About This Book
A survey of folk beliefs and occult accounts about human-to-animal and animal-to-human transformation, describing methods of metamorphosis (skins, ointments, girdles, sorcery), remedies and tests, and the overlap with witchcraft. It examines cultural expressions including animal dances, familiars, totemic family animals, wer-wolf trials, and myths of lion-, fox-, serpent- and bird-like human figures, plus animal ghosts, phantasmal doubles, elementals, and ceremonial magic. Themes include theories of soul-transfer, sympathetic magic, social motives and punishments, and the persistence of animal-human affinities in folklore and fairy tale.
About the Author
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