D is for Doorways

To me doorways metaphysically represent the passing from one space to another.

When I open up my shrine cabinet, I am opening a doorway to my deities and their space. I invite them to formally join me in a ritual or sometimes just a conversation. But I don't always formally invite my deities into my life, sometimes its a casual invitation or sometimes they open the door themselves.

Sometimes the doorway isn't the physical opening of a door. Sometimes the doorway is in my mind. When I meditate I step through a mental doorway to change my perceptions and even my reality. Guided meditations are often particularly useful to mentally step through the doorways between realities.

In the metaphysical sense doorways also help us divide things. You can symbolically create a doorway between you and what you want to release and shut the door to sever the connection. Maybe even lock the door or board it up.

The problem with doorways though, is that sometimes others can come through them. We all need to be careful what we allow through the doorways we open.

C is for Cats

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the letter "C" is cats of course! And this can also be related back to pagan topics :)

Cats are truly interesting creatures. They allow us to feed them and shelter them, in return we end up in cuddly kitty piles or for some a familiar. Now I've never considered any of my felines a familiar but I know many who do.

During the European witch hunts, (black) cats were often times considered a witch's familiar that was given to her by the devil. To this day black cats are often seen as unlucky.

Today, some pagans look to cats as a familiar, and I often wonder how does that one cat become considered a familiar. Why that cat and not another? Do individuals with multiple cats sometimes have multiple familiars? Can you really pick out your familiar at a pet store or shelter?

For me and probably plenty of others, my cats are a part of my family. As you can see in the picture I added in, I have a few feline family members :). I often joke that I run a "half-way house for those in need that never leave". I have never been able to go pick out a cat, no regrets here btw. Every cat that has come into my life (7 at current count) came to me by chance. They all have their own stories and their own personalities and I love each of them. The challenge ultimately becomes how not to house more cats than I can reasonably care for. 

B is for Books

Books, books and more books. I have a lot of love for books. Thankfully so does my sweetie. One day we hope to have a small home library with its own room and everything :)

As I work on becoming more environmentally aware, my love of books makes me think. I do have an ebook reader - two actually plus my phone - and they are great. A wonderful way to read to my heart's content without having to carry around each individual book.

Now physical books are a touch more complicated. There is a bit more of an environmental impact when it comes to physical books. This includes the producing and transportation of said books. I haven't really looked in to actual numbers and such but I'm not sure how many books are printed on recycled materials. This could be something to eventually look into.

In the meanwhile, I love purchasing books from used bookstores (and Amazon but that doesn't really help). I'm trying to purchase  more books from used bookstores as well as sell unwanted books to used bookstores. I wish I could find more pagan/New Age books there. For those books I tend to go more to Amazon marketplace. There is also the realistic aspect that used books also cost less.

On another thought, to get books authors need support. And new books need to be purchased to support authors. Hmmmm...tricky bit there. Well, I generally buy fiction books as ebooks - I just read too many of them to justify how much of my current space it would take up. I do like to buy them physically when I have a chance to actually meet the author and get them signed though.

Writing out this blog makes me realize that if I were to say 'ok only buying used books because they are better for the earth', I'd be missing out the entire part of supporting those authors who's books I love and that could reduce the writing of new books. I will have to think about this some more.

A is for Animal Spirits

Trying to actually start the Cauldron Blog Project. I am such a blog slacker.

And this will be a bit of a ramble so please be patient with me.

At Pantheacon I attended a class by Lupa who works with animal spirits; she is also an author (check out Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone) and an artist.

The class in question was animal skulls as ritual partners. I touched on this briefly in my last post but I'd like to explore it a tad more.

During class we  did a meditation with animal skulls. Although I usually am a cat person I ended up with a coyote skull to meditate with. I felt such a pull from this skull that she ended up going home with me. Several things that surprised the crap out of me here; I've taken anatomy classes before. Never really noticed anything of a skin spirit. With in moments of focusing on this skull I got one heck of a "hello" back. As with all things in faith, I am a healthy skeptic. This could of just been my imagination.

I acquired a bobcat skull and this skull has a completely different feel than the coyote. I was working with the theories that Lupa works with her skulls and it could have been her residual energy and again it could have all been in my head. Where the coyote's energy was more accepting and content, the bobcat skull that had clearly been sitting on a shelf in a warehouse somewhere was a lot more stand offish, not quite hostile but wary.

Taking this little experiment a touch further. I handled some furs; bobcat and coyote faces to be exact. I thought I was going to be physically sick, not out of disgust of handling the fur but something else. Again it was mostly from the bobcat face. I have no issue with leather or removing dead pet bodies growing up.

So what is the difference between dead family pets, animal pelts, and skulls and human remains. I don't know.But I would like to.

Why did a coyote skull end up in my hands instead of a cat? These are all things that could be all in my head but somehow I think it is a bit more than that.

I plan on continuing to work with the remains and as Lupa names them "skin spirits" and see what happens.