w Wr Ww Chapter 14 Reflection Questions

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WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES

Reflection Questions Chapter 14:

La Selva Subterranea: Initiation in the Underground Forest

1. When you hear a story, do you experience it as a seed, and yourself the soil?

2. How do you and your life story connect with the word endurance understood

as to harden, to make robust, to make sturdy, to strengthen, to make something

substantial?

3. In the Handless Maiden tale, according to Dr CPE, what are the seven stages to the

key journeys of a womans psyche?

The First Stage: The Bargain Without Knowing:

4. According to Dr CPE what is the bargain that is constant in womens lives?

5. When in your life have you made a bargain without knowing i.e., chose the

promise of something that looked rich but turned out to be hollow?

6. How is the making of the poor bargain a meaningful paradox?

7. What are some of the initiations into knowing you have experienced, that you

did not want?

8. Can you remember/describe your very first initiation into the underground

forest?

9. When has your mill been silenced, i.e., when has your creative life been at a

standstill?

10. Do you remember yourself around the age of 11? In retrospect, do you recall

going to sleep around that age?

11. What is the light in you that attracts the predator/Devil?

12. In what instances have you ceased the chopping of wood in order to find an

easier life? How did you lose your grasp of your own life as a result?

The Second Stage: Dismemberment

13. Have there been times in your life when you have been numb to your situation?

14. What dreams/images/stories/rituals sustained you in your times of

dismemberment?


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15. Has there been a time in your life when you cried and cried and cried?

16. How do you respond to this statement: tears make us conscious. There is no

chance to go back to sleep when one is weeping.

17. Was there a time in your life when you took less of an interest in your physicalappearance?

18. Do you remember the point in your life when your innocence was slain?

19. What are the seductions of meaningless things in your life that you hold onto in

order NOT to grow?

20. How do you react to the brutal dismemberment in this tale, on a visceral level?

21. What is your relationship to your own crying, your own tears? Do you cry easily

and unapologetically, or do you try to stifle your tears and feel ashamed if seencrying?

22. Has there been a time in your life when all that you previously valued lost its

lilt?

The Third Stage: The Wandering

23. Have you ever been in a defenseless state when help came, and right on time?

24. When have you escaped from the not-awake mother and the greedy, bumbling

father, and been guided by the wild soul?

25. What are the pears that have nourished you in your times of darkness?

The Fourth Stage: Finding Love in the Underworld

26. How are/have the archetypes of the maiden, spirit in white, gardener, King,

magician, crone, and Devil (been) operational in your life?

Maiden = sleepy psyche

Spirit in white = guide/trailblazer for the journey

Gardener= cultivator of soul

King = knowledge of the underworldMagician = direct magic of womans power

Crone = fecundity, the muck that makes ideas happen

Devil = natural predator of womens soul

27. How do you react to this statement: It is through the conjunction and pressure

of dissimilar elements inhabiting the same psychic space that soulful energy, insight,

and knowing are made? Have you experienced this?


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28. Have you experienced a spiritual death, a spiritual marriage, and/or the birth of

a mew life from these?

29. How did you feel when you read this sentence: The King comes to count the

pears, not in jealous ownership, but to discover if anyone new has arrived in theunderworld to begin a deep initiation?

30. When have you arrived in the Kings orchard?

31. How do you respond to this statement: Beware the sensation of repose and

accomplishment that can seduce humans into thinking that a spiritual deed or

completion of a spiritual cycle is a point where one may stop and rest on her laurels

forevermore.

32. According to Dr CPE, how is consciousness made?

33. What is the difference between la muerte por un instante, death for now, and La

Muerte Eterna, Death for a Long Time?

34. How would you answer Dr. CPEs questions posed in this section about

clarifying womens journeys in the underworld?

35. How do you relate to the characterization of the outer world being the only

rope left around the ankle of the woman who is wandering?

36. Have you experienced the tension of the opposites wherein something from

each pole of the psyche is constellated at one time, creating new ground?

37. What does it mean, symbolically, to be given silver hands?

The Fifth Stage: The harrowing of the Soul

38. Have you experienced a time when the kingly energy of your psyche fell away,

leaving you to test a new-found psychic stance?

39. Has there been a spirit-babe in your development? How did it manifest?

40. How is the predator in this tale more subtle and profound than the predator inthe Bluebeard tale?

42. What are some examples of ways in which the predator shapes ideas and

feelings in order to steal womens light?

43. What switched messages do you personally receive from the Devil? (e.g., I am

good, I am not so good; My work is deep; my work is silly, etc)


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44. Have you had an experience of dissemblers of your psyche showing up when

something new has bee born in your life?

45. When have you been told that your time in the underworld produced a brute

rather than a beautiful child?

46. What are some of the layers of symbolism attached to a woman wearing a veil?

47. Have you ever been tempted to suck at the sacred tit forever, i.e., to want to

stay in the place of psychic union, thereby stalling further development?

The Sixth Stage: The Realm of the Wild Woman

48. How congruent is your life experience with Dr CPEs schema of 7 year stages to

a womans life?

49. When have you saved your soul-Self from very charming people/ideas, etc, in

order to nurture your union with your wild soul?

The seventh Stage: The Wild Bride and Bridegroom

50. When have you wished to drive your car into the sunset?

51. Have your wanderings in the underground forest brought you to a place where

you are still friendly, but most definitely no longer tame?

ART PROCESS IDEAS:

1. Make SoulCollage cards for the following energies: Endurance/ each of the

Seven stages of womans underground journey/Initiation/Underground

forest/Going to sleep/your light that attracts

predator/Numbness/Dismemberment/Slain innocence/Seduction by meaningless

things/Tears/Maiden/Spirit/Gardener/King/Magician/Crone/Devil/ Conjunction

of dissimilar elemnets/death/Death/Tension of opposites/Silver hands/Switched

blessings/Veil/Sucking the sacred tit/Friendly but not tame self

2. Compile a list of the stories that have fed your soul from childhood through

adulthood. Do you notice similarities of motifs/characters. etc? Createe a bookwith one page representing each significant story, a symbolic book of your personal

story through stories.

3. Create a piece of art on a large map depicting your personal journey through

CPEs Seven stages of womans life. Do you need more than one map?


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4. Create a pair of papier mache hands. Inscribe one with symbols of the ways you

have been dismembered. Paint the other hand silver and inscribe with ways you

have been regenerated through your journey.

5. Create a ritual that moves through and honors the seven stages of womans

journey.

6. Decorate a glass vial to be used as a sacred receptacle for your tears.

7. Create a small casket for the seductions of meaningless things in your life that

keep you from growing. When you are ready to let go of these, you may want to

literally bury your casket.

8. Create a a Tree of Life with pears , identifying on each pear something that

nourishes your soul life.

9. Write a marriage ceremony, including vows, for your self and the Kingly aspect ofyour psyche.

10..Tie knots in a long piece of rope. Label each know to represent the things in

your topside life that help keep you grounded.

11. Fashion a veil for yourself. Wear it when you feel the need to be contained

within yourself.

12. Create a self portrait depicting yourself as friendly but definitely not tame.

Yvonne M. Lucia, 2013

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w Wr Ww Chapter 14 Reflection Questions