The famed Women Who Run with the Wolves — a book about unleashing and tapping into your wildish nature and listening to your soul, enlightening your soul, and finding “La Que Sabe,” being enlightened and empowered by our own feminine power and nature and knowing.

I loved this book. A friend recommended it to me years ago as I was seeking spiritual growth and enlightenment, and I can see why. There are so many bits and pieces of this book that I read and highlighted and noted as pieces to revisit and go back to.

Clarissa tells her tales through ancestral anecdotes throughout history of women from different cultures, and the tales and stories they tell, that unlock an inner knowing as women. Some tales felt a bit like common sense, as they talk about your tribe and boundaries and watching out for predatory men. Others were healing and enlightening, reminding us through gentle tales to be guided by your own light and psychic intuition, distinguishing between good and bad and finding things out for yourself to strengthen your own inner knowing — and also, how to form a true union with your lover.

And to be a wolf! To bathe under the moon and explore your shadows, find your tribe, find/fight your fears. Howl. Rest. Be loud and present and alert! She has moments that are so poetic and metaphorical and beautifully said.

I think this is a book meant for all women to read. I can just imagine during its height in the 70s that this book served as a compass. Of course we as women throughout society have a long way to go, we have made progress to become more enlightened beings, and I loved how Clarissa shined a light on so many points so beautifully and poetically throughout.

“Story as Medicine, not Entertainment,” as she writes.

Show up for your work, and fight for your art. It can start a ripple that inspires all the women around you and within your tribe to become enlightened as well. 

This book took a long time to finish as it is dense, and almost reads like a textbook. Towards the end she recommends that many women revisit and study it together. I would love to back and sift through different sections, to always remind myself of the points she exemplified.

“A woman’s creative ability is her most valuable asset, for it gives outwardly and it feeds her inwardly at every level.”

“She may be poor, but breathtakingly beautiful, rich in soul and spirit.”

It may all sound like “woo-woo” to many people, but if you truly lean in and give it a chance, you will see she only speaks truth to our souls and spirits.

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With love and honesty,

Rachel