I get asked about this all the time. “How can I become a werewolf?” I’ve even had people ask me to bite them. If it had been Salma Hayek, I’d have been nibbling until … well, I’d still be nibbling. But it never is. Anyway, assuming werewolves exist outside the pages of books like mine or the movies, the easiest way would be to get yourself bitten. Failing that, there is another way (which was discussed in my novel Shara, by the way). Sadly, I didn’t record my source for these notes, and it’s been so long ago that I can’t remember where I got the information. But here it is:
The Greek writer Neuri wrote that people living north of the Black Sea, both Greeks and others, regularly turned into wolves for a few days each year. Neuri lived in the 5th century B.C.
To become a werewolf, one could wait until the night of the new moon, go to a lonely place, such as a desert or mountaintop, and, on a level spot, draw a chalk circle about seven feet in diameter. Then draw a smaller circle of about three feet inside the first circle. Build a fire in the center of the small circle, and hang an iron pot from an iron stand. These must be iron! Throw into the pot handfuls of three of the following: parsley, hemlock, henbane, saffron, aloe, poppyseed, opium, solanum, and asafetida. Then recite this spell:
Spirits of the deep
Who never sleep,
Be kind to me.
Spirits from the grave
Without a soul to save,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of the trees
That grow upon the leas,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of the air
Foul and dark, not fair,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of the dead
That glide with noiseless tread,
Be kind to me.
Wolves, vampires, satyrs, ghosts!
Chosen of all the hateful hosts!
I pray you send hither,
Hither, hither,
That great gray shape that makes men shiver,
Shiver, shiver, shiver!
Come, come, come!
After saying the spell, one should rub themselves with lard or some other kind of animal fat mixed with camphor, anise, and opium. Tie on a belt made of wolf skin, and then kneel down inside the large circle, being careful to stay outside the small circle. Spirits will appear within the small circle and it/they will grant the power to become a werewolf.
Steven E. Wedel 
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