The Spirit Familiar

So here we are, looking at a title and thinking...."oooo this looks like fun" and you know what, it is!

I have been a practitioner of magick for over 15 years and in that time I have found a real affinity for working with the spirits of the natural and other world. In that I mean those spirits that are inherent in the world around and also apart from us, from simple elementals to faerie nobles. Now I'm not saying that I have always been a whiz at this or that I am an expert but with that said. Experience I think speaks to its self............

So lets talk about it shall we hehehe.

The spirit familiar by its definition (which you can easily find online) is a spirit that works to aid or complete tasks that are set by the witch (magickal practitioner). A spirit familiar is denoted by the fact that it is exactly that..........a spirit. It may appear in many forms, most often it will be that of an animal but it can also be more sinister of benevolent looking depending on the spirit or the person with whom it has its relationship.

Witches particularly were thought to commune with their familiars and gain their aid through bargains with demons or the devil himself, however..........I myself know that this is certainly not your only choice in contacting a familiar haha. The spirits of the elemental plane for example can make amazing and perfectly helpful spiritual familiars. The key of course to all of this is the word FAMILIAR!!!! Now if you look at entities like guardian spirits, ancestors, or spirit guides its important to note their familiarity with us, for our ancestors it is our shared bond of blood or society that bridges the gap and makes us familiar with them. If you look at spirit guides or guardian spirits it is the bonds of guardianship or contractual/magickal agreements that bridges the gap of familiarity.

However for a bog standard familiar spirit  like again an elemental or the faerie who visits me frequently during meditations (often to my own frustrations as he seldom arrives for any other reason than to scold me although, we have had the occasional dance on the grass) the familiarity and relationship must be created and worked on. You wont be able to have automatic access to any familiar you choose, it takes work and effort! Work and effort that yields reward based on the amount of effort and work that you put in to the relationship.

For example in my astral grove (a place that I visit and maintain in meditation frequently) a boar spirit visits and guides me during meditations and journeys through the astral. He has been my animal spirit familiar for a long time and I have created a relationship with him that I nurture every time I visit my grove. He however stays in my astral workings and rarely if ever works with me on the physical realm. This is because I have not created a conduit or portal for him to work through..............So yes I said conduit!

So putting it bluntly a spirit familiar needs a place to live, whether that be a piece of magickal jewellery, special shrine, or an animal skull. From this conduit/portal it will work with you and you can develop a relationship wit it. The conduit/portal should be what you use to build your relationship, it will be where or what you make your libations (offerings) to and you will use it  to instruct your familiar. For example in the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft and Magick there is a toad called Fred which was a spirit familiar for a witch in the 1920s. Fred resided in the body of this toad and was much like my boar, an animal spirit and familiar of that witch who worked with him (I say him.....but familiars choose odd names and there is no guarantee Fred was a bloke).

The idea over all is that spirit comes to the totem, shrine, or amulet you have made in to a conduit to be communed and worked with, but is then free to move about and complete the task that it has been asked to. For example a dried toad may be kept to hold the spirit (called Fred for example) and in times of action the spirit is invoked to go about its masters bidding and complete its given task. Returning to the dried remains when its task is complete. Working with a spirit familiar is not for the light hearted or the inexperienced.

This magick which has very deep roots in folk lore, and folk magick is full of room for experimentation and of course error. but bear in mind when I say error, I mean to advise that with all the best intentions this sort of magick yields very varied results. Its power is certain and effective and when applied properly you can gain allies in every world out there. But be warned that all spirits have a personality just like you and me so you can never escape the reality that............... Even spirits can be arseholes and wont always do as they are asked.

Adorations

Daily adorations are one of the few constants outside of the seasonal and lunar cycles that I commit to doing regularly. Some days it is harder than others and some days it truly feels like a chore but its always worth it when I do it.

I worship 2 gods upon my altar who are Elen and Herne, They have been my patrons ever since I began to really take my druidry seriously. They are deeply tied to the powers of the land and I really love the tales that are told of both of them. Although their origins aren't like those of the ancient Greek or Egyptian deities there is no reason for me to doubt them or the blessings they bestow upon my life and the lives of those around me.

So every single day I open the powers of my shrine with the lighting of a candle and I evoke the awen, I address the spirit of that light and then I pray..............for everything.......for anything.........and sometimes for nothing. At times all I want to do is tell the god and goddess that I love them and want them to be with me. I then offer to my ancestors and the gods before completing the adoration. Every time I perform this ritual of adoration I find a moment of peace, of solace, of clarity, and it pulls me closer to the gods (or them closer to me, I'm not sure which)......The point is, although some days I can't wait to get to the end of the day and commune with my lord and lady and other days I have to drag myself from my bed with heavy limbs, it's positives far outweigh the negatives.

I have been sharing this dedication with a friend of mine who of course has her own set of magickal needs and expectations. For example she performs hers every morning as a pose to me doing it in the evening, she lights 3 candles on her altar to represent each ray of the awen, where I only use the one. I also pray to deities that she doesn't, but the same rings true for her as it does for me.......Every single day there is a moment that is hers, that is based on her own terms which rewards her in a way that only that moment can. We take that moment every day as sacred and to acknowledge the divine in the world, in the other world, or in the cosmos..........then in that exact same moment it acknowledges us.

Something amazing I heard on a documentary that I watched about astronomy and stars says much the same thing about how amazing it feels to connect with things that are so much bigger than you are.........."Stars are millions, billions, or trillions of light years away and we will never be able to go to those starts in our lifetimes to ever touch them, but every night when you go out under the night sky you are caressed by the very light of those same stars that are so far away. You may not be able to touch them but from so far away, a beautiful powerful vibrant and immense force is in that moment.......touching you.

That is how I feel when I do my adoration every evening, in that moment when I sit in front of my shrine the gods look back at me in love and smile back. No matter how you do it or who its too I urge you to try something.....anything.....every day. Who knows, you might feel the light of the gods shine on you too.

My home shrine that I use for my daily adorations.

Cauldron of warming.

I have begun to see a theme recently within my Druidry and occult practices. I follow the work of an artist that has been producing some amazing art with the male figure and the ideas of occultism...... http://allanspiers.com/sabbath ( follow this link to take a look, be warned that it is a wee bit rude :P). This work is a demonstration of the strength you need in magick, both as physical and as spiritual. In Magick you need to be strong, you need to be able to put enough effort in to your will to be able to have that return from your Magick. Bear in mind this isn't to say that unless you are buff you can't do Magick. No it is to say that no occultist worth their salt could be described as weak of mind, conviction, or faith there is a strength in Magick that is needed for success.

Anyway the point I was making and how it is tied in to my practice is that recently I have been going to the gym and following a diet plan. This isn't strict but it's also a work in progress, much like everything we do I suppose. Anyway, the reason for going to the gym and following this diet is simple. The more powerful my body is then the more I can put in to my Magick therefore increasing my success and the extent of my magickal will. This is also a practice that will help other areas of my life too. Work, love and family life will be easier and healthier if I have the strength and vitality to handle it all.

So today whilst I was going hell for leather on the rowing machine I was bored senseless due to the lack of music so I decided to just row, shut my eyes, and see what would happen. Inspiration struck as I began to row harder and harder and without the visual input I could feel the heat of my body rising and getting hotter and hotter. I was totally focused on my body and its movements. Before long I began to imagine a cauldron before me and a great fire beneath it (it just apeared, right there in my mind.....pop!!!!). Just like Cerridwen's cauldron which was used to brew the elixir of Awen for her ugly son. I could see clearly the fire in my body fuelling the inspiration inside and growing giving it strength. Every pull on the machine was like a breath of life to the fire and it made my vision heave with strength. It was a great visualisation and worked to keep me entertained during my workout hahaha.

So all this stuff has been going on, checking out some awesome artwork that's been inspiring me to get fit and connect to deity through my body, then working on my Druidry and the different cauldrons of the three worlds and of the body. All this stuff being done but I'm still surprised to find that during my study time I open up a book and read a translation of Irish works that talks about the cauldron of warming........ :-o ....... This caldrons is used to fuel creativity and the more you use it and the stronger it gets the more powerful your creativity.............. Well it took me by surprise and I couldn't help but think I needed to write this down and remember that we can only realise our potential if we work to unlock and release it :D.

At last I think the message has sunk in and I can't wait to work with these principals and see what new revelations occur. :D

Swimming through the sunlight

There was an amazing opportunity on Tuesday to do some outdoor ritual. It's really cold and mostly miserable right now but on Tuesday there was a break in the cloud and the sun shone down on the shire with almost if not definite magickal effect. I took this chance to invite my friend Rhiannon to come and collect some sacred well water with me. I mean why the hell not, it's not very often we have a pleasant day in Feb haha.

So traveling to the shire we visited a sacred spring that sits under the ruins of an old church. It was stunning as the ground and graves were littered with snowdrops and the air although crisp from the cold was softened with the warmth of the low early spring sun. It was an opportunity to flex my Druid ritualist muscles and whilst collecting the water pay homage to the ancestors and the kindred of the three realms of land, sea, and sky. Something that has been a research focus this past few months.

As we were there collecting water it seemed obvious to offer the spirits hazel nuts (well maybe it's not that obvious but being a Druid has its qwerks). These were to symbolise the great hazel trees that feed the salmon of wisdom. So we made three offering before collecting the water, first to the realm of  Abred 1 nut was placed upon the land, second to the realm of Gwynvyd 1 nut was placed upon the charcoal, then third to the realm of Annwn 1 nut was dropped in to the water. With that we gave our blessings and collected the water from the spring and asked the spirits to share the powers of the spring with our brothers and sisters who would join in the waters we had collected.

With the collection made we decided to spend the rest of our nuts on the local spirits. We offered nuts to the ancestors at the graves, to the kindred in the trees and snowdrops of the land and then to the great stones of the ruins and the memory of the sacred spirituality that without whom we wouldn't know of this place. There was Magick in the air at every moment that seemed to to move about us like mist through strands of sunlight.

It was simplicity but it was magick. The time me and my sister in the craft spent there was truly enchanting and the spirits certainly accepted our offerings. When the time came to work with the waters we had collected for ritual, our Augur Cerridwen read the tarot. The spirits were pleased and although they gave poignant advice and hard truth through the cards the overall message was clear. Our offerings and the work we had done at the well had been (just as I had hoped) right and worthily accepted.

This is a whole new chapter, a great new beginning and I hope others that share this journey with me can hear the whispers of the kindred spirits.

Kai :D xxxx

Circles circles everywhere and never a corner to call

Circles can be found everywhere you look, look up and you will see the sun or the moon. The motion of our horizon and our sky is circular so it's no wonder that the ancients of our land built roundhouses and stone CIRCLES all around them selves. They made circles something mirrored in their lives from what they found in nature. 

The craft that I follow also works in circles, the druidry I do and the magickal practices that I have they all work with circles. Most notably within magickal practice is the casting of a circle, this is a spell to begin all spells that works as a ritual to bring the power of sacredness and creation in to the material world. I love circle castings and know about 4 off by heart that I use interchangeably depending on the work that is going to follow it. To be fair most circle castings are in them selves spells that can be used intercahngably, they can either be used to protect you or they can be cast after a circle to do other things like invoke, evoke, enchant or to summon. Circles have an uncanny ability of bringing what is scattered in to one defined place, giving focus to the mind and giving unity to the spirit and soul.

Mostly however when you use the power of the circle casting you use it to go around yourself,or another and or even a place, you encircle things with a protective veil. Whatever your reasons for using the circle, the defining quality of a circle is that there is always something within it and something outside of it. An example of this is from a recent trip I took to Glastonbury.

This August me and my grove went to Glastonbury to perform a weekend of ritual at popular pilgrimage sights like the tor and the chalice well gardens and so on. Either way, the grove did some initiation rituals at the base of the tor where I myself was initiated in to the grove of my brothers and sisters. It was an amazing place to perform these rituals and to perform them in public too was very brave in my opinion. I was proven right too when as we were setting up a local gent (who could have been easily described as drunk haha) decided to take interest and stand in the centre of our group and wind everyone up. Myself and a few of the seasoned witches and Druids weren't really fazed and just got on with it but some of the others were a little put off by him. Some of our brothers and sisters were gearing up for an initiation which meant so much to them. Quite rightly so they didn't want it ruined by a stranger but it was too late for changes at the last minute we needed to get set up.

Now this man was really trying my patience even if I was confident in our power he was starting to get on my nerves. I had to remind myself frequently to not say anything and to just focus on getting started. I needed to make sure that when we began he wouldn't be in the way and I began to focus on getting everyone else organised and in position. It probably helped that everyone was trying to push him away with their energy and were equally focused on getting set up but it wasn't until we had finished the circle casting that I noticed the man had gone............completely gone. I realised later that our circle casting was performing a great deal of magick  before we had even begun saying the words or giving the gestures.

My sister Rae who was helping people with their initiations said she noticed the same but unlike when you practice alone she pointed out that "when we were divided he was in our way, but as soon as we united in the circle casting he vanished". I thought about what she said, thought hard about it and she was right. Even when we are alone and preparing for ritual our thoughts and our focus is not defined or concentrated and distractions abound until we are organised in to casting the circle. We define our focus and unite our mind with body and spirit. Much like within our group we were scattered thoughts and divided opinions getting ready to find our place within the whole trying desperately to deal with a distraction. But when we had finally lit the lantern and set off the charcoal our unity of purpose empowered that circle with a sacred thought in a timeless moment. The circle did more than surround us, it also focused us, gave us a point to concentrate on, and unified our thoughts. The protection came not only from just the etherial line that we drew in the air but the unified power that we wielded when the circle was cast.

I am always going to remember this and hold on to it whenever I cast a circle. That magick comes from when you stand firm in your power, when you focus your power in to a single point, when you point the wand unwavering and say the words with conviction. When you unite with the power of your gods, the power of the land you know it will fill up your circle and you will feel and see what it is to really cast a circle and why.

A spell a day keeps the faerie's away................ish

TSo familiar spirits are the theme of my post today. What they appear as when we see them and how we interact with them. So by definition what is a familiar or familiar spirit? According to google (a most reliable source :P) a familiar spirit is a spirit that assists and interacts with a witch or person practicing Magick to help them in their Magickal endeavours. Sound about right? A spirit familiar is often deacribed as a animalistic creature that appears with the witch but can also appear as a human or humanoid in shape, but often they are described as completely corporeal and in no way ethereal like ghosts. I think these definitions can be down to interpretation or the type of familiar you have cos my familiar is nothing like that haha.

I love the idea of spirit familiars in much the same way as I like the idea of spirit guides. I think they are there to help, guide and assist you when your in need of a bit of companionship within the craft (well, companionship that doesn't require a human). There are lots of people out there who are scared of said familiars and would describe them as demonic or parasitic but this raises the question with me. If there is such thing as parasites within Magick then which way is it.........are they being parasitic or in fact is it us? Are we infact the parasites that entice spirits to aid us and then call upon them willy nilly expecting the same level of assistance from a spiritual entity when infact they probably have issues of their own. Again this probably depends entirely on you and your relationship with said familiar :D.

For example an elementary created by you to aid you in your work would not have anything better to do and that is simply because you are all it knows, and quite rightly so :/ . Imagine if all of a sudden all the elementaries in the world took an instant attraction to sausages......... Funny image maybe but it could prove problematic if you replace the word sausage with something more sinister. Elementaries are created for 1 purpose so that this CA'NT happen (although........ You may wanna watch out for sausages hahahahahahaha).

Familiar spirits however are more intuative and intelligent than something that has been created for a single purpose. More often than not they will come to you, or be with your from birth, but some of us are in positions in life where we come in to contact with a different spirit and become connected with them. This exact thing happened to me just over a year ago when I was experimenting with and studying faery Magick. However that's a different story that will come up sooner or later I'm sure :P.

I think the key to working with a familiar spirit is to focus on your ability to listen and understand each other, the more connect you are to the world around you and the more in tune you are the easier it will be to have that connection with a familiar.

What do you c in the craft.

So it's been a long time since I posted on here about my a-z. I hadn't forgotten about it, I just needed more time to get my material out of my head and in to the world. Thinking about the craft and what it is to so many of us made me think of the next letter in the alphabet.......... So yeah anyway I'm gonna let you try and guess what C is going to be while I rabbit on like and old man :D haha.

I'm always writing about my grove family and the differences that we all have in Magick, how amazing I think that is AND.........well....... how much I love it. But I never discuss what or why those differences come together, let alone how they work or why they are so positive. So I suppose I should probably start with myself and go from there. When I started out with the craft it was journey to discover myself and the strength I needed within to deal with the world around me. With no luck gaining what I needed from the faith surrounding me I turned to other places and other people.

The first ingredient in my Magickal life came in the form of a book called Practical Magick by Marian Green. It was a great book for a beginner and described a lot of the concepts expressed by Wicca. Then there was a little orange book of spells for happiness followed by The Tower of Alchemy (a book I eventually gave away because it was WAY tooooooo complicated for my tiny mind hahahaha). So my first steps in to a spiritual life where therefore based in the working of the great Wiccan teachers like Gerald Gardener and so on. In the years to come I added more and more ingredients to my pot and that included the tarot, reiki, a brief study of shamanism, buhdist meditations, sound therapy and earth healing. But soon I found myself at a dead end and needed to find some training in the craft that didn't come from just books and blogs. I wanted a teacher to show me which ingredients could help with my journey.

There was also the desire for community, a group of strangers that I could turn to and make friends with, where the bond we had was based on something we shared in our craft. That's when I turned to the practice of Druidry and The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. I worked with the bardic course for about 18 months and passed the grade, which added a massive chunk of knoweledge and what I consider the foundation to my own craft in to the already interesting mix. The Druidry also gave me an outlet for what I was constantly learning and developing through my craft, my grove :D.

It was becoming more and more apparent to me that I wasn't just finding the strength I wanted within but creating it and brewing it for myself too. I was brewing strength, compassion and understanding within myself. I was using the different disciplines and ways of thinking to create, in myself, what I wanted to achieve in the outer world. I wanted to show, power in times of conflict, courage in times of trouble, compassion in times of heartbreak and understanding in times of confusion. But you can only do that by fostering those qualities inside yourself.

Now I'm coming back to the point I wanted to get to at the start of this post, like myself the grove/family I am proud to be a part of is a big hodgepodge of different things that make up the whole. We are members that study druidry, Wicca, hoodoo, Strega, ceremonial Magick, shamanism and just simple mindfulness. It is that combination that creates strength, all added together with tolerance, understanding and compassion so that the ingredients can interact and work together.

So have you guessed what I'm getting at? A magickal tool that begins with C that you can put lots of different things in and mix them together to create Magick?................................C is for Cauldron :D. That Magick pot that you put everything in, the pot that holds the ashes of your Magick Fire, the pot that has your water in for concecration of the circle or the candle that sits in the southern corner. It's the go to tool when you need to fill something with offerings to the gods. All in all the cauldron is the thing we use to hold everything and make things manifest through magickal practice.

But the couldron can be found in us, the places we live and the people we love. The whole world is a cauldron of Magick that is being constantly added to and stirred up creating massive changes in us and the rest of the world around us. Never underestimate the power of a container, least of all the container that is mostly associated with the power of the goddess and especially if you aren't ready to let out, whatever it is that you have put inside.

Blessed be lovelies xx