To Walk a Pagan Path: Practical Spirituality for Every Day (15 page)

will need to first develop that essential “familiar” relation-

ship with the animal. Your bond with the cat must be strong

enough that it will consent to sit on your lap or beside you

throughout the meditation. (A well mannered canine famil-

iar, if you have one, can also do this with only a little training.) There are different techniques for meditating, but

whatever you ordinarily would do is fine as long as you can

do it with your familiar sitting close.

If you are going to light candles, burn incense, cast a

magic circle or anything similar, do this early to give your

cat plenty of time to accept the changes in its environment.

From the cat’s perspective, it owns everything in its imme-

diate vicinity, including you. A cat will often want to investi-f 105 2

familiar spirits

gate any alterations in its surroundings before it is willing to settle down and assist with your meditation.

As you begin meditating, slowly stroke the cat (or dog)

with gentle, relaxed motions. Be aware of the cat, but do not

allow your awareness to distract you from your meditation.

Petting or stroking a companion animal can help lower blood

pressure and reduce stress. These same measurable effects

are induced through meditation, so it is easy to see how one

activity nurtures the other. The intentional interaction with

your familiar will help bring you into a meditative state of

being.

It should go without saying that you must never attempt

to force your familiar into participating in meditations or any kind of daily devotions. Nobody has ever entered a meditative state while wrestling a cat. This is why it is imperative

that you accustom your cat to sitting quietly next to you as

you stroke it before making any attempt at meditating with

the animal.

Cooperation only goes so far with an animal that evolved

as a solitary hunter. No matter how well behaved your feline

familiar, there will probably be times when it decides halfway

through your meditation that it is finished for the day. The

cat will drop down from the chair or sofa, and walk off to

investigate something it finds far more interesting than you.

Acknowledge this, and continue with your meditation. If you

have developed even a moderate level of mental discipline,

this should not be difficult for you. Part of working with a

cat as a familiar is accepting its independent nature.

Pagan author Deborah Blake (
Everyday Witch Book of Rit-

uals
) says, “I have found with cats that they participate on f 106 2

familiar spirits

their own terms. Most of my cats show very little interest

in my magical work.” Deborah has five cats, and the excep-

tion to this general rule is a black cat named, appropriately

enough, Magic. “When my coven is practicing inside in my

living room (my cats don’t go outside) we have an altar table

that we all stand around,” says Deborah. “As soon as we get

started, Magic strolls into the room and walks around the cir-

cle deosil (clockwise) every single time. Then she either sits

under the table, continues to meander the circle or perches

herself on the sofa and supervises from there.”

Deborah’s cat Magic also joins her at other times. “I also

have a daily practice of greeting the gods first thing in the

morning and asking for their help with my day, and saying

thank you at the end of the day,” she tells me. “I do both of

these while lying in bed. Magic almost always comes and lies

by my head while I do this, purring madly.”

When it comes to magical and spiritual work, Deborah

says of her cat, “I believe that her presence adds something

important.” This is something I have heard time and again

when talking with people who have cat familiars. Although

the cat is more aloof, it seems to offer something—some

influence—to those in its proximity who share a familiar rela-

tionship with it.

Joy Bennett shares her Midwestern home with four cats,

and also believes the cat can add something important if

intangible to rituals. “They have a calming, soothing influ-

ence,” says Joy. “I find them especially effective for healing.

When I am sick I get Pyewackett—he’s the best for this—and

hold him close to me.” All of Joy’s cats are rescues, homeless

cats who needed, and found, a loving environment. The heal-

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ing relationship between cat and human flows both ways at

the Bennett house. Joy’s husband Jack collects the cats’ shed

claw sheaths whenever he finds them. Why? For a sort of vet-

erinary magic. “A cat’s sheath is no different than a human

fingernail,” Jack says. “It’s a link with the animal. When one

of the cats is sick (although it also gets a visit to the veterinarian’s office) I use the sheaths to work healing magic. I

don’t know which sheaths came from which cats, but it’s just

a general vitality spell, so all of the cats benefit, including the one most needing that energy.”

As I said earlier, a cat usually will not respond to food

rewards with the same enthusiasm a dog will. A dog will

almost always take an interest in treats (although some are

more responsive to food than others), but a cat has a differ-

ent metabolism. It is natural for the cat to eat less frequent-

ly, and so it may sometimes refuse not only treats but even

its dinner (Pitcairn, p. 47). Nevertheless, a healthy diet is just as essential for a cat if you hope to develop a strong, familiar relationship with the animal. Your cat will respond better

to you. The cat’s dietary needs are different than a dog’s. We

tend to lump animals into general categories of carnivore,

herbivore and omnivore, but life is far more diverse than this.

While dogs are indeed carnivores, most of them will enjoy

an occasional fruit or vegetable tidbit, and my own recipe

for Chien Cuisine given earlier in this chapter includes yams,

squash, carrots, peas and rice. Cats require a higher percent-

age of protein, and have dietary needs requiring meats or

meat by-products (Pitcairn, p. 52). If you feed your famil-

iar a commercial cat food, read the ingredients label careful-

ly and make sure the primary ingredients—those listed first

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on the label—are meats and organs. And as with commer-

cial dog food, the meat should be specified: chicken, turkey,

beef or whatever. Listing an ingredient generically as “meat”

is as meaningless as saying there is “food” in the food. Laisey Hahn points out that “real meat is always better than the

mysterious ‘meat by-product’ and there are now even grain-

free canned foods on the market which are also better for

their health.”

You can of course prepare food yourself for the cat famil-

iar. Although more difficult to find than the canine equiva-

lent, there are cookbooks specifically for cats. Pitcairn gives a variety of recipes for dishes. Although a cat familiar is less likely than a dog to overeat, it is always a good idea to keep

an eye on its weight (pp. 38–39).

OTHER FAMILIARS

Part of the appeal of a dog or a cat as a familiar is that the animal can roam about the house freely, with minimal supervision.

Murray mentions people in the 16th century keeping

smaller familiars in pots and boxes (p. 84), but today it is cus-tomary to keep them in specially designed cages. Small mam-

mals, birds and reptiles must be confined for their own safety

if for no other reason. When these animals can be supervised

it is possible to release them from their quarters for limited

periods of time, and some can become suitable familiars for

people with enough patience to work with them.

Some of the small animals suitable as familiars are

rodents, an order of mammals that we humans have, his-

torically, had a predominantly adversarial relationship with.

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Rodents enjoy the same foods that we enjoy, and will steal

our stored food as casually as we steal honey from bees and

milk from cattle. Worse, wild rodents have the capability of

transmitting a bewildering array of human diseases. They do

not spread these diseases intentionally, but that was no com-

fort to the millions of men, women and children who died

from the Black Plague in 14th century Europe.

The good news is that a domesticated, captive born

rodent is no more likely to carry a deadly disease than your

next door neighbor is. The food thing is another issue alto-

gether; hence one very real need for a cage.

When people think of rodents as companion animals the

first species that come to mind are usually hamsters and ger-

bils. I would not dissuade you from trying to develop a famil-

iar relationship with one of these small creatures if you feel some special affinity for them. I have kept both hamsters

and gerbils, and have loved both, but in my opinion they are

poorly suited as familiars as a general rule. Both hamsters

and gerbils tend to be skittish even when tamed. The ham-

ster is nocturnal, which means it will want to sleep when you

want to interact with it, unless you work a night shift. And

a sleepy, annoyed hamster is liable to bite. If I had to choose between a hamster or a gerbil, my choice would be the latter,

but among the order of rodents both of these would be near

the bottom of my list.

What would be at the top? The domestic rat.

EWWWWW!!!

If this is your initial reaction, I understand complete-

ly. I once shared this common prejudice. Even the word
rat
, when applied to a human being, means the worst sort of

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scoundrel. Rats were a primary factor in the spread of the

aforementioned Black Plague, and they have caused unimag-

inable damage to mankind’s food supplies for centuries. The

wild black rat (
Rattus rattus
) and Norwegian or brown rat (
Rattus norvegicus
) are aggressive and potentially dangerous, especially for small children and the elderly, and these are the species that live with or near us humans in their wild state.

It is little wonder that so many people have a strong aver-

sion not only to black and Norwegian rats, but also to their

domestic cousins.

My own prejudice melted away long ago, back when I

was still a high school student. To earn extra spending money

I would often house sit for neighboring families when they

went on vacation. A family down the street had asked me to

come by their house two or three times every day to check

on their pets. When I stopped in to find out exactly what my

duties would be, I learned that there would be three pets in

my care: a mixed-breed dog named Moby, a parakeet named

Fletcher…and a large male rat named Henry.

While I was talking to the wife, I glanced over at Hen-

ry’s cage. Henry yawned. Henry had enormous teeth. I came

very close to telling the woman that I would not be able to

look in on these family pets, but then her daughter, a girl of

no more than six or seven, went over to Henry’s cage and

took him out. She held the big, nasty rat close to her chest

and stroked his back. Watching the little girl, I realized that I could not back out on this job. Not if I wanted to retain even

a trace of self respect.

During the week that Moby, Fletcher and Henry were in

my care, my prejudice towards the rat gradually transformed

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into trust, and even into a small degree of affection. Henry

was a gentle creature who never once attempted to bite me.

Domestic rats, also called “fancy rats”, were bred from

the Norwegian brown rat, but share little in common with

their ancestors other than their general form. When treat-

ed well, the fancy rat usually has a sweet disposition and can

readily become attached to a specific human or humans.

They react less to sudden lights and sounds than wild rats do.

And they are indeed “fancy”, with different colors and mark-

ings. The Dumbo breed has large, round ears that sit at the

sides of its head. The Manx breed is tailless. Himalayan rats

are white, with markings similar to those on Siamese cats.

It was some years later when I had a rat of my own,

which became my familiar. He was a black hooded rat who

I named Demetrius. By “hooded” I mean that his coat was

white, with a black head and patch that extended down his

back. Demetrius stayed in a cage when I had to leave him

alone, but otherwise he would usually sit happily on my

shoulder as I went about my business. He even went to a few

parties with me, riding on my shoulder, enjoying corn chips

and similar snacks that the other guests would offer him.

If I could not have a dog, my second choice would almost

certainly be a rat. Few animals are as responsive as this under-appreciated species. They are amazingly intelligent.

As a familiar, the rat is nevertheless a rodent. It will not

interact as completely or as reliably as a well behaved dog, of course, but, once tamed, it can participate in the meditation