Gather your Bones

The Story of 'La Loba' ('Wolf-Woman')

​I want to tell this story which I first came across in the incredible book called 'Women who run with the Wolves - contacting the Power of the Wild Woman', by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. She uses myths and stories to speak to your Wild Soul - to awaken that part within which knows - it just Knows. I will condense the story, as written by Clarissa P Estes and it goes like this...

 

 In a hidden place, there lives an old woman, that everyone knows in their souls, but few have ever seen. She seems to wait for lost or wondering souls to come her way. Her name is 'La Loba' - or 'Wolf Woman'.

The sole work of La Loba is the collecting of bones. She collects and preserves especially that which is in danger of being lost to the world. Her cave is filled with all manner of desert creatures - deer, crow, snake, but especially, Wolves.

She creeps and crawls and sifts through the hills, the plains, the riverbeds, looking for wolf bones.... and when she has assembled an entire skeleton, when the last bone is in place, and the beautiful white sculpture of the creature is laid out before her, she sits by the fire and thinks about what song she will sing.

And when she is sure, she stands over the creature, raises her arms over it, and she sings out! That is when the rib bones and leg bones of the wolf begin to flesh out. And the creature becomes furred! La Loba sings some more, and more of the creature comes into being - its tail curls upward, shaggy and strong. And she sings some more and the creature begins to breathe!!

And as she sings some more the very earth beneath begins to shake as the Wolf opens its eyes, leaps up and runs away into the landscape. And somewhere in the running, the Wolf is finally transformed into a laughing woman who runs free into the horizon!

So remember, if you wander the hills of Bickerton, or the Whixall mosses and it is sundown, and you are perhaps a little lost and tired, that you are lucky, for La Loba might take a liking to you and show you something - something of the soul.

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The wolf bones in the story represent the indestructible life-force of the soul-spirit. This story is about resurrection. About returning to wholeness. Bringing back the wild and dismembered aspects of ourselves, which we have been forced to abandon through trauma and fear. This story invites us to bring back our bones -  so that we can run wild and free laughing into the horizon.

In Clarissa P Estes's words, the story invites us to

'Go Gather Bones.'

A significant point for me is that this is a story of our inner world. The bones which are scattered are not somewhere outside of our-self to go searching for - to assume this would create an even deeper state of separation and dis-empowerment.  The scattered bones reside within us. All we need to do is pull up a seat for them - to sing them back into our being.

I've begun running themed yoga classes/workshops which aim to open a door to invite our missing parts to take their seat, so we can learn to re-connect with them. In doing so, we strengthen the connection with the indestructible light of our Truth.  On opening the door, we then have a choice of whether to continue to welcome these parts into our being, or to let the door close again. The choice is yours!!