He described the process of his soul leaving and returning to his body as a journey between light and darkness. To him, the moment of departure was like rushing toward brilliance, while returning to the confines of his physical form was akin to stepping back into shadow.
Can the soul express itself directly without the body? This question has long eluded definitive answers.
Yet, as one poet observed, if the body can imprison the soul, then the soul might also willingly choose the body. If the body is merely a shell encasing the spirit, the soul could, in theory, change its "shell" at will. This concept underpins the enduring lore of werewolves and similar myths.
In certain traditions, souls are believed to move freely between human and animal forms, though the mechanisms of this transformation vary across mythologies. In many Northern European tales, sorcerers, when in a trance-like state, are thought to let their souls exit their rigid bodies and inhabit animals or other humans. As mentioned earlier, the practice of lycanthropy exemplifies this belief. To an observer, the individual may appear motionless, but their soul could already have leapt into the body of a wolf.
Among the Basques, a story recounts a hunter who tracked a bear in the Pyrenees for three days. When he finally confronted the creature, it embraced him so tightly he nearly suffocated. As his vision dimmed, he felt his soul leave his body and enter the bear, transforming him into the beast and condemning him to roam the wilderness.
A similar tale exists in India. A king once encountered a jester performing on the streets and brought him to the palace. One day, the jester overheard the royal guru teaching the king a spell to transfer his soul into another body. Devising a plan, the jester convinced the king to test the spell on a dead body they found in a forest. While the king recited the incantation and transferred his soul into the corpse, the jester seized the opportunity to possess the king’s now-vacant body. Returning to the palace in royal guise, he ruled until the queen uncovered the truth and tricked him into entering a parrot's body, after which the true king reclaimed his form, and they destroyed the bird.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Researching myths reveals recurring transformations into three specific animals: swans, wolves, and snakes. In many Eastern traditions, those who could become these creatures were revered as divine emissaries. Conversely, in Christian societies, such abilities were often condemned as demonic, attributed to sorcery and witchcraft.
In ancient times, when humans lacked the means to fully understand natural phenomena, they often resorted to fantastical explanations. Thunder was not a mere sound but the chariots of gods; clouds were thought to be divine sheep, and winter winds were perceived as spirits chasing demons through the woods.
For instance, in North America, Indigenous tribes saw lightning as a celestial serpent writhing through the heavens, its rumble the sound of its wrath. In ancient Greece, storms were blamed on Typhon, a monstrous deity with a hundred dragon and serpent heads, whose yearly battles with the gods brought thunder and lightning.
Similarly, in Slovakia, tales of the "Spring Dragon" endure. Each spring, a mighty black dragon was said to emerge from a cavern, cloaked in shimmering scales and wielding immense power. It would roar through the forest, its fiery breath igniting infernos. For modern readers, such descriptions align with natural disasters like floods or fires. Ancient people, however, attributed these events to the dragon's wrath.
The Sataliya Bay legend tells of a black dragon that descends yearly, draining the bay of its waters. Ships that ventured near were devoured and hurled into the sky. To repel the dragon, villagers would approach with drums and cymbals, hoping to frighten it away. Science now explains this as seasonal evaporation, yet to ancient minds, it was indisputable evidence of a dragon’s thirst.
Ultimately, these stories demonstrate how early humans, facing inexplicable natural phenomena, created narratives steeped in gods, monsters, and magic. These tales reflect humanity's need to make sense of the unknown, a drive that birthed both mythology and science.