Shapeshifting in Dreams: Active Psychic Transformation

If we have become disconnected from our wild nature and primal instincts, dreams of animals may be the psyche’s way of attempting to integrate the split off parts. Whether the dream is of a human shapeshifting into an animal, an animal transforming into a human, or an animal changing form and becoming another animal, these transformations indicate that a major internal shift is taking place.

I want to share a dream I had a couple of weeks ago just after writing a post about the witch and the divine feminine, and at the same time preparing for “The Return” workshop for women. This dream had a far larger context but for now I will share the following snippet:

I am in a room of a building on the ground level at nighttime with my ex-partner’s mother. At the back of the room is a door that exists to the outside. Between the door and the room is a square shaped pen or denlike structure with animals in it. The animals are neither fully in nor out. F (my ex’s mother) is standing closer to the pen than me and suddenly becomes alarmed because there is a wolf in there. I see the wolf too. It is lying down but coiled and ready to pounce like a sheep dog. F says it is a She Wolf in a bad mood and dives under a blanket. She says the only way to escape the wolf is by playing dead.

There is another blanket on the ground, a red one, and F tells me to get under it. The wolf, however, does not leave the pen and in a while I get up to have a look. Now there is no wolf there. Instead, there is a mammal like a ferret or a weasel. The creature darts out of the den and escapes into the building. It is morning and the place is busy with people and workers.I feel sure now that our presence will be discovered.

I see another ex-partner’s mother whose name also begins with F and is in fact a derivation of the same name. This name is also my own mother’s name and means “free woman”. The second woman is graffitiing on the walls with spray paint. This is an absurd image because it is so out of character for her. This is also attracting more attention to us. The graffiti has something to do with the Mother.

Working with this dream is opening layers of meaning and associations: The She Wolf, to the back of the room, the subconscious, coming in from the night, the unconscious, but contained at the threshold. She is coiled with repressed wild feminine energy ready to spring forth and invade consciousness. F who is a woman in her 80s is afraid and says this is too big, the only way to handle it is by playing dead underneath a blanket… don’t be seen, or heard, do not move, do not live.

A blanket is already laid out for me, it is the colour of blood, of life, of raw instinctual energy and primal force. I allow myself to disappear under the weight of this blanket and I do not move.

After a while I realise that the wolf has not entered the room and I get up to have a look, to face the wolf, if need be, but she is no longer there. Instead, a small, fast darting creature, needing no permission to enter and who is a great deal less threatening than the wild untamed feminine, springs into the space and runs off into the building.

The other mother is writing on the wall in large graffiti, something about the Mother…”The writing is on the wall”.

Earlier in the dream both their sons, my ex-partners, one morphing into the other speaks to the men born from the women who were unwilling or perhaps unable to face the wild fierce feminine.

As well as ex partners I suspect these men also represent my own inner man and are perhaps also the projections of my own animus.

A ferret or a weasel, a creature of stealth, adaptability, cunning and strategy. Still an instinctual symbol of primal energy, the ferret, one of Hecate’s primary familiars, ferret or any of the mustelid family is a liminal guide. The dream itself took place at night, through morning twilight and into the full conscious light of day. The She Wolf occupies the dark, the ferret, a similar and less threatening energy occupies the day, transforming raw feminine power into stealth and strategy to navigate the solar world.

This dream also made me think of Lupa, the She Wolf of the Romulus and Remus myth and the founding story of Rome. In classical Latin, Lupa is also a slang term for prostitute.

Uncovering layers of meaning in this dream is astounding and incredibly relevant to actual events and experiences unfolding in my life. Dreams never cease to amaze me. The fact that this dream came to me not only when I am navigating challenging situations in my external world, but as I was creating a course that actively engages with Hecate and the Eleusinian Mysteries, a ritual based on the mother and daughter, has a mind-blowing forensic precision that I rarely, or ever, encounter elsewhere.

Working with dreams is a beautifully soulful transformative and deeply personal way to work with the inner life. Dreams however do not only speak to the individual but also work with archetypal patterns in the collective unconscious.

If you would you like to join me on this journey, please do get in touch. “The Return” begins in 2 days.

*The men and women in the dream represent archetypes and have nothing to do with the actual people.

Words: Karen Smith ©

Image: Leonora Carrington, Villa Pilar, 1940