Werewolf - Shapeshifter

Explanations?

HALLUCINOGENIC HERBS

Could a werewolf be simply a dug induced hallucination?. Medieval times brought on experiments with many herbs and potions. Henbane and deadly nightshade were both well known for inducing illusions and were widely used for witchcraft purposes. A rye grain-contaminating fungus called ergot, which secretes a compound similar to LSD can cause hallucinatory sensations of shapeshifting. During those times rye bread was a common food that nearly everyone ate. Uncontaminated grain would be reserved for the aristocracy. Peasants wishing to make bread had no other choice but to use grain contaminated with ergot, no wonder some were walking around off their faces thinking they were werewolves.

RABIES

Rabid wolves foaming at the mouth would bite someone and they would develop similar symptoms. Since they did not understand this deadly disease they would mistake the human for becoming a werewolf since they too would be foaming at the mouth and acting in an irrational manner - sometimes attacking family members and trying to kill them.

ANUBIS

Anubis

A strange theory was put forward in 1990 by Hugh Trotti. He had researched the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed god of death Anubis. The god was worshipped by a cult whose priests wore a wolf-like mask representing him. The cult eventually transferred to Rome and by the first century AD statues of a jackal headed human figure called Hermanubis were numerous. Germanic troops recruited into the Roman armies would have observed priests of hermanubis wearing their wolf-like masks and seen the jackal-headed statues and would undoubtedly have remembered and spoken of them after the Roman Empire's fall. In turn, as suggested by Trotti, distorted accounts of these could eventually have inspired legends of humans who were able to assume the form of wolves.

LYCANTHROPY

Some so-called werewolves were undoubtedly suffering from a bizarre but long-recognized mental illness called "Lycanthropy". Sufferers believe that they can actually turn into a wolf at will. They behave like wolves, howling at the moon and attacking people using their teeth and nails. To this day there are still sufferers of this disease reportedly in Europe.

Are You a Werewolf?

SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE A WEREWOLF

  1. Protruding Teeth
  2. Hairy hands (especially palms) or feet
  3. Rough Palms
  4. Ears that are pointed and small or positioned low and towards the back of the head
  5. Unusually long third finger
  6. Eyebrows Joining on the bridge of the nose
  7. Long curved fingernails tinged with red
  8. Left uncut thumbnail
  9. A crescent moon tattoo
  10. Sleeping with ones jaw open
WHAT CAN MAKE YOU BECOME ONE

  1. Being bitten by a werewolf
  2. Eating a wolf's brain
  3. Eating the meat of a sheep that has been killed by a wolf
  4. Drinking from the paw print of a wolf; or drink out of a pool of water that a wolf frequents.
  5. Tasting human flesh
  6. Eating roasted wolf flesh
  7. Wearing or smelling of wolfbane
  8. Wearing a garment made of a wolf pelt
  9. Wearing a belt made of the skin of an executed criminal.

After reading all that I think I can say that I'll never become a werewolf.

Rituals for becoming a werewolf

The werewolf is a being of superhuman strength who has sold his soul to the Devil for the reward of becoming a shapeshifter.

There are quite a few rituals which involve some sort of ceremony where the Werewolf to be either rubs his body with a salve consisting of, human fat, hemlock, aconite, poplar leaves, cowbane, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat's blood, deadly nightshade and oil or wears a wolf pelt.

Usually ceremonies consist of drawing a circle on the ground at midnight on a full moon. A wood fire must be burning in the center. The wood must be black poplar, pine or larch never ash. A vessel with clear spring water and a brew of herbs is placed over the fire, sometimes a wolf pelt is tied around the waist and a chanting ceremony commenced that involves invoking demons or spirits. On the arrival of the spirit or demon the fire will turn blue and burn out, then a long silence may be heard followed by loud crashing or banging, screaming and moaning. The air temperature will drop suddenly and a form may appear, being that of a huntsman or some beast that is part-human part-beast. It is believed that an evil spirit does not usually manifest itself, but a spirit of the surrounding forest or bushland, but the invoker is taking a chance on whatever might turn up for it could be nothing but pure evil. More chanting begins and the spirit will grant the human the power of a shapeshifter.

The werewolf to be should be sure he wants this curse, for it can never be be undone or reversed. The werewolf would take form at sunset and return to human form at dawn, if he is harmed in his werewolf form he will carry those injuries over to his human form. When returning to his human form after prowling the earth as a werewolf he will be exhausted and must rest for many days. He will lust for human blood and take what ever human he can find, the werewolf does not discriminate between friends and relatives.

Warding off a werewolf

Most people know that werewolves are practically impossible to kill. They are not immortal but fierce, strong, cunning and can run at an unbelievably fast rate. If you need to harm or ward off a werewolf you will need:

  1. An ash tree - to climb an ash tree would make it impossible for a werewolf to follow as they have an aversion to ash trees.
  2. Rye - werewolves seem to hate the grain - you could escape a werewolf by running into a rye field or hididng somwhere where rye is stored.
  3. A blessed silver bullet - as legend tells a silver bullet is apparently the only way to kill a werewolf.
  4. A vampire - Vampires are the sworn enemies of werewolves and my do them some serious harm if they are confronted by one.
  5. Wolfsbane (Monkhood) - the herb wolfsbane is said to be a repellant and was used a lot in Medieval times to repel any wandering werewolves.

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