Parting the Mists

The Id (as in id, ego, and superego) is key to understanding the meaning of the werewolf in folklore, pop culture, and this card. Sometimes we can be too tamed by society and our modern conveniences. This card suggests we should spend some time outdoors, dance or drum with abandon, or tap into some other wild part of your nature. The problem when we never do this? That trapped beast often lashes out when we least want it to.

Blessings!

WEREWOLF – Exploring Wildness

Luminosity triggers it
A wild moon rises
Fur and howling and wolfen guises

After a painful, excruciating, bone-jarring struggle against the change, the man releases to the magic. Howling unrestrained under the full moon, now the half-man half-wolf rises up, snarling, and goes looking for blood! Yes! We all know the power of the werewolf!

After the end of the European witch trials, an intense interest in the werewolf developed in folklore tales and evolved to become the stuff of horror stories. Fairly consistently since then, the wolf-man or “lycan” has featured regularly in tales both oral and written. Of course, during the last one hundred years, there have been many hugely popular movies including “

American Werewolf in London” and themes in books such as the recent Twilight Saga series.

The werewolf is a kind of shapeshifter – but one that has traditionally had little control over his wildness. In a way, an inner battle between civilization and wild nature fights inside the one body. The vitality, strength, and freedom of the animal versus the reason, control and intellect of the man – which one, though, is the dominant force? What is the healthy balance between our animal nature – one that is wild, free, and connected to nature – and our radically “civilized” humanness separate from or dominant over nature?

The werewolf asks us to consider this balance and to delve into our own ideas of wildness, independence and custodianship of the planet. When is the last time you spent all day outside? When is the last time you threw your head back and howled at the moon? Do you quash the vitality and curiosity of your body and mind by sitting all day in front of a computer? The werewolf challenges you to weave a balance between nature and our own nature.

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton