Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes is an internationally recognized scholar, award-winning poet, diplomate senior Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition). In addition to her internationally bestselling book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, she is deputy managing editor and columnist, writing on politics, spirituality, and culture, at The Moderate Voice newsblog. She is also a columnist on spirituality and culture at The National Catholic Reporter online.

Mother Night is a Sounds True Audio Learning Course with eight CDs that runs a little over nine hours. Estes believes that creativity is an alchemy that needs to be emphasized in our present-day culture where stories are often debased, the soul is underemphasized, and individuals who march to the beat of their own inner drummer are shunned. We can nourish creativity and imagination by listening to or reading stories, myths, legends, and folk tales. These vehicles speak to our deepest yearnings and frustrations, drawing out the contradictory elements within us and helping us to see more clearly.

In many of the stories and poems presented on this audio learning course, we meet individuals who are in conflict or dealing with moments when they are in doubt, self-denial, or confusion over what to do or how to present themselves in the world. The soul, according to Estes, loves these stories and folk tales because they teach us about "the treasure out of sight" or the great gift of seeing in the dark.

In the opening session Estes pays tribute to the owl as an expert at seeing in the dark. She wants us to tap into our own owl nature and to give up our primal fears of the night. The darkness has much to teach us; it can be a mother to us nurturing our dreams, alerting us to mystery, and tutoring our senses. Estes discusses all this when she talks about "the medial force" by which she means seeing through both the eyes of soul and the eyes of ego.

The challenge which pulsates through this audio course is to bring diamonds from the dark: "deep creative life is informed by the realm of mystery, dreams, sudden knowledge, the shadow." We have run with the wolves with Estes and now we can fly with the owls and "lean into the wind."

The stories and the commentary here is not for cynics who have bad spiritual sight. These stories and commentary speak to the divine spark that lives within us all. Oddballs of the world unite, we have nothing to lose but the chains of conformity and the oppressive shibboleths of our culture! Drink deep of the wisdom of creativity and let the soul come truly alive!