Spellworking 3 - Familiars
April 7th 2008 01:46
Often seen with the witch is her infamous black cat. The ledgend of familiars is wide and varied and generally give the witch and her familiars great and wonderful powers. Often a witch is seen with a bird of some sort, usually a hawk or crow.
As with most ledgends, those powers are real, but severly overestimated and romantisised.
The definition of a familiar is an animal that shares your aura and allows you to share it's own. A lot of people now have this relationship with their household pets, so when does a pet become a familiar?
A pet becomes a familiar when it can contact you and invade your mind without your permission. This means that its connection with you has become so deep that it no longer needs you to 'open the door' it can simply come and go at will. A familiar is thought to enhance a witch's magic, make spells stronger and gift the witch with its senses.
Personally, Ive never had a familiar be useful in a ritual. As a rule, animals can move in and out of magic circles without breaking them, but I have yet to have one actually help in a ritual. So far as spells go, I would say my familiars strengthen everything I do just by lending me their senses which allows me gifts such as Far Sight through the Spirit Link. Also, combining their aura to your own makes your own energy larger or more concentrated, but this is a tricky thing as any lashback you occur in a spell will also cut your beloved familiar.
So, which of my animals are familiars? All of them. All 5 horses, 2 ducks, pigeon, 3 cats and mynah bird can act as familiars for me, but not all are wedded to me. My personal familiars who are completely wedded to me and me alone are Najara the mynah bird, Xiara my cat and Zayfir my stallion. These 3 answer to me and no other, where the other animals have loyalties to mum and Kman. Through Zayfir's senses I can smell and hear the tops of the far away mountains and check the weather, through Zee I can feel spiritual presences more strongly and actually feel the lines of power in the air. As Zee has been with me the longest our bond is quite extrodinary and together we have worked wonderous magicks. The mynah bird has her own devilish ways and I find her extremely useful in darker things - which zee and zayf will do but under duress - whereas for the mynah bird it seems to be the constant state of being! She has yet to reach her full potential, and having her indoors limits her severely. Sometimes while mind melding I get an in depth look at the grains of wood in a door frame - imagine what she could see for me if she were outside! I had only had her a few hours, a tiny baby tucked in my bra when I said, "Najara, have you any idea where my blue socks are?" to have them tumble from the drawer Id already searched 3 times!
The reason a cat is most popular is because they have a wide range - excellent eyes, noses and magical senses, never mind being able to roam and bring you all kinds of messages. A cat is also easy to obtain, and I strongly recommend 'saving' one from a shelter. Zee Zee was a rescue from a feral mother. If a familiar is purchased, it tends to be harder to tame, knowing it is a 'pet' first and foremost. A rescued animal is forever greatful and thus the spirit link is achieved that much more quickly and strongly.
So...You're asking, what is a spirit link?
A spirit link is a direct line of power between you and the animal. It plaits your life force together so you become inextricably linked and even if you or the familiar dies you will forever be connected. I use the spirit link when rescueing - tiny baby birds often have little will to live and joining their energy to my own ensures my heart beats for them and my lungs breathe for them, but I find they still need the physical proximity of my body warmth for it to be maintained. Usually, once the baby is old enough to survive on their own they begin to disentangle themselves and I encourage this and let them go forth into their own energy and lives. I always know when an animal is extra special as, instead of the link fading out and disappearing, it only gets stronger as they get older. With Xiara, I knew it would, and with Najara, I was also certain it would be a life long thing. Zayfir took me by surprise as I had always intended to sell him, yet as he grew I found our hearts wound together, I realized, with the miracle of blood in his viens - double psychic bred - I was a fool to think I could ever sell him.
A familiar, through working with you, learns to spirit walk or astral travel. For cats this is so easy to learn as they sleep so much anyway, its really only a matter of time before they leap out of their body and go for a dream wander. Najara does it a lot but it seems to frighten her when she leaps back into her body. Horses are another matter.....I dont meet many that can do it. Most horses are telepathic, but as for spirit walking I thought Tesh would be the only horse I met that could do it, until I met the 'Silver Family' which Zayfir derives from. When a horse spirit walks they tend to take their bodies with them - when the mist rolls in or the moon is full I can scour every inch of the paddock and Tesh quite simply isnt there. Zayfir's father is a spirit horse in truth - even to touch him you think he isnt quite there. Zayfir has doubled his parents qualities in himself - as sometimes happens with psychic talent in all species - and as he gallops past each stride seems to be in a different world. Its as if he's constantly dappled by shade as he walks through the worlds. Yet to touch him, to stand by him, he seems more real than the ground beneath your feet. His smell is rich and strong and his body is solid as a rock and often if Im feeling out of it I just have to go and lay a hand on him to ground myself back in this reality. His eyes are deeper than any soul's - human or animal - that Ive ever known and sometimes I feel as if a God has chosen to be a horse, just to play awhile. He is certainly older and far more powerful than me.
To attempt ritual with him would, I think be folly for me, he is so far advanced!
Once learning a particular animal, Ive found I can pick up on the rest of the species. The only one so far in which this does not work is the mynah bird. If out and about and I attempt to link with one I know it has worked yet am greeted by locked doors and "Who the hell do you think you are?" Doves, pigeons, horses, sheep, hawks......All accept me on short term basis and allow me to borrow their gifts and in return I leave them a gem of my most purest energy.
So generally, the ledgends of familiars spying for witches, or sharing senses, are absolutely correct. A familiar is not essential to spellwork by any means, but they are very useful and can offer advice if you let them. The mystical link of sharing magic and life with an animal is an amazing experience.
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Raven
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Kalikapsychosis
There is no such thing as coincidence, and its a gift to you that many dont get to taste.
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