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Wisdom and Wonder in Bless Me, Ultima
- Joanna Gardner, PhD
- 4 minutes ago
- 5 min read
If you’ve spent time in New Mexico, you might know the spell the place casts. Mesas and mountains rest beneath a sky that stretches into the heart of forever. The air feels so thin it might break and let the gods pour through in all their blazing tumult. At night, the Milky Way sprays across heaven like glitter spilled upward, and owls hoo-hoo deep in the dark. The land is home to the descendants of Indigenous people, Spanish colonizers, and later Anglo-American arrivals. Most of its stories will never be written, but one weaves these legacies together: the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, upon which a movie of the same name is based.
Innocence meets wisdom
Bless Me, Ultima (2012) is about a boy named Antonio who lives in rural New Mexico in the 1940s. The story begins with the arrival at Antonio’s house of an elder—a wise woman curandera, or folk healer, named Ultima, who midwifed the births of Antonio and his siblings. In gratitude for her help, Antonio’s family welcomes her into their home to live out her days.
When Antonio meets Ultima his life changes forever. The film captures this moment with haunting music and a close-up of Antonio’s awe-struck expression (2:17) but the book describes his full experience:
She took my hand, and I felt the power of a whirlwind sweep around me. Her eyes swept the surrounding hills and through them I saw for the first time the wild beauty of our hills and the magic of the green river … The four directions of the llano met in me, and the white sun shone on my soul. The granules of sand at my feet and the sun and sky above me seemed to dissolve into one strange, complete being. (Anaya 10-11)
Clearly in this story, wisdom is sacred, even mystical.
From this spiritual moment of union, Antonio goes on to navigate many opposing forces of disunion. His father’s vaquero, or cowboy, background contrasts with his mother’s farming heritage. The Spanish culture of his home collides with the English ways he learns at school. Most of all, he confronts two differing approaches to the sacred: an enclosed church ruled by an Anglo father-priest who focuses on control, and Ultima’s knowing acceptance of all that is, from the church, to the open land peopled with plants and animals, to the forces of fear that seek to destroy her.
wisdom is sacred, even mystical.
The ways of the Wise One
When Ultima arrives at Antonio’s house, so does her owl—a symbol of wisdom—with whose soul her own is bonded, showing the shamanic aspect of her powers. She teaches Antonio “to listen to the mystery of the living earth” (14:43). She tells him stories of his people, assures him the “smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world” (25:03). She says that “destiny must unfold itself like a flower with only the sun, earth, and water making it blossom” (1:22:53). Her wisdom educates Antonio’s soul with earth-centered images and moral strength.
Ultima embodies the Wise One archetype. Hers is the wisdom of wonder and myth, the same wisdom Joseph Campbell refers to when he describes myth as “the final terms of wisdom—that is the wisdom of the deep mysteries of life” (Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, 15).
Ultima serves those life mysteries directly in her role as a healer. When someone is sick or wounded, she offers all her skills and knowledge. When a threat imperils an innocent, she places her tiny body between danger and the endangered. She treats trauma and curses as well as physical ailments. How does she accomplish these wonders? As Antonio’s father says:
“Ultima has sympathy for people, and it is so complete that with it she can touch their souls and cure them—”
“That is her magic—” [Antonio replies.]
“Ay, and no greater magic can exist.” (1:27:38)
Ultima’s sympathy creates connections where there seemed to be divisions. Wisdom’s power, then, flows through those connections from a wellspring of compassion and empathy.
Like the owl, wisdom can see what others don’t. Wisdom heals. Wisdom teaches. Wisdom listens and effects change. Wisdom is brave and generous. Wisdom recognizes hatred and works to neutralize it. Wisdom is simple but not simplistic. Wisdom’s intelligence embraces mind, body, soul, and earth. Wisdom appears in women. Wisdom blesses.
When wisdom speaks
While writing Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya struggled to craft the story, until one night, he reports in this remarkable account, he “felt something” behind him:
I turned and there was this woman, older woman, dressed in dark. And she asked me what I was doing. And I said I’m writing a story about Antonio, about my childhood. And she said, “Well, you’re never going to get it right unless you put me in it.” … And so then I asked her, “Well, what’s your name?” She said, “Ultima.” And that was the inspiration that changed the novel completely.… Her spirit was now in it, and I had to go deeper into that world of the Shaman, of spirituality, of conflicts of the soul that Antonio has to solve. (NEA Art Works Podcast, Sep 30, 2010)
Guided by Ultima’s wisdom and inspiration, Antonio’s story arises from the center of those “conflicts of the soul.” Antonio and Ultima, however, have no conflict. An unshakeable bond unites them, even though they are young and old, male and female, innocent and wise. This love enables Antonio to occupy a place of witnessing the conflicts around him rather than reacting to them, allowing them to become available for Anaya’s creative work of storytelling.
I have heard the call of an owl fill the dark blue air of a New Mexican night, but that land is not mine. And yet because Anaya listened to Ultima and wrote this exquisite book, I know the land far better than I could have otherwise. The same way Ultima loved the land and conveyed that love to Anaya, he passed that feeling on in the story. Ultima’s blessing, then, is wisdom’s radical acceptance, the connections that flow from it, and the story that has allowed so many people to experience those sacred gifts.
MythBlast authored by:
Joanna Gardner, PhD, is a writer, mythologist, and magical realist focusing on creativity, goddesses, and wonder tales. She is the author of The Practice of Enchantment: MythBlast Essays, 2020-2024 and the lead author of Goddesses: A Skeleton Key Study Guide. Joanna serves as director of marketing and communications for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and as adjunct professor in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies program. She also co-founded and co-leads the Fates and Graces, hosting webinars and workshops for mythic readers and writers. For Joanna's updates and additional publications, you are most cordially invited to visit her website at joannagardner.com.
This MythBlast was inspired by Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine and the archetype of The Wise One.
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In this episode, we welcome Maria Souza - Comparative Mythologist, poet, educator, and host of the Women and Mythology podcast on the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s MythMaker Podcast Network. Maria’s work bridges myth, ecology, and the sacred. With advanced degrees in Comparative Mythology and Ecology & Spirituality—and years working in the Brazilian Amazon with Indigenous communities—she brings a unique and powerful perspective to the relevance of myth in our lives today. Her book Wild Daughters explores feminine initiation through myth and poetry, and her workshops and mentorships help women reclaim archetypal wisdom and sovereignty through mythic storytelling.In this rich conversation with JCF’s Joanna Gardner, Maria reflects on her journey, the deep initiatory stories of the feminine, and how myth can be a living, healing force for our time. Find our more about Maria at https://www.womenandmythology.com/
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