Weekend Witchcraft; Animal Guides and How To Find Them

Kaijana, my fierce and powerful animal guide. 

Animal guides are different for all of us, and in my own experience they tend to shift and change with us throughout our lives. She was once a leopard, smaller in stature, and far more timid. Black with dark brown spots. Today she is a massive golden jaguar, her head is nearly the size of pillow. She doesn't tolerate much, and is fiercely territorial. Kaijana is my greatest asset and has pushed, prodded, and snarled at me to become the woman I am today, and one I am truly proud to be. 

To find your animal guide takes time. I don't recommend the trip for anyone who is faint of heart or short on patience. Again, I surmise that the journey to finding your guide is different for everyone. Mine began, as most of you already know, with a thorough cleansing of my home. You will need to meditate, and one session will rarely yield all of your answers.Doing so for some can feel like astral projecting, moving to a different plane of existence where the metaphysical is more physical than meta, allowing  you to see the unseen within and outside yourself. Focus on breathing, and if your brain is wandering, try to give it a singular thought, a word or even just staring into a candle flame, to put your mind in the proper state. I used an Ascended Guides candle, sandalwood incense, and a pentagram charm from Some Enchanted Evening to help discover the name of mine, and it truly worked to gain her trust once more.

Once found, name learned, and trust earned, be sure to speak to them often and keep them close. I wear a necklace with a pendant shaped like a fang filled with pyrite and a drop of mercury, reminding me of her fierce and powerful nature. Recently I purchased a small figurine of a powerful jaguar placed by my personal spell candle. I also found Rainforest incense by Gaia, which I burn in the living room and makes my home feel like exactly that. Kaijana sleeps in my bed at night, taking up most of the full size mattress, often headbutts me to get to work, and loves to prowl on a walk about town. So far she has helped me to make better choices, and to do so confidently and without fear. 

The power of your animal guide is only limited to that which you limit yourself. If you choose to have none, the possibilities which they hold for you can be as endless and vast as time itself. 

Spirit Animal Reborn

I seemed to be gifted with a new companion since cleansing the house. My spirit animal comes to me now in the form of a protective, fierce, yet often skittish jaguar of larger than normal size. I sleep in a large full-size futon and she takes up just about the entire bed, with a smidge of space left for me. She's been around for a few weeks, now, but only this morning has taken to resting her head on my leg.

Her name is one that I know in my mind, yet can't quite suss out. Its just like that word on the tip of your tongue, yet it remains there for days on end now, unspellable and unpronounceable, yet I know it in my heart. I can see it vaguely in my minds eye. I know it begins with a K, and has many vowels, and a j that sounds like a y.

She is fucking ferocious and not to be trifled with, was downright scary today with company, but only in the good way, which was protective of my well-being and making sure I never allow anyone to over-step my comfort zone. She reminds me always to be strong, and never back down.

I'm looking forward to getting to know her better, and call her by her chosen name.

My Spirit Animal

Inspired by my darling LadyUnlaced's popular post about finding your spirit animal, I became emblazoned to write a post about my very own beloved spirit animal, the black spotted leopard.

source

Solitary, powerful, mysterious, wild, and absolutely free. Leopards in the wild are extremely opportunistic hunters, eating everything from big game to dung beetles if food becomes scarce.

Like Unlaced with her white tiger, I've always known this animal was mine. I remember seeing a picture of one in a Nat Geo book as a little girl and being in awe. I actually got the chance to see one in person at a local fair, and I was in awe as much as I was in shame. She was beautiful and deadly and should not have been in such a cage. I could see the "get me the fuck out of here" look in her eyes, and there was nothing more that I wanted to do than somehow get her back to the wild. 

My black panther spirit is named Aradia, a nod to the queen of the witches. She is strong and protective and puts my interests above all others. She is often cold and calculating, for she cares for no ones needs and happiness but my own, but I treasure her companionship always. 

Whose your spirit animal?