November 02, 2026

Refuse The Carving

A woman's issues of soul cannot be treated by carving her into a more acceptable form, as culture would like, for that is not a cure, that is a crucifixion.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a Jungian analyst and cantadora, wrote these words in Women Who Run With the Wolves, a book built from decades spent in therapy rooms and gathering old stories passed down through oral tradition. She was speaking to the instinct in so many women to shrink, soften, or re-shape themselves to be more palatable to family, work, or culture. Estés insisted that this kind of self-editing is not healing but harm, a crucifixion of the very nature meant to be lived out loud. Her words remain a reminder that freedom begins with refusing to let others define the acceptable shape of a life.