Women Who Run With The Wolves: The Empowering Bestseller on Healing, Self-Discovery and the Power of the Wild Woman (Rider 100)

I don't normally leave reviews, but in this instance I feel utterly compelled to do so. When I am enjoying a book, I devour it completely, having started this book in that same tradition, I reached page 18 and realised that this is not how this book should be read. So I started again. This isn't a book. It's a journey. It is written to be dissected and digested carefully and thoroughly. Each word, line, paragraph and chapter need to be read, 're read and absorbed before proceeding to the next. I encourage you to read this as a learning text, my copy is overflowing with post it's highlighting singular words, phrases and whole beautiful chunks of text that resonate with me. Insightful, inspiring, intuitive and incredibly intelligent are just a few words out of a thousand that I will use to describe Women Who Run With The Wolves. You can travel to the far corners of the earth searching for answers as to why you feel lost, searching, anxious and misplaced in this world, but the utterly remarkable storytelling talents and patient teachings of Clarissa Pinkola Estés have helped me understand why I often feel that way and how I can take steps to change it. A pleasure and a delight to read, humourous and emotional. I found alot of somewhat astonished joy, in her incredible technique of being able to so accurately and poetically articulate how my soul is feeling. I can not praise this book enough! Can you tell? It is a "bible" of sorts to me, a gift to all humankind, a guide of self discovery, recovery, acceptance and a path to our natural and rightful power of self. Life and self affirming, truly truly a literary gift to the world. I shall be buying every woman I know a copy and will hopefully share in their enlightened journeys of growth. I will also encourage them (and you) to write footnotes and thoughts in the margins and fill it with your own truths and learnings that you discover along the way. Far beyond everything I hoped it would be. So deeply beautiful. An astounding accomplishment.

When I turned thirteen my mum gave me a copy of this book, telling me, "This is a book that no woman should be without." I was thrilled with having a "grown-up" book, and treasured it. It took me several years to understand it enough to read beyond the wonderful stories...but then one day I started reading and it all just clicked. I couldn't put it down and it has been my constant companion ever since. This is a beautifully written book made up of many stories, some well-known and others less so, explanations of these stories and what they can teach us about ourselves and advice on how to implement these insights for the maximum feeling of freedom and happiness in our everyday life. This book has helped me through many times when I was in need of comfort and strength and will help me through more to come. Whether reading the stories or the interpretations of them, it is like reading pure poetry. Clarissa Estes speaks with wisdom about things that she has obviously spent her life studying and learning. One reviewer talked about this as being a book for man-haters. I have been reading it for well over 10 years now and I never ever got that impression. I don't see why glorifying the feminine has to equal hating the masculine. For me this book is about feeling more empowered in myself as a woman, and not anything to do with the putting down of men. I have recommended it to many friends, as well as buying it for one (who loves it as much as I do), and I am planning on giving it to more friends soon. Give yourself a treat and buy it today, it's a purchase that will last you a lifetime.

This book is an education no matter your age, race, background or any other variables. There is so much wisdom and beauty in this book and things that as a girl I wish I had been taught. As a woman who is learning more about myself on my journey, this book found me at the right time and I am forever grateful for the teachings within it. I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly I have understood and applied the teachings within my professional and personal life, and I’m able to recognise them, and the archetypes so easily. Reading it has made unconscious things conscious for me- there’s lots I connect with. Definitely get it, you won’t regret it.

I couldn't put this book down. It has so much value for me and insights into the world of storytelling and physcoanalysis that I was carried away into other worlds, and a journey into my own pysche. A true treasure to find a book so well written and inspiring as this. A powerful testament in how to return to an authentic and fulfilling life. I can't say enough positive things about this book except it has a huge impact and will stay with me now...

This book is quite a poetry written in prose. A lot of repetition and different metaphors used to describe same theme/ idea. I think author intentionally did that, so every reader can find her own way to understand the meaning behind topic, but be ready for long and not easy reading, even though you got the idea, you will be going through many different metaphors to describe same think over and over again. I think it's spiritual book more than psychological. If you never read anything spiritual and you are not familiar with any spiritual ideas like 'higher self', this book can open your mind and eyes to new ideas, and I can see how it can be life changing for some people. However if you read spiritual books before, integrate spirituality, mindfulness in your daily life, and you would like to go deeper, this book will extend your knowledge a little bit further but not too far.

I really wasn't prepared for how much of an impact this book would have on me. It's not light reading. It's not one of those trashy modern-women's self help manuals. It's thoughtful and delicate and piercing and something that you just yearn for all girl-to-be-women to read to just understand the process they are going through. I just found myself thinking 'wow i wish I knew that 7 years ago [I'm 25] it would have saved me a lot of turmoil!'. But it actually extends beyond that, beyond a defined age bracket. It has an organic substance to it that doesn't dictate but gives these malleable stories and descriptions that evoke the imagination. If you are the kind of person to dedicates enough time and energy to your own self development, this book will send you steaming light years ahead if used meticulously and carefully. But you have to be patient with it, take time over it. I got into the first few chapters and realised I wouldn't get as much out of it without highlighting those key parts that really struck close to my heart. So now dog earred, underlined and annotated beyond what is reasonable! I plan on rereading it again in another year. In summary, if you are a deep thinking woman who is groping about trying to know herself this really will be like a beacon to guide your way, I promise you.

Great book. Very interesting to read.

I wanted to love this book as it is so very 'up my street' - feminism, Jung, dream analysis, the power of myth, the psyche, the transpersonal, animal nature... all these things I am interested in! Having said that it is truly way more dense than is needed and I am only half way in! So much flowery language, that it exhausts you because you want to do it justice and read it slowly and properly and understand each part but if you do that and if you read it all, you will be there for months on end. You want to get to the wisdom but are wading through metaphor after metaphor, simile after simile, symbol after symbol, with so much repetition of language - the wildish nature, repeated countless times, the words start to lose their power. There are huge generalisations made within the book about women's nature, large sweeping statements chapter after chapter, you begin to wonder if the book is saying anything at all about women, because it seems to be saying everything about women and that women are everything. I did love the fairytales in it because they are accessible and have highlighted some beautiful segments, just they are buried in so much text, it is hard to keep top of mind. I would need to read this book over and over many many times to really do the length and density of it justice.

A book every woman should read, took Clarissa Pinkola Estes 30 years to write and indeed in my opinion it is a masterpiece. Coming from a tradition of story tellers Ms Clarissa is a Jungian Psichoterapist who collected and rewrote fairy tales later explained trough symbolic keys... beautiful if you like fairy tales and believe narrative has healing powers.

Great book for all women out there, and a must share with all. A book that should pass from generation to generation. Great way to explain the archetype of women and to understand the between the lines of stories and fairytales.

Favourite book last year. Purchased 3 copies for friends too. Highly recommend

It's my best reading experience so far.

the book is absolutely magnificent to read. as woman, i wish i had read this book earlier in my life. the author uses the mythology of many many fairytales and guiding the reader into the deep recesses of growing as a woman from birth to full womanhood. its like having a mother taking you by the hand and explaining the sacredness of femininity and how to navigate it. simply magnificent. (but the copy of the book i recieved was not properly glued and the pages were falling off so i had to reglue it.)