By Michelle Nollsch Inspired by Stacey Demarco’s deck
Werewolf-Exploring Wildness
Luminosity triggers it. A wild moon rises. Pain and blood and fangs. 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 An 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 animal nature fights inside the one body. The vitality, strength and freedom of the animal verses 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?
Balance Between Nature vs Your Own Essence
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 your own essence.