Kiss a kitten, adopt a horse, world animal day is here.

 

Now I have recently written a column for enchantingeauty.nl about our three cats which will be published soon, but I didn’t want to pass the opportunity to write something about animals on my own blog.

World animal day is inspired by October 4^th being the day of the patron saint of animals and the environment Franciscus van Assisi (Francis of Assisi) and is celebrated throughout most of the civilized world.

To us pagans, wiccans and otherwise spiritually engaged people animals are often extremely important to not only our diet (sorry vegans) or for being companions, but also as an inspiration. We use animal totems and amulets, refer to magical creatures made up from one or more existing animals and tell fables where animals can talk. We compare traits of certain creatures to our own and revere those animals for it. Wise owls, sly foxes and silly monkey’s all well known concepts. And whether they are true or not is of less importance, those aspects inspire us to improve ourselves. We look at the grace of a cat and long for that same grace, a longing that may eventually drive us to better our own posture. In many ways animals make us better humans.

Even in Christian texts animals are often used as inspiration or as a metaphor. Christ once a sheep will return a lion, the holy ghost is often pictured as a white dove and the evangelists  in art are always depicted as man, lion, ox and eagle. The evangelist s

Without doubt animals are important to us. And though we should always treat them with love and respect, even when we eat them or make clothes of them, take this day to take some extra effort. Donate to an animal charity, spread the word of animals in animal shelters and spoil your puppies and kittens. Because without them life would suck and we would suck.

Greetings from Odin, Loki and Freya

"No animals were harmed during the making of this blog, I myself did break a nail on the keyboard though"