You Must Go Into the Woods


by Gail Juliano - Date: 2007-04-27 - Word Count: 430 Share This!

In the fairytale of the Wolf's Eyelash, as told by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in, Women Who Run With the Wolves, a young girl is cautioned not to go into the woods, for she might meet the fierce wolf which would inevitably eat her for dinner. But she is a naïve, young girl, and her curiosity finally gets the best of her. She sets out, though she is frightened. Of course, she meets the wolf.

The wolf is caught in a hunter's trap, and is howling and crying in pain. When he sees the young girl, he asks her to release him. She replies that she dare not, because she knows that wolves eat girls. The wolf, after much crying, pleading and bargaining, manages to talk her into freeing him. She says, just before releasing the trap, well, if you mean to eat me, then do so. But oddly enough, the wolf does not. Instead, he plucks one of his own eyelashes and gives it to her, counseling her to hold it up to her eye whenever she comes to a point in her life when she needs more help than her own sight will give her.

The woods, of course, are our own inner wild places. These are the places inside where we believe that possible danger lurks, indeed, even where our own inner beast resides. We are sore afraid to go there.

But, the woods can also be those decisions that we make to go a different direction in our lives than where we have been before.

We see that when we venture into the unknown, possible wild places that we inevitably meet that which we fear most. And we must approach it with compassion and trust. Any opportunity we have, any calling we have to move or curiously explore, any itch we have to follow some adventure, always, always, always brings with it some element of danger. It can seem as dangerous as a wolf in blind pain promising anything to the naïve part of us in order to be free. When we encounter this huge fear we want to run. But if we can summon the courage to sit with it, talk with it and allow it to be fully what it is, we see that the thing we fear the most actually can meet us with gratitude, and offer us a gift which we can use in the future to find our way.

In this way, you see that what seems terrible on first view usually has the greatest gift. But you must leave your house and go into the woods.


Related Tags: fear, free, adventure, danger, trust, wild, decisions, direction, promise, risk taking, fairytale, wolf, naive

Gail Juliano is a licensed body worker, Reiki Master Teacher, tarot reader, and story-teller/healer. You can learn more about her work at http://www.21stones.mysite.com and

http://www.tarotandthearchetypes.mysite.com

Gail Juliano, LMT, is a licensed body worker, and has been teaching Reiki principles for over 15 years. She teaches Usui, Karuna(R), and Shakti Reiki systems. She is a master tarot reader and story-telling healer and mentor, and has owned several small businesses since 1991.

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