On a moonlit midsummer night, many years ago, while standing across the street from New York’s Radio City Music Hall, I was first introduced to MoonDog belief systems. A very tall robust man, wearing a brownish weathered-looking floor-length coat, suddenly approached me, as if coming out of nowhere, and asked point blank, “Have you seen a moondog?”

He appeared to be extremely tired, giving the impression of being on a long perhaps endless journey. His voice sounded cavernous, faraway, yet familiar. The tall traveler, with an absentminded gesture of boredom, appeared to stare through me to a sphere in another dimension, a primordial past or an undefined future, yet there he was, standing on the sidewalk in the limelight, staring me right in the face.

The tall man’s face looked suntanned, also weathered, with black/greyish hair showing on either side of a tight-fitting black knitted hat. He wore a thin beard. His eyes were of an undefined blue-grey color, large, intense, thoughtful eyes that told of many moonlit nights, and of star-induced divinations related to the success of the food supply and to the survival of a population. He spoke in a deep soft voice, words reverberating up-and-down the street, creating a perimeter of opaque light all around us.

Since I had no clue about the broad spectrum of meanings and nuances encapsulated in the moondog concept, the man first carefully explained the moondog’s species origin, hybridity, and tendency to wander all over the earth while seeking a bond with an enlightened human. The terms ‘moondogs’ or ‘moon rings’ refer to moon light phenomena that are studied by atmospheric optics, as well as to the cross between a wolf and a dog (or a wolf-dog and a wolf-dog). Malamutes, Huskies, and German Shepherds are examples of wolf-dog hybridity. The tall traveler spoke English but drifted in-and-out of many foreign accents. On his grey backpack, written in plain thick letters in black ink was the inscription, “MoonDog Clan” in English and in a demotic cryptology I was not able to decipher.

Pools of water from an early evening rain provided a source for clear streams that drifted quickly past us alonside the curve, flowing into a cave-like corner sewer, the water’s rushing sounds reminiscent of underground wells. Street lights became dim and distant. The din and clatter of all vehicle noise suddenly ceased. Acrid-smelling smog disipated. A pleasant fragance from unknown trees and flowers enveloped us.

In an instant, the MoonDog traveler’s words conjured echoes of wolf howls, wolf tonalities expressing sorrow, longing and friendship. I hear wolves crying. The traveler nodded, “Wolves can put you in a trance for your journey to otherworlds. Wolf-dogs and some kinds of dogs can also travel with humans in states of altered consciousness or dream-like states.” 

The traveler paused for a while, drawing in the air, in broad strokes,  the night sky’s constellations, and continued, “These animals serve as spiritual companions to shamans of high stature (kings and priests) and help to maintain order in the universe.” An ancient spell had been cast a long time ago when a wolf first approached a human near a prehistoric campfire. Reciprocal protection, warmth, food sharing, a sense of belonging to a newly created canine-human group… love.

“Do MoonDogs bite?” (I asked quietly.) ”Of course,  all canines bite. That’s what wolves, foxes, coyotes, jackals, dingoes, and plain ordinary dogs do best. Bite.” (The tall man quickly replied.) ”Will a dog bite a human that loves him/her?” (New bubbling sounds of a waterfall in the distance.) “It all depends on the human-dog ability to communicate. Interspecies communication, you know. A bite is a mechanism of self-defense but it can also become a wolf-dog’s tool to check unwanted human or canine behavior.”

“Don’t touch my hurt ears.” Bite. ”Don’t touch my food.” Bite. “Don’t occupy too much of my space.” Bite. “Don’t threaten my fellow pack companions.” Bite. “A canine bite is simply a warning and not necessarily a act of aggression,” the tall traveler reminded me. “You must understand that all MoonDogs are always in a position of alpha, that angry human voices and loud footsteps upset them.” He rolled up one of his coat sleeves to show off his many scars. But, the traveler added cautiously, there is a moon when wolves and humans run together.

MoonDogs are omnipresent. They can be standing next to you and in an instant move away quickly and disappear. MoonDogs can be snow dogs, desert dogs, mountain dogs, river dogs… and yes rain gods (ehr, I mean rain dogs). Many cultures and civilizations worshipped MoonDogs. The Inuit depend on wolf-dogs for their very survival. Or used to, before the arrival of fossil-fuel-driven contraptions. 

MoonDogs in the night. MoonDogs worshipping the full moon. And the tall towering traveler wearing a brownish tattered coat walked briskly away muttering, more to himself than to passersby, that he had to travel a long journey to India that very night. As the tall traveler vanished, wolf-howls and the sounds of falling water abruptly stopped.  Again, taxis created noise and confusion. Again, car exhaust fumes permeated the night air. Rainbow-like patches then appeared on either side of the moon.

Many decades have passed since my discovery of MoonDog belief system across the street from Radio City Music Hall but the overall theme has remained constant. MoonDogs appear and disappear. MoonDogs can become spirit companions traveling to otherworlds in an encounter with ancestors. And all dogs bite when communications break down, as evidenced by my many scars. 

In the midst of our ‘overly civilized’ world, a planet subject to human greed and to excesses of the human mind, we domesticated primates with an evolved brain seem to have difficulty understanding the mode of communication of other species. All too often our cudly puppy becomes a dominant adult dog demanding respect and we fail to understand our limits. Dogs bite.  Our human-centered earth-bound mode of thought postulates that humans ostensibly have power over life and death over all other creatures and environments. In otherworlds, cosmic alliances mediate between humans and all other creatures. MoonDogs are great mediators.

Images of warmth, friendship, reciprocal protection, affection, food-sharing by the prehistoric campfire at about 100,000 BP or was it 150,000 BP? It’s been a long journey in our human-wolf-dog relationship. Should we not have learned to communicate with each other by now? Wolves, MoonDogs, and dogs  elevate us from our earth-bound sphere to otherworlds.

On this starry night, with full moon light filtering through huge curtain-less windows, after affixing a sign on my front door that reads in black gothic lettering, “MoonDog on Board”, a long night’s journey from eastern to western sky awaits me. Can you not hear the roar of waters thawing? Can you not see the forests dying? Can you not hear the howls of wolves crying?

Interested on MoonDog astrophysics?

• http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parmoon.htm
• http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring
• http://www.astropix.com

Eager to learn about WolfDogs?

Wolf Hybrid Awareness through Education (WHATE)

http://www.inetdesign.com/wolfdunn/whate

Traveling to otherworlds?

http://www.skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov