Darke Dreams : Magick : Etheric Manifestation of Shapeshifting

Most of the concepts portrayed in the following paragraphs were essentially outlined in Monsters by John Michael Greer.

To briefly explain Western Magical Tradition (known hereafter as WMT) has levels of being. They go from the physical to the spiritual. Essentially all beings live on one or more of these levels¹.

Things from immediately adjacent levels can be seen if there is the will to be seen. For instance, an etheric being can manifest visualibly and for all purposes physically on the physical plane. In these cases only by using a etheric cleanser² or disrupter³ can they be identified and sent away.

Now, where this comes to shape shifting. Harking back to nordic tradition, the shaman (for wont of better word, having not brushed up on my Asatru terminology) would send their self out into a manifestation of an animal to learn things or spy or whatever. It was noted that their body did not leave where it was sitting. It is considered that their etheric self has been sent out and thus manifests as an animal (or any shape the shaman wants)⁴.

Now, refering to some of the myths of physical harm to the shapeshifter, it can also be explained by WMT. Take for example, the common story of a woodsman being attacked by a wolf whilst looking for a sizeable tree to fell. The woodsman cuts the paw off the wolf and it flees. Only then later does the woodsman find a naked human body somewhere with its hand severed. Within WMT its felt that harm done to ones etheric (and even astral) self will be mirrored on the physical plane. And in this case an iron axe slices through the etheric arm of a beast. In the process the manifestation would vanish, which the human mind of the woodsman might rationalise as "the beast fled very fast through the trees"⁵. That very damage to the etheric self is replicated onto the body of the shifter. Whether that person is using magic to shift (project would be a more accurate word in this instance), doing it unconsciously or is being forced to do it by other's magic is ultimately irrelevant.

The risk to the physical self is the reason why when one is doing WMT workings, one is often encourged to use correct types of protection. This protection often is in the form of floor circles, pentagrams, herbs or special chanting. And should someone experiment with controlled etheric protection, the same precautions should really apply. Should someone wish to experiment, taking all the known factors from werewolf lore may point them in useful direction in using a combination of occult training and physical items, that would bring about an apparent physical shift⁶.

Footnotes

¹ The levels of existance are considered to be the following.

physical -> etheric -> astral -> mental -> spiritual

There is considered, by some, another level before the physical, called the demonic. And that is where all demonic forces are said to exist.

² Common etheric cleansers are garlic (the active chemical allicin is to blame. It exists in other plants of the onion family), running water, salt, and also vinegar vapour. There are of course others.

³ Useful etheric disrupters are iron (and to a lesser degree steel), and a favourite silver. Hence the story of silver bullets being effective against werewolves. Standard lead bullets seem to have little or no effect on etheric forms.

⁴ The french occultist Eliphas Levi discusses etheric projection and manifestation in his Transcendental Magic

⁵ The effect of disrupting an etheric body is not entirely known. It may retreat back to the physical body akin to a sack being dragged by a large rope, or it may just vanish. One way explains the retreating animal and the other would cause most human minds to melt.

⁶ I have to use both apparent and physical shift here as although the etheric body can be a physical manifesation it has to obey certain rules a properly physical form does not have to obey.

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