THE PACK Message Boards

Ive gotta agree with freedom and of being one with nature.
-Zombie

What does/would it mean to me?

Wind in my fur as I ride my H-D

Freedom; Release; Honor; A sense of true being; Ancient and unvanquished, undiminished power wisdom & intelligence; Duty to the Pack

for starters

Hmmm...
Maybe freedom & power.
Yet everyone has a different version for freedom and power.

Having gone over the responses so far; it seems that the concept of Loyalty, Fraternity, and Freedom are uppermost in the minds of the responders.
Then there's Power. Interesting word, that. Especially since, as Absolute Wolf pointed out; the word means different things to different people. There is power even in the secret that you are a Werewolf...keeping it from others that aren't friends; protecting the People of the Wolf.
If you live the life, aren't you just as much a Wulf as someone who can shift? If you live the dream, maybe someday you'll wake up as that dream.
Less likely things have happened...

A romantic view.

To feel the cool earth under my feet. To taste the sweetness of red flesh. To dive into the pungent scent of pine and the clean aroma of spring water. To hear the quiet chirps and whispers of creatures who thought they were alone. To know the softness of fur, the tightness of sinew, the brush of a tail. A wholeness of comprehension, a poetry of beast and man awash in a new world of constant senses. Beyond the spiritual artifices of the human world, to have a civilized mind truly uplifted by a naturalism not even Thoreau could have imagined; and to reflect in joy, that at long last, this forest is my home.

Well for me being a werewolf is freedom, real physical freedom and the freedom to do and say what i want when i want to, its the ability to forget the rest of the world and there rules the 'responsibilities' that is forced on ever one, and its the feeing of having a family. knowing that out there i have people like me that are my family, my pack.

To me it's freedom i don't have to have that human burden of work and wot not
i can roam free and be just enjoy life as a shapeshifter

while id consider being a werewolf to mean freedom and the power to enforce that freedom, and yet still be cute and fluffy, I dont actually consider myself a werewolf in RL or in fantasy. I wouldnt mind playing the character, but my actual character is a shapeshifter rather than a werewolf, so I dont know how much perspective I can give on this topic. Im more furry than I am were. soo.... yeah. *shrugs*

ChaosWolf wrote:Now I have the mental images of a werewolf wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and a John Deere (or is that Eat Deer?) hat, driving a tractor trailer down the highway...

you got it lucky i got a mental image of a wolf driving a 18 wheeler wating a tractor driving down the highway...

What it means to me to be a werewolf. This is hard to explain because it defines my whole reason for being part of the pack, for constantly looking for werewolf art, for being obsessed with them.

It's something deep, something I've been interested in since I was six. To be a werewolf to me is to have the best of both worlds--to enjoy everything being a human has to offer, and yet the freedom to get away from everything when it all becomes too much. I have human responsibilities and know what this life is about; being a werewolf would be an escape. This would be in short bursts as I take a run in the tranquil forest after a bad day (I currently downhill mountain bike and drive too fast for that effect), and for longer periods if I get sick of society, a war breaks out, the economy dies, etc. It's the ability to survive off the land, dependent on no one. Human intelligence and ingenuity combined with the raw survival tools of strength, endurance, and speed to put you ahead of the rest, to protect myself and my family.

Just the fact of having a secret of that magnitude to keep has also been mentioned; I've found that I'm really good about hiding things I don't want others to know and am happy to do it. I'd like the challenge and the power that comes with that.

I love the way the body would look with fur, claws, and especially the tail, and I'm also fascinated with things that are able to change themselves and morph into something stronger and better. I love the idea of getting beat into an oblivion, torn apart, and yet still being able to heal myself completely from most wounds.

Ugh, I wish I could express better how I feel about them! This will have to do. I promise I am an otherwise normal person; I am just captivated by everything werewolf!

Freedom what else no human rules, regulations, or any of that just freedom.
Even now during full moons I'd go up on my deck and just sit there for hours and
forget my worries and just enjoy the peace and quiet....Freedom....Freedom.

What does it mean to me?

I suppose that first and foremost it might just be a form of schizophrenia in my case, I've a Wolf in my head and he's managed to convince me that we'd both be happier if we were in his form instead of mine.

Beyond that, it's breaking down the perceived walls of reality, the way a Wolf sees is entirely different as they operate on a completely different set of senses. I would love to experience that first-hand, because human senses seem so dulled and tired by comparison, so grey. Perhaps the World itself wouldn't seem so grey if I had better ways with which to see it.

I'd also have to say that the Wolf has always been iconic to me, as a symbol of indefatigable loyalty, so in that regard I see the same thing as many others, here.

I think just about any animal is a symbol of being free, because with society we accept our own chains and latch our own shackles, and it's been that way for so long that we've forgotten the chains were ever there. There are times though when the chains become noticeable, and it's when we encounter that sense of wild freedom. I think it was Scott Gardner that said that most people don't want to run free, they just want free apps for their iPhone (I love that quote, thanks Scott). So the feeling of being trapped that seeing the freedom of the wild can provide isn't prevalent throughout all of humanity, mostly just those who dream. I personally don't like the thought of having become so comfortable with these chains that we're complacent, that's why I hold onto my icons as some semblance of remembrance.

We can talk about being free as people, but how many of us could really do it? The only way it would honestly be possible would be to take up the ways of the humble homeless person, the wandering hobo. And I doubt I'd be strong enough for that, as I don't have even the basics of the skillset I'd need to survive. But that doesn't mean that I don't admire those that do. For me though, going for a hike in the wild isn't really free, it's just a pretty illusion that temporarily allows us to forget the aforementioned shackles.

So at the end of the day, the Wolf is an icon for me, and I suppose part of an internal and somewhat shamantic system of belief. And really I'd like to adopt many a wild form, just as it would be interesting to take on the Wolf and wander the World with wonder of smell, I'd also like to see how the World looks from the eye of an Eagle, to fly and to perceive more colour than any human is capable of.

And to answer the question, what would a werewolf, or indeed a shifter mean to me? The ability to be able to take off and replace the shackles whenever necessary, to both keep the old and embrace the new, without mutual exclusivity. As a were, one could slip away from society when they felt the need to be free, but if ever they had to come back, it'd likely be just as easy to slip the shackles of human society back on.

Well said Vagrant.

Freedom,the feeling of the cool grass beneath my paws,the wind through my fur as i run through the forest see the world through the eyes of the wolf. i don't think there would be anything more exciting.

To me it would me pure joy and freedom form being trapped in a human body all of the time. :howl:

When I consider it, I see two possible meanings, physcologically, and physically.

Unlike the latter, the physcological werewolf that resides in my mind is the create that keeps me from collapsing under the constant moral issues I tackle when I have little else to consider. It's always there to give me an idea of nature's views (in actuality, i consider "nature" to be the name we made up for the natrual order of life, not a physical force with a will of any kind) on the idea. For example, I've had the idea to write about plants that could speak. On the surface; a mindless childrens story could be drawn from it, but delve deeper, think of the countless plants we destroy for food, structure, and supply, and you have a morallity paradox that crushes most of the average moral musings on trivialities such as birth control, ect. This is only one of the many ideas that the physcological werewolf embodies for me.

It also represents for me a deep evolutionary connection with nature that has waned and weakened over thousands of years of evolving into a brain with manipulation tools. It also embodies my emotion, and gives me a spiritual connection where all others are far to illogical and unfounded for my over secularized mind to engage. For I can explain this spirituality, rather than just throwing to the wind and hoping for a good outcome. And the brilliant part? No cards, symbols, books, praying, apologizing, weeping, or tradition required, you do what you want to honor the wolf, not what something tells you to.

Physically however, I concur with the freedom aspect of the werewolf, but for me it would offer freedom from my own mind trap as well the slavery trap of society and civillization.

Werewolf = shapeshifter (limited to only turning into a wolf)

I'm not saying all that romantic (not the love related kind) stuff that's already been covered but I do believe it is all of that. And having a group (that isn't family, but close) that is really close to you and really understands and accepts you, even if you choose to be a loner.

This is one of the oldest threads on this forum. Kind of makes me nostalgic to see it again.

Wow, I didn't even notice it was created in '05. Well, at least there are still a few posts each year on it, (even though a lot tend to have some idea of freedom).