I suppose this is a good story with which to start my blog. This encounter happened in 2002, when I was a militant atheist. It changed my beliefs and very much put my life on the path I am on today.
I was driving up to Hibbing to see my father who had been diagnosed with cancer. I was coming from Minneapolis and had just passed Hinckley at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I was cruising along in the left lane at about 70mph when, in the distance, I saw a black bear coming out of the ditch and onto the left shoulder of the freeway. I didn't want to hit the bear, so I slowed down to about 40mph and moved into the right lane.
As I got closer, I realized that it wasn't a bear, it was the biggest wolf I've ever seen. I grew up in the woods of Northern Minnesota, and I'd seen wolves and bears my whole life. I had never seen, or even heard of anything like this.
The wolf was black and it's fur was shaggy and unkempt. It was easily twice the size of the biggest timberwolf I'd seen.(my guess is 5 feet to the top of it's head) As I got closer to the wolf, I could see it was baring it's teeth in a snarl and as I passed, it was looking directly into my eyes. This was the craziest part, as the eyes of the wolf were an unnatural red. I'm not sure if I would say that they were glowing, but it was in full daylight, and the eyes could not be missed. The way it was looking into my eyes, and not across the road, or at my car frightened me more than the fact that it was a giant, red eyed wolf, and I got the distinct impression that it knew who I was.
In the Dragonlance books that I've read, they talk about dragonfear. It's basically a spell cast by dragons to put fear into all those who see them. Dragonfear is the best way to describe what happened when my eyes met with the wolf's.
Totally freaked out, I hammered on the gas and locked my car doors. This didn't really make sense when dealing with a wolf, but this was not a normal wolf, and I was pretty sure if it wanted me dead it could have killed me. As I sped away(accelerating to around 95) it remained where it was, it didn't even follow me with it's head. When I looked in the rear view mirror, it was looking across the freeway, and not at me.
I don't know what or who the wolf was looking for that day, but I damn sure didn't stick around to find out.
Seeing this creature sent me into years of research about werewolves, since I was sure the stories of werewolves came from people seeing giant, evil, red eyed wolves. The research led me into reading about animal transformation rituals and witchcraft; of astral projection and psychic doubles. I read about many things I would have considered ridiculous if I hadn't seen a Hellhound with my own eyes.
All of this reading prepared me for 2009, when I met Collin Mackay. Collin told me about Reiki energy healing and the power of universal love and focus energy. He asked me if I would like to learn to use Reiki(magick healing), and I jumped at the chance. At the same time, I met Ben Albers, who offered to teach me about ritual magick, and the shadowy side of love and focus. Again, I jumped at the chance.
My newfound teachers shattered my perception of the universe on a daily basis, and I wouldn't have been open to it if I hadn't seen a demon wolf years before. As such, I am eternally grateful to both my teachers and the wolf for making my current life possible.
After years of delving, I believe this was what they call in England, a Black Shuck. They have been spotted all around the world for centuries, taking different animal forms in different countries. They all have the common thread of black, shaggy fur and red glowing eyes. In England and Ireland, they usually take the form of a wolfhound or some sort of dog.(Cu Sith in Ireland) In Mexico, they are a coyote called a cadejo. In Japan they take the form of a fox called a tanuki. There have been stories in India of black, shaggy, red eyed elephants. Apparently, in Northern Minnesota, they take the form of a wolf.
To the best of my knowledge, these creatures are not from this plane, and I believe they are summoned from someplace...less sunny. Hellhound pretty much describes what I encountered that day.
In a bizarre way, the Black Shuck, or Hellhound, paved my way to learning new levels of love and respect for all parts of the great universe.
Namaste.
