Bluebeard by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

As long as we’ve got bones, we’ve got the memory of our ancient selves

I studied the book Women Who Run with the Wolves with the writer Clarissa Pinkola Estés, I now teach the story in a course where we unwrap the meaning of the book and each story it contains.

As long as we’ve got bones, we’ve got the memory of our ancient selves

This story is about the naive parts of us, the blueberry-eyed maiden as Clarissa describes us, and how there are predators in this world that will take advantage of our Disney ideals of men and relationships. There is also the inner predator in our psyche that will always try to undermine us when we need to change. If you look at all the characters in this story, imagine they are all parts of you and Bluebeard is the predator in the psyche. The room is our dreams and goals that we crush by telling ourselves we haven’t got time, by knowing what each part of our psyche is doing and when one part of us is robbing us of our creativity and aliveness.

Clarissa says when women open doors to these places and explore the carnage there they most often find they have been allowing the assassination of their most crucial dreams, goals and hopes. If we can see the truth in everything, if we can hold it in our consciousness then we can take action against the matter. That is the key. It’s about coming into balance so that we can be authentic with everything we do and we can have clear boundaries. 

If you want to explore this further here are the questions to explore through automatic writing. I encourage you to do this without judgement, just write. Automatic writing is simply just writing without overthinking what you’re saying, in other words, a stream of consciousness. Here are some questions to explore.

What in my ovaries do I know that I wish I did not know?

What of me has been killed or lays dying?

I’m a woman and I have needs, and my needs are…

Please share any thoughts or pieces of writing you’d like to share, I will respond.