Chapter Four of WWRWTW: Hymn for the Wild Man: Manawee

Manawee

Women are complicated creatures. We may say one thing, but truly mean another. We may do something, but only begrudgingly, silently holding on to our misgivings.

The story of Manawee in Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes metaphorically represents the two sides of a woman. It speaks of Manawee seeking the hand in marriage to twins. The twin’s father protectively tells him that he must guess their names before procuring their hand. Manawee sends his dog (his intuitive and instinctual nature) on an undercover mission to discover their names, but alas, the little dog is sidetracked by his base appetites and a dark stranger.

‘We name these dual temperaments in ourselves in order to marry – ego to spirit. This naming and marrying is called, in human words, self-love. When it occurs between two individual persons, it is called loving another.’

In other words, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

‘The most valued lover … is the one who wishes to learn.’

‘The mate for the wildish woman is the one who has a soulful tenacity and endurance, one who can send his own instinctual nature to peek under the tent of a woman’s soul-life and comprehend what he sees and hears there. The good match is the man who keeps returning to try to understand, who does not let himself be deterred by the sideshows on the road.’

Essential questions for you to ask yourself and for your mate to ask:

“What do you want?”

“What does your deeper self want?”

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