primordial resources ~ shapeshifters

shapeshifters

In a world rich with mystery and possibility, the pre-colonial, decolonial and/or post-colonial indigenous and re-indigenized  worldview is embedded in the more-than-human, making the plants, animals and elements in Earth Community our family.  We learned how to be human from the animals, we were mentored by the animals on how to live properly on the land, we depended on the animals for our bodily survival, we loved the animals with our entire heart and soul, and we formed clans such as Crane, Loon, Otter, Wolf, Deer, Turtle, Fish and Bear  as part of our Original Instructions.  Within these family lines or kinship groups - the deepest form of reciprocity between lifeforms -  the transition between bodies was possible in the dreamspace, with   intense visioning, in times of illness and death, and for the very skilled, through seership and worldwalking.   This is the oldest magic, that flows from a time when animals and humans shared equal space, to the beast-honoring cave cultures of Lascaux and elsewhere, to the resistance and animist skills kept alive through centuries of religious  occupation, to our time today, when we carry the memories and potential still - to not only honor, celebrate and worship our animal kin, but to share their bodies. Our ethnosphere worldwide is rife with shapeshifter myths, metaphors, stories and folklore that can inspire and inform.  The skills may be hidden - waiting to be revived - but our memories of "being animal"  will never die. 

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Shapeshifters  - a person who can transform into an animal - captures our imagination, and causes us to want to howl at the moon, or flit through the night like a bat. Werewolves and  other weird creatures appeal to our animal nature,  and our desire to break free of the bonds of society. Real or imaginary, shapeshifters lurk deep in our psyches and remain formidable cultural icons.

The myths, magic, and meaning surrounding shapeshifters are brought vividly to life in John B. Kachuba’s compelling and original cultural history. Rituals in early cultures worldwide allowed sorcerers, witches, and wizards to transform at will into animals and back again.  Featuring a fantastic  array of examples from history and literature, Shapeshifters explores our secret desire to become the other-than-human.

AMAZON LINK

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In this new collection, Sorbonne professor Claude Lecouteux reveals that the magical world of the distant past is real and still very present, if you know where to look. Lecouteux explores the esoteric side of medieval myths and tales, peeling back the Christian veneer to show the enduring presence of power places, witches, house spirits, rune carvers, vampires, shapeshifters, and the undead. In tales originating from Greenland and Iceland to Saxony, Romania, and beyond, the author discusses the dividing line between magic and diablerie as well as the significance of grimoires, bells, blacksmiths, and other magical objects and characters. He explores magic in the elements of nature and as illustrated by the art of witches and magicians specializing in weather magic - storm callers and storm dispellers. He examines the medieval mythology surrounding clouds and the mythic significance of mountains in the haunted world of our ancestors, which is still as close to us today as it was in the past. Looking at borderlands and liminal thresholds that can serve as gateways to other worlds, the author also discusses land spirits and the rituals needed to engage with them, recognizing how their ownership of the land can never fully be usurped.

Through these writings Lecouteux acts as a ferryman, transporting readers into the realms of the wondrous and magical. He enables us to see how the haunted magic of the Middle Ages never ended, and how the imaginal realm, standing just beyond the borders of our own, is as vividly real as the material world.         AMAZON LINK

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