Tag: Pet

Happy & Blessed Sunday To All!

Good Sunday morning to all! I hope you are having a wonderful day so far. And your weather much better than mine. It has stormed all morning long and still at it.

I promise to keep this short and sweet today. Yes, really! You remember I was talking about the pendant I was wanting to concentrate to me last evening. The pendant has gorgeous emerald jewels in it. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to wear it. So I said what the heck. I got everything ready for my simple ritual. My two familiars always attend to me during my spells and rituals, today was no different. My cat sits in the floor and my puppy on the edge of the bed right behind me. If I am doing a ritual or spell and there is someone around that shouldn’t be she lets me know. Well I had started the ritual and was getting close to the end. All of a sudden, Kiki warned me that someone was around. I just figured hubby had opened the door and saw what I was doing and shut it. Shortly after that I closed the ritual and put on the pendant. I turned around and there stood my neighbor with his weedeater in hand with his mouth hung open. I like to have sh*t! I could not believe it. When you are in your home, you expect privacy. Ha, not around here apparently. My yard is well-kept, there is no reason for him to be here at all.  I told my husband about it and he was pissed too. He told me that he guessed I would have to start pulling the blinds when I decided to do some spell work. He also said he knows you are a witch now for sure. I was just so mad I couldn’t stand it. I walked out in the yard and asked the man why he was in my yard. His reply was he was just trying to help out. I guess I was rude but I told him I didn’t need his help. Then he had the gall to ask me what I was doing in my own house. I lost it. I can’t even post what I said to him. If what I said to him doesn’t keep his butt at home, nothing will. I am a private person and I hate my privacy violated. He was the same one that followed me to where I feed the wildcats at. I have food I buy and also if I have scraps I load them up on the four-wheeler and take them down to the creek. I was sitting down and a couple of the wildcats were loving all over me. The man had brought his gun. It was a bolt-action high-powered 30-06 and I heard it. I asked him, “what the heck he was doing there?” He told me, “that he thought I was being attacked by those cats.” I stood up and the cats were loving around my legs and growling at him. I told him that he needed to leave and not to follow me again. After that I moved the feeding place for the big cats. I figured he just wanted to know where they were to come back and kill them all.  But it just amazes me how people like to stick their nose in other people’s business.

Well I feel much better now. I just had to blow up about the neighbor and now I feel better. I hope you don’t have neighbors like me. If you do, I feel sorry for you. Well I am off to do the posts now and think what I am going to do to my nosey neighbor, hee, hee, hee! Got any good ideas?

When Your Pet is More Than A Pet – Familiars and Avatars

Author: Bronwen Forbes

As a prologue to this, you need to know that Herne has been my patron God since I was nine years old. You don’t need to know, but you’ll probably figure out by reading this (if you haven’t already) that sometimes I’m a little slow to notice the obvious.

A few months after adopting my red and white beagle mix Herman, I was trying to sleep in one Saturday morning when I began to idly wonder, “There are so many Goddesses with dogs as part of their symbolism. I wonder what Gods are associated with dogs, too?” And then it hit me like a two-by-four to the forehead. Herne, Lord of the Wild Hunt, is very much associated with dogs, especially red and white hunting dogs, than you very much. (I warned you I’m a little slow sometimes) .

Needless to say, sleep was no longer an option. I sat up and looked at Herman (who had spent the night, as he usually did, asnooze at my side) who was already staring at me with a definite, “took you long enough to figure it out” expression.

And just like that, I not only had a familiar, I had an avatar.

I’m defining “avatar” here not as a recent hit movie or a small picture that represents you on various blogs or discussion boards, but as the earthly representative of a deity. And for the love of me, I hadn’t a clue what to do with mine.

Four months later, we adopted a German Shepherd mix named Katie – and lo and behold, she was also what my husband likes to call a “God-touched” dog. But unlike Herman who was also my familiar (notice the past tense; I still miss him) , Katie let us know pretty quickly that she had no interest whatsoever in being my husband’s familiar, but would happily attend her Goddess Nehelennia’s tasks of safe travel, healing and commerce. Period.

Since acquiring Herman and Katie in 2001, I’ve alao gotten the clue what to do, not just for my special dogs, but for anyone else who may wake up one morning and see deity shining through the eyes of their pet.

First and foremost, and I know this sounds obvious, you have to keep treating your pet like a, well, pet. Your animal companion is your spiritual and or magickal support (familiar) or a little bit of deity (avatar) but he still needs proper food and water, adequate shelter, regular veterinary checkups, exercise, training, vaccinations, etc. After all, it’s not like the Gods can or will take care of your pet for you.

But once the regular, responsible pet ownership duties are taken care of with your familiar or avatar, there are still some things you need to think about to keep your relationship with your animal companion – and your deity – as smooth and fulfilling as possible.

1. Remember that, despite her spiritual role in your life, your pet is still going to act like an animal. Herman used to drive me crazy with this. He was a daily reminder of my relationship with my patron deity, helped me work through some serious ritual issues, was a whiz at helping new students ground and center simply by sitting in their laps during ritual – and he was also a master escape artist. He could climb or dig under any chain link fence, and did so on a pretty regular basis.

Katie, a born healer, is also a big dog and an unrepentant counter-surfer. I can’t begin to count how many times I packed my lunch, left the kitchen to get dressed for work, and came back to find my lunch bag and food containers in Katie’s crate and my ex-lunch in her stomach. She may be God-touched, but she’s still a dog!

2. Give your familiar and/or avatar full autonomy regarding ritual attendance. This includes personal workings, small group rituals, festivals, and rites of passage. Shortly after my Saturday morning revelation about Herman, my husband and I took him with us to visit my parents for the weekend. While we were there, I helped my parents bury the ashes of our old family cat in the side yard garden – an understandably emotional activity. Herman was in the back yard, separated from me by a picket fence. He could see me through the fence, but couldn’t get to me. As my father dug a hole for the ashes, Herman went nuts, for want of a better word. Instead of pursuing squirrels (his usual pastime in my parents’ backyard) , he was throwing himself against the fence and barking frantically, trying to get to me. I should have stepped over the fence, opened the gate, and allowed Herman to join the small ritual. After all, he only wanted to do his job.

There have also been instance and rituals where Herman or Katie did *not* want to attend a particular ritual, and we quickly learned to “listen” to their opinions – rather like knowing that it doesn’t feel right to take a certain tarot deck with you when you go do readings at a community event. We learned this lesson the hard way when we took Katie to a ritual she clearly didn’t want to go to and she had a seizure.

3. Give your pet enough down time. Just as you can’t be in ritual 24/7, it’s unrealistic to expect your pet to be “on, ” i.e. actively acting as a divine representative or helping you with your spiritual work all the time. Don’t bug him to help you if he clearly doesn’t feel like it – the fact that he’s asleep or ignoring you are clear signs that he “doesn’t feel like it.”

If you find yourself needing extra protein, water or sleep after a working or ritual, offer some to your familiar or avatar as well.

If you have a pet that also enhances your spiritual practice or connection with your deity, you have been given a gift beyond price. Very few animals, at least in my experience, can do this, and if you get one or even two in a lifetime, you have truly been blessed. It’s also not something you can actively look for; it’s like love (actually it *is* love) – the more you try to find that special animal, the less likely you are to succeed.

Be patient. If and when you’re ready, the right animal will come.

Happy Sunday My Blog Friends!

Good Sunday Morning, my friends! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday. Mine, I haven’t been up that long. I stayed up late last night playing with all my critters. It turned off cold here and I was putting on my long johns and a jacket. My husband came through and started to ask me, “where I was going?” But he stopped in mid-sentence and said, “never mind you are going to play with the critters.” He’s good, lol! I look like a pack mule taking all the bags of food outside. Anyway got all the “hogs” fed. I was leaned up against the porch and the old, old, mean wildcat walked over to me and just sit down. I started loving him and he just ate it up. I had a strange thought while I was rubbing his belly and tickling under his ear. I was the first person to ever do this. I had a tie that goes to my house coat. I pulled it out and started dangling it over him. He started smacking at it and playing like a young kitten. Another reason I am amazed at him, he is old and he has battle scars from all the battles he has fought. And yet, he has enough kitten in him he wants to play and be loved. Animals are truly a gift from the Goddess.

While I was sitting outside last night with my critters, the people who had stolen two of the kittens came home. I didn’t think nothing about it. I just don’t care if I ever speak to them again. Anyway back to the story, their daughter came running out of the garage screaming and crying. Well of course I had to sit up and take notice. Well the kid was on the porch crying, here came Momma and let her in. Then here comes Momma back to the garage. She was chewing her husband out so bad, I am surprised y’all didn’t hear her. What had happened was the kittens are big enough to get out of whatever they have them in. Old Pop’s there ran over one of them in their garage. It made me so angry. They stole something that was never meant to be there and the poor kittens are the one to have to suffer for it. I have thought on it and thought on it, the minute they all get in the car and go somewhere. I am going to the local kitten shoppe. I told my hubby what had happened. He was surprised and angier than I imagined he would be. He told me not to go over there by myself. He is going with me.  May I look at thing differently from others but those kittens should never had to suffer because of those people. I told hubby when we first moved out here I liked them. But now it’s a different story (and it has nothing to do with the kitten incident either).  They act like they are entitled to whatever they want. They don’t care if it belongs to someone or not, if they want they should have it. I don’t know if you know of any people like that are not. I know one thing, they test your patience. My poor patience have been stretched to their limit.

Well I guess I better run for now. I hope everyone has a great day and thank you for listening me to vent. Hopefully I won’t have to do that very often. But I have to admit I feel better now. While I got this warm and fuzzy feeling going on, I am going to run……..

Lady A