The Art of Shapeshifting

THE ART OF SHAPE SHIFTING

(taken from the magazine The Sacred Hoop. Subscribe link at the bottom of the article)

In many cultures of many times, humans have embraced the art of shapeshifting - transforming one's bodily form or consciousness - in order to perceive the world with new eyes, feel the earth in new and exciting ways, and experience life from diverse perspectives.

Dawn Baumann Brunke asks ......

Is it truly possible to shift the shape of one's consciousness?

How is this information useful?

What does it show us about animals?

and deeper still ....
What does it show us about ourselves?

(A small extract from the article in Sacred Hoop Issue 45)

In myths, fairytales and times of magic, shapeshifting is used in a wide variety of ways. For some, it is a means of holding or condemning one's enemy to a particular form, as the Greek goddess Circe did by luring lost sailors to her island and turning them into swine. For some, it is a means of tricking others, evading capture or escaping. In the Welsh tradition the cauldron-keeper Gwion and sorceress Ceridwen become hare and greyhound, fish and otter, in a transformative dance of shape and flight. Or it may be a special ability that allows one to learn about others by becoming them. Through shapeshifting the wizard Merlin helped young King Arthur experience the world of animals, in order to rule with a compassionate heart.

BECOMING THE ANIMAL
Shamans, indigenous peoples and explorers of consciousness alike may mimic animal gestures and sounds in dance, song or movements in order to 'become' an animal. By wearing skins, furs, hides and hooves; by using masks or donning feathers; by invoking the vision of an animal, making sounds of the animal or behaving 'as if' the animal, one steps closer to becoming the animal itself, sliding ever nearer animal consciousness until at last there is no distinction, no separation. One is the eagle, the snake, the fish and otter too.
True to its name, shapeshifting itself has many forms. For some, it may entail physically transforming one's body into that of a bear, leopard or other animal. Another form of shapeshifting involves shifting not the body but one's consciousness. This includes the ability to move with an animal, to see the world through its eyes, to smell and feel and taste and hear everything around you through the senses of another. Imagine speeding through the ocean as a dolphin, arcing up through the waves into the sunlit air, flipping gracefully and diving back down into the depths of one's watery home. How about hanging upside down in the dark, possessing acutely sensitive hearing to 'see' through sound waves as you flap your long leathery wings to fly off into the night as a bat? What would it mean to know life as a lion on the African savannah, as a lemur in the forest of Madagascar, or a polar bear roaming the Arctic circle?

A LESSON FROM LION
In one vivid experience I 'merged' with an old male lion. I felt his mane around my face, his claws and paws, body resting, two front legs stretched out before us. I felt the roar that came from deep within, and it felt good. It was a declaration, an affirmation, an announcement: I AM!
The old lion showed me many things from his perspective. I was able to see the land from his eyes ­ dots of antelope in the distance. Everything was yellow and brown and golden. Movement was the key to his vision, as if movement were part of the color, part of the landscape. This is hard to describe in human terms for it was so different from the human way of seeing. I could smell in different tones as well ­ layers of smell, subtleties that had no words, as if the smells were emotions. The scent of fear was the strongest; if an animal puts out fear, that scent is stronger than movement and most likely that animal will be taken, whether it runs or not.
I was shown the gentleness of lions, the movement of softened paws, delicate licks of the tongue, and also what it feels like for claws to jackknife and flex from their hiding places beneath velvet paws to kill in an instant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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http://www.sacredhoop.demon.co.uk/AMAIN-PAGES/SUB-VISA.html