As a witch and a shamanic practitioner, I find the contact with a familiar and a power animal to be similar but different.  This difference extends beyond the obvious fact that my familiars are animals existing in a body living in the same time and space my body lives in.  In contrast, my power animals may borrow a body from a wild animal in this dimension, or materialize one temporarily, but do not live here in our physical realm.  

My familiars have all been cats.  How stereotypical!  But not all my cats have been familiars.  My power animals, or animal allies as some prefer to call them, have all been creatures of the wild.  Both groups of spirit helpers participate in my daily life.  Both watch and absorb far more about my reality than they discussed with me.  Both attend ritual and magical workings, helping when they are needed.  Both have direct access to the gods and goddesses and guardians spirits.  However, the purpose and method of their work with me is different.

Although I have had dozens of cats (currently and over time), there are only a few who have acted as familiars.  I recognized these cats by their ability to participate in ritual and to telepathically communicate spiritual information in a very practical and down-to-earth manner.  This ability may extend to more of my cat friends than I have recognized, but I am using a fairly strict standard in defining a familiar.  For example, when the three cofounders of the Web were first forming our group, we conducted an outdoor ritual.  Two of my longhaired cats -- one white, one three colored/black-- ran out to the Circle, split in two directions at the Western Gate, traced the circumference of the Circle as far as the Eastern Gate, passed each other and kept on going north and south away from the circle, as if to seal the energy.

People asked me how I got them to do that.  As if one could ask a cat to cast the Circle!  This voluntary act of magic defined their role for me.  The white cat, Electra, frequently stares into my eyes and speaks very correct English.  Usually, she is questioning me about my motives. "And you are doing that because..." indicates she wants me to evaluate my actions more closely.  Some of our communication is limited by her resistance to my grooming her long, easily tangled fur.  The familiars do not have patience with humans who invade their independence, even for health reasons.  Electra still offers personal comfort when I am distressed, but now she participates infrequently in magical work.

Electra has delegated much of the magical work to her daughter Bandit, the three colored/mostly black longhaired cat.  Not only does Bandit look like a witchy cat, she readily participates in Circle and classes whenever she can.  Much to the consternation of some less cat -- friendly visitors, Bandit enters the Circle yowling and complaining as people are getting settled.  During meditations she will walk around the Circle and jumped into unsuspecting laps.  She usually picks someone who is having trouble with the journey or who needs help in returning, although like most cats, she is not above tormenting people she does not like or those she likes a lot.  That would be particularly true of the unfortunate person sitting in her favorite chair.  Bandit is not an easy familiar.

Her primary function, as I understand it, is to monitor the energy of the Circle and alert me to subtleties I might otherwise miss.  Her other goal, of course, is to get as much attention as possible.  Frequently her friends will hold her during ritual and she raises her own purring cone of power.

Electra and Bandit are 14 and 13 years old respectively, so I expect they will be passing the broom to the younger generation.  The area barn cats brought in a bunch of kittens last year.  Among them, are a couple of possible trainees. Bibbity-bobbity-boo, a black cat with a small white bib, was sitting on my head as I started this paragraph (physically possible because of a high-back upholstered office chair).  She seemed to have an opinion about the topic.   Sir Ocelot attended Mabon ritual last fall.  We tell stories about fate and balance and purpose as part of that ritual.  SnowFire was telling the story of Ariadne and her weaving.  As she was drawing a parallel between Ariadne and Grandmother Spiderwoman, a small little spider came wandering across the floor toward SnowFire.  Just as we all were smiling at the synchronicity, Sir Ocelot jumped down, grabbed the spider and ate her.  Ariadne is one of SnowFire's guiding goddesses.  Grandmother Spiderwoman is one of mine.  Neither of us can tell you what it means to have Sir Ocelot consume them, even before the cakes and ale are blessed!

On the other hand (or paw), all three of these cats -- Electra, Bandit and Sir Ocelot, are comforting and communicative cat friends, more so than Bibs who is a little standoffish.  Their commitment to me transcends the usual "Where's my supper?"  They seek me out at night to offer a level of comfort beyond the heart chakra work at which so many of my cats excel.  Just a few nights ago Sir Ocelot looked deep into my eyes and I am sure he said "I wish I were real boy."  I assured him he is.  Familiars have needs too.

My power animals approach me differently.  Each has been retrieved through a shamanic drumming trance.  Some stay with me over the years.  Others stop for a specific working and leave after a few months.  I do not reveal my power animal identities or names to the public as I used to because on one occasion I journeyed to the Lower World to find my chief ally captured and imprisoned by another shamanic practitioner.  Whether or not he had done this out of mischief or malice, I do not know.  However, I found myself accompanied by two of my ally’s family, racing to his defense.  With a bit of quick action and concentrated effort, along with a magic cloak that materialized in the Lower World, we were able to access his cell, untie him and run for our lives.  It was an amazing adventure, and another example of how important our work is on behalf of our allies, equal to their work on our behalf.  It is also an example of how unpredictable shamanic work can be, since I would never have made up such a story.  I had always said I did not believe hexes, curses or trickery were serious threats.  I changed my mind.

Power animals actively work with me to teach spiritual principles by guiding me through
places and events in the Lower World.  The rescue of my power animal taught me confidence in my allies and myself and increased my faith that the right tools will appear at the right time.  It also taught me to be a little wiser and a little more careful.  On another occasion many years ago, I journeyed to the lower world with my ally through what I now recognize as the Afghanistan wars.  I was disguised as a man because a woman in the midst of soldiers would have been killed.  What seemed like a fantasy adventure at the time has chillingly turned out to be prophecy that I did not recognize.  I am certain my guides were teaching me to see through the stories of my journeys into predictive information.  Since that time I have been alerted to storms, earthquakes, and coming events in the Infantada in Jerusalem.  My guides and my human friends who drum with me have been able to intervene in some small ways to protect humankind.  However, when we journeyed to the volcanic eruptions in Africa earlier this year we were taught that not all natural upheavals are disasters, that the Lady of the Lake and the God of the Fire & Lava had made a pact to dance together and recreate the land.  Without my animal allies to interpret these events I might not make sense of the journeys at all.  I might arrogantly try to change the wrong current events and make matters worse.

There is an untamed, wild magic present in the power animals of the Lower World that does not conform to human history.  They do not fear destruction because it is the beginning of an act of creation.  They do not regret the changes that happen with age and time.  They do not mourn losses. Theirs is a more infinite vision in which we may change bodies but our souls remain present with them.  I suspect a power animal brings us the wisdom of the gods and goddesses as shapeshifters.  The stories of many nations teach us that the great spirits of the universe appear not only in human form but also in animal form.  I experience that with my power animals.

When I was doing a series of Crone journeys to mark my entrance into the third stage of a woman's life, I met the Morrigan, flying over the field of battle as ravens.  My spiritual guide, usually in human form, changed to a white dove and flew with them.  But suddenly the five of us held hands (not wings and feathers) and circled over the battle fields of Gaia blending the energies of peace/ war, death/rebirth, logic/magic, vengeance/forgiveness, belief/disbelief until we were all-all five of us-irrevocably changed.  We flew to the ground as human formed spirits, gave gifts to one another and went our individual ways.  The Raven and the Dove are not among my usual power animals, but I look at them differently now because we encountered profound truths together as human, animal, and Goddess.

Clearly, animal allies come to assist with shamanic journeys.  They keep us safe as advisors and guides as we interact with the inhabitants of other dimensions.  They teach us deep truths and prophecies, which may be beyond our abilities to comprehend.  They are patient, usually, when we just don't get it.  The animal allies also attend our rituals.  They love to dance with us around the bonfire, to trance with us in drum circle, to raise a cone of power over candle magic.  We expect them in our Circles.  We greet them and recognize their contributions to the sabbats and the esbats.  They hold the energy, together with the Guardians of the Watch Towers and the Man In Black.  They unite their energy with the priests and priestesses who lead the cone of power.  They honor the Deities present.  They celebrate and revel in the power of the holy days and phases of the moon.  And in their animal forms, they are not us and not divine, but they are themselves.