Archetype of the Shapeshifter

In Western society there is little understanding of the power and influence of shapeshifter. In fact most people only meet the negative aspect of this flow of influence in their life.

The source of the shapeshifter power is not in its ability to move between different guises. That is only the external expression of something very profound. Form is only one polarity of our existence. At the other pole is formlessness, the spirit without

physical shape, the void of Buddhism that is nothing but holds all possibility within it.

As we mature and realise these paradoxical opposites of our nature, and as we identify less with the form we have as a body, the power of shapeshifter comes more fully into our experience.

What it brings with it is what might be called involved detachment.

Usually we might think of detachment as meaning a sort of avoidance of something, especially people or physical pleasure. However, the very term shapeshifter includes the word shape, and so implies form, even though the form can be changed. This is because the archetype of shapeshifter stands at the very balance between form and formless; identification and the void. With its power we can live in the world and yet not be possessed by it. We can be involved in events or relationships and yet not be dependent upon them for our identity o sense of self. In fact we know that we are paradoxical in nature, having form and yet at the same time existing as formless spirit.

Of course there can be polarities even in this. So someone who realises themselves as the paradoxical balance between form and formless, might polarise on the side of form, and live a life of change and detachment not centred on the eternal spirit. In this case they move from situation to situation, from relationship to relationship without bonds.

However, if we are to look at what it is to be a full human being, then we must look beyond the polarities of form and formless. We are also, in the structure and development of our very body, everything from a ting group of cells as seen just after conception, through a plant like growth, into fish and animal form, Our brain too carries this heritage of the past, having at least three levels, the human, the ape or mammalian brain underlying the human, and beneath them both the R or reptilian brain. All of these many forms of life ar within us, and as we are liberated from complete identification with our present human form and presonality, we inherit this wider wealth of being.

Or they can polarise on the side of the formless and exist as a type of ascetic not forming links with the everyday world, and remaining detached from it.

The balance produces that fully formed and mature man or woman who loves but not in a possessive way; who builds and creates, but is not egoistically tied to their work; who lives, and yet is somehow a lens for something more than human to shine through.

Useful questions are:

Am I identified so fully with my physical looks and bodily shape that I cannot recognise the formless in me?

Is the formless a reality to me, and does it release me from full identification with my physical life?

Where do I stand in the balance between form and formless?