Shamanic Therianthropy

These benandanti’s like the shaman’s of earlier cultures would battle against the darker side of the spirit world in fertility rituals for example much like Theiss and the Livonian werewolves. There spirits would leave their bodies changing into other were-animals such as “butter flies and mice, sometimes riding on the back of hares, cats and many other animals”. Many of the benandanti were reported to fall into cataleptic like states, and were unable to be woken even by the “flame of candles” while battling for the fertility of the harvest.

There are many similar reports of people falling into similar states, while there “souls” travel far distances in many different forms. For instance a Danish king called Harold is reported to have sent a warlock in the form of a whale to Iceland, “while his body lay stiff and stark at home.”

But what of the Greek transformation tales like Zeus who could change into many animal forms including serpents, bulls, a swan, even an ant. Or Apollo as a dolphin or wolf as well as many more. Should these also be classed as the same? There are hundreds of similar documented reports scattered throughout ancient world literature and mythology. For myths such as these there could have been two uses. One, that of a were-animal -the possible explanation we shall come to- and the other a teaching tale, from the wise story tellers, usually shamans in pre-religious cultures. These where often in animal form relating to familiar animals of the region of the tale.

So what are the were-animals? Or what did they represent? To give us a possible idea of the meanings there are a people still living in forested parts of Western Cameroon called the Banyang who perceive the were-animal as a kind of “spirit double” an expression of the persons character traits or character potentials, represented in animal form. The same is said of the neo-shamanic totem animal which itself is said to be connected to your spirit, usually staying throughout life even if we are not always aware of it. The totem animal is also known as a principal power animal.

The power animal, which although are like the totem beast usually don’t stay with a person throughout their lives. These can be related to are none stagnant characteristics, while the principal power animal is a stagnant, dominant characteristic.

The subconscious part of are psyche -which is known by many different names including the hidden self, the child within and the animal self- communicates to the conscious mind through a visual language. This is where Kenneth Meadows says the power and totem animals are formed by “spiritual energy”.

Totem and power animals seem to be some kind of spiritual expression from non-conscious levels of the human spirit, which teach, guide and help us. So could the legends of the werewolf etc. have originally been based on the human spirits need to guide it’s physical body in the “right direction”?