One of the many reasons I am still so awestruck at the cross of Christ, is that it cuts to the marrow of what it means to be truly free. For this reason, I believe that current approaches to biblical literacy and scholarship can only take us so far, because the inherent mysteries around the cruciform pattern can only be entered into experientially or holographically.

Mythology is replete with stories of goddesses and mortals alike, who called on their divine right to shapeshift, often to escape something shameful or violent or in response to unbearable grief. This shamanistic wisdom predates written histories by a long shot, practiced and understood by wise ones inside every civilization that has ever walked the earth. Great literary works like the Iliad and the Epic of Gilgamesh feature shapeshifting, as does much of Roman, Greek, Geltic, Norse, Indian, African and Asian folklore and mythology.