Well my piece of shit computer ate my post I was working on. I hate this computer. I now have to do it all over again. This new blog update is dedicated to the memory of my special cat-puddie Joe and Tosh who I was taking care of both killed by cars. My primary puddie- Magickal Familiar Inky is now under restriction. If he goes into the front yard he is brought back into the house. I refuse to lose another puddie-cat to a rushing car. Magical Familiars play a major role in Real Magick. The classic witch familiar is seen usually as a black cat either male or female. Hollywood used the idea of the "Witch's Familiar" in the movie"Bell, Book, and Candle". Then much later in the TV series: "Sabrina the Teen-age Witch". The magickal familiar in the Sabrina series was a talking black cat. My Magickal Familiar Inky is all black except for a diamond of white fur on the lower-underside  part of his body.He's a real talker but not with English words like Sabrina's Magickal Familiar. Magickal Familiars come in all shapes and sizes. They don't have to be just domestic cats. They can be much larger ones as well. I'm reminded of the symbiotic relationship between large cats with higher intelligence and humans in the Fantasy Realm of The Cat People from "Tarot of the Cat People" by Karen Kuykendall. This is a very fine deck for all of you who love Puddies-Cats. The book which comes with the deck is beautifully written. I highly recommend this book and deck. Now let's look at how the Wizard, Witch, Sorcerer and Ritual Magickan use their Magickal Familiars. The Magick-User uses their Magickal Familiar as a spy or scout. The spying would probably be performed against a rival Magick-User. Many times the Magick-User would in this instance transfer their consciousness into the Magickal Familiar so they could see with it's eyes. The creature in this case the smaller the better. In the "BeastMaster" series the creature was a large  flying bird like an eagle. The critter had once been human. This theme is covered  in many films. The other way the Magick-User uses their Magickal Familiar is to perform their Magickal Rituals and spells. Adding their Magickal Power to the Magick-User's . Ritual and Ceremonial Magickans  sometimes have a different type of Magickal Familiar which is known as an "Imp". A diminutive  form of Demon. I'm a FRP Gamer and Game Designer and I have found the best game that uses Magickal Familiars. It also uses "Animal Companions". Our Real World is so boring compared to these Fantasy Realms. Here are the games which I recommend: " Forgotten Realms", "Neverwinter Nights" "Platinum". "Forgotten  Realms" "Neverwinter Nights" 2 and finally "Neverwinter Nights" 2 "Forgotten Realms" "Mask of the Betrayer". " Expansion Pack. Wizard,Sorcerer, Warlock characters can have familiars. Druids and Rangers can have animal companions. Of course there are other games on the market which use Magickal Familiars but these are the ones I like the most. Now there is another area of interest here and that's "Shapechanging". This concept and Magickal Power was used in the Harry Potter books with the character of Professor McGonagall who seemed to have the power to Shapechange into a large cat at will. Here is a Tarot deck that deals with "Shapchanging". :the"Shapeshifter Tarot". By D.J.Conway and Sirona Knight and Illustrated by Lisa Hunt. This is a very fun deck. They use a different Elemental System. Swords represent Fire in this System and Wands represent Air. This is an Elemental System used by many Wiccans. Pentacles are still Earth and Cups-Chalices are still Water. It takes some getting used to if you were trained in the Golden Dawn Elemental System like I was. I had another type of Magickal Familiar which was lizards. In my case Iguanas. I hope to get a pair of Bearded Dragons some time in the near future. These critters are very intelligent and very affectionate. They seem to have an affinity for humans. They would make excellent Magickal Familiars. I and my lizards became rather well known locally because of a Bay Area TV show. It was Ross McGowan's talk show based in San Francisco and was entitled: "People Are Talking". On the elevator to the TV studio Ross McGowan gave me the title:" the Wizard and his Lizard". Later, as the Iguanas became more popular the title changed to "the Lizard and his Lizard". I have had many Iguanas and other lizards since that time. I would teach them to lick noses. The Iguana that went on that show with me was named Smaug after the celebrated Dragon in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". My copy of this book is presently missing. I hope I can find it. It is a wonderful preamble to "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy".  Well I think I will stop here for now. It's time for rest of you to respond to this subject. Let's see what the rest of you have to say  about Magickal Familiars. Before I leave you I have some URL s to  turn you onto. Abbott's International has a new geo-cities web page. This is a work in progress. Here is it's URL: http://www.geocities.com/Abbotts_inn/index.html check it out when you get the chance. It has 60 of our 180 links. There will be more. I'm happy to announce that www.Mind-N-Magick.com is once again in operation. Download the free Pagan-Magickal tool bar that they offer. It's killer. Here is a great Pagan Radio Network:http://www.PaganRadioNetwork.net download the free tool bar. They play non-stop Pagan music 24hrs a day. On Wed. and Sunday they broadcast Pagan talk podcast on many different Pagan subjects. Here are some Pagan-Magickal networks: http://www.PaganSpace.net Abbott's International has about 15 Pagan-Magickal groups on this network and 2 blogs. http://www.PaganSpace.com Abbott's Inn International has about 12 Pagan-Magickal Teaching groups on this network. http://www.Covenspace.com Abbott's Inn International has about 10 Pagan-Magickal Teaching Groups here and 2 blogs. http://wiccantogether.ning.com Abbott's Inn International has about 16 Pagan-Magickal Teaching Groups here and 2 blogs. We will have more URLS for you next time. Well I hope to hear from some of you real soon. Till our next encounter, Take Care All and Blessed Be. Your AD(arch-druid) Stephen also known here on keen as Stephen6580 and on www.CeleberityPsychics.com as Stephen1580 Peace! Peace! Peace! Awen /I\ Sorry for the spacing. It's because of my shitty computer.