Customer Reviews

The Magic of Shapeshifting

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book starts out almost nicely subdividing shapeshifting methods in categories, but falls apart when the writer goes on babbling about animals... She thinks Black dogs are "eviler" than other dogs, she thinks animals with natural red eyes are not good familiars beacause of the eye color, she puts herbivorous animals in a second class wagon to no where... She thinks a load of stuff on animals that is not absolutly true. I am not arguing on the shapeshfting part that is not totally bad (could be worse), but on some things this writer puts in the book that make you wonder if she actually does know animals as she claims she does and if she does know shapeshifters as she says...
If you are not new to this argument and feel like separating the loads of dumb stuff from the usefull stuff it could be good, if you are new to this kind of topic,DONT BUY IT, buy something else or the author could put you on the wrong path and make you think things that are absolutly not true.

As someone who has been conscious of being a therianthrope (what the author terms a "shifter") for over a decade, and been exhibiting characteristics most of my life, I decided to finally review it after having read it four times over the past five years.

Needless to say, I'm less impressed each time.

One of my biggest complaints is that the author (or three authors, writing under one name, according to one rumor) accepts anything about historical shapeshifters as totally true. She asserts that because of this, "shifters: (including physical shifters) have existed for millenia, well known to the populace but only recently suppressed. She relies particularly on questionable sources such as Montague Summers, and she takes no critical eye to any of her material.

Her magic is a mixture of spiritism/Theosophy and a smattering of Asian concepts of energy work, and assumes that the subjective biases of these systems are universal. This creates a rather dogmatic approach. And she doesn't cite any sources for the practical aspects of her work, which could have been strengthened by showing that other people have gotten similar results, though not necessarily using the techniques she utilizes for the same end. I was left wondering where she got her inspirations for the more hands-on material, and from what sources she learned to acquire the building blocks for her magical work.

My biggest annoyance about this work are all the huge assumptions and pigeonholes she applies to therianthropes in general, many of which are inaccurate. She uses no sources other than anecdotal information from other, often unidentified, people that we're supposed to expect are telling the truth--despite the fact that even in the late 1990s when the book was probably being compiled, there was already at least some information on therianthropy available online (more on that in a minute). Given the gullibility of the author in accepting whatever Mr. Summers wrote without question, I have to wonder how much critical consideration went into whatever her informants told her, or if she ever questioned her own experiences to any degree. If she did ever look at the possibility that not everything in this book was literally true, she doesn't show any evidence of having done so.

Some of the inaccuracies are blindingly obvious when viewed by anyone with more than a passing involvement in the therian community. One example is her assertion that most therians go through a "phase" as a fox shifter before "maturing" into another species; that all therians have totem animals that are the same species as their therioside; a bunch of terms she claims are "common" among therians, when in actuality I've never heard most of them anywhere except from her book; that therians have an aversion to turquoise; and her overemphasis on the existence of organized therian "packs". Going on this book alone could lead people to some really wrong assumptions about therians.

Additionally, she seems to have some weird ideas about physical animals. This includes strange esoteric "facts", such as the idea that black animals attract evil spirits, or that the color of an animal's fur or eyes determines its magical prowess and even personality. Last I checked, this didn't hold true for humans, and I haven't found in my decade-plus experience with animal magic that it does for nonhuman animals, either. She also has some blatant biological mistakes in there, such as the "fact" that foxes have retractable claws (they don't).

There are a few good parts amid the dross. I found her descriptions of some of the features of mental shifting to be accurate to my own experience. And there are some exercises in there that could actually be useful for gaining control of one's ability to shift, or to improve one's relationship with the part of the self that is the therioside. Her methods for raising levels of "shifting energy" are simple psychological triggers that can be used by anyone in a ritual setting to help achieve the proper altered state of consciousness for invocation (of another entity or a part of the self). It's nothing new, though it could be useful.

The author comes across as someone in the furry community who has a serious grudge against the therian community. She holds up the furry community as the best place for a "shifter" to go find other "shifters", while her very scant opinions on the (online) therian community is that it's full of cultists and other unsavory people. (There's nothing wrong with furries, of course, but even many members of that community will quickly tell you that "furry" and "therian" are not the same thing, though there are some furs who are also therians--but they're a minority.) Her "facts" about fox therians closely mirrors furries, in which there are a LOT of fox fursonas (though it's common for people to create new fursonas as they get more involved in the community). She also emphasizes costuming (fursuits) in the book quite a bit as an aid for getting in touch with the animal, and even gives a diagram for the leg extensions used in quadsuits, or quadrepedal fursuits.

In short, this reads like a furry who has a personal vendetta against the therian community. Granted, not everybody gets along with everybody else in the community-but welcome to life. There's nothing that says a therian can't be a part of the furry fandom, but when a book on therianthropy (which it pretty obviously is despite the use of the word "shifter") quite conspicuously eliminates almost any reference to the therian community except for a couple of sharp-toothed remarks, this strongly suggests personal rather than professional issues.

If you read this book, keep a shaker of salt very handy. There are some magical/psychological techniques that some therianthropes may find useful for becoming more comfortable with shifting and gaining better internal balance. However, the bulk of the book is essentially poorly-researched drek based mainly on personal bias and conjecture.

In order to understand this book, you need to know a little-known fact about it. Greene is a pseudonym that represents the combined efforts of three people. This is why different parts of the book vary vastly in quality, why some ideas do not work well with other ideas, and it is also why the book contradicts itself at least once per chapter.
Of these three people, one was involved in the online spiritual therianthropy community in the EARLY days of the mid-90s when things were just getting started, but dropped out after having serious concerns about where the community was heading.
This is why you see some stuff that sounds similar to theories you can find online, but also a tone of bitterness towards those online communities. The other two are people who never had much to do with the online groups; they were members of private packs. These two were more influenced by Wicca and parapsychology research, but did receive some inevitable influences from other pack members, some of which had been involved in the online community in the past.
In my opinion, two of these voices had good information, and the third had mostly bad information. Namely, you should ignore everything in this book about totem animals and familiars. Most of that information is badly flawed, oversimplified, or just plain wrong. When dealing with the subject of totem animals, you should substitute better information from other books, such as those written by Ted Andrews.
The rest of the information contains only a few errors, and there are many valuable gems of wisdom to be found in it. If you want to study shapeshifting, it is nearly impossible to get by without this book. When it does a good job, it really gets things right. Just ignore the parts that have obvious problems, and the rest is a potent little manual of transformation magick.

I bought this book because I find shapeshifting an interesting subject, but by no means do I consider myself to be a "shapeshifter". In "The Magic of Shapeshifting", she states some obviously weird and inaccurate things, such as on page 47, "The same wolf etheric body that lends a wolf's abilities to a berserker, can, at a more physical level of manifestation, actually become material enough to be a physical thing, via either bilocation of physical shifting."

First, Berserkers were people who took on the qualities of BEARS while fighting, not Wolves. That would have been an "Ulfhednar". Second, physical shifting?? Does she expect those of us with any semblance of sanity to believe that somehow a human body is going to shift into the body of a wolf? I think she's either pulling the leg of people who would read that and say to themselves, "Hey, I wanna be a wolf!" or she's certifiable.

In subsequent chapters, she just states some really dumb things, such as "Black familiars are evil, white familiars are good" (I'm paraphrasing). She advises you to have a pet as a familiar, but avoid black dogs because they're "demonic" unless they have a white spot on them to "balance" them out. Crimeny. Statements like that just make me question the rest of the book, which is, actually, filled with more stupid statements like that! No wonder she considers herself a "lone wolf". In a small community of people who are viewed as nutjobs by the rest of society, I would think they would want to distance themselves from her as much as possible.

This book covers the shadowy psychological ground between the human mind and the animal condition- how people relate to animals and how some people feel like they are part animal- and how this can lead to the widely misunderstood phenomena called "shifting" (or, in more superstitious terms, "werewolves"). This book tries to clear away old misperceptions and instead presents the simple experiences of ordinary shifters, so readers can make their own judgements. If you have been reading other new age books, hunting for shapeshifting material and feeling dissatisfied, this book is for you. Instead of presenting nothing more than shapeshifting meditations and insisting that you have to become a shaman to experience anything more, it presents the case for "natural shifters", people who naturally pick up shapeshifting, and it covers all types of becoming an animal. Chapter one covers all the introductory material and presents a few intriging case histories. Chapter two, "mental shifting" covers all nonphysical ways to become an animal- from astral travel to the ability to take on the instincts, senses, and strength of a beast. Chapter three covers animal spirits and totem guides, and shows how these forces manifest in people's lives. Chapter four is an in-depth view on all types of out-of-body travel as it relates to shapeshifting. Chapter five treads on controversial ground, covering evidence, anecdotes, and rumors about physical shifting, but allowing the reader to decide whether to believe in this variety or not. Chapter six covers all the other characteristics of shifters- what it means to be a shifter in everyday life, attitudes, insights, and advantages shifters have, and shifter packs. Chapter seven is the how-to chapter, it shows how to work with your own shapeshifting magic, how to increase your powers, damp things down, or become a shifter in the first place. No other treatment of this subject is so complete, and the author is not too preachy about her own beliefs, instead she presents lots of interesting evidence and allows the reader to decide the truth.

The Magic of Shapeshifting is an interesting book but I really do not think it is worthy of the hype that surrounds it. I have had this book suggested to me by several sources and people seem to think highly of it, but I just don't see it. It would be better if this book was marketed for what it really is, a book about shapeshifting folklore, though even the folklore can be questionable at times. The author claims that she truly believes in shapeshifting on all levels, spiritual, mental and even physical. But she also says that she has no experience with doing this nor does she know anyone that can/has done such. Then she tries to tell you how to do it, even after she admits that she has never done it. This book just feels like the author wrote down the things she has heard about shapeshifting throughout her life with no real experience or much real research just to put out a book. One of the things that really gets me is that she obviously has a fondness for wolves, which she does admit, so much so at the expense of other animals. She talks about characteristics to practice if you wish to be closer to the wolf. Then the only thing she has to say about cats is that they are vain, so to connect to cats one should act vain and worry about their appearance. If you really like wolves and want to read some folklore about shapeshifting then you might want to check this book out. But there are much better books out there on this subject and I would recommend Ted Andrews' books (Animal Speak in particular) over this one if you have to choose.

Rosalyn Greene makes no bones about it--in her experience, werecreatures (werewolves, werecats, werebears, weredolphins) exist and in fact she claims to be one. "The Magic of Shapeshifting" is enlightening. Greene asserts that people are actually capable of full transformations from human to animal and back again. The author doesn't care about winning over her readers who might also be shifters, she dispenses warnings and critiques the shifter community at large. Whether you believe the author can do full transformations or not, her writing is that of real lone wolf. She doesn't seem to have her community behind her, she is sketchy in her case studies, she wants to have no contact with her readers. Rosalyn Greene has thrown out into the wind, some very powerful ideas and tools and then left us as readers to do with them what we will. I applaud her approach that demonstrates elder wisdom and restraint.
My major criticisms of the book are that the title suggests that the book will be a broad overview of shifting but the contents are almost completely devoted to werewolves. She would help readers truly interested in the topic if she discussed the various types of shifters in-depth. It would also have been helpful if she could have stepped outside of the White European and North American experience more often, to speak more in depth about weres in Asia (she suggests many types of shifters are of Asian descent)Indigenous Americans and African society as well. Still, I recommend the book and advise readers to keep in mind that "The Magic of Shapeshifting" is an introduction with a memoirist rather than a researcher's approach.

Every paranormal nut who is interested in werewolves should have a copy of this book sitting on their shelves. It seems destined to break new ground in a field which has been largely ignored by paranormal enthusiasts. After all, who cares to even investigate werewolves? Things like Nessie and ghosts are so much more popular. The author, who claims to be a werewolf, presents a compelling case for the existence of real shapeshifting. She goes over myth, legends, sightings, and New Age doctrine, then compares shapeshifting to other occult phenomena such as spirit materialization and out-of-body travel, using extensive examples to explain exactly how shapeshifting operates. The result is a series of arguments and explanations that make it hard to entirely disbelieve in shapeshifting if you believe in the paranormal at all. Better yet, she gives detailed information on a subculture of shapeshifters which anyone can easily contact- a subculture which believes these things and follows these practices. Are werewolves in our midst? Perhaps.

This book was so awful. Thank god I bought it used and cheap. The author talks as some elitest preaching down to her worshipers. Some claims she makes are so ridiculous, avoid black cats cause "they attract unsavory spirits and bad energy". Im soooo thankful I read this AFTER I read Lupa's book because this book is so discouraging I wouldnt have pursued animal magic at all after reading it. The author seems most concerned with the EXACT definitions to the types of shapeshifters, she spent way too long describing the details of what makes one an integrated, as opposed to non-integrated as opposed to hereditary as opposed to classical, physical bla bla bla . The voice of this book is so immature and insecure, like shes trying to make sure YOU know that she herself is a genuine shapeshifer. It comes across as very unfriendly , the author is one of the popular cool people and YOU ARENT!!!
Id say read Lupa's books they are so much more helpful and supportive and full of useable information.
Julia

This book is something spooky or odd to read. A bit like Brad Steiger's books, you tend to like it, even with its errors and bizarreness. The main problem with this book is that it doesn't have a clear topic. Is it about werewolves? Kind of, but not really.
Is it an insider's view of a subculture of "shifters" or werewolf people? Kind of, but it tends to focus on theory and folklore enough that it obscures the actual workings of the subculture being observed. You actually finish the book and then realize that you don't know all that much more about these people than when you started.
Is it a paranormal investigator's handbook? It seems to be going in that direction for awhile, making some fascinating comparisons between werewolves and certain kinds of spirit phenomena, then abruptly drops that line of inquiry.
Is it a how-to manual aimed at the New Age crowd? Once again, it seems to be heading in that direction, but the author only gives a few instructions before abrupty stopping. The author seems afraid of turning it into a religion, and stops just short of venturing onto pagan territory.
Is it a memoir? The author tells many interesting anecdotes about herself and her pack, but seems determined to shroud the whole thing in so much secrecy that you don't really get the whole story of what happened to her.
Perhaps the author intended to address all these topics at once. In this case, the book is a success at whetting your appetite, but doesn't satisfy. Perhaps it should have been a series, so each subject could get the depth it needed.
Also, there are signs of editorial failings. Sentences are often chopped off in the middle, are sometimes contradicted by the next sentence, and, in the whole, I get the sense that an editor or someone tried to impose a different vision than the author, and that the resulting reorganization resulted in wavering views.
As to the "werewolves" themselves, it is mostly symbolic. Except for a few things like people's eyes turning yellow under stress, the author admits that she hasn't personally seen a hair of evidence for werewolves, and that her more spectacular stories rest entirely on the truthfulness of the "werewolves" who told these stories to her.