Lexie Carroll’s Reviews > Women Who Run With the Wolves > Status Update

The symbol of death as spiritual transformer is a remnant of a time when Lady Death was welcomed as a close relative, as one’s own sister, brother, father, mother, or lover. In feminine imagery, the Death Woman, Death Mother, or Death Maiden was always understood as the carrier of destiny, the maker, the harvest maiden, the mother, the river walker, and the re-creator; all of these in cycle.

Questions to help us as we untangle:
“What must I give more death to today, in order to generate more life? What do I know should die but am hesitant to allow? What must die in order for me to love? What not-beauty do I fear? What should live? What am I afraid to give birth to?”
If we do this till we feel the burn of truth, we throw a spark into the dark psyche to illuminate- we can see what we’re (truly) doing

Untangling the mystery of Skeleton Woman begins to break the spell (fear) that one will be consumed, made dead forever. Archetypally, to untangle something requires a descent into some underworld where matters are revealed in new ways. What at first appears to be a convoluted process is in effect a profound process of renewal. In fairytales to loosen/unknot/untie/untangle means to understand the previously unknown.

The work of learning the Life/Death/Life nature has to be done. If one wishes to love, there is no getting around it. The work of embracing her is a TASK. Without a task that challenges, there can be no transformation. Without a task there is no real sense of satisfaction. To love pleasure takes little. To love truly takes a hero who can manage his own fear.

The L/D/L force is greatly misunderstood in many cultures, esp. Western culture where Death is covered by dogmas & doctrines until is split off from its other half, Life. We erroneously think that death is always followed by more death. Not so, it always incubates more life. It is part of our own nature & inner authority. Rather than seeing Life&Death as opposites, we must see them as left&right of a single thought.

The Life/Death/Life nature is a cycle of animation, development, decline, & death; always followed by reanimation. This cycle affects all physical life & all facets of psych. life.
Lady Death, a manifestation of this cycle, is not a disease, but a deity. She is often feared by men (sometimes women also) for when faith in the transformative has been lost, the natural cycles of increased &attrition are also feared.

Men&women both must name their dual natures & be open to learning. The most valuable lover/parent/friend is the one who wishes to learn. They who cannot be enticed into new ideas/experiences cannot develop past the immediate state. “If there is but one force which feeds the root of pain, it is the refusal to learn beyond this moment.” 2 Qs to ask: “What do you want”? & “What does your deeper self desire?”

The attacking stranger: represents either/both an internal (innate oppressor in the psyche) or external force (person/situation in the outer world) that tries to rob us of the names (the identity, the goal/vision, deeper knowing, power, consciousness). The dog fights to give the power of the names to the worthy man and not to the aspect of ancient human nature that would misuse it.

The dog is the retriever of enlightenment and of continuing primary psychic work, trying to bring up conscious connection to the mystical twin nature. He gets derailed by ‘creeping seductive appetite’ (human nature- appetites) and by the mysterious stranger, a version of the natural predator of the psyche that opposes consciousness. Jung remarked that some control must be placed on human appetite.

Manawee tale is also about male duality: the Manawee man has his human nature but also an instinctive nature symbolized by his dog, which is the one that learns to overcome superficial seductions, has sharp hearing and tenacity, instincts to find, persist, chase and retrieve valuable ideas. A Good suitor has sovereignty of his own and is devoted to the idea of the Two acting integrally & values duality.