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Author Topic: Help! Rituals with Kitties!  (Read 1667 times)

Aniera

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Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« on: October 21, 2013, 01:49:44 pm »
Haha.. contrary to what it sounds like in the title, there's no animal abuse going on.

I am a momma to not only a two year old but two fur baby cats as well (One being about 13 weeks old and the other being almost two). Well when trying to cast my circle and performing rituals, my kittens will not stop trying to play in the flames of my candles (the ones I have around the circle for the elements and helping show the circle). I don't know what to do.

Are there any good candle alternatives for placing in the four corners? I am so scared my kitties will catch fire and I'm tired of having to pick up candle wax from them being knocked over.

(I have to perform my rituals inside in my living room as I don't have a lot of privacy outside)
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Schuyler

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2013, 02:24:26 pm »
Quote from: Aniera;126295
Haha.. contrary to what it sounds like in the title, there's no animal abuse going on.

I am a momma to not only a two year old but two fur baby cats as well (One being about 13 weeks old and the other being almost two). Well when trying to cast my circle and performing rituals, my kittens will not stop trying to play in the flames of my candles (the ones I have around the circle for the elements and helping show the circle). I don't know what to do.

Are there any good candle alternatives for placing in the four corners? I am so scared my kitties will catch fire and I'm tired of having to pick up candle wax from them being knocked over.

(I have to perform my rituals inside in my living room as I don't have a lot of privacy outside)

 
Flameless candles. They are battery powered, though some are rechargeable. I used to work in a spa, and we probably used close to a hundred at a time!

Medulla

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2013, 02:52:36 pm »
Quote from: Aniera;126295
Haha.. contrary to what it sounds like in the title, there's no animal abuse going on.

I am a momma to not only a two year old but two fur baby cats as well (One being about 13 weeks old and the other being almost two). Well when trying to cast my circle and performing rituals, my kittens will not stop trying to play in the flames of my candles (the ones I have around the circle for the elements and helping show the circle). I don't know what to do.

Are there any good candle alternatives for placing in the four corners? I am so scared my kitties will catch fire and I'm tired of having to pick up candle wax from them being knocked over.

(I have to perform my rituals inside in my living room as I don't have a lot of privacy outside)

 
Is your house a studio? If not, just close the living room door and let the cats wander around the hallway and bedroom and whatnot, but not into the living room while you're doing the ritual.

You could also try incense depending on how well you think it would work or (better yet) get one of those candle holders with a closed top with some holes on it. That way, you can use candles but your cats can't get to it. If they try to knock those over, maybe you can decorate them so you can see light but not the actual flame. A bit like those patron saint candles that have a closed lid and the outside is made of plastic and glass and is covered in pictures of that saint, so it lights up but you don't see the flame.

Aster Breo

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Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2013, 03:20:48 pm »
Quote from: Schuyler;126300
Flameless candles. They are battery powered, though some are rechargeable. I used to work in a spa, and we probably used close to a hundred at a time!

This.

We have many cats living with us at the moment, so I have to be careful about open flames.  I've been very happy with my LED candles.  You can get them in all sizes, from tealight to large pillar, and a variety of colors. I have one that stays on all the time for Brighid.

Another possibility might be an oil lamp -- either the kind with a glass chimney that protects the flame, or the kind that's basically made out of a glass jar where the wick sits close to the bottom.  Check out the olive oil lamps on lehmans.com for examples of what I mean.
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Aniera

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2013, 03:50:51 pm »
Quote from: Medulla;126305
Is your house a studio? If not, just close the living room door and let the cats wander around the hallway and bedroom and whatnot, but not into the living room while you're doing the ritual.

You could also try incense depending on how well you think it would work or (better yet) get one of those candle holders with a closed top with some holes on it. That way, you can use candles but your cats can't get to it. If they try to knock those over, maybe you can decorate them so you can see light but not the actual flame. A bit like those patron saint candles that have a closed lid and the outside is made of plastic and glass and is covered in pictures of that saint, so it lights up but you don't see the flame.


My house is an older trailer... work in progress lol. But there isn't any room to put them in other then the bathroom and my one cat would cry his eyes out lol. I don't have any doors seperating my living room lol I may try to putthem in our storage room (but once again with the crying) lol

I do like the idea of the covered candles... thank you.
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Aniera

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2013, 03:51:49 pm »
Quote from: Aster Breo;126310
This.

We have many cats living with us at the moment, so I have to be careful about open flames.  I've been very happy with my LED candles.  You can get them in all sizes, from tealight to large pillar, and a variety of colors. I have one that stays on all the time for Brighid.




Thank you so much! :D
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Jenett

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2013, 03:56:59 pm »
Quote from: Aniera;126295

Are there any good candle alternatives for placing in the four corners? I am so scared my kitties will catch fire and I'm tired of having to pick up candle wax from them being knocked over.


I have spent more than one ritual as the Designated Holder of the HPS's cat. (My own furballs have been generally more reliably behaved around fire.)
 
Option 1: Put the candles up on something higher.

The classic solution for this that does not involve massive rearrangement of space or new furniture is wooden TV trays (they run about $30 for four at a lot of basic home stores, or you can sometimes find them at thrift stores for cheaper). Whether or not you can use an altar cloth with them depends a lot on your cat(s) but they're just sturdy enough to be sturdy, while not being horribly tempting to a majority of cats (because they're not that big.)

They won't work if your cats will try and climb everything, but you can usually figure out if it'll be a problem by setting up the table without much on it, and seeing what happens (and then trying your candleholders without a lit candle for a few days, etc.)

Option 2: Use a different kind of light or candleholder

LED candles. Oil lamps. Something so heavily weighted a cat can't move it easily. My HPS had square stone candleholders with a space dug out for the tea light - a cat might have moved them if they'd gotten up on the table and pushed, but they wouldn't have moved with just a paw.

There are cats you can't get away with *anything* with, and cats where if you make it just annoying enough that they can't get a good perch, they'll go bother something else. Your cat may vary.

Option 3: Do something different

Here, it depends *what* you're using the candles for - in my tradition, the quarter candles are provided as a place for the elemental to be in circle that's 'theirs', and to have a very clear direct trigger of when we're opening and closing the door to that elemental realm.

So, one option I've used for rituals where candles weren't appropriate for other reasons, was to have small wooden boxes (the lightweight ones you can get at craft stores for a couple of dollars), painted and decorated for each element, and with a couple of small items (shells, glass in appropriate colours, some coiled thin ribbon in multiple colours, small figures, etc.).

When you're doing the call, open the box, take out an appropriate item or two, and set them beside the box. When you're opening the circle at the end of ritual, put the items back in the box and close it - you're then using the opening and closing of the box as the trigger.

(You can include an unlit candle here, or something else that seems appropriate - for example, you might still do an LED candle for South, but you could have a small jar of water and a tiny bowl for water in the west, a small mini fan or feather for air in the east, a small pinch of sand or dirt or salt in the north, and so on.)
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PhantomQueen

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2013, 10:37:24 am »
Quote from: Aniera;126295
Haha.. contrary to what it sounds like in the title, there's no animal abuse going on.

I am a momma to not only a two year old but two fur baby cats as well (One being about 13 weeks old and the other being almost two). Well when trying to cast my circle and performing rituals, my kittens will not stop trying to play in the flames of my candles (the ones I have around the circle for the elements and helping show the circle). I don't know what to do.

Are there any good candle alternatives for placing in the four corners? I am so scared my kitties will catch fire and I'm tired of having to pick up candle wax from them being knocked over.

(I have to perform my rituals inside in my living room as I don't have a lot of privacy outside)

 
I've a bettery operated candle as a backup.  Have you considered having a catnip plant available only for the cats that they can play with only during your ritual times?  If they've got an irrisistable distraction, you own't have as much (if any) problem with candle knocking over/acciderntal BBQing of dearly beloved pets...

Aniera

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Re: Help! Rituals with Kitties!
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2013, 01:10:08 pm »
Quote from: PhantomQueen;126420
I've a bettery operated candle as a backup.  Have you considered having a catnip plant available only for the cats that they can play with only during your ritual times?  If they've got an irrisistable distraction, you own't have as much (if any) problem with candle knocking over/acciderntal BBQing of dearly beloved pets...

 
Thanks so much for all the options. My older cat isn't really too bad, he just wants to lay in the circle.. My little kitten though Goodness me! She is a climber, wild child, and a little holy terror! I'm definatly going to try some of these options! Thanks so much!
What A Shame To Have Wings & Never Fly

Becoming a mother is my greatest achievement.


Spiritual Blog: http://www.whimsicalmystical.blogspot.com

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