
The second movie installment of Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally successful Twilight series reveals the supernatural secret of the Quileute tribe: some of their clan have the ability to turn into extremely large wolves. Pictured here is the character Jacob Black (played by actor Taylor Lautner) who discovers he has this special power. This element of the book and movie are actually based in Quileute legend that the tribe is descended from wolves who were changed into men. Even the tribal name “Quileute” comes from their word for wolf, Kwoli.
The Quileute tribe is actually a group of Native American Indians who now reside in La Push, Washington. They are a small group of around 700 people, but they still continue the legacy of their great ancestors from the past, the original Quileute tribe. Quileute folklore tells that those who have the ability to turn into animals are called skin-walkers. They also have been told to have the ability to read people’s thoughts. Unlike the classic werewolf transformation described in classic literature that occurs with the rising of the full moon, the change depicted in Twilight is more consistent with a type of shapeshifting.

John Perkins, author of Shapeshifting: Shamanic Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation, talks about shapeshifting being a much broader concept than supernatural. He often talks about shapeshifting as possible on three levels. The first is cellular, and that is when a person of an indigenous culture shapeshifts into a plant or animal, or in our culture when a cancer grows in someone and then miraculously disappears.
The second level is personal Shapeshifting. That is when we decide to transform our personality — and usually that means becoming more of what we most expect in ourselves. It might mean when a person honors themselves as a good writer or a better dancer or politician. It could also mean transforming an addiction.
The third form of Shapeshifting is about transforming the society that we live in, whether its at the town or city level, or the corporate level — the place where we work — or the institutions that help shape our lives.
In his book, John makes this important point about the reality of shapeshifting: “From a shamanic perspective, shapeshifting begins with intent. You then give it power if you want it to occur in this world as opposed to the other worlds of non-ordinary reality. Action follows. Intent, energy, and action: Only when these three human forces are in place can you have true shapeshifting.”
Perhaps the images portrayed in The Twilight Saga: New Moon will frighten and titillate, but perhaps for a few it will open their minds to imagine that we all have the capacity to shapeshift at some level…that each of us can shift into being more of the self we most respect and want to emphasize, bringing about fundamental changes in our attitudes, perceptions, prosperity, health, appearance, and personal relationships. What do you think?