Feathers

[FlamedLilly]

Howdy all I guess it's time to intorduce myself. I'm from a small town and was raised Christian, but now find myself drawn to the pagan religions. I'm still doing lots of research and the like but would like to know more about feathers and their role in magick. If any one out there knows any books that are specifically about birds and their feathers or just feathers please let me know. I can find books on magickal animals but find they are limited when it comes to birds and feathers. Thanks for all your help.

[MammaStar]

Welcome to Mysticwicks, first off. When I get a moment, I'll see what kind of search I can find here for you. In the meantime, why don't you try BN.com (barnes & Noble) and Amazon.com for some searches on book titles.

You may also want to pose this question, regarding Feather Magick in the Magick & Rituals forum.

:cool:

[FlamedLilly]

Thanks very much, I've done a lot of searching on the net there doesn't seems to be hardly any research on the subject. I've come up with a handful of sites and articles. I've looked in the BN and amazon and they keep refrencing me back to book about magickal animals, ie dragons, wolves, pretty much the only birds in those are ravens and crows and of course the birds of prey and doves and the egyption bird, Isis I think. Thanks again.

[Armitage]

Try feathercraft books, you can probably find interesting things to make and apply to magickal uses like fans and feather-beading and painting.

[FlamedLilly]

Thanks, I've started looking into that and feel drawn to the dream catcher's. I"m really interested though in finding out about different paths beliefs in feathers their meanings and what they are used for. After I started researching paganism it seemed like overnight feathers would just appear in the strangest locations. Like on the top of my stairs, on my barbaque grill and in the middle of the road. I just want to look deeper into it. Every feather I come across I pick up. It just seems like I"m supposed to know something about these feathers that I haven't figured out yet.

[MammaStar]

I've moved this up to Magick & Ritual. I think that you can get better answers possibly from there.

Also, take note of what TYPE of feathers you are picking up. Maybe it's your familiar/spirit guide trying to get your attention.

[Flar's Freyja]

Thanks for explaining, I was wondering how this got in here with 5 replies when I didn't see it ten minutes ago! :T

Scott Cunningham has some lists of the feathers and their meanings in several of his books. I recently attended a study group where we made prayer fetishes. We used a forked stick and tied different feathers to it, putting our intent and prayers into each one. You're supposed to keep the fetish outdoors in the ground, or in a pot of soil, to charge it with earth energy when you're not using it in magick. It can be used to charge your space for healing or magick. We were cautioned about using dark feathers, such as Crow, since they represent the darker aspects of the deities, and I learned that the Blue Jay is part of the Crow family, so their feathers can be used the same way.

[Nina]

Freyja, thank you. I've been collecting the feathers my budgie sometimes sheds - well the big ones, anyway. They are beautiful, some are grey and white, and some are the colour of the sky on a clear summer's day. I've had them all collected on my altar for ages, and I've had a feeling that I should do something with them, but I didn't know what. Your study group's idea has just struck a chord with me.

Thanks!!

Nina

[FlamedLilly]

Thanks all please keep the information coming. I thought that maybe it was my familar or a spirit guide but the feathers are from different kind of birds, I've gotten two from a local Grackle, one from a bird that I hadn't identified yet, that feather has mysteriously disappeared though. the Grackles are all Black birds with slightly irredescent (sp) tones, and the one I lost was all whit with a black tip. I don't know I'm still looking. Also thanks for moving it I wasn't sure how to do that without starting a brand new thread in here.

[Arzhela]

Animal Speak, by Ted Andrews, has a lot of feather and bird info in it, among other things. It might be worth checking out if you can find it in a library or something. Birds are only 1/3 of the book, though.

[Rick]

...somehow this brings to mind a lady I used to work with, Martha... Martha had a beautiful blue & gold macaw, & would occasionally bring me the most gorgeous feathers... one day, Martha brought me a Wal-mart bag stuffed full of macaw feathers... I asked her if she'd been saving them up, & she said no, her retired husband (who was always puttering around looking for something to do) had thought the bird looked dirty, so he gave him a nice, hot bath... poor bird, Martha said it looked like a live rubber chicken! :ahhhh: However, I now have a really nice sage fan made from blue & gold macaw tail feathers... :D

[Rick]

Ditto re: Animal Speak

[MammaStar]

:rotfl:

[FlamedLilly]

I'm currently looking for a copy in local book stores If I can't find it there then I'll go online.