The Wolf

Numerous legends tell us of this animal that some of uss miss in Europe's forests of today. Through all times the wolves followed human beings and their tents, houses and cities, the wolf became the dog, man's best friend... but the wild wolf still is a stranger, often turned into a man-eating beast by horror movies and legends - in reality, he is everything but that.

In their original form, wolves are 30 millions of years old and thus older than the human race. Wolf packs and the families consisting of more than 3 people we had in earlier times were very similar. In a wolf pack, there are no lonely children, and if the pup's parents die, the other members of the pack care for them lovingly; there is no mistreating of children/pups, and wolves keep faith with each other, a couple stays together for the rest of their lives; the hierarchy within the family is clear and there are rules for every member to follow, and wolves don't exploit their resources through over-population... they can live in packs, but there are also the lonesome ones that choose to live on their own, and their abilities of communication can be compared to those of human beings.

The wolf bitches have their fertile phase once a year - in February. The Ancient Romans honored at this time, February 14th, Luperca, the wolf that fed Romulus and Remus and thus helped to found Rome, with a festival called "the Lupercalia". People exchanged gifts and made love to tune into the rythms of fertility. The more civilized the humans became, the more they turned with a shudder from the wild wolf. Only those who are still wild at heart kept the connection, and society fears them all - the wolves as well as the druids, shamans and forest dwellers...

To the Native Americans the wolf is the teacher, living within the clan joyfully without loosing his individuality. Within the "great clan of the stars" the wolf is represented by Sirius, according to many legends the planet where all our teachers of ancient times came from. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the gods, dogs, wolves and horses as well as the human teachers and priests came from Sirius, and the members of the Dogon tribe in Africa do think so still today. 

In all cultures that know the wolf as one of the major wild animals there are wolf myths. Lycanthropia, the shapeshifting of man into wolf (or vice versa?) has many stories, even scientific explanations like lycanthrophy being an allergic reaction of certain people towards plants taken together under the name of "wolve's milk"; or that the energy a wolf pack can summon turns one of them into a human being.
No other wild animal has touched our deepest fears and hopes as deeply as the wolf. 

Bringing the wolf back to European forests met wild protests not only among farmers, hunters and shepherds, although there is no known case of a wolf attacking humans, only vice versa. Today, the wolf is "power animal No. 1" on the shamanic top ten list, and the wolf "Socks" from the movie "he who dances with wolves" received huge heaps of fan mail - it is "hip" these days to stand with the wild and free, the untamed and suppressed... Even goddesses turned into wolves, e.g. the Morrigan of the Celts, Myatawin of the Sioux Nation and Skadi of the Vikings...

The wolf dance connects the dancers with all that is alive, spins threads in the web of life; paw prints weave patterns in the rooms in-between, magic and dream return to our world. La Loba, el Lobo, the wolves, live in the thick undergrowth of our souls. Go, take a look! Maybe the wolf will call you - come and don't be afraid, and if you are, come anyways...


Recommended Reading:

Clarissa Pinkola Estes: Women who run with wolves 
Susan Seddon Boulet: Shaman, Pomegranate Artbooks
Robert Eisler: Man into Wolf