Monstrous
The Animal Within => The Werewolves' Den => Topic started by: Zap on March 13, 2005, 04:38:15 PM
-
What is it that makes someone a Lycan in your opinion?
-
Anyone with a hidden animal soul.
-
Awesome question, Zap. I hope this thread is thoroughly explored. I'll add my own 2c when I have the time to do so.
~Loup
-
thanks i'm just wondering as to what other peole think
-
one word
Lycanthropy
www.dictionary.com look it up
-
yes but that is a dictionary term i was aiming at a more personal level
-
We've all got the seed of the wolf in our psyche, but whether or not it makes itself manifest is a different matter.
-
Interesting theory you have there,Nossie. I'd always assumed that it was only a select few who had the animal co-exist alongside their human soul.
-
if that's true we all may have it, But it just may not be as dominant in most people.
-
Ok - Now I finally have "time". Here goes. Where to begin...?
==============================================
To start, I think I'll talk about what a were is not.
A Were is NOT 99.98% of the teenagers who say they are, though I can certainly appreciate where they're coming from. It's tough being a teenager. All of them try to be different in their own way, and are told that being different is bad. At the same time, they're told to be "individuals", but are all processed and educated and treated just like every other person they know. They have a number, they have a schedule, and they are supposed to fit neatly into the cogs of this Great Machine... but then they're told to be individuals... So right off the bat you've got a whole bunch of teens who are just plain confused from being told two conflicting stories at once.
Add hormones on top of that, and you've just got a mess. It's easy to mistake the changes of puberty for something out of a John Carpenter movie. Most people think that "Puberty" lasts for oh, say 6-24 months when their hormones are "switched on", and their body just has to "balance out". They think that puberty itself only lasts until the body gets back into balance with the new hormone levels. This is CRAP. Puberty actually lasts well into a persons 20's, and the effects are felt even later than that. Hormones don't just "switch on", and a persons body doesn't just "balance out" in a matter of weeks or months. As hormone levels stabilize, MORE hormones jump into the equation as well, and the whole thing lasts far longer than simple acne, boobs, hair and voice-breaking.
!!! Now, I'm sure there are teenagers reading this, who fully believe themselves to be Weres, and think I'm full of it. They say things like "I'm not hormonal" or "I can proove it", or "I know this is real". I really can't say anything to them to assuade them from their beliefs, nor would I want to. If you've carved a niche into society for yourself by "being a were", then by all means - ride it out for as long as it lasts, and never lose that sense of self. If you can hold onto that, then maybe some day you'll be a were for real. Just remember -- There are a TON of sissy little goth kids who do the same embarassing things by calling themselves actual Vampires... !!!
Ok - that NOVEL asside, additional things that a were is NOT:
A Were is NOT a person who jumps on to a BBS and starts talking about their wicked transformations. Most of these people have been described above. Similarly, a Were is not someone that brags about how their favorite dish is "raw meat with nothing else", or how they like to "run on all fours" etc. etc. Real Were's don't brag. Real Weres who are "coming out", so-to-speak are affraid to death of the things they are experiencing, and don't share them with ANYONE because they don't want to be locked in the looney-bin. The anonymity of the Internet has allowed a few EXTREMELY courageous weres to peek above the covers at the rest of the world, and to try and connect with others like them, but by and large, EVERY were has the sense of self-preservation to not make themselves a target.
A Were is not "the little guy" hiding in the corner. Real Weres are social predators as well as physical. No true were would be content with such a life, anyway. Wolves are constantly challenging the heirarchy and trying to make themselves more "fit". They exist in both human and animal worlds, and will not neglect one side in favor of the other, either. To neglect the human side for a were is like a normal human just giving up on cleaning because it's "too much work" -- it's also unhealthy. Most weres will not be spotted hiding in a corner like a coward or a timid little rabit. They will be the ones out on the dance floor, or in the center of a crowd, or leading a project because they have the sense of self and the presence to do so. A were is confident in both who AND what they are.
==============================================
What a Were IS:
A Were, to me, is someone who knows (not thinks, or believes, or suspects, but KNOWS) that they are. I believe it is a form of enlightenment as well, and can be either saturated, or completely void of spirituality altogether. A Were could be an aetheist, christian, jew, pagan, any of a countless number of religions and still be no less of a Were because it has no berring on what your religious views are.
A Were is also someone who does not need to brag, boast, or otherwise blab on and on about their abilities, powers, techniques, etc. (This is more detail of the above ideas). This makes it very difficult to find a true were via any popular medium because they won't be out exposing themselves to people who wouldn't understand them. Additionally, it would be to paint a big, red target on themselves to broadcast their nature over a medium such as the Internet. Occult fanatics, friends, relatives, pseudo-scientists, cryptozoologists, etc. would all be beating down their doors to try and figure out how to make this gift "available for the benefit of all man-kind". I, for one, would certainly not like to be poked, prodded, cajoled, or otherwise made to "perform" for mundane people just because they want what I had.
A Were is someone who respects themselves, other people (regardless of how stupid, annoying or otherwise oblivious the rest of the human population might be, and all other aspects of life as well. They enjoy the sunshine as well as the rain, so-to-speak. It comes in part from having achieved that "enlightened" state I spoke of before.
A Were is in sync with his/her instincts, and will follow them when applicable. Simultaneously, this precludes people who talk about how all they want to do is eat raw meat, etc. since humans don't really process raw anything very well. Sure, one could eat a raw steak, but they'd probably be sitting on the toilet for the rest of the night as the whole thing leads a funerary march through his/her body.
Anyway - I've run out of time. I've got more, but I'll have to save it for another time. I hope this gave some food for thought.
~Loup
-
Loup
It sounds very logical and sound. A true wear would deffinatly not want to become a target or be Poked and prodded. I thank you for as you have given me some new knowledge to think about.
-
Just thought I'd mention this in the interest of further shedding light on the true nature of weres. Not all weres are ''take charge'' wolf types. There are many kinds of therianthropes and weres out there,with wolves being the most common,hence the perception of most people that all weres are lupine. Nothing could be further from the truth.
''A werecreature is a person who has an animal spirit or spirits "living" inside of them. Now, this does not mean that the person is possessed, or some sort of demon. It simply means there is more to them than meets the eye, and this trait is a part of their entirety as a being.. There is an animal side to them and it can be subtle or it can be quite obvious. The best way to describe a werebeast is to describe myself. IT'S A MATTER OF THE SPIRIT!!
My animal sides are the tiger, the lion, the jaguar, and the leopard, descending order according to size. I cannot change into any of these cats physically (though at one time my ancestors could!). These animals are facets of my spirit, and at any time they are always present in my psyche. Their spiritual prescence is also apparent, for example ; I'm 5'8" but I weigh 160 lbs., and I don't appear overweight because my metabolism is always high. I can growl and roar just like a large feline. Heh, and I have a small white whisker that always grows right above my left eybrow. My teeth get sharper, and my voice deepens when I get excited or enraged. The cats are me, and I am the cats. The animals serve as guides, protectors and teachers. With all weres, the animal is a reminder that we need to get back to basics, to get back to what is means to be alive. Humans are animals, not above, not below. We can't change that.''
Something I ripped off a certain site,no doubt risking legal action in the process. I can ony hope that they never find out about this and get my sorry ass sued by their lawyers.
And from the same site,more information pertaining to the real effect of the full moon on weres.
'' As far as full moons go, it really depends on the werebeast you talk to. Some aren't affected by the cycle of the moon at all. Others have a noticed a very obvious change during certain periods of the cycle, and not necessarily full moons. For example my animal side peaks during New Moon to First Quarter. Then there's a little lull, and when Full Moon comes about, the panther comes out full until the Third Quarter. After this I enter my "downtime" when the animal side is less apparent. But that's just me. Some weres peak at odd times, like in between phases. It may last for a night, a few days, or as long as a week. Now, this does not mean that a werebeast grows grotesquely muscular and hairy and wanders the hillside looking for small pets on which to snack. What it means is that the animal side is more strongly felt than usual. I feel much more "panthery" during a new moon than after Third Quarter.''
-
That is very intresting i was always wondering about the moon if it was all wears felt more on the full or at diffrent times
-
This is where my thoughts differ on the subject, Maggot. See, I don't believe it has anything to do with spirit whatsoever. I don't think that there is another "soul" or "essence" living within someone like a parasite or some kind of symbiot. My thoughts on the subject are that Weres are born with the ability to do what it is they do, and they have the option to ignore and/or hide it, or to work with it and attempt to strengthen it. Like a muscle, or a talent, with aspects of both. Some people can wiggle their ears, some people can roll their tongue, some people are born with 207 bones instead of 206 (the extra bone is an additional vertebrae between the shoulder blades), and some people are born as Weres. I try to avoid spiritual implications as much as possible. Supernatural doesn't neccessarily mean spiritual, though I admit that many times the two are closely related. I have more on that particular subject as well.
Stories of curses or geasa levied upon someone that turned them into a werewolf, as far as I'm concerned, only do so because the person was a werewolf to begin with, and the curse or geas only caused it to manifest uncontrolably. There are countless other curses and gaesa in many other stories that do not turn a person into a were-anything.
I'm currently under the persuasion that most people who are born weres simply ignore and suppress the "foreign" aspect of themselves. Much like the same way that you can ask someone: "Can you roll your tongue", and they can't answer the question until they try it; most Were's don't actually know that they are one. Suppression in this manner is unhealthy at best, and so you have some who might turn to violence, some who aspire toward art, or otherwise focus all these "energies" (a term I am loathe to use) into... different things...
On this note, yet another thing that helps me separate true from wannabe were-folk is all this talk about a "were-side" (as mentioned above), as if it was just some buddy of theirs taking a ride in the car for a while. As if it were just some kind of suit that they take out and wear for a while and then tuck back under their bed or something. (Heehee "Wear-wolf" - *ahem* sorry...) Anyway, these types of people make me wonder if I'm looking at some kind of dissassociative dissorder or something - blaming "some foreign aspect" of themselves for the odd things they do ("It wasn't me, it was my wolf") -- so you can see why a lot of trolls on were-forums call all the "weres" crazy. In my oppinion (and at this point, I would like to stress that this is only my oppinion, based on the information I've gathered over a great deal of research) a were wouldn't ever find the "odd" things they do to be actually odd until someone pointed them out specifically; for example scenting the air - something normal humans really dont' do -- and getting a strange or questioning look for it. Additionally, they don't see the traits of "wolf" (or jaguar, or bear, or fox etc.) as anything other than who and what they are. They don't separate personalities, they don't have to keep some strange wedge between these aspects. A true were is fully integrated to the point of non-separation with the aspects of their "animal sides" and "Human side". Naturally, this integration is extremely difficult at best, and so I can imagine that at least one or two out of the hundreds who claim to may actually be a full-fledged were. With the vast oceans of information in the internet, and the pseudo-anonymity that it grants, some "n00b" weres might try to take advantage of this medium to help them figure out what's going on. However, 99% of these poor people only find false prophets and people who are somehow "Half-elf-half-dragon-half-wolf-half-panther-and-half-stormcrow". Half my ass is what they are -- Self-dillusional folks who just can't handle the banality of being "just a human" (or worse, someone who's had a genuine supernatural experience and calls it something that it really isn't...) Anyway - poor guidance at best for some new, genuine were who's just trying to get a handle on their "dual-existence".
Continuing on that theme (sorry about the mini-rant), we have the people who are somehow 50 animals at once, or some kind of crazy hybrid of all of them (like pumas with snake tails and bat wings or something). I think that many of these people (Who dub themselves "Poly-weres") are mistaking genuine were-isms for totem-calling. I think this is partially because a good number of them have dabbled in "magick" and have awoken aspects around them. I have many other theories about poly-weres as well... but I don't want to point fingers or single people out, or otherwise make a mess. Needless to say, however, I don't really buy into the existence of "Poly-weres". Name one story of a werewolf or werejaguar or weresnake that changed into anything else but that snake or jaguar or wolf (or even dragon). None. Talisen doesn't count, either, because he was a shaman. Same for Cerridwen.
One final note before I go, I'd like to point out that I separate totem-magic from being a were. Just because someone has a wolf for a totem does not mean that they are a werewolf. Even if they can manifest physical and psychological changes in themselves and others, this does not make them a were - it makes them a powerful shaman or sorceror. The abilities of a were, as I've stated before, are completely unrelated to magical practices. This is how an aetheist could still be a Were - no magical or even religious background, yet they still manifest these supernatural traits. This is not to say, however, that no were will practice magic. A shaman with a pre-existing connection to an animal that could potentially be their totem has a huge advantage over someone that doesn't. I would imagine that some weres might practice magic to help them gain another measure of control (or at least understanding) over their abilities.
Sorry for adding another book to the library, here, but I had a lot to talk about. I hope this generates some discussion in this forum again. It's been rather dead here as of late.
~Loup Garou
NEXT TIME: More on The Moon and it's cycles! Tune in next week for more! *theme music*
PS: Re-reading all that reminded me to mention that I know that there are other "breeds" of were out there, including (but not limited to) Pumas, Jaguars, Hyenas, Lions, Bears, Coyotes, Foxes, Snakes, Spiders and even Dragons. It is interesting to note that all of these "breeds" (including wolves) are predatory in nature.