The story behind …

Aubrey’s Dog: Power Animals in Traditional Witchcraft by Melusine Draco

Every book has a story behind the story of how it came to be written. It may be about a life-long passion, a personal journey, the need to share an experience or knowledge. It may have been fermenting in the brain for years, or sprung fully formed from a blinding epiphany.  Whether it be fact or fiction, sometimes the story behind the story is almost as interesting as the published book itself …

 Shaman Pathways: Aubrey’s Dog: Power Animals in Traditional Witchcraft by Melusine Draco

I make no bones about it, I am a dog person.  I think dog, speak dog and have been pack-leader of ten – but age has its price and I’m now down to six.  My dogs are free dogs and they live as a pack, secure in a pecking order that was established many years ago and has been handed down as younger dogs came in.  And with this natural pack mentality comes the magical energy that fuels the dynamic of the group.  Dogs are very magical creatures but they often overlooked in this capacity because of their familiarity and many witches associate power animals with the wild.

Dogs inhabit the realms of Otherworld just as easily as witches and shamans do since they are spirit guardians, psychopomps, familiars and messengers from ancient times – and as such they guide us, guard us and generally keep us from harm, both in this world and out of it. Folklore is the happy hunting ground for dogs since there are countless encounters with Black Shuck and those other big black dogs that inhabit out of the way places and roam the winter skies as part of the Wild Hunt. We can draw energy from our dog to channel into magical workings and we must not overlook the ‘Hounds of Hell’ we conjure up to carry that famous curse to our victim.

But on a more lighter side, dogs have been medically proven to have tremendous healing powers of their own.  Dogs have become people’s eyes and act as ‘assistant dogs’ for those with all sorts of disabilities; they join the police force as sniffer dogs and lead the rescue teams to find those trapped in collapsed buildings or lost in inhospitable landscapes.  And if that’s not magic I don’t know what is.

Unfortunately wires were crossed when this book was submitted for publication and it landed up under the ‘Shaman Pathways’ listing instead of ‘Pagan Portals’ and as a result many witches have missed out thinking it had been written for shamans.

Aubrey’s Dog by Melusine Draco is published by Moon Books in the Shaman Pathways series in both e-book and paperback format.  ISBN: 978 1 78099 724 7 : 84 pages : Price UK£4.99/US$9.95.  For more information go to www.moon-books.net