myth-keep:

bragiteilen:

A suggestion for non-Indigenous neopagans: The Norse fylgja (plural fylgjur) is a concept that suits the way white people tend to talk about spirit animals, but without all the yoinking and stomping on closed cultures.

The fylgja is a spirit that follows and protects an individual from the time of their birth and can take the form of an animal. In those cases, the form it assumes is typically representational of a person’s own spirit, but it can also appear as a human as well, though that can have slightly different implications about the nature of the thing. Keep in mind, though, that seeing one’s own fylgja is said to be an omen that a person’s death is near.

Fun fact for all you out there, fylgja means ‘to accompany’ and is largely where the idea of a witch’s familar stems from. Familiar is a perfect alternative if you can’t pronounce this

So if ya keep saying spirit animal I’m gonna fight you