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La Loba Sings the Bones...

- grandmother wolf - Pen & Ink Drawing © copyright by carol weaver

There is an old woman who lives in a hidden place that everyone knows in their souls but few have ever seen. She calls herself by many names.

In this desert she is called La Loba. The 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 specialty is wolves.

She sifts through the mountains and riverbeds looking for wolf bones, and when she has assembled an entire skeleton and 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 sings out.

That is when the rib bones and leg bones 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 La Loba sings more and thewolf creature begins to breathe.

And still La Loba sings so deeply that the floor of the desert shakes, and as she sings, the wolf opens its eyes, leaps up, and runs away down the canyon.

Somewhere in its running, whether by the speed of its running, or by splashing its way into a river, or by way of a ray of sunlight or moonlight hitting it right in the side, the wolf is suddenly transformed into a laughing woman who runs free toward the horizon.

So remember, if you wander the desert, and it is near sundown, and you are perhaps a little bit lost, and certainly tired, that you are lucky, for La Loba, the wolf woman may take a liking to you and show you something—something of the soul.

• Excerpt from Women Who Run with the Wolves
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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Video below...
Beautiful short animation about La Loba the Wolf Woman...

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