Women Who Run with the Wolves

  5 Minute Read | Life building, self-empowerment visual invocation of the Wild Woman archetype — fierce, intuitive, and deeply feminine — embodying the sacred union of instinct and grace.

Since the 1990s, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ masterpiece Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype has awakened millions of women to their innate wildish nature. And since that time, for me as a budding awakening woman coming out of a sleepwalking  relationship coma, her teachings formed a profound bridge to the very heart of my life’s work today, and the philosophy of Happily Inner After — the only true journey is the journey within. This is not surface romance or temporary fixes; it is the deep inner marriage of wild instinct and conscious sovereignty that births authentic love, radiant health, creative power and ascension.

The Wild Woman Archetype

Robust, Fierce, Indestructible - Your Innate Power

Dr. Estés captures her essence beautifully:

“A healthy woman is much like a wolf — robust, inventive, loyal, fierce. Yet separation from her wildish nature causes a woman to become meager, ghostly, anxious about leaping, fearful to create new life. With the wild nature as ally and teacher, we see not through two eyes only … but through the many eyes of intuition.”

The Wild Woman carries los bultos — all the bundles for healing and meaning; she holds the stories, songs, dances, symbols, and medicines. She is both vehicle and destination, the very essence of the female soul. No matter how often she is cut back, dismissed as unsafe, dangerous, useless, or mad, she rises again through the psyche. Even the most restrained (La sombre) or captured (La cautiva) woman harbors a secret place for this wild nature, waiting for the moment to run free.

This archetype is not a distant myth. She lives in every woman — in the barrios and boardrooms, prisons and mountaintops, subdivisions, penthouses and night buses. She is the mother of El duende, the goblin wind of creativity. She thunders against injustice, sustains us when we feel done for, and speaks the language of dreams, images, passion, poetry and intuition. No act of love or social justice occurs without her.

The core and vital truth Estés reveals:

Without Wild Woman, we die. Without us, she dies. Para vida — for true life — both must live.

Happily Inner After

The Sacred Inner Marriage of Wild and Wise

At the center of my teachings, retreats, sessions, and book Happily Inner After: A Guide to Getting and Keeping Your Knight in Shining Amour lies this exact reclamation. The “Knight in Shining Amour” is not only an outer partner but the divine inner marriage—the sacred union of your masculine and feminine energies, your wild instinct and conscious awareness.

When we separate from our wildish nature, we experience the very symptoms Estés describes: anxiety, creative blocks, ghostly disconnection, and fear of leaping into new life. My work — rooted in over 30 years of holistic practice — addresses this through whole-brained, body-mind-spirit approaches:

• TGI Imagery Sessions: Quantum healing tools for Inner Child Healing, Inner Divine Marriage, Self-Mastery and Up-Spiraling, Inner Physician deep healing, and more. These sessions help you re-member your wild self, clear emotional debris, and align with your soul’s true path.
• Signature Retreats: Held in sacred spaces like Sedona, these immersive experiences create a safe container for trauma/drama release while embracing inner beauty and peace. Like the lotus unfolding, participants experience simultaneous release and radiant rebirth — exactly the work of the Wild Woman.
• Seminars, Masterclasses, and Ascension Tools: Practical yet evocative meditations, chakra work, brain balancing, and archetype exploration (including Jungian influences that echo Estés’ depth psychology) that help you establish your creative territory, find your pack, and act with dignity and power.

The Wild Woman is fluent in intuition — the “many eyes” that guide us beyond the limited rational mind. This mirrors the ascension and self-mastery work I offer: moving beyond fear (F.E.A.R. = False Evidence Appearing Real), balancing hemispheres, transcending the seventh chakra, and orienting consciousness to the flow of creation.

Living Close to Instinct

Practical Wildness

To live close to the instinctual nature does not mean becoming undone. It means:

• Establishing your creative territory
• Finding your pack (soul-aligned community)
• Inhabiting your body with certainty and pride
• Acting on your own behalf
• Rising with dignity as a powerful being who is friendly but never tame (stepping into the shoes of the Queen)

Whether you carry a simple heart or amazon ambitions, whether you are spicy or somber, regal or roughshod — the wild nature belongs to you. She truly belongs to all.

In my book and teachings, this translates to emotional weight loss (shedding toxic relational patterns), lunar wisdom (honoring Grandmother Moon’s cycles), animal totem medicine (the wolf as loyal guide and teacher), and the divine marriage within that births authentic outer relationships.

The wolf in our visual imagery is no accident. She stands as ally and mirror — fierce protector, intuitive seer, pack leader who howls truth to the moon. Together with the feminine figure in white lace, she embodies the integrated self: wild yet graceful, instinctual yet visionary.

An Open Invitation from the Wild Within

The Wild Woman leaves footprints for us to try on. She waits in your dreams, your longings, your creative fire. 

Reclaim her. Let her thunder. Let her create. Let her love fiercely and heal deeply.

If the call stirs within you — the longing to run free, see with many eyes of intuition, and birth new life — Happily Inner After is here to guide you home to yourself.

Step into Your Wildish Sovereignty Today

If you feel the call—the quiet (or not-so-quiet) longing to run free, to create new life, to see with the many eyes of intuition—Happily Inner After is here to support you. Through one-on-one sessions, immersive retreats, seminars, or the tools in my book, you can return home to yourself.

• Book a TGI Imagery Session
• Inquire About Signature Retreats
• Order Happily Inner After Book
• Explore Seminars and Masterclasses
• Join the Newsletter for Lunar Wisdom and Updates

Para vida. For true life. May the Wild Woman within you rise, howl to the moon, and lead you into your most authentic, radiant Happily Inner After.

With Wild Love, Lunar Blessings, and Cherry Blossom Renewal,

Deidre Madsen 

This article honors and expands upon the teachings of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés. All quotes are attributed to her work. Visuals co-created with Adobe and Grok Imagine to evoke the living archetype for our readers. Originally excerpted from the Luna Lovers page — now expanded into full standalone teaching.

Share this with your sisters. The Wild Woman is rising. 🌸🐺