There are two lessons from this book that I’d love to share and I hope will get you to purchase it and read it:

Bluebeard & Vasalisa

The story of “Bluebeard,” where Clarissa, the author, challenges us as women to keep alive our curiosity and not allow our souls to be stunted, ignored or senselessly imprisoned. She tells the tale of “Vasalisa” and opens up and sheds light on the invaluable asset of intuition.

We are born with intuition, it is the compass we are given at birth. And then we give it up oh so easily for the voice of our parents, teachers, bosses, partners, lovers, etc…

All you need to know is already inside of you.

Deep down inside there’s a wild woman, she whispers answers to your ear and if you only trust her, she will lead you through life.

The author illustrates this process as she gives us the story of Vasalisa the Wise and the process of sharpening your instincts.

Vasalisa, is a young naive girl who has been separated from her intuition at an early age, she then goes through a terrifying process of initiation before she’s granted the light of understanding – maturity.

She really did not have to marry Bluebeard, but sometimes that’s what we must do to regain our intuition – to go into the unknown and face whatever’s hiding there. In some very hard moments, that’s when we hear the voice of inner wisdom the clearest – lean into it. It will guide you to what will save you and then enlightenment begins to set in.

Sometimes going into the woods might be your solo journey, a divorce, a new project you are embarking on… Listening to your own inner voice will lead.

The Little Match Girl

And then there’s another great story by Hans Christian Andersen called The Little Match Girl. The analysis here was so scary for me… But I’m such a dreamer! The analysis speaks to the fact that daydreaming without actions or results can be calamitous.

I’m such a dreamer and fantasiser. Part of my process of acquiring and moving towards what I want involves a lot of dreaming and imagining. I manifest in this way.

But Clarissa here speaks to the kind of fantasising that becomes an escape. An escape from reality and an escape from doing.

This usually happens to those that the world was unfriendly to and have emotional scars that they need to heal from and feel as though the world couldn’t care less about them.

Little Match Girl is not even trying to abandon her destructive surroundings in order to find her pack… Her saving grace.

Litlle match girl is the little Amanda Dambuza (If you have read her book Baked In Pain), who got onto that taxi to Johannesburg to come be with her mother after living in an environment where people did not care.

But, injured, broken and oppressed, she accepts her role in life and instead she escapes mentally… Dreaming and dreaming ‘til she rises up into the sky with her dreams.

Sometime your “dreaming” or escape is in alcohol, drugs or random sex, in order to feel alive and then dead again when it’s all done. The only way out, which the Little Match Girl failed to do, is be with the real people who endorse us, love us and appreciate our flow and as Clarissa puts it “exalt our creativity”. The Wild Woman does this. Sometimes as women when we are out in the cold, we lean on fantasising rather than action. Lean to nurture. Find your tribe. The way out of your situation right now is where the warmth, the love and support for your dreams reside.