Feathers

[Norse_Angel]

Hail!
How many of us use feathers for certain principles while making spells, or during rituals? I have wide collection ranging from Hawks to Blue jays, cardinals, and of course crows and Ravens. What do you use them for?

[lightdragon]

Re: Feathers

not much but I have a black dyed ostrich on my altar to represent the East and The Morrigan. would love to get a crow or raven feather.

[Jembru]

Re: Feathers

My main spirit animal has been Magpie since I was around 18 years old (this may be in the process of changing, or he may be about to share the top-spot with Horse). As such, I have a few magpie feathers. One is on a necklace that a friend made for me 13 years ago, although truth be told, the feather has snapped in half now. There are 3 on a handmade dream-catcher I made, that I later gave to my mum (she also has Magpie medicine). Then there are (usually) 3 on my altar. There are probably images of my alter from 5 or 6 years ago on here somewhere, and I can bet you there'll be a magpie feather or two there.

This might feel like deja-vu to our pre-crash members, because I remember telling this story before, but my most treasured magpie feather was found on my doorstep. I'd had a very vivid dream about a magpie that had reverse colouring (a black tummy and wing tips, with white head, back and tail). When I went to leave the house a few hours later, there was a magpie feather right on the doorstep. My mum had apparently spotted it herself when she took the dog for his morning walk, but had left it where it was and forgotten to mention it to me.

It felt so special to have a dream like that and find a real magpie feather so soon afterwards. There are horses living across the road from my mum, and I'm only a few blocks over, so I dread to think what I'll find on my doorstep now that Horse is a guide too... ^^

[Norse_Angel]

Re: Feathers

My main spirit animal has been Magpie since I was around 18 years old (this may be in the process of changing, or he may be about to share the top-spot with Horse). As such, I have a few magpie feathers. One is on a necklace that a friend made for me 13 years ago, although truth be told, the feather has snapped in half now. There are 3 on a handmade dream-catcher I made, that I later gave to my mum (she also has Magpie medicine). Then there are (usually) 3 on my altar. There are probably images of my alter from 5 or 6 years ago on here somewhere, and I can bet you there'll be a magpie feather or two there.

This might feel like deja-vu to our pre-crash members, because I remember telling this story before, but my most treasured magpie feather was found on my doorstep. I'd had a very vivid dream about a magpie that had reverse colouring (a black tummy and wing tips, with white head, back and tail). When I went to leave the house a few hours later, there was a magpie feather right on the doorstep. My mum had apparently spotted it herself when she took the dog for his morning walk, but had left it where it was and forgotten to mention it to me.

It felt so special to have a dream like that and find a real magpie feather so soon afterwards. There are horses living across the road from my mum, and I'm only a few blocks over, so I dread to think what I'll find on my doorstep now that Horse is a guide too... ^^

That's actually a really cool story. I've heard a couple tales of birds leaving feathers for people, and I have not been disappointed with my own occurrence. My crow feather is very close to me. There was a murder of crows who, every morning, would perch on my window sill, and the tree next to it, and wake me up. Well, one day, I decided to go outside to survey them. There were maybe a few dozen, a lot more than there usually were. The whole tree was clouded with their black forms, and three were sitting on my sill. Well, I decided to start a fire in the pit, and cook breakfast, and sure enough, one found the courage to come investigate. Practically got 2 feet away from me, and just sat there looking at me. I ended up feeding it chicken scraps, and pieces of egg, which it happily ate. This went on for a good half hour, where other crows came down to the first, but none got as close as it did. By 45 minutes, most of the others had flown off, but this one was just sitting there, cleaning its wings. Well, it came the time where it decided to fly off, but when it did take the air, one single wing feather fluttered down from it, and came to a rest just between where it and I were sitting. A little gift for me from it. Ever since then, I feel it has taken to me. I'm pretty sure I've fed it several times now, if it is indeed the same one. I'm pretty sure it is, has the same size and tail shape.
We recently moved up North, and we still have crows. This morning, I saw one flying off of our porch as I went out the door. I can't be 100% positive, but my instincts say it's the same crow. I'll be setting up a feeder in the next couple days.

[Jembru]

Re: Feathers

Hmm.. as unlikely as it sounds, it's not impossible that it's the same crow. Corvids are truly amazing birds with highly evolved intellects after all. I have a newspaper clipping in my BoS that tells the story of a student in S.Korea who had disturbed a magpie's nest as part of his research. The bird waited for him every morning and would attack him, picking him out of the crowd every time, regardless of what he was wearing.

This story was covered on BBC news a few weeks ago (the BBC version is on youtube, but uses a voice synthesiser to get around copyright and I hate listening to those things);

And don't get me started on talking magpies.. I could watch these videos for hours..

So the idea that a crow could have formed an attachment to someone, especially if you've fed him in the past, isn't so hard to imagine at all.

Hmm.. I know I'm just reading into things, but I smiled when I was re-typing the code on that last video.. it starts with 'fOx', which is a spirit animal that recently came forward for me. Talk about one guide, get a cameo from another. Gotta be worth at least a grin..

[Rae'ya]

Re: Feathers

I've collected feathers my entire life... even as a small child I had a vase full of feathers that I'd picked up and arranged (the same way most people would arrange a vase of flowers lol). My feathers now live in a box (my feather box) in my ritual room and consist of everything from enormous pheasant tail feathers, to emu feathers, to feathers from my own birds, to tiny little downy chest feathers. I can't walk past a clean feather without picking it up, and my nephew (who is 5) has recently started bringing me feathers from his own travels.

As to what I use them for... that depends on the feather. Feathers from my own birds or those I've rehabilitated end up in protective charms for them (they need to be freshly shed in order to maintain the connection to the individual animal though). There's usually a raven feather or two hanging from the rear view mirror of my car, simply because they seem to like each other (Raven and my car, that is). Other feathers I use for helping to connect to the animal guide of that species. I have a smudge wand made of feathers (from several species) and there will be raven feathers (and a foot) on my staff when I work up the courage to get the foot out of the freezer and dry it out properly.

Mostly I use them the same way I do other animal parts... primarily as connectors to that animal guide's energies. Feathers alone are not as good at serving as houses for spirits as say... a pelt or a bone is, so I don't have any feathers that are inhabited by spirits. But they make a good conduit for reaching the animal guide of their species. And they are an efficient way to bring the energy of their species into an item or magickal working.

[Noir]

Re: Feathers

I use them mainly for charm and spell related purposes. I often make witch's ladders or vessel jewelry with them, but I also harness the remaining energies from the feathers for meditation and empowerment during divination. Overall the same would go for any body parts I can preserve of avians or mammals otherwise.

[habbalah]

Re: Feathers

I don't really use feathers, but when I find feathers out in the wild, I know they're signs from the entities I work with (and I try to save them).

[thalassa]

Re: Feathers

We have a small collection of feathers, but we don't keep most of them for long, and we don't ordinarily use them for anything that isn't going back in nature, and in some cases we don't even take them home to look at them (eagles, osprey, etc). Mostly because its illegal, per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The exception to the illegality being starling and other invasive and introduced species, hunted birds, and farm animals.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: Feathers

My parrot's usually involved in whatever ritual, etc., I'm doing.

[thalassa]

Re: Feathers

My parrot's usually involved in whatever ritual, etc., I'm doing.

ERm...is that by intention, or just incident!?! From the brief time we bird baby-sat, I seem to remember having feathers crop up in odd places, lol.





Oh yeah I forgot in my list of exceptions, pet feathers are okay too (per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibition of collecting feathers)...

[Willow]

Re: Feathers

I just like looking at feathers, I haven't really used them for anything beyond "ooh pretty." Although when I'm "gifted" one, I tend to take it as a sign of being contacted or connected with by the flighty species. I only have one that I've kept and it's one of the small, round belly feathers used for keeping birds warm.

[Norse_Angel]

Re: Feathers

Yeah, with the amount of feathers I've accumulated, under that preservation act, I shouldn't be a free man. I always thought it was a stupid law. If I find a feather on my travels, why wouldn't I pick it up? That's like saying picking up fallen wood from an oak tree should be punished as well. I understand with birds such as Eagles, which the law was really made to protect, but cardinals are on that list as well. Ridiculous.

[thalassa]

Re: Feathers

Yeah, with the amount of feathers I've accumulated, under that preservation act, I shouldn't be a free man. I always thought it was a stupid law. If I find a feather on my travels, why wouldn't I pick it up? That's like saying picking up fallen wood from an oak tree should be punished as well. I understand with birds such as Eagles, which the law was really made to protect, but cardinals are on that list as well. Ridiculous.

Its not rediculous if you know the conservation history of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries... The reason the treaty was passed was because of international feather trading for ladies millnery, in addition to deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and other human activities that degraded habitat...plus (recently) introduced diseases and pesticide/herbicide use--it was not to protect eagles alone because far more than just eagles were going extinct (eagle/bird of prey problems came later because of DDT).

Ever seen the two only native parrots to North America? I have seen one of them--stuffed in the Smithsonian...the last Carolina Parrot died in captivity in 1910, but it used to range over most of the US east of Colorado and as far north as S. Ontario and New York. The other one is endangered in Mexico. Then there's the passenger pigeon. And the Bachman's warbler, the heath hen, the Dusky seaside sparrow, and the ivory billed woodpecker, to name a few from that time period. A number of birds that we seemingly have in plenty now (but still nowhere near historic numbers) had numbers in serious decline in the run up to that treaty. And the reason its a treaty is that it wasn't just in the US that this was happening.

A feather from a hunted bird doesn't look any different from one that fell on the ground and got picked up. But a hunting license can be verified, the species of a farm bird can be identified, so can pet feathers. Fish and wildlife doesn't care about the 6 year old (or 60 year old) that picks up the stray feather, they care about collectors without paperwork and illegal trade.

[Norse_Angel]

Re: Feathers

Its not rediculous if you know the conservation history of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries... The reason the treaty was passed was because of international feather trading for ladies millnery, in addition to deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and other human activities that degraded habitat...plus (recently) introduced diseases and pesticide/herbicide use--it was not to protect eagles alone because far more than just eagles were going extinct (eagle/bird of prey problems came later because of DDT).

Ever seen the two only native parrots to North America? I have seen one of them--stuffed in the Smithsonian...the last Carolina Parrot died in captivity in 1910, but it used to range over most of the US east of Colorado and as far north as S. Ontario and New York. The other one is endangered in Mexico. Then there's the passenger pigeon. And the Bachman's warbler, the heath hen, the Dusky seaside sparrow, and the ivory billed woodpecker, to name a few from that time period. A number of birds that we seemingly have in plenty now (but still nowhere near historic numbers) had numbers in serious decline in the run up to that treaty. And the reason its a treaty is that it wasn't just in the US that this was happening.

A feather from a hunted bird doesn't look any different from one that fell on the ground and got picked up. But a hunting license can be verified, the species of a farm bird can be identified, so can pet feathers. Fish and wildlife doesn't care about the 6 year old (or 60 year old) that picks up the stray feather, they care about collectors without paperwork and illegal trade.

I didn't know this. That's some good lay down information on that topic. Ahaha my lesson of the day, I appreciate this.
What are the birds not on the list? Ducks, chickens, pheasants? Any others?