I've always had some kind of connection to animals. It seems like there has always been some kind of animal in my life. By the time I was 15yo, there had been 4 dogs, 1 cat [very temporarily], and countless fish in aquariums. And that's not including the dogs my extended family had. To this day, I can usually gain the confidence of neighborhood cats. Dogs adore me and want to jump up and give me kisses and love.
As I grew older and began my research into various branches of the pagan path, I was comforted by the fact that a love of animals seemed to work hand in hand with the vast majority of what I was looking into. And i'm not just talking about the whole idea of the witch with her black cat familiar, either. I remember reading once about frogs and toads being used as familiars. In the early 2000s, I got myself a Pacman toad and jokingly stated that with him and my cat, I was then a proper Witch. Actually, now that I think of it, since coming out of the broom closet, I've owned cats, frogs, snakes, rats, and mice. All purported familiars for witches. I hadn't actually thought about that before.
Outside of the one kitten my father found and brought home when I was young [under 5yo], I didn't live in a house with a cat until I was in college and my early-to-mid 20s. But cats always loved me and wanted to mark me as theirs. My mother, being allergic, probably wasn't too thrilled about this when I still lived with her. Since 1999, I have had cats constantly in my home. Currently there are 5 in our home :: 4 owned by me and BD, and 1 owned by our housemate. And yes, we have the requisite black cat with beautiful green eyes. In the ultimate reference to witches and their familiars, her name is Elphaba, after the Wicked Witch of the Wicked Years Saga by Gregory Maguire. She was actually named by her original human, but we adopted her and BD has become her human. She's incredibly interested in the magic that we do, and occasionally helps with tarot readings.
We also have 2 ghost kitties in our home. One is the ghost of my sweet Toby, who passed away back in 1994 when he was barely 2 1/2yo. He's come to help usher the souls of our other pets over the Rainbow Bridge when they've passed away. I can easily say that he was definitely my familiar, moreso than any other of my pets over the years. Despite how odd it sounds, I would even go so far as to say he was one of my soulmates. We just connected in ways that I can't explain. And he always had to be involved in my magical workings when he was alive, but he'd never touch my altar. Go figure.
I've had a lot of spirit animals and totems coming in and out of my life over the years to share their lessons and/or energy with me. This will just be my generic overview of them, as I'm hoping to devote an entry to each of the major ones during this project.
- Donkey
- Daddy Long Legs // Grandmother Spider
- Cat
- Dog
- Trumpeter Swan
- Kestrel / Merlin
- Gyrfalcon
- Gryphon
- Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake [shadow totem]
- Scorpion [shadow totem]
- Roosevelt Elk
- Hyena
- African Painted Dog
- Rat
Years ago, Oak's mother told me that everyone has 9 totem animals around them at all times, 2 permanents [one male, one female] and 7 transitory/temporary. Grandmother Spider is my permanent female. My permanent male is a gryphon I met through guided meditation with Oak's mother. In fact, I also found my safe spot for meditation in that same session. The gryphon and the location are intertwined for me. The others are all transitory in some way, shape, or form, and that's okay. I just have really strong connections to them for various reasons, so include them as totems because of that.
And this ended up slightly longer than I'd initially intended, but that's okay.
-- Sadie
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