Who am I?

I am a witch ... have been for a very long time, not the green skinned warty kind obviously ... the 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 laugh ... and eat cake ...

Bibliography

Pagan Portals – Kitchen Witchcraft

Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch

Pagan Portals – Hoodoo Folk Magic

Pagan Portals – Moon Magic

A Kitchen Witch's World of Magical Plants & Herbs

A Kitchen Witch's 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: tansyfiredragon@yahoo.com

www.kitchenwitchhearth.net

www.kitchenwitchuk.blogspot.co.uk

www.facebook.com/kitchenwitchuk

www.thekitchenwitchcauldron.blogspot.co.uk

My Animal Magic Journey

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 don't do it. And just because someone else does it one way or tells you how to do something – it doesn't necessarily make it right for you. We all walk very individual and personal pathways and what works for one doesn't always work for another. Trust your intuition because it will never let you down.

What's With all the Different Names?

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.

Messengers and counsellors are general terms applied to those animals that pop in and literally give messages or deliver counsel.

Fetch is an Irish folklore term that means a spirit guide that can be in the form of a person or an animal. There are varying beliefs about the fetch. Some say that it is the true spirit of a person and appears in three forms; the fetch beast, which equates to our ideas of a totem animal; the fetch wyf, a contra-sexual spirit of the person whom it guides; and the fetch god, which is the divine face of our own fetch. The fetch in this case would be your true or lifelong familiar/totem.

Fetch can also mean a spirit doppelganger that takes on the appearance of someone who has just died or is about to die. It isn't actually the ghost of a person, but an imitation of someone who is still alive, although folklore states that seeing a fetch is a sign that the person it portrays is about to die.

Similarly the word fylgja is from the Norse tradition and means the same as a fetch – a spirit (person or animal) who accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune. A Norse vitki (sorcerer) would not only draw power from his fylgja, but could also project his conscious will into it in order for it to carry out magical workings. The fylgja brought huge responsibilities and power, but could also throw hardships and challenges into the mix too. The fylgja would mould itself to the personality of the person it was attached to and the wellbeing of the human would depend on the wellbeing of the animal fylgja. Many Norse believed that the fylgja was in fact part of the hugr, or soul,...