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Worshiping Wolf Shepherd: Animal Archetypes in Herbal Ritual and Myth
Wolf Shepherd. A walking paradox.
Wolf Shepherd evades definition. In Slovenian folk mythology, s(he) is a chthonic being who wanders the fringe between this world and the world beyond. Wolf Shepherd is a human become wolf. Or a wolf become (wo)man. Or a wanderer. Or a healer. Or a spirit. Or a sage.
Shepherd of hoofed herds, Master of Wolves, courier between realms; when Wolf Shepherd appears, s(he) marks a boundary in the fertility cycle. Winter swells into Spring, Summer softens into Fall. And yet- Wolf Shepherd resists the comforts of dualistic thinking. S(he) is the either/and, the betwixt and between, the liminal; particle and waveform. Look too closely, and you’ll see nothing at all.
Traversing realms is no easy task, and Wolf Shepherd walks with a slight limp. Don’t let her lameness deceive you. Immortally curious, this is merely her badge for having traveled so far.
As seasons pivot around this Equinox, we look to Wolf Shepherd as a reminder to enjoy the peculiar magic of the transition state.
-KSV
📸✨ by @hayflux
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