys to his castle and says she can invite her sisters to visit in his absence. The only door she is forbidden to enter can be unlocked using a little key engraved with a scroll.

After Bluebeard departs, all three sisters become curious about the forbidden door, and they open it. Inside, they find the mutilated corpses of Bluebeard’s previous wives. The sisters want to shut the door and pretend they saw nothing, but the little key has begun to drip blood. When Bluebeard returns, he knows his wife disobeyed him because of the telltale key. As he is on the point of murdering her, the girl’s brothers arrive and slay Bluebeard.

The author interprets Bluebeard as an inner destructive force operating in the psyche of everyone. “It is a derisive and murderous antagonist that is born into us, and even with the best parental nurture the intruder’s sole assignment is to attempt to turn all crossroads into closed roads” (36).

Bluebeard represents a threat to a naïve female who doesn’t yet understand that predators exist in the world. The young wife in the story defeats Bluebeard by opening a forbidden door and asking questions about what is being concealed from her. Women who unlock the hidden doors of their own psyches frequently find disturbing facts about themselves and the people in their lives. “This is the moment in which the captured woman moves from victim status into shrewd-minded, wily-eyed, sharp-eared status instead” (56).

It is the task of the naïve or emotionally blocked woman to save herself by examining the malevolent forces in her psyche and in her life that are attempting to destroy her spirit. “Consciousness is the way out of the box, the way out of the torture. It is the path away from the dark man. And women are entitled to fight tooth and nail to have it and keep it” (67).