Where the Wild Thing Is

by Sylvana SilverWitch

article

A low growl comes from somewhere very close by. I hear it again and at the same time feel a surge of power wash over me. I recognize the sound as myself, but it takes me a few seconds to put it together with the strange feeling that has abruptly overtaken me. I momentarily realize my large cat "beast" has emerged unexpectedly once more, and my human sensibilities are gone for now.

I smell blood. I have flashes of pictures flickering in my eyes, scenes of ripping flesh and tearing skin, snapping bones and consuming entrails. I smell fear and blood, and my heart pounds with the heat that generates. I lick my face with my long feline tongue and shake my huge head. I blink and sniff, sniff, sniff for the direction of my prey. She is close, and she is ready. The blood is thundering in my ears as my throbbing pulse races and I gather myself for the hunt.

I am very, very still at first. Watching, listening, smelling her fear, her blood and her sexual juices. She wants me, even as she is afraid, and it excites me even more to know that this is a willing victim; she will give herself to me, but only after a chase. Then, she will offer her throat and chest up as a willing sacrifice to my desires. I will drink her blood, and I might rip her flesh if she resists, maybe even if she does not.

Again a high-pitched scream followed by a growl, me calling to her. Telling her it won't be long now. Are you ready, my lover? Are you ready to give yourself to the beast in me?

--

Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend defines a shapeshifter as a creature or object that is able to change or shift its shape at will or under other circumstances. It may be evil or benign; often, only experts can distinguish the two. Funk and Wagnall's says shapeshifting is an important mechanism in the folklore of all peoples. The number of folkloric shapeshifters around the world is astronomical.

Animism and many origin tales hold that all living creatures were kin when the earth was young and that humans and animals could then shift into one another's bodies easily. Later, as the synergy and connection of species eroded -- as all creatures differentiated into distinct species -- humans and animals lost this ability. In such tales, shamans, witches, seers and so on became the few to retain the ability (latent or developed) to communicate with animals and to shift perception and the physical body into animal form.

In Chinese folklore, foxes and tigers are popular forms to shift into; in Europe it is usually domestic animals, kittens, dogs, horses; among Native Americans the wolves, coyotes, bears, eagles and other animals are often the animals that the shamans or shapeshifters seek. Native Americans of North America often identify as animals friendly or familiar to their particular group.

Further south, the Maya practiced religious rites that involved self-inflicted pain, mutilation and torture to bring out the jaguar or other animal energy. The jaguar had such a prominent place in Mayan spirituality that jaguar sun temples dotted the landscape and the shaman king was thought of as an embodiment of the jaguar. The rites for connecting to jaguar energy provided the people a way to access the power of the animal for hunting, protection, spiritual travel and enlightenment. They would pierce their tongues and penises with sharpened animal (presumably jaguar) bones, wear the animal's skin and dance the animal's dance to invoke the called animal's energy. Some members of more recent jaguar cults of Africa and South America engaged in ritual murder, tearing their victims to bits while wearing jaguar skins.

Wearing an animal's skin and mimicking its actions are but two of many methods of achieving transformation to animal form. Methods vary, but most involve ways to achieve a deep trance state. Some suggested methods include: smoking or ingesting sacred hallucinogenic herbs or drugs; sleep deprivation; deep breathing; singing and chanting; listening to drumming, rattling or another steady tone; pain and blood-letting; dancing; fasting; wearing the animal's skin, mask or representation; dreaming and meditative visualization; and spontaneous visualization or hallucination.

Flying ointments have long been reputed to have magickal powers to aid the witch in transformation. Such unguents often appeared as telltale witch accessories in European witch trials of the 1400s through 1600s. A fantastical recipe for metamorphic ointment from an account of a witch trial (De La Lycanthropie Etc. [Lycanthropy, Metamorphosis, and Ecstasy of Witches], by Jean de Nynauld) in which the defendant alleged she was a shapeshifter, includes the fat of a child; parts of toads, serpents, hedgehogs, wolves and foxes; human blood; herbs, roots and other similar ingredients "which have the property of disturbing and deceiving the imagination." This concoction was to be rubbed into the skin all over the body two inches thick. To make enough of a salve to slather my body two inches thick, you'd need a whole herd of children! (Author's note: Do not try this at home.)

Such flying ointments, de Nynauld presumed, depended on disturbed, disturbing energy for their efficacy. Similarly, Chinese Taoists say the power to shift shape may be gained by two methods, legal and illegal. The legal method is to strengthen vital essence by the study of the classics. The illegal method is to steal the vital essence of others by coitus reservatus. When premature orgasm is induced, the orgasmic partner loses vital essence to the other. Once enough vital essence is gained, the human or creature can shapeshift at will -- although the thief must live in fear of the thunder god's wrath.

Two of the best-known manifestations of shapeshifting are lycanthropy and vampirism. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft by Rosemary Ellen Guiley describes lycanthropy as "the transformation of a human being into a wolf. There are two types of lycanthropy," she writes: "a mania in which a person imagines himself to be a wolf and exhibits a craving for blood; and the magical-ecstatic transformation of a person into a werewolf (man-wolf, from the Old English wer, man, plus wolf), usually accomplished with ointments or magical charms." Werewolves are known usually to shift at the full moon, but not always. There is always a provision for protection of the wolves; when they are threatened, injured or smell blood, they can shift unexpectedly. Werewolves are some of the most feared shapeshifters; as wolves have been wrongly disreputed and demonized by humans, so too is the wolf-human combination.

When most readers think of a vampire, they think of Bram Stoker's Dracula, first published in 1897, then turned into the highly successful play in 1927. But Stoker didn't invent the vampire. In most countries and almost all centuries, the myth of a blood-sucking beast is found. From a 1732 account of a vampire in Belgrade: "It leaned to one side, the skin was fresh and ruddy, the nails grown long and evilly crooked, the mouth slobbered with blood from its last night's repast. Accordingly a stake was driven through the chest of the vampire who uttered a terrible screech whilst blood poured in quantities from the wound. Then it was burned to ashes."

Today, the idea of being (or pretending to be) a vampire is all the rage. They even go on TV! Hundreds participate in vampire role-playing games; you may purchase acrylic fangs if you want to look more scary or authentic. I too used to think of myself as a vampire, because I liked the taste of blood. I would suck it out through people's skin, before AIDS and hepatitis C, as a sexual turn on -- remember hickeys when you were a kid? I didn't know it was just my inner big cat looking to feed, and I never turned into a bat.

The phenomenon of shapeshifting has been present in one form or another in my life for as long as I can remember. I have always felt the animal I am. I have continuously been able to speak to and understand beasts, because I am one myself. We all are, to one extent or another. But it's different actually to become the animal you are, especially for a specific purpose.

I first began acting out my animal urges as a child. I was obsessed with horses, as many young girls are, but I took it a few steps further. I thought for a while I was a horse. I acted like a horse, had a "horse name," played horses with the other children and with the horses in the neighborhood. Horses love games and will play if they get it that you are playing with them, which they mostly do not expect from humans, since humans generally want them to work. I really wanted to be a horse, and I pretended to be one (according to the adults) for several years.

I was happy when I was a horse; I ran faster, jumped higher and felt freer than at any other times. I felt as if I had a horse body and strength; I felt the breeze ruffle my mane and tickle my whiskers. I could smell, see and hear far better when in horse mode, and I liked the energy of it, although I probably would not have called it that at the time.

I became so good at talking "horse" or acting and sounding like a horse that I became the popular girl to manage the sour, bad or extremely wild horses in our rural area. In fact, I was somewhat famous as a young girl for being able to "talk to" the horses and get them to do what I wanted. Kind of like an early, female version of the Horse Whisperer -- except that I could do this with many animals, not just horses but also wild birds, raccoons, chipmunks and squirrels, dogs, cats and so on. According to the adults, I seemed to be a "natural animal trainer." I still retain this ability to some extent, though I have difficulty controlling it. Now, when wild birds fly into my house occasionally, I have to try to "turn on" my ability so I can pick them up unharmed and put them back out doors where they belong.

I also can and do occasionally change into a bird; the fey taught me that one. It's one of their favorite tricks! I use bird form mostly to check up on my witch-class students. It has helped to have two bird familiars, who are both very adept at speaking to me in myriad ways! One of the things they taught me was to leave my human body behind when I shift into bird; because of the bulk and size, it has a hard time flying!

For a time I ran as wolves and had an intimate relationship with a shapeshifter of the wolf variety. This man was gentle and soft most of the time, but when the wolf was upon him he was a different person, or maybe not a person at all. Wolves and everything to do with them are very popular right now, and people are more strongly identified with them, so the wolf shape is less of a stigma now than it used to be. But even in our pagan community, in recent years I have encountered prejudice against the were variety of shapeshifter, as well as for the vampiric sort.

These days, I mostly use the cougar energy and shape when I shift, usually consciously, sometimes not. I came upon this animal form accidentally in the course of foreplay; though it entertained me, it also alarmed me, not to mention my poor lover. He had bitten me very hard, and that bite pushed me into the shift before I knew what was happening, before I could try to prevent it. The big cat took over, mauling him a bit in the process, terrorizing him and creating a great deal of heat and frenzy for us both. Such changes have continued over the years, and when they occur I am always frightened by the change's power over my human senses. I am unable to restrain myself, and I am often afraid I might hurt someone.

Think Cat People, the movie with Malcolm McDowell and Nastassia Kinski. Remember when she becomes the panther, and her lover must restrain her because she doesn't want to kill him? It is when they are making love that the transformation takes place. Malcolm, playing the heroine's brother, instead solves his desire to feed by hiring hookers; when he becomes sexually aroused and transforms, he eats them. This solution seems to be a theme with werewolves and vampires through history, maybe because hookers are usually readily available and society often thinks of them as disposable women. I myself think of no one as disposable, so I try to rein in my shift so as to do no harm.

Some people assume by "shapeshifting" I mean actually changing into the animal, as portrayed in the movie. I've never met anyone with that ability. I myself do not actually change into an animal form physically -- rather, psychically, taking on the energy and psychic form or shape of the animal, its senses, characteristics and actions. I'm able to see with the animal's eyes, hear with its ears and smell or taste with its heightened senses.

When I do so, some people can "see" the animal on me, superimposed on my human body. Other animals will see it and react -- my birds freak out when I take on the cat! I sometimes black completely out during these episodes, and afterward can't remember what happened.

Shapeshifting is admittedly not for everyone. I don't attempt it these days without a good reason. Nonetheless, as Michele Jamal, author of Shapeshifters, writes in DeerDancer, the shapeshifter seems to be presenting itself as an archetype in today's United States:

As a culture we are continually reinventing ourselves, changing our faces and shapes, remaking ourselves in the image of a myriad of forms drawn from a collage of sexual, ethnic, political, and social designs. TV commercials flash mutating images from one race, sex, age to another. Music moguls shift from black to white, male to female, human to animal, whirlwind to grain of sand as video sorcerers on MTV. Movie wizards with increasing frequency are bringing the shapeshifter to life in sci-fi, adventure, horror and fantasy films. Children as well as adults know a pantheon of morphing video games, and transformer toys.

So is now the time of the shapeshifter in our culture? Will we move into the 21st century as enlightened beings with the ability to change shape at will? Maybe, maybe not. Jamal writes in DeerDancer:

Societies as well as individuals go through an evolution of awareness. The awakening of the shapeshifter archetype in our present time is a symbolic marker for the emerging spiritual realization that consciousness and situations are malleable and can be shifted. As collectively social structures are transposing from one form to another, individuals are shifting through a myriad of identities, reaching for an integrated, multifaceted self.

On the personal level, why would modern day witches and shamans want to shift shape? The raw talent of shapeshifting, uncommon and valuable, though often viewed with circumspection, has been and remains useful in the healing field. One of the traditional shapeshifter's many roles is to work to maintain harmony among the universe's planes and among the microcosms of individual human and animal (and sometimes plant) bodies and souls. Shapeshifters can act as mediators among species: custodians and retrievers of knowledge, medicine and magick. Jamal writes of the benefits of historical shapeshifting:

The shapeshifter experienced the mysteries of the form embodied, moving between planes of reality. Transforming into an eagle, the earth-bound bipedal became endowed with flight and telescopic sight, viewing the earth's panorama from soaring heights. When positively motivated, the shifter attained expanded awareness and affinity with sentient beings. In reciprocal exchange, the animal spirit that entered the body of the human was able to feel a shift in consciousness, changing its view to a human field of perception.

In modern day Seattle, we don't need to pierce anything or torture or mutilate ourselves or others for a shapeshift to take place. Following is an exercise that will enable you to contact your animal spirit's energy if you want to, and some suggestions on what you might do with it. Getting in touch with your animal spirit in this controlled fashion should prevent unwanted results -- any negative effects I've experienced always occurred during an unpremeditated shift.

First, clear your space by burning some incense or sage or whatever you normally do. Cast a circle in your usual manner. Sit or lie down and be comfortable.

Then, think about what animal you normally relate to or want to and what the characteristics of this animal are. In one class I took long ago (in 1983) about shapeshifting, we explored several different animals that resided in different body parts, and that was fun because it gave us a chance to feel different animals one after the other and to move between several different planes of reality. A buffalo, for instance, has a far different energy than a bear or an otter.

Picture in your mind the animal; think about her and what she looks like.

Focus your attention on the details; what kind of fur or feathers does she have? What body type is she, and is she tense, hungry or restless? What do her eyes look like, and her teeth or mouth? If you were to encounter her, what would you do? What would she do?

Once you have a good sense of the animal, can picture her easily and have looked into her eyes, then ask her to gently come into you. Place your awareness inside the animal's body, feel with her senses, see with her eyes and allow your body to move with the animal's urges, if she is inclined to. If she moves into a position more akin to the animal's natural stance, just go with that. You may find yourself crouching or standing upright. You may find yourself swaying, slithering or dancing to the rhythm of the animal's spirit. You might prance or plod; you might want to eat something unusual or taste bloody meat.

While you experience the animal, remember the animal may experience your human physical body. When you are finished, thank the spirit of the animal for the privilege of using his or her perceptions and allow yourself to come back into your own body.

Why become an animal? Perhaps their perceptions can lend something to your witchcraft and your life. We are not just humans locked in our cerebrums; we are animal too. Or, from another point of view, as my friend Beaver Chief, who teaches in drumming circles around the world, says:

Long ago the trees thought they were people
Long ago the mountains thought they were people
Long ago the animals thought they were people
Some day they will say, long ago the humans thought they were people.

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