The Witch’s Familiar

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This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is a “Choose Your Adventure” practice, which means going back through the topics and picking one that you haven’t covered before.  As I’m new to this channel (and responding to it) this was very easy for me as there were many, many topics to choose from.

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My Chosen Topic for the Week of 8/12: “Do you have a familiar? What does that mean? How do you know if an animal companion is a familiar or is familiar material?” including “The roll of pets, if any, in your practice?”

The definition of a familiar is when a spirit possesses or takes the form of an animal in order to provide spiritual/magickal assistance and guidance. To me, I feel that the primary role of a familiar is to be a guide within the liminal space, astral plane, and spirit world.

Because I feel this way about the role of a familiar, I do not believe that a living being is suited for this task, and so I do not view pets as familiars. They are companions and a deep bond can be created between a person and their pet that transcends the “keeper/pet” dynamic. Pets can even be a part of one’s practice. But, I do not think that the primary role of what a familiar is can be filled by a living animal 99.9% of the time.

That said, I do think that spirits and energy can possess or embody a physical form. So, I suppose it could be possible.  I also, though, think it is extremely rare and that most who call their pets “familiars” are misusing the term.

I do have a cat.

Miss Luna has no interest in my spellcrafting, nor in the tarot. She also has no interest in my altar or hanging out in (or on) any of my sacred spaces. In fact, she is very careful to give me space and observe from a distance during any tarot time, spellcraft time, and ritual time I have.   She often sits right in front of the entrance to the room I am in during these times, and from there she will watch everything very closely.   Then, when I am done, she will return to be closer to me and following me around (which is her usual modus operandi).

Meanie, my previous cat, was much the same in this behavior.

 

 

The Dreamer’s Path

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Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and focused on what they named the concept of “coming home”.   That is to say, that meditation is, in essence, the act of “coming home” to one’s body.  On focusing your energy inward and finding peace within for the length of your time in meditation.

I had a hard time with this one namely because of what they called it.   I understood and agreed with the concept, but every time the guided meditation spoke the term “coming home”, I was yanked from my meditation an brought back to memories of the past.

I’ve mentioned this before, but as a child, whenever my father’s negativity really brought me down and got me worked up to where I’d end up crying, I always retreated to somewhere small and private and repeated again and again in my head “I want to go home. I want to go home.”  Even now, those words illicit tears, and typing them made my eyes water up.

I don’t know where I got this from as a child. It just happened.   And it didn’t stop happening until I’d emancipated from my parent’s home and was out on my own.

So, today’s meditation was not all that relaxing, as you might imagine.   NOW in my life, I am home.  I am no longer that little boy searching for the safety and security of “home” that he didn’t have back then.   But for some reason, the phrase “coming home” caused me to revisit him again and again.   It was very uncomfortable, and I may try a different meditation later today.

 Today’s draw is the Seven of Cups, which is a representation of progress, making choices, and the unknown, as well as looking outside the self, and the entrance of spirituality within the area of one’s emotions, creativity, intuition, and relationships. For example… being presented with choices and opportunities that have the potential to lead to progress.

The polar bear on today’s card is defined in the deck’s guidebook as representing fearlessness, independence, intuition, courage, patience, and balance.

What I see within this card today is daydreams and ideas that inspire creativity swirling in the sky, filled with possibility.   These possibilities require choices, but sometimes you have to take a moment to pause and listen to your gut to know which path to choose, and which choices are the best for you at this time, in this moment.

Today’s card is a reminder to pause and look over the choices instead of just going with whatever is the usual, habitual choice may be.  It’s a time for exploration of ideas, and seeking out what is calling out to me from within rather than with logic.

It’s a good message, and one I’m going to strive to incorporate into my day and today’s activities.

There is one decision that I have already made today, though, for my personal health and emotional well-being.  I’m going to stick with this deck, and put the Visions of Life Tarot away for now.  As much as I love the Visions of Life deck (and find it absolutely hilarious), the tongue in cheek humor is not speaking to me in the most positive of ways at the moment.  I may re-visit using it for daily draws in the future, but for now, I’m going to set it aside.

Deck Used: The Animism Tarot

 

Revisiting Fear and Indecision

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I wanted to revisit the topic of fear after my post from yesterday and the topic of the meditation that I did yesterday.

Yesterday’s meditation was about indecision, which I definitely do not have a problem with in any way, shape, or form.   But I feel like my post made it sound as if I don’t have fear, which is definitely not the case.

I do, absolutely, have fear.

I fear losing my home to the point where I obsess over work and push myself beyond my limits at times in how much work I should take on. (Thank goodness that I’m also someone that likes their creature comforts, or that fear might rule my entire life.)

I often have issues around fear when it comes to some of my scars (particularly the one on my face) and how people react (or may react) to them, which has gotten better over time as I am no longer trying to seclude myself into my home… but I know I still have a long way to go on this.

I fear my ex and the day he will be released from prison.   I fear my ex, as well, in his conniving “other” ways of trying to reach me even while he IS in prison.

I’m goddamned well -terrified- of spiders, even though my logical mind tells me I shouldn’t be.  You can add piranhas to that list, too, ever since as a kid I saw that first original Piranha movie.

The point is, I do have fears, and I didn’t want my post from yesterday coming off as some kind of bravado or something.  It’s just that fears do not inspire indecision for me.

For me, indecision doesn’t come from fear.  It appears when I am feeling extremely vulnerable, which can put me in a place of “I dunno, you choose”, and it appears when I have not managed to gather enough information or had the chance yet to think something through.

Scarcity Issues Redux

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Today’s meditation was ten minutes long, and focused on indecision, especially that which is spurred by fear of rejection.

I found the meditation itself very relaxing, but I didn’t really relate well to the topic of the day.  The only time I really feel indecision is when I’m in subdrop or feeling extremely vulnerable.  This means that my indecision is caused by something very specific, and is not due to some sort of fear or worry of rejection or the judgement from others.

I’m not sure how I developed this confidence, but I’ve never had an issue with judgement.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  There was a time when internally my soul bled due do the judgements pushed on me by my father, but even then… there was no indecision.  Not about my sexuality, not about what I felt was right or wrong, not about the things I liked, and the things I didn’t.  What my father contributed was to further teach me is the “what’s the worst that can happen” aspect (with reasonable common sense added in, of course).

You do what you want because…. what’s the worst that can happen?  Someone laughs at you?  So what?  Someone says no?   Well at least you asked and now you know.  Thinking of trying something new?  Yes, you might fail, but if you had fun along the way or learned something during the process (or from the results) then it wasn’t really a loss at all.

Today’s draw was yet again another double drop, with no jumper as they both came out together.  The cards in today’s draw are the Nine of Wands (Anxious) and the Five of Coins (Poverty).  I’m considering ceasing defining the cards for this deck, as I keep getting intuition hits before I reach for my knowledge of the suits in the tarot, or even read the key words on the cards..

This one was a no-brainer, and is pretty much the message that’s been coming through for a while now.  The repeat message is not a surprise, as it is a subject that I struggle with.

That is… scarcity issues.

More specifically, the obsession with ensuring I do not return to a place of poverty and desperation.

The cards today are reminding me that I am not poor.  I am not destitute.  Everything is okay and there is no need to be anxious.  That, in fact, the general anxiety I deal with may be a part of what keeps me in this mindset.

The repeating theme of this topic means it is something I need to look at deeper, and work on more diligently.  I think that this is not just a reminder, but an encouragement to take action and put some focus and work into finding ways to ease my anxiety in this area.

Deck Used: The Visions of Life Tarot

 

#TarotTube (non) VR to Inspiring Aliens and Brian Cormack Carr

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I was inspired to do this post after seeing Brian Cormack Carr’s YouTube response.  The original tag was from Inspiring Alien’s #TarotTube update video.

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The Questions:

1.What made you start Tarot YouTubing?

Well, I don’t make videos, but I do spend time watching TarotTube. What made me start?  It’s an interest of mine and I’m sure it just showed up in my “suggested videos” at one point and I realized “oh!  they have that on YouTube too?” and from there I was hooked.

2. What is the tarot scene like in your area?

Lots and lots and lots of opportunities to get a reading around where I live from a number of little metaphysical shops to small psychic reading establishments.  I would say you will find some kind of “Woo” within each city block, or possibly every other city block, around where I live.

3. Name an overrated deck and an underrated deck?

Hmmm Overrated just in that I can’t connect to it but it seems -everyone- likes it? The Prisma Visions Tarot.  I just don’t get it.

The Visions of Life Tarot, which is one of my daily draw decks for this month.   I really like the tongue-in-cheek humor that the deck offers up, and when I was looking for information on the deck, the only thing I could find was ONE YouTube channel in Russian that did a walk through.

4. Tarot in one word?

Life  (That is not to say that “tarot is life” in the colloquialism sense of using the word, but rather that it is a representation of life.  All aspects, all stages, all paths.  Life.)

5. Name three small tarot YouTube channels.

I chose to consider “small” as being three channels with under 400 subscribers.

Yarrowen, Ozark Oracle, Crow Quill Tarot

6. Your favourite type of tarot video on YouTube?

I very much enjoy tarot videos that are focused on shadow work. Heather Carter does a lot of these and really stands out as an excellent and enjoyable channel to check out for those kind of videos.  It’s not all she does on her channel, but I really enjoy her depth.

7. What would you a) think b) say c) do, if tarot suddenly didn’t exist?

So the question specifically says “suddenly didn’t exist” which I’m going to take means it did exist and then every tarot deck (and Lenormand and oracle deck) on the planet just… disappeared.

a) “WTF?? Where the hell did my decks go?”, b) “Oh hell no, I’m gonna fix this shit”, c) grab myself a set of playing cards and start drawing on them to make my own divination deck.

8. Do you use tarot apps?

Yes.  Not for readings, but some of the tarot apps out now have guidebooks for decks on them, especially apps made by The Fool’s Dog LLC.  This is useful for decks that I own, but either don’t want to dig out the guidebook for, or don’t have a guidebook for. This makes these tarot apps a spectacular resource.

9. Your favourite thing about the tarot community?

That it’s a community. I like that.  Not everyone always agrees or gets along, but that’s part and parcel of a community, I think.

10. Tarot video ideas?

Actually, I’ve submitted one or two to Modern Metaphysical Man, which he’s been kind enough to do.   Most of the time when ideas come up, I reach out to someone in the community I think the idea would fit well with and pitch it to them.   This means that they are then no longer stored up in my brain so I have NO idea what to write here at the moment.

11. Who do you tag?

I think by “tag” this means doing responses to their tags?  Anything that catches my interest and attention.  Some of those I’ve done responses to include Ethony, The Hermit’s Cave, Brian Cormack Carr, KellyBear, and others.

 

Its Better Together

/ Twist the Leaf / 3 Comments

Today’s meditation was ten minutes and ten seconds, and focused on the concept of gezellig, which is (apparently) a German adjective that means a kind of thing or activity that embodies a sense of joy or peace.

The guided meditation started out with a very broken down mindfulness technique or the breath that involves first focusing on the rise and fall of the belly, then the expansion and contraction of the ribs, then the rise and fall of the chest, before then focusing on how the breath moves like waves through each part. It was extremely relaxing.

After this, it spoke about the importance of adding activities into each day that help to restore the soul. These are things that bring you a sense of peace, joy, contentment, or fun. I think sometimes we all forget to do this, and forget to truly appreciate these things even when we do actually do them. I know that I am guilty of this.

Today’s draw is another double without a jumper. It is the 11th card in the Major Arcana, the Justice card (with chimpanzees), and the Two of Cups (with seals).

Today I’m not going to bother with traditional meanings because I got an intuitive hit (and currently riding in a car which means I’m flirting with getting car sick by working on this right now.

Today, the Justice card is telling me that we are going to get pulled over sometime today (or some other event that is going to deal with an authoritative figure and reckoning).

The Two of Cups is a reminder of emotional support. It says that I may either need it, or need to provide it, in relation to the above mentioned event. I’m traveling with J today, so we’ll just have to see how things go.

Deck Used: The Animism Tarot