Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Column

The sacred heart of gifted women: Handless maiden, stave 3

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:10:41 -0400

El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Vol. 1, No. 23 -- Aug. 18, 2008

In the old healing practices of many Latinos, we say that wounds are not pointless lacerations. We say that a sacred light emanates from the worst of the wounds... that nations can have wounds; environs can be wounded, that creatures and humans and gifts and ideas can be wounded.

The power of the exiled woman: The handless maiden

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:25:43 -0400

El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Vol. 1, No. 22 -- Aug. 11, 2008	Signup for Weekly E-mail

Since the time I first told my grandmother that e.e. cummings had written: "I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten-thousand stars how not to dance..." my grandmother ever after called him Saint E-E, and said he was just the kind of leader of the soul the world was longing for.

The pope and La Curandera, the Healer

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:03:59 -0400

El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Vol. 1, No. 21 -- Aug. 4, 2008	Signup for Weekly E-mail

Oh do not be too exuberant, for as you know, we’ll have to tie down those leaping bones, cramming them into a much smaller carapace. As in foot binding, we’ll let the true spirit ache under man-made strictures, and force the children to forget or else pretend that they cannot see what they truly see, hear what they truly hear, know what they truly know.

Thus the world will be made safe from inventive souls for another generation or two. And all the ill-made plans of the stick people would be satisfying to them, save for one thing...

Old women.
Old women who say,
“I’m here...
to interfere.”

The Mystical Mouse; the roaring of the still small voice

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:38:18 -0400

El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Vol. 1, No. 20 -- July 28, 2008	Signup for Weekly E-mail

There is no dearth of mystics in our time. There are only fewer eyes filled with the love of beholding them, less talk, less teaching about mystery and mystical matters and outcomes, more blinders so that fewer can easily recognize, straight from the soul, the roar of the wind we call the sensory presence of the Holy Ghost ... the Creative Fire.

When we were little, we’d walk to church
with our Grandmother.
As the church’s clapboard walls came into sight,
we had a ritual. We’d say, “There’s our church.”
But our grandmother would say, “No, that’s not our church.”
“Yes it is, Grandmother,” we’d say. “That’s our church.”
“No,” she’d say. “Our church is underneath that church.
That’s the real church we belong to.”

The Apple Tree: Sexual Body Theology

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:13:28 -0400

El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Vol. 1, No. 19 -- July 21, 2008	Signup for Weekly E-mail

Old men carrying wicker baskets lined with purple velvet came rushing toward me as I entered the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Donations for completing the cathedral. I had three dollars, three subway tokens and a button. The old basket-holder returned the button. "Your change Ma'am," he smiled.

Novena natus: Nine hymns for the souls of women

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:27:44 -0400

El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Vol. 1, No. 18 -- July 15, 2008	Signup for Weekly E-mail

What do women truly want? To be truly seen. To stand in the blessings of those who love the God of Love, and not the Sadducean God of Crabbed Views.

Let us pray ....