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.
Very interesting, I have a small skull I found while visiting my Grandparents when I was a teenager. I've used it in rituals before, but never thought about using it to connect with the animal spirit. I also have a snake skin, shed from a snake we used to have as a pet. I will definitely have to try it with both and see what I experience!
ReplyDelete