In some shamanistic cultures the "witch" doctors, shamans, medicine men and women could shape-shift.  Three are two ways of doing this.  One is by projecting your essence into the body of an animal while you see through their eyes - this is perhaps the easiest method.

The other method for shape-shifting is to physically change into that animal.  Highly spiritual cultures still exist in which the shamans claim this is possible.  

So you want to try this?  First you have to accept that you won't be shifting into just anything that you desire.  If you've got a mouse for a totem (see Totem Animals) don't expect to feel the energy of a hawk flowing through you.  

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then it's time to begin.......

• Start slow, with something familiar, which  is why one of your totems is the perfect choice.  Observe your totem, get to know it thoroughly.      

•   You must practice going in and out of your trance at will, and you must work on deepening your trance.  You can achieve this through practice, through use of music, through spending an entire day in trance.  This is potentially dangerous so don't trance and drive, please.
• A little alcohol - not a hole bottle - can help, especially wine blessed in Dionysus' name.
• When you are ready to try shape-shifting, sit quietly and focus on your totem.  Feel its power inside of you.  Will it to come forth, to manifest its nature in yourself.  Be content at first if you just find yourself acting like the totem - crawling instead of walking, growling, baying at the Moon - magick is sometimes learned in baby steps.
• Try the Shapeshifting Meditation.
• Remember, fear can be healthy, but if you want to experiment with shape-shifting you are going to have to suspend that fear.  Feeling panther come up, snarling and hungry, claws readied, can be terrifying but you have to let go of the fear to allow panther to really manifest herself.
• Dancing your totems to music can help.  Go into a trance and call up your totem(s), then spend the evening 'dancing' the energy.  However, if you are doing this as part of a group - remember with whom you  are working.  If the totems manifested in the room are contradictory (eg. a mouse and a cat) then you could end up fighting or hurting each other.
• If you do manage to get some shape-shifting done, congratulations!!!  It is difficult and sometimes dangerous.  We are not raised in a shamanistic culture and we don't necessarily have the wisdom to handle this power.  Then again, if we don't experiment, we will never know our own limitations.

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Shape-Shifting Meditation

(From the book "Animal Magick" by D.J. Conway)

Prepare yourself for the meditaion by being in a quiet room, relaxing the body, and dumping your problems.

Visualize yourself face to face with a leopard. (You can choose any cat you wish.) Feel yourself slowly merging with the leopard until you can look through it's eyes at the scenery around you. The darkness of night is falling around you. You are lying on a limb of a jungle tree. Notice that the way a leopard uses its senses differently from your perceptions. Sniff the breeze; try to sort out the odors that come to you. Feel the breeze ripple through your fur. Be aware of the tree bark beneath you as you flex your claws.

You jump down the tree and glide quietly through the grass toward a water hole. Your ears turn from side to side as you listen to every noise around you. When you reach the water hole, there is a hyena already there. You challenge it with a snarl. You feel your ears flatten against your head, your lips pull back to expose strong white teeth. The hyena flees.

You crouch at the water's edge and lap the cool water. Even while you are drinking, you are constantly aware of what is happening around you. Your senses are highly alert. The rising Moon shines into the water. Licking the last water drops from your whiskers, you stretch and pad back into the high grass.

Now, pull your consciousness back from the leopard and watch it fade away into the darkness. Become aware of your physical body and slide back into it.

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Shape-Shifting Oils

This pair of oils are particularly effective in shape-shifting, trance-work and other meditative work.  For instructions for mixing oils, consult the Oils page.

Dreamcatcher Oil

This oil is conductive to work done between realms - trance work, dream work, journey work, shape-shifting and totem animal work.  It is also good to use before you go to sleep.

Bast Dance Oil

This oil is conductive to all dance work, to working with felines in any way, shape or form, and for Egyptian Magick.