'Wer' can be combined with the name of any animal to mean a human/animal combination – wer-jaguar; wer-bear; even wer-crocodile. Wer-bat is, of course, just another name for what we usually call a vampire – a human/bat combination.

The word 'wer' can be used by itself to mean a person who is a wer-animal of some sort, or it can mean the wer-animal phenomenon in general. We can write, for instance, 'a master wer' to mean a master werewolf, or a master vampire etc. Or we can write, 'It is almost impossible for wer to spread by accident. The wer virus is not very contagious. Wer must be intentionally inflicted by the sharing of blood, and then carefully nursed to fruition.'

All the wer-animals represent the same phenomenon – a human into whose chromosomes a second genome – an animal's genetic blueprint – has intruded via a viral vector. The virus comes from a mutant strain of rabies called Wepwawet rabies, or simply Wep-rabies (See the navigation tab "The Wer Disease"). The natural host for this virus is the wolf. The wolf which carries this virus is in no way special except that it carries the virus (and therefore has the usual rabies issues, including a heightened killing impulse). This wolf is called a W-wolf (for Wepwawet wolf). This wolf is NOT a werewolf. It is only when the genes from this wolf are transferred, via the virus it hosts, into a human that the human becomes a werewolf.

The word 'wer' does not refer to the animal species which contributes its genome (wolf, bat, jaguar etc). This animal species is referred to as a totem animal (or in the case of the wolf, as a Wepwolf). Wer refers to the combination of the animal genes with human genes.

See also the the navigation bar tab, "The Wer Disease".

A totem in magick is something which takes on a specific power by association with something else. (See the "Links" tab in the navigation menu.) In wer-animal lore it means the animal species which is chosen to be infected with Weprabies, in order to harvest its genome and create a wer-animal, ie a human-animal cross. (See the "Wer Disease" tab in the navigation menu.) For example, the bat is the totem animal of the vampire. The jaguar is the totem animal of the wer-jaguar. But the wolf is sometimes considered not to be the totem animal of the werewolf, for the simple reason that it is the original and natural source of the infection, and therefore was never chosen to be infected for the purpose of creating a wer-animal.

In shamanism there are magickal implications to the choice of the totem animal. The relationship between shaman and totem animal far ante-dates the arrival of Anubis in Mexico. (See the "Anubis & Egypt" tab in the navigation menu.) The jaguar had long been considered an extremely desirable nagual or nahual, that is spirit companion to protect the shaman during his trips between the worlds as he acted in his function as intermediary between the natural and spiritual world.

[See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism]

Therefore, when Anubis introduced wer-jaguars, it was natural for the totem animal concept to simply incorporate the extra step of the nahual entering the shaman's body and manifesting in a physical transformation of the shaman into the nahual. In a way, the Olmecs were as pre-conditioned for the wer-animal phenomenon as were the Egyptians with their animal-god pantheon.

The follow quote from Wikipedia is interesting with respect to the jaguar as nahual:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguars_in_Mesoamerican_culture]

"The jaguar is also important for shamans who often associate the jaguar as a spirit companion or nagual, which will protect the shaman from evil spirits and when they move between the earth and the spirit realm. In order for the shaman to combat whatever evil forces may be maligning him, or those who rely on the shaman for protection, it is necessary for the shaman to transform himself and crossover to the spirit realm. The jaguar is often chosen as a nagual because of its strength, for it is necessary that the shaman "dominate the spirits, in the same way as a predator dominates its prey" (Saunders 1998:30). The jaguar is said to possess the transient ability of moving between worlds because of its comfort in the trees and the water, their ability to hunt as well in the nighttime as in the daytime, and their habit of sleeping in caves, places often associated with the deceased ancestors. The concept of the transformation of the shaman is well documented in Mesoamerica and South America, and is demonstrated in the context of the Olmec through the prominence of the were-jaguar, and other sculpture illustrating jaguar transformation."

Anubis was at one time the lover of Osiris in Egypt and in all probability the lover of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico. Although there is no evidence to suggest that he ever much expressed any hidden feminine side (assuming such to exist in all men), there are hints that he respected 'two-souled' individuals, who would now days be called transvestites. (Hapi, the god of the Nile, was ambi-sexual.) The following quote from Wikipedia is of interest along these lines with respect to 'two-souled' men and magick, especially shamanism. This quote is from the same Wikipedia article on shamanism.

"Most shamans are men, but there are societies in which women may be shamans. In some societies, shamans exhibit a two-spirit identity, assuming the dress and attributes of the opposite sex from a young age, for example, a man taking on the role of a wife in an otherwise ordinary marriage. [Meaning a man married to another man, who functions as a wife. – Webmaster's comment] This practice is common..... Indeed, these two spirited shamans were so widespread as to suggest a very ancient origin of the practice. See, for example, [Joseph Campbell's map in his [The Historical Atlas of World Mythology:] [Vol I: The Way of the Animal Powers: Part 2: pg 174] Such two-spirit shamans are thought to be especially powerful, and Shamanism so important to ancestral populations that it may have contributed to the maintenance of genes for transgendered individuals in breeding populations over evolutionary time through the mechanism of "kin selection." [see final chapter of E.O. Wilson's "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis] They are highly respected and sought out in their tribes, as they will bring high status to their mates.