Sunday, January 25, 2009

A Buttercup-Sniffing WereWolf

Years ago, I became fascinated by a plant in the buttercup family called “Wolfbane.” I had watched an old werewolf movie in black and white and wanted to know more of the folklore surrounding the plant. Searching through all my herb manuals, however, produced no good effect other than to alert me to the poisons affiliated with this purple flowering helper.

After years of research I felt as though the mythology around Wolfbane had been lost . . . with exception for the movie’s hint that the plant could heal a werewolf . . . that is, I
thought the stories were lost (until now).

A book I’m reading tells more about Wolfbane but before I go into that, I found it interesting to realize that one can become a werewolf VOLUNTARILY (not just by being raped-or bitten by a fang-wielding nut-job, or otherwise having the sins of your fathers contaminate your family gene pool). To become a werewolf, intentionally, you merely need to do one of the following:

  • Eat meat killed by a wolf (such as that of a lesser wolf or sheep)
  • Drink from a water source where werewolves have first imbibed
  • Eat a werewolf’s brain (proving this is a dog-eat-dog sort of world)
  • Ritualistically eat human flesh (be warned, however. Notorious cannibals like serial killers Albert Fish, Andrei Chikatilo, Edward Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer all earned a death sentence and as far as the records show – they never had a chance to shape-shift!)
Or, if you’re vegetarian, you might find the following “turn yourself into a werewolf” option to be much more palatable:
  • WEARING OR SMELLING THE WOLFBANE PLANT!
In addition to turning you into a werewolf, folklore insists Wolfbane can also cure you. Sort of like a bad drug that can send you on a scary hallucinogenic trip – and then, being the hair of the dog that bit you, bring you back down from that super human adventure.

Wolfbane supposedly cures WEREWOLFdom when it is consumed PRIOR to the first full moon, after first being bitten/turned. Once you have actually shape-shifted into that ravenous beast, however (e.g. w/the moon’s pregnant cycle) the plant remedy proves ineffective. {Dang it.}

Once you make your first werewolf kill, you are forever cursed or blessed (depending on how you look at it) to roam the earth feeling very powerful until some sick perverts from an animal testing lab capture you to perform weird DNA probing into your hairy frame.

The book supplying all this fascinating folklore? A Witch’s Guide To Ghosts and the Supernatural, by Gerina Dunwich. (I highly recommend it.)

P.S. Wolfbane is also known as aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard's bane, women's bane, Devil's helmet and blue rocket.

As always, to see the original source for any image on my blog, merely click on the picture.

9 comments:

greeneyes67 said...

I haven't heard any of those things. But I haven't studied werewolves at all. Pretty flower though..

becomingkate said...

I'd heard of wolfbane before, but werewolves have always scared me so I stopped watching those movies.

Hibiscus Moon said...

Well, along with all of that...it's also a very gorgeous flower.

So does this mean that Shaun Ellis-Nat. Geo's Man Among Wolves could be a bonafide warewolf?

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Fijufic said...

Um,
the life of a werewolf seems a little bit tragic to me buddy...

Neat post however. It makes a lot more sense to go the plant route I must confess.

Love,
Bobby

SunTiger said...

Greeneyes67 ~ Ah but lore does fascinate, doth it not?

BecomingKate ~ He he. I LOVE facing what scares me; hence my career.

Hibiscus Moon ~ Yes. Yes it is (gorgeous).

Raphnix ~ Why, most certainly!
Stop back often!

Fijufic ~ Like I said: "depending on how you look at it." :D

... said...

Damn it! I shifted with the LAST Full moon, so I suppose it is all but too late for me... I grew all that wolfbane for NOTHING!!~!!! lol

TheLubeFaerie said...

I heart werewolves and wolfbane.

SunTiger said...

Yay. {See why we read each other's blog?} :D

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