Rachel Patterson - Pagan Portals--Animal Magic: Working With Spirit Animal Guides

Pagan Portals Animal Magic

Pagan Portals Animal Magic is a multi-faceted introduction to adding animal spirits to your personal spiritual practice. So much more than just a list of animals and their meanings, this helpful little book shows the reader how to form their own unique relationship with animal spirit helpers through meditation, dance, and other meaningful activities. If youre looking for a way to add animal magic to your life, no matter what your path, this is a book youll want on your shelf.

Laura Perry, author of Ariadnes Thread: Awakening the Wonders of the Ancient Minoans in Our Modern Lives

An excellent, clearly explained introduction to animal magic and it works! I read out the characteristics of my animal guide from the book and my wife said it was just like me!

Brendan Howlin, author of The Handbook of Urban Druidry and Pagan Portals The Urban Ovate

Another great introductory book from Rachel Patterson. Pagan Portals Animal Magic is packed full of information on how to find and work with animal messengers, spirit guides and familiars. The book teaches a wealth of magical techniques and is written in Rachels delightful style. She really has a way with words as well as really knowing about her subject.

Lucya Starza, author of Pagan Portals Candle Magic

First published by Moon Books, 2017
Moon Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK
www.johnhuntpublishing.com
www.moon-books.net

For distributor details and how to order please visit the Ordering section on our website.

Text copyright: Rachel Patterson 2016

ISBN: 978 1 78535 494 6
978 1 78535 495 3 (ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016949857

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Rachel Patterson as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Stuart Davies

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY, UK

We operate a distinctive and ethical publishing philosophy in all areas of our business, from our global network of authors to production and worldwide distribution.

I am a witchhave been for a very long time, not the green skinned warty kind obviouslythe real sort, but I am also a working wife and mother who has also been lucky enough to write and have published a book or ten. I love to learn, I love to study and have done so from books, online resources, schools and wonderful mentors over the years and still continue to learn each and every day, but have learnt the most from actually getting outside and doing it.

I am High Priestess of the Kitchen Witch Coven and an Elder at the online Kitchen Witch School of Natural Witchcraft.

My craft is a combination of old religion witchcraft, kitchen witchery, hedge witchery and folk magic. My heart is that of a Kitchen Witch. I am blessed with a wonderful husband, lovely children, a fabulous family and good friends.

I like to laughand eat cake

Bibliography

Pagan Portals Kitchen Witchcraft

Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch

Pagan Portals Hoodoo Folk Magic

Pagan Portals Moon Magic

A Kitchen Witchs World of Magical Plants & Herbs

A Kitchen Witchs World of Magical Foods

Pagan Portals Meditation

The Art of Ritual

Arc of the Goddess (co-written with Tracey Roberts)

Pagan Portals The Cailleach

Websites

My website: www.rachelpatterson.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rachelpattersonbooks

My personal blog: www.tansyfiredragon.blogspot.co.uk

Email:

www.kitchenwitchhearth.net

www.kitchenwitchuk.blogspot.co.uk

www.facebook.com/kitchenwitchuk

www.thekitchenwitchcauldron.blogspot.co.uk

I love animals of all shapes and sizes and grew up in a house that always had a dog and various other pets along the way from rabbits and guinea pigs to budgerigars. Then at the age of 17 I left home to live on a farm, not just any farm, but a pig farm full of Hampshire saddleback pigs (the black ones with a pink stripe around the middle). I absolutely loved my time on the farm and felt a real connection to the pigs, which should have been a sign really because fast forward some years later and while working through a masculine energy meditation I met my lifelong animal guide he is a wild boar and he has been with me ever since. Over the years I have picked up a few more lifelong guides in the form of a magpie, a seagull and a pigeon (bit of a bird theme). Also, while birthing my own wild stag skin shamanic drum, my drumming animal guide came to me in the form of a frog, so I have a bit of an animal farm going on, but each one is there for a reason and each one brings different strengths and wisdom to me.

Wild boar provides me with warrior spirit and courage and is also the animal that kicks my butt if I need it whereas seagull will appear when I am dealing with emotional issues and magpie comes in when magic is afoot. Pigeon, on the other hand, brings in a reminder that we need a bit of peace and quiet at times.

There are other animals of course, the ones that pop in and out from time to time and those that appear for a short while with particular messages or energies that are needed, but each one appears for a reason and it is only by paying attention that you learn from them; once you do that you will always have a connection to the animal world and it will be very rewarding.

My outlook on working with animal magic or any area of the Craft, actually even with life itself really, is to do what works for you. Trust your intuition and go with your instinct, if it feels right go with it but if it feels hinky then dont do it. And just because someone else does it one way or tells you how to do something it doesnt necessarily make it right for you. We all walk very individual and personal pathways and what works for one doesnt always work for another. Trust your intuition because it will never let you down.

There are many different names for animal guides and it depends on what tradition or pathway you follow and a lot of them seem to be interchangeable.

Totem appears to be one of the more commonly used terms although it is often associated with Native American and Aboriginal tribes, then there is animal spirit guide, messenger, companion, kindred animal, counsellor, fetch, medicine, ally and power animal to name but a few.

Interestingly enough when I looked up the word totem in a dictionary to find the original meaning, I read: A totem is a spirit being, sacred object or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people such as a family, clan, lineage or tribe. So actually it seems that in modern paganism we have completely misappropriated the term to mean power animal or guide.

Spirit guide seems to be the term used mostly in shamanic practices and that makes sense to me because the animal guides are met while journeying in the spirit realm/Otherworld. But a lot of cultures believe that animals have a spirit and the term has been used all over the world.