What is Shape Shifting?

Sam: I’m not the killer. I’m a shapeshifter. (True Blood: S1, E10)

There is nobility in animals that people recognize and desire to emulate. Even Alexander Skarsgard admits that he took Eric’s regal carriage from observing a piece of film of a lion stoically regarding the cameraman. But what if people could do more than just admire animal behavior but embrace it for their own.

Shape shifting is the act of causing transformation of one body into another. In the world of mythology, Werewolves and Vampires are both creatures who can shift their shape. But Shape shifting has its roots in shamanism, a form of spiritualism that causes the shaman or priest/ess to take on the spirit of the animal or being needed for a ritual, thus changing their shape.

This ritual includes the person to seek their animal totem, the animal they feel a particular affinity with. They do this through some form of dream walk, a trance like state that opens them up to the spirits of the animals who wish to place them in their particular protection. These animals appear to the dreamer and leaves them with some revelation and the shaman then fashions a fetish for the person to wear.

During certain celebrations or rituals, the person may call on their animal spirit to inhabit them and they may even feel transformed physically into the animal guiding them. In this state, the person is no longer human but is transformed into the animal totem they identify with. They may even imitate the animal’s sounds and howl or growl. Among the ancients, this ritual was as important as Holy Communion or Baptism and being chosen by an animals’ spirit was considered a rare honor.

Charlaine Harris uses the words “were” and shape shifter interchangeably, though she does try to differentiate the use of the word so that if you read about Weres, they are the packs of shifters who have one animal persona as opposed to shape shifter who can change into more than one creature.

“Were” the prefix used to create the word werewolf is Anglo Saxon for man. Werewolf, were-tiger, were-fox is thus translates into “man-wolf” and so on. The use of this prefix denotes the difference between being a supernatural creature that is led by the moon and those who practice shifting as part of a religious experience.

Sources: The Werewolf in Lore and Legend by Montague Summers, Carmina Gaelidica by Gerald of Cambresis, Malleus Malficarum by Kramer and Sprenger, and The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Animals Speak by Ted Andrews.