The Night Collector ring was born from the myth of La Loba - the bone-gathering wolf woman of the desert - as told in Clarissa Pinkola Estés's Women Who Run With the Wolves. A symbol of freedom, of an open heart, of running fiercely toward what you most want.
In a hidden place in the desert lives an old woman. They call her by many names - La Huesera, Bone Woman; La Trapera, the Gatherer; La Loba, Wolf Woman. Her one task is to collect bones. Especially the bones of what is in danger of being lost to the world. In her cave, there are bones of every desert creature - but mostly, she collects wolves. She crawls through the mountains and the dry riverbeds, gathering each bone, until she has assembled a whole skeleton on the floor of her cave. Then she sits beside the fire and considers what song to sing. When she is sure, she stands over the bones, raises her arms, and begins. As she sings, the wolf comes back - its body, its breath, its eyes opening. It leaps up and runs out into the canyon. And somewhere along its running, it transforms into a laughing woman, free, racing toward the horizon. For the full myth, read Estés's book - she tells it like no one else.
Made with fire and love.
