Not too long ago I had a situation where a rather naive teenaged girl, upon seeing my booth at a pagan gathering, made several rather rude comments about the fact that I use animal parts in my artwork. "Oh, the poor dead animals!" she exclaimed loudly every time a potential customer approached my table--much to the chagrin of my partner and I. I was busy trying to do card readings for clients while Matt watched over the works, and eventually we both shouted at her--while I was in the middle of a reading--to PLEASE go away and stop disrespecting my religion.

The sad thing is, folks, that it isn't just impressionable children who act so ignorantly. I have had adults make their assumptions without even asking why I do what I do. This is why I am not a member of PETA and other (IMO) knee-jerk groups which act now and think later. While members of such groups may think theyare justified in releasing 10,000 mink from a fur farm, they never stop to consider the fact that by doing so they are A) sentencing most, if not all, of the mink to death by starvation, and/or B) threatening the local predators with a huge influx of competition for food. (If you don't think it's possible, ask any rural Australian about the European rabbits imported there.) Or, for that matter, the ELF members who torches a dozen SUVs parked in a dealer lot, sending Gods know how many toxins into the air, and requiring the dealer to order a dozen or so more SUVs worth of valuable resources to replace his inventory. It's all well and good to stand for a cause, but at least consider ALL the consequences.

I also believe that it is important to remember that other people often hold to their beliefs as tenuously as I do, and that to profane anything is to profane something which is sacred to someone else. I may not be a vegan, but I believe it is a noble path to follow if you have the willpower to do so. On the other hand, I take great offense top those who judge without considering whom they are judging.

Which brings me to the main reason for this page: a full explanation of why I create things from animal parts. There are many misunderstandings, and I would like to set some things straight before anyone decides to send me a nasty email or phone call about how evil I am.

In my beliefs, when a spirit leaves its physical body, be it human, other animal, plant, etc., it leaves behind a residue of some extent. This usually is not the whole of the spirit, but it has a life and personality of its own, and often is still attached in some manner to the spirit. To me, when something dies it doesn't just end there. Usually this residual spirit can be put to rest by allowing the physical body to decay. Other times it can be ritually detached from the husk it once inhabited and released. Sometimes, however, doesn't get the chance to escape. It is this aspect I work with. There are times, however, when the entire spirit is free, but it would like a respectful rsst for its former shell. Often in these lattermost cases the spirit later on works with the owner of the piece in spiritual workings. This is especially true for people who have totemic bonds with the animal(s) integrated into the work.

The most common causes of the entrapment, so to speak, tend to involve violent death. Just as a place where a tragedy has occurred can be imprinted with a haunt by the stress, so can an animal skin or bones. Often the artwork can be a completion or "funeral," so to speak, immediately releasing the spirit upon completion. Other times the residual spirit prefers (or must) remain in the piece until it has time to detach at its own pace.

The part of the body that retains the most residue varies as well. Skulls tend to carry a lot, as they harbored the brain and housed many of the primary senses. Legs often are strong carriers as well, for their locomotion, and tails, as they are often used for communication. Torso parts usually have the least amount of residue. Through certain rituals the residue can be moved from one or several parts into another, even if they are in different places. Therefore, if I have possession of only one part, I can recall the rest of the residue into that part, thereby releasing it from the rest, which may be in less-than-stellar conditions.

When I begin a project, I first work with the pieces I will be integrating. I ask them what they want to be, and visualize it in my mind. I then put it into reality to the best of my ability. If I wish to make a change for sutrctural or practical reasons, I ask permissions first. If a piece does not wish to be worked with at the time, or urgently needs help, I comply as best as I can.

When the artwork is done, I purify it thoroughly with silver sage and sweetgrass. I then make offerings to the spirits. I sell no piece until I am sure that the spirits within are content. At all times I keep in mind that I, too, am a part of the cycle, and someday my body will go to feed insects, arthropods, plants of all types, and perhaps even larger animals should I die in the wilderness. None of this bothers me. I would rather my body disintegrate into the Earth in the most natural form possible than be lowers in a box of steel and full of embalming fluids that would pollute the ground around me. I love the touch of the Earth...I would prefer it to the end and beyond.

All this depends on the individual piece, of course. There are no hard-and-fast rules to go by.

So why don't I just bury the fur and leather and other pieces I have? Often these are cured with harmful chemicals that would damage the Earth. Other times the pieces ask to be taken home and given new forms and new respect. Some are outright rescues, such as old fur coats and stoles, rugs and other mistreated parts. The worst treatment of a skin I ever saw, and I pity that I couldn't afford to rescue it, was a coyote sewn up by a taxidermist. The person had mounted the skin in a position of the very moment the coyote caught its foot in a steel trap. It was in the act of leaping back in pain and surprise, a horrible look on its face, the teeth grinding into the fur. That is why I do what I do--the skins and other pieces I have are brought into respectful, often spiritual, pieces of artwork, not trophies for some disrespectful yahoo with an inferiority complex to point at and laugh at what he perceives as a lesser being.

Most animal activists wish to prevent victimization from happening. Many never consider that to some of us the abuse doesn't always end with death. They work with the prevention; I work with the aftermath.

I am aware, as well, of the propaganda on either side of the issue. I have watched PETA's graphic videos of blatant abuse of fur bearing animals, and I have seen the defense of the fur industry claiming that its standards are humane and that the abuse is not the norm. You may judge for yourself:

Fur is Dead - PETA's side
Fur Commission USA - Fur Farm Defense

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