The Pack and the Den: Chapters 4, 5, and 6

[Alli]

Welcome to Week 2 of the Women Who Run with the Wolves read-a-long. I had planned to post this several days ago, but we all know that time is meaningless now, so I'll skip the apologies.

In these chapters, Dr. Estés explores themes of belonging in stories about finding a mate, finding your pack, and developing trust. Stories of Manawee, Skeleton Woman, and even the Ugly Duckling are explored for their psychic themes. This is a longer section, rich with much analysis and exploration. How are you processing what you read? I'm a physical reader - I highlight, underline, and annotate page after page of each chapter, taking the words in via my hands and eyes.

What passages or stories struck you as insightful? Are there places where your own experiences run counter to what Dr. Estés lays out? Or moments of divine epiphany?

[Alli]

I just finished the story of Manawee, and combined with the tale of Vasalisa and her doll (one of my absolute favorites), I'm reminded of why I recommend this book to people as a book of witchraft, and not anthropology. In the tale of Manawee, I always take away two key conclusion; first, the validation that my dual nature as a modern witch is good and normal. Women have a more tame, surface persona that interacts with the world around us daily, and a deeper, darker, shadowy wild nature that knows old, true things. That deeper nature is our connection to the magical energy of the world, it is the seer and the sorceress within us.

I also take away the knowledge that to reach the deeper, wild, magic self requires sacrifice. It's easy to assume that sacrifice in witchcraft always means the killing of a live thing or the burning of a physical offering, but emotional and psychic sacrifices are just as powerful, and sometimes more so. Like the little dog must learn to pass by appetizing distractions, so too must the witch learn to dedicate herself and her energy to a task wholly, actively choosing the magical working over something else. The sweat off our brow, physically and psychically, are sacrifices that open the door to magical workings.

[Stephanie]

I'm going through the stories pretty slowly. I also highlight and do annotations in a notebook as I go through the book. I also like to skip ahead in the book and read the stories before I get to the actual interpretations of the stories. I kinda get bogged down with so much information so skipping makes me more motivated to see what's next lol.

When I was younger, my mom listened to the audiobook for WWRWW. I still remember a lot of the stories just not the interpretations. So when I read the Ugly Duckling story it didn't really resonate with me but with my mom. She told me how she never really felt like she fit in. She lived with a foster mom in the US while her parents were in another country for many years. She also considered herself ugly growing up in an only White suburban neighborhood..but going back to her home country years later with her birth parents - she found out she was actually really beautiful. It makes me really appreciative the diversity I grew up with and the effort she made to raise me in an environment where I was accepted.

The part of the Manawee story that really resonated with me was that I feel like I am one of those starved creatures. Like the easily dog distracted by things that are overly enticing - comfortable and safe. Taking from the Vasilisa story, I need to work on finding what my soul craves and rediscover the parts of me that I've forgotten about.

[Alli]

It's beautiful that you and your mother share a connection to this book through your early experience listening to it together. I love that you have different connections to different stories - I imagine that as we age and experience different environments, each chapter will bring something new to light, farther and farther into the psychic wilds.