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Wolf Gods

00:53 / 07.11.07

I'm currently taking a class at college about European Mythologies, and we just covered a section about theriomorphic deities. Subjects included Cernunnos, Arachne, and the Celtic Pooka, which was apparently some sort of rabbit deity, but what I found most interesting was the largest section of the book deals primarily with lupine deities and legendry. The topic seemed to touch something off in my brain in recent weeks and I began researching the wolf god-form as it pertained to the systems I've been working with.

I've found quite a bit to fill in a variety of gaps that I wasn't even aware of in my own religious systems, and I now have a new respect for the Wolf. I was curious to see the role it plays in other people's beliefs, or metabeliefs if you will. Care to share? What role does Big Bad play for you?

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

01:11 / 07.11.07

fenris stalks the shadows just outside of my perception...

always...

19:15 / 07.11.07

I grew up in the northwestern US, so wolves were a highly controversial topic -- over the last decade, there have been attempts to reintroduce wolves in the wild as well as maintaining wolf packs in wildlife refuges. I worked a little with Grandfather Wolf, who I always found to be huge, old (literally, he presented as an old alpha wolf) and a wise teacher, though due to geography and personal temperament, I dealt more with Raven and Coyote.

Later, when I started dealing with the Norse pantheon, I related strongly to wolves as both Fenris (restrained destructive chaos) and even more so as an aspect of Odin. Given that His wolves are Freki and Geri, which translate to something like "ravenous" and "greedy", the Norse did not have a wholly positive view of wolves. Mostly they were characterized as settlers might have seen them, or ranchers in the western US -- savage beasts who tended to kill livestock, &c.

As I recall, Skadi also deals with/keeps wolves, but I don't know Her well enough yet to comment.

19:43 / 07.11.07

To clarify, now that I've been awake a bit longer: I tend to find that mythological/divine wolves tend to adhere to the expectations of the culture surrounding them. That is, I find Grandfather Wolf to be intelligent, capable of deep wisdom and potentially dangerous but not simply a feral, savaging beast.

On the other hand, the lore-era Norse had a semi-antagonistic relationship with wolves -- as I would expect, given that at that point, they were settled and living by farming and ranching beef -- and therefore the wolves in their myths tend to be utterly feral or at least 'greedy' and 'ravenous', which fits with my own experience of them. The way wolves behave for the Norse ties into the ulfhednar -- compare to berserkers -- that is, they expect wolves to be merciless warriors (of a sort).

Both cultures' ideas seem to me to fit together as aspects of WOLF, though they're certainly different and even contradictory.

07:35 / 08.11.07

What about Guitar Wolf? They're godlike...

23:54 / 08.11.07

I've had a couple of ideas percolating in my head about the Wolf recently. I kind of like the idea of conflating Cerberus and the Hermetic practice of evocation through a triangle. You know, three heads, three points. It kind of seems to work for me, but I still need to flesh it out. Anyone have any idea if the heads of Cerberus have individual names, or any literature I should look into about it?

01:08 / 09.11.07

Isn't Cerebus a hound, specifically a demon-hound? Are hounds and wolves that related? They do both like to howl. Can we also say that Anubis is also a wolf then? Actually, I think a jackal is a lot closer to being a wolf than a hound.

Unconditional Love

13:28 / 09.11.07

Wepwawet sometimes confused with Anubis is often described as a wolf, more warrior like, sometimes dressed in warrior garb, considered to be a leader of hunting.

04:42 / 12.11.07

My first name, Ralf, is Germanic and in the original full version is Rat (not the small animal but German for advice or counsel) Wolf. There are a number of wolf names in German, including Adel Wolf (aristocratic or noble wolf) which shortened to Adolf. From memory there was a wolf pack that ran with Teutates of which some of these came from.

I've found the name quite apt for me.

R