Werewolves Page 2

  Although they may retain human intelligence, shifted werewolves – especially inexperienced ones – do not necessarily retain human control. Animal instincts are strong, and both practice and willpower are required if the werewolf is to overcome them. Those who fail to do so fall into what Old Norse writers called the gandreid or wolf-ride, driven by what Sabine Baring-Gould calls “the rage and malignity of the creatures [sic] whose powers and passions he has assumed.”

  The process of transforming from human to wolf form takes several minutes and is more dramatic and painful in viral werewolves than in any other kind. The werewolf is fully conscious as bones, teeth, muscles, and other tissues rearrange themselves and hair grows all over the body. An experienced werewolf can transform in a shorter time and resist the effects of shock and panic, but the experience is never a comfortable one.

  Viral werewolves are at their most dangerous shortly after contracting lycanthropy. Inexperienced werewolves are easily overwhelmed by their condition and are less able to control either their transformation or their animal drives while they are transformed. They tend to rampage in a panicked state, attacking livestock and humans in an orgy of violence. Unless it is stopped quickly, a newly infected viral werewolf can cause considerable destruction and loss of life. What is worse, though, is that an inexperienced werewolf is an inefficient killer, with more chance of leaving wounded victims behind who will become werewolves in their turn and create a full-blown outbreak.

  The majority of viral werewolves are detected and destroyed early in their careers. A few may survive through luck and cunning until they can master their condition and become more efficient shapeshifters and hunters – and, paradoxically, less of a threat to their human neighbors. More experienced werewolves usually take care to avoid detection, hunting in remote areas where their kills are less likely to be found. Many adopt a nomadic lifestyle, keeping on the move to avoid leaving an identifiable pattern of activity in a specific area. Some set out on a quest to understand their condition and seek a cure.

  There are circumstances in which a viral werewolf is infected deliberately and given post-infection care and training to manage the condition. A new member may be inducted into an established pack, for example; an experienced werewolf may deliberately infect a chosen mate; and, of course, several governments and corporations have been known to conduct werewolf programs for military purposes. These instances are examined later in this book.

  Elimination and Prevention

  At the time of writing, the virus responsible for viral lycanthropy has not been identified, making it impossible to develop the necessary antigens and antivirals to prevent and treat the disease. Quarantine and extermination remain the only means of prevention. Although lycanthropy research is classified top secret by a number of countries, there are government and military quarantine and research facilities in various countries that are known or suspected to be involved in the effort to isolate the virus and develop treatments and immunization protocols.

  Extract of wolfsbane, also known as aconite or monkshood, is frequently mentioned in folklore as being deadly to werewolves, perhaps because in the Middle Ages wolfsbane-tainted meat was used to control wolf populations. While wolfsbane is certainly effective in killing werewolves, it is just as dangerous to humans and other species, and there is no scientific evidence that it is especially deadly to lycanthropes.

  There is a great deal more evidence in favor of the other traditional anti-werewolf weapon, silver. All viral lycanthropes exhibit a violent allergic reaction to silver, both in wolf and human form. Skin contact causes redness and irritation almost immediately, which develops into hives and blistering on prolonged contact. Wounding with silver weapons or ammunition often results in severe anaphylactic shock, which is usually fatal.

  The hunt for a viral werewolf has many aspects in common with a law enforcement manhunt. Ideally it is preceded by an evidence-gathering phase in which suspects are identified and eliminated, although there is not always time when livestock and locals are in danger. Kill sites are examined by experienced trackers, who work with local experts to narrow down the range of possible lairs, and each one is swept by kill or capture teams according to the mission protocol.

  Some have claimed that stories of Bigfoot or the Yeti are derived from people seeing a werewolf in wolf man form; however, there is ample evidence for the independent existence of those creatures. Artwork by Hauke Kock.

  Because of the high risk of infection, personnel hunting viral werewolves are routinely equipped with body armor that covers as much of the body as possible. SWAT-style combat gear is standard, and is usually augmented with additional neck protection. While discussing anti-werewolf gear with personnel from the 34th Specialist Regiment, I was told more than once that it was they (or rather, their predecessors in the Tyana Rangers) who were the original “leathernecks,” and not the United States Marine Corps. Nightmen lore has it that Benjamin Franklin designed a stiff leather collar specifically for anti-werewolf and anti-vampire operations during the Revolutionary War, and the Marines copied the design to protect their necks from Corsair scimitars on “the shores of Tripoli” 25 years later during the Barbary Wars.

  When civilians are drafted in to help deal with larger outbreaks, it is sometimes necessary to improvise body armor. Football and hockey gear is often used, along with welding gloves and visored motorcycle helmets.

  For kill missions, the 34th uses the M4 carbine, fitted with the 12-gauge M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System (MASS). Carbine rounds are silver-coated if the target has been positively identified as a viral lycanthrope. The shotgun is routinely loaded with silver 00 buckshot in case the target is a viral lycanthrope wrongly identified as another type. Each squad is also equipped with a 12-gauge Pancor Jackhammer automatic shotgun, capable of firing 00 buckshot rounds at 240rpm.

  THE FULL MOON

  Most viral lycanthropes are very sensitive to the phases of the moon, becoming agitated and sometimes violent during the three days around the full moon. Inexperienced viral werewolves often shift uncontrollably into wolf form at this time, although the transformation can be controlled with experience and practice.

  Given adequate support, a viral werewolf can learn to control his or her condition quite rapidly. According to an Ahnenerbe report recovered in 1945 by Operation Paperclip and preserved in the archives of the Imperial War Museum, “All recruits initially showed signs of agitation over the three nights of the full moon, which were especially pronounced in the newest. This was overcome through psychological conditioning, and within three months almost all were able to maintain self-control at all times and affect their transformations at will and in a controlled manner.”

  Capture teams are additionally equipped with the M26 Taser and incapacitating rock salt rounds in place of silver 00 buckshot. However, it is common for at least one squad member (called “Plan B” by squad-mates) to carry silver ammunition as a fail-safe. Another squad member (sometimes called “Plan A”) carries either an XM42 four-barreled net launcher or a carbine-length modification of the Barrett XM500 sniper rifle firing 50-caliber tranquilizer darts, known informally as the “Squad Close-Range Incapacitating Weapon” (SCRIW).

  Contrary to much werewolf lore, transformed werewolves are not completely immune to mundane weapons, although it is true that they can shrug off non-lethal wounds that would disable a human being. However, a maiming or mortal wound will normally force them to return to human form. Countless reports tell of a werewolf being discovered in human form, bearing identical wounds to those inflicted on a marauding wolf by hunters or soldiers.

  Some werewolves return to human form immediately, while others run off but are found in human form shortly afterward. In a report from the Ahnenerbe, Nazi Germany’s institute created to research the history of the Aryan race, recovered by Operation Surgeon, SS doctor Friedrich Weiss claims that less experienced werewolves are more prone to change spontaneously from the shock of a serious wound, while will
power and adrenaline permit more seasoned individuals to delay transformation for a short while.

  In this form of lycanthropy, the werewolf’s body does not undergo a physical change into the form of a wolf. Instead, the human spirit leaves the human body through a process similar to astral projection, and occupies the body of a wolf. The human consciousness blends with that of the wolf, and the human body is left behind in what appears to be a deep sleep or coma. When the spirit returns to its human body, the werewolf awakens with memories of the wolf’s activities.

  Although this form of lycanthropy is most often associated with shamanism, it can also occur accidentally in individuals with a latent talent for astral projection. Talented but untrained individuals can experience spontaneous projection into an animal body, and most often they find themselves – whatever guilt they may feel upon waking – powerless witnesses to the animal’s hunting and other activities.

  The amount of control that a projected human mind can exert over its lupine host varies. Untrained shamanic werewolves are usually confused and frightened by their experience, and either cannot control the wolf-body or do not attempt to do so. They awake with feelings of guilt and shame, especially if they have witnessed the wolf making a human kill, and some are driven by this guilt to confess their supposed crime or to seek spiritual advice from their local priest. A significant proportion of the medieval werewolf trials seem to have resulted from this kind of experience.

  Werewolves who are trained shamans, or are naturally strong-willed, may be able to gain control over the wolf-body. In Finland, Siberia, and other parts of the world where a strong shamanic tradition survives, it is not uncommon to encounter reports of shamanic possession of animals. Wolves are not the only species involved: experienced shamans have been known to take over the bodies of falcons, whales, deer, and other species according to their needs and the animal’s abilities.

  The only existent photograph of Lean Wolf, arguably the most famous and respected of all North American shamans (Library of Congress)

  Most true shamans (as distinct from witches, warlocks, and wolf cultists) are members of isolated ethnic and cultural groups. In most parts of the world, shamanism has long been extinct, replaced by the polytheistic religions of the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages and then by the largely monotheistic religions of the last two thousand years. However, there are a few places where unbroken traditions of shamanic-animist beliefs and practices can still be found. These include Finland and Lapland, Siberia, the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and certain remote islands off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland.

  Perhaps the most significant survival of shamanic animism, though, is in the Americas. Over the last 50 years, growing interest in traditional native practices and the development of New Age and neo-pagan beliefs has led to a revival of shamanism. This has not always been welcomed by traditional practitioners, many of whom regard the predominantly Anglo newcomers as immature and without the necessary discipline to master the old ways.

  According to one Native American shaman who was interviewed for this book:

  Some of these new people, they think they’re going to some summer camp where they’ll learn to do some kind of comic-book stuff and then they get to go home and be powerful. Their people aren’t from here; they have no ties to the land and the spirits here, and they’re not planning to stay here; that all makes it harder. They always want it to be easy, so they get frustrated. I show them enough to make them feel good, but not so much they become dangerous to themselves or to others. There are some folks that aren’t as careful as I am, though. They like money too much, and they’ll sell everything they know. That’s how people wind up with power they can’t handle.

  Case Studies

  Calmar, Sweden, 1790

  In the last year of the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90), the southern Swedish province of Calmar was overrun by an unusual number of wolves. It was believed that at least some of these creatures were werewolves created by the Russians from Swedish prisoners and sent home to destabilize the area. Shortly afterward, a demoralized Sweden sued for peace on the pretext that the war was becoming prohibitively expensive.

  Letters recently discovered in the archives of St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum shed new light on the Calmar outbreak. Count Georg Magnus Sprengtporten, a pro-Russian nobleman born in Swedish-controlled Finland, writes to Catherine the Great offering to recruit “from among my countrymen an irregular force of a type never before seen outside Finland, capable of movement behind enemy lines and able to destroy Swedish morale completely, against which the enemy has no possible defense.”

  Native Americans hunting Buffalo while wearing wolf skins. Shamanic werewolves would also join in such hunts to help drive and confuse prey. (North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy)

  Ever since Viking times, Finland has been notorious as a nation of witches and shapeshifters, and it always chafed under Swedish rule. Pending further detailed analysis of documents from the Russo-Swedish War, it seems likely that the wolves of Calmar were controlled by Finnish shamans whom Sprengtporten recruited to fight the hated Swedes. The tale of them being transformed Swedish prisoners seems to be no more than a rumor, perhaps spread deliberately to further reduce Swedish morale.

  Moose Lake, Minnesota, 2012

  In July of 2012, a group of biologists from the University of Minnesota traveled to the Kabetogama State Forest in the northern part of the state to conduct a field study of the local wolf population. The expedition, planned to last for three months, was abandoned after two weeks when doctoral candidate Kyle Stegman was medevaced to the Rainy Lake Medical Center in International Falls after being severely mauled by a wolf that broke into his tent.

  A few weeks later, fellow student Jason Mackey sought counseling at the University’s Student Health Center, complaining of nightmares and a deep sense of guilt toward Stegman, who was Mackey’s rival for the affections of another student named Jennifer Ullman. After several sessions of counseling and hypnotherapy, it emerged that on the night Stegman was attacked, Mackey experienced a vivid dream in which he took the form of a wolf and attacked his rival savagely.

  Mackey took an extended leave of absence, most of which he spent at the nearby Bois Forte Reservation of the Chippewa Nation. It was found that he had inadvertently dreamed himself into the body of a wolf from the western Moose Lake pack, and had acted out his romantic frustrations in this form. He learned to control his dreams with the help of a Chippewa shaman, and has reported no further incidents.

  Since the 1960s, shamanic werewolves have spread from isolated native communities into New Age and neo-pagan groups across the world. Many are involved in environmental activism and ecoterrorism, especially where forests and other wild places are threatened. Corporations involved in logging and land development have placed particular emphasis on anti-werewolf security measures since the 1993 Clayoquot protests in British Columbia, when a remote camp was attacked by a werewolf pack reported to be more than 20 strong.

  Private security contractors like Vindicorp in the U.S.A., Allecto in the UK, and Kronos in Germany have developed specialist anti-werewolf divisions, often recruiting veterans of military units like the 34th Specialist Infantry and Britain’s Talbot Group. Security industry analysts have flagged supernatural threat assessment and management as a significant growth area over the next decade.

  ASTRAL BODIES

  The 19th-century French mystic Eliphas Levi speculated that a wolf was not strictly necessary for the process of shamanic lycanthropy. Instead, he suggested that an astral traveler could equally well appear to the waking eye in the form of a wolf as in his or her natural human form. Montague Summers sums up Levi’s argument thus: “in the case of a man whose instinct is savage and sanguinary, his phantom will wander abroad in lupine form, whilst he sleeps painfully at home, dreaming he is a veritable wolf.” Levi was anxious to explain lycanthropy in terms of his theories of astral projection, while Summers wanted to prove the official line of the Catho
lic Church, that it cannot exist except as a product of madness or diabolical illusion: readers can judge for themselves how well either one succeeded.

  Creation

  Shamanic lycanthropy normally requires a significant amount of training. As an apprentice, the shaman must first learn to master astral projection and travel before learning to cast his or her consciousness into another body, a process sometimes informally known as “skin-riding.” The final step in the process is learning to suppress the host animal’s will and control its body.

  Exact methods vary from one shamanic tradition to another. Often the process involves a deep meditation, and in some places this is augmented by narcotic or psychedelic preparations made from local plants. Similar drugs feature in many reports of sorcerous and obsessive werewolves (which are covered in later chapters), but shamanic werewolves are distinct in their style of training and method of possession.

  A shaman may possess an animal for a number of reasons. Most often, the shaman wishes to make use of the animal’s particular abilities – in the case of a wolf, its fleetness of foot and heightened senses – in order to travel quickly, scout an area, or convey a message. Less often but more dangerously, an unscrupulous shaman may use a wolf to commit violence against those who have offended him or her.

  Spontaneous astral projection and possession is rare, and normally indicates a significant latent talent. If the talented individual is not taken in hand by a trained shaman and taught how to control the gift, a great deal of confusion and damage can result. As the unskilled and often panicked astral traveler attempts to control what can seem like a dream, the host animal will often start to behave unpredictably, moving outside its normal hunting range and even attacking livestock, pets, and humans it encounters.