In mythology werewolves are creatures that are of human form but are able to shift into an animal form. This shift can be intentional but more often due to specific lunar phases, the most common is a full moon. There are many ways that one can become a Werewolf, the most common is being bitten by another Werewolf. The Werewolf does not come to their full transformation until they have tasted human flesh.
One of the earliest accounts of Werewolves is in Greek mythology. Once, the God Zeus disguised himself as a traveler and sought hospitality in the court of King Lycaon. The king knew it was a trick and tried to kill him by feeding him human flesh. Zeus caught on and did not eat it and in an outrage destroyed his palace and cursed him to spend the rest of his life as a wolf. This account spawned the word “Lycanthrope”, “Lykos” meaning “wolf” and “Anthropos” meaning “man”.
Another account happened in 1591 in the German town Colongne and Bedburg.
At that time, Europe was under a lot of superstition with things such as witchcraft and vampires. Towns were small and underdeveloped and were often near woods. There were often attacks from wolves on live stock and a fear of them was always present. In an effort to stop any attacks on their livestock or themselves by wolves they hunted the wolves and killed them.
One day on a wolf hun they found something quite remarkable. A few people cornered a wolf and set their dogs on it. They attacked it and the villagers attacked it and the wolf did not run away but instead transformed into a middle aged man. The man was Peter Stubbe and lived in the same village as them. Like any other being that was not normal of that day, he was tortured. He confessed to 16 murders including women and children.
This type of Werewolf has made it into the mainstream in books and in theater and is often what people think of when the term is brought up. But there is another type of Werewolf, and has a medical explanation.
The disease Lycanthropy is a psychosis in which someone believes they are a wild animal. They take on the personality and characteristics of an animal. They may howl, eat raw meat, and run around on all fours but stay in a human form.
In a case report a 49 year old woman claimed that she was a Werewolf. She often dreamed of wolves and at a family gathering acted on her belief and undressed and assumed the sexual position of a female wolf and offered herself to her mother. She also suffered a two hour episode in which she growled, scratched and gnawed at her bed. In each case there was no evidence of drug or alcohol involved.
After a submission to a hospital it was found she suffered from chronic pseudoneurotic schizophrenia. Her symptoms included, delusions of werewolf transformation under extreme stress, reference to obsessive need to frequent graveyards and woods, and primitive expression of aggressive and sexual urges in the form of bestiality to name a few. Today, these problems can be treated with modern medicine.
Now that we have discussed Werewolves in history and even in the medical field we will move onto real Lycanthropy in something that is called Therianthropy.
A Therianthrope is someone with a deep connection to an animal spirit/s. They are in essence part human and part animal, or in some cases all animal in spirit in a human body. This connection to their animal side comes in three parts: Mental, Physical or Spiritual. This animal side can be really any animal, most common are predatory animals such as wolves, bears, foxes, jaguars, tigers, and cougars just to name a few. Their animal side doesn’t always have to be a predatory animal; some Therians are other animals such as horses and deer.
Most Therians go through something that is called a shift. A shift is when their animal side takes over more dominantly. This shift is mostly mentally. They will start to think more like their animal side and take on the personality, temperament and instinct of their animal side. This shift can happen at any time as it is mostly out of the person control, but some can control it at will. If a Therian has more than one animal side one side can come out at different times or both at once making a conglomeration of traits.
Another common type of shifting is dream shifting. Dream shifting is where a Therian is projected in the dream land and shifts into their animal form. In the dream land this is very easy and they may be able to control these dreams. Most Therians at one point or another will have a dream of them in their animal form. Dream shifting is similar to astral shifting where their animal side comes out on the astral plain. They can walk around in their animal form and control what they are doing just like in the dream land. The only real difference is the astral plain is more real then in the dream land.
One type of shifting is a very controversial subject in the Therian community; this shifting being of course physical shifting in which the Therian actually changes into their animal side. A lot of Therians believe that this is impossible and yet others believe it is, albeit a very rare gift. There are many theories on how it could be done but no real proof of a physical shift has been discovered.
Therianthropy differs for every person and it is often said that if you ask ten Therians their opinion on the subject you will get eleven answers. This said, I decided to interview an actual Therian to get their views on the subject. I will keep her name confidential.
This Therianthrope’s animal side is that of a black leopard. She believes in past lives and one of her past lives was that of a black leopard and her spirit is a merging of her past black leopard spirit and her human spirit. Memories of the past spirit are present and are mostly of trees and climbing, but really nothing more than that. Her state of being is pretty much always that of her animal side but does report shifting. Shifting occurs instantaneous with little or no warning at all. The shift really isn’t felt because she is already so catlike on a day to day basis, but during a shift can feel more feline and on rare occasions feel completely catlike and not human at all.
The shifting usually occurs very abruptly as certain noises or images can set it off and depending on what set it of a vast array of emotions can be present ranging from fear to joy. When the occasional shift does occur she gets a feeling of what she calls phantom ears and tail that aren’t really there, but can feel. The feeling of claws is also present that can leave marks on someone if clawed at. Heightened senses and reflexes are also present, most notably the sense of smell. She can tell when a person is near by sense of smell alone. Shifting in the astral plain and in dreams also occurs. While in a shift in these realms there isn’t a full shift, only partial making a kind of hybrid human/cat. During a shift in these realms there is almost always a hunt.
This is only one account of Therianthropy and each case differs for everyone. What doesn’t differ is that in all cases there is a strong connection with an animal side, whatever the animal may be.
