Animal Spirit Guides

Animals have so much knowledge of the world that they live in. Many of them trust in their own instincts to survive and I believe that we can learn so much from them. They are all teachers and if we allow ourselves to be taught, we can become different and better people.

We have to remember that we only share this planet with them. We are not superior to them, we are just different.

Many cultures have revered certain animals since ancient times and believe that the animal spirit or animal totem can guide and teach us to open our minds and realise that every creature in this world has a purpose. Even the spider that many people fear has a vital place in our world. It shows incredible creativity and patience and if left alone would rarely harm anyone. Others may help us to have courage, and follow our instincts, fight for what we believe in and show loyalty to one another.

 Most of my writing is inspired by animals and nature so I know for me this is true. My own animals have been part of my life for so long and I see them all as important as each other. I recently obtained a beautiful set of animal tarot cards and on the first week of the New Year I decided to find my own animal spirit guide for each week of the year. When I say find, I believe that they are selecting me.

Last week I connected with the Wolf which is one of the most powerful animal guides and considered to be a pathfinder. I immersed myself into this beautiful, sometimes much mistaken animal and let it enter my meditations and thoughts throughout the week. I felt so inspired and wanted to take on all the virtues that the wolf displays such as trust, loyalty, perseverance and gain wisdom of the earth. It made me want to learn as much as I could so as well as taking in the spirit guide, I made it my job to research the wolf too and by doing so I found out some fascinating facts about an animal I previously did not have much knowledge of.

This week, the great Bison selected me and once again, I am learning from a magnificent animal even though I have never seen one. The main lesson that I am getting so far is that I should walk forwards and honour every path that I take to follow my own dreams.

I have no idea what will select me next week but I take great pleasure in the fact that by the end of the year I will have a whole family of animal guides that I will know a little bit better and hopefully some of their wisdom will be transferred to me.

Blessed be!

                                                The Yew tree, not just a place of worship but in some cases an object of worship

Hello and welcome to the first post of my new blog 'Pagan Apprentice'  I hope that anyone who feels the same way as I do about the old and magical ways of life will comment on this blog as it is lovely to know that I am not on my own seeing the world  in a different way.  Sometimes modern day life can be so horrific with news of cruelty and death and war nearly every day of the week.  I am powerless to all these horrible things happening, all I can do is care for those who are suffering and take comfort in my way of life, however mad some people may think that is. 

I worship nature and all of the animals that we share this beautiful planet with and see these things as equal, or in some cases even superior to our human way of life.

I have been longing to talk about the way I love to see life, it may not be to everyone's taste and that is why I decided to start this new blog where I can express all the things I feel and think without boring or upsetting anyone.  My other blogs are quite different and would not be suitable for the sort of things I want to talk about on this one.  So here it is, my first post as a fully pledged Pagan.

Some people have asked if I am a Witch, maybe hundreds of years ago I would have been accused of such things just because I love to dress in a cloak occasionally, cast a few runes for fun and do the odd spell but hopefully now most people would understand that there is nothing evil or wrong about having a different religion as long as it does not harm anyone.

I called it the Pagan Apprentice because I am constantly learning.  I thirst for knowledge and love to find  ways of dealing with life and what it throws at us every day of the week.  I like to find ways of mentally overcoming barriers and ways of celebrating the wheel of the year as every season is important to how we all we live and survive. Even though most people love the Summer best, we still need the ever changing seasons so that every form of life form can have its chance.

I first got these feelings when we were celebrating Halloween a few years ago. I now prefer to call this Samhain and it has become one of my favourite pagan celebrations.  I love to dress up and do all the usual stuff for fun but on this occasion I suddenly felt different as we sat in our cloaks in front of the bonfire.  Something changed in the way I viewed this day, it was not a fancy dress party, the cloaks served purely to keep us warm and the bonfire made me reflect on the year gone by and things that had happened.  This was the beginning for me and it was the beginning of the New Year of following the pagan wheel of the year.

I celebrate all the magical and fascinating sabbats or festivals through the year and hope in the coming months to enjoy them with you.