Qarin
Pronounced: Kah-reen

In folk tradition common throughout North Africa and the Middle East, every human being has a spirit double or alter ego. The
modern Arabic term for this double is Qarin (male) or Qarina (female). The Qarin is a doppelganger, shadow, or reflection. Sometimes
it's an evil twin. Spirit and human are born and die at the
same moment and share an intense psychic bond, although they may be
unaware of it.

Qarin may derive or be related to the Egyptian ka, an aspect of the soul or life-force, sometimes depicted as a person's
double. Although their names may be pronounced identically and sometimes even spelled identically, the spirit double Qarina is
not the same as the demon Karina who manifested to King Solomon. However some of the fears regarding Qarins may derive
from conflating them with Karina.

Variations on this theme exist throughout the Semitic world:
• In Jewish folklore, human and spirit share the same gender. Human and spirit are born, marry, and die simultaneously. If you
have children, they have children. When your life is tragic, so is theirs. This spirit reflection lives on the other side of the mirror.
• In Egyptian and some Arabic folklore, a man possesses a female Qarina while women have a male Qarin. Very complex
relationships form. If you marry someone, their Qarin and Qarina marry, too. If you divorce and remarry, there are
repercussions on the other side of the mirror, too.
• In Moroccan folklore, relationships are even more complex. Each individual possesses a star double up in the sky and a leaf on
the Tree of Paradise as well as the standard spirit double. All four—human, spirit, leaf, and star—are cosmically linked. If we
get sick, so do our spirits. The star pales; the leaf withers. When we die, the spirit dies too. The star becomes a shooting star
and falls from the sky. The leaf falls from the tree.

As long as Qarin and human lead parallel lives with no interaction, there's rarely any trouble, but sometimes the Qarin becomes
fixated or jealous of its human counterpart, in which case those evil twin tendencies may start to manifest. Trouble develops when the
Qarin is infertile but the human counterpart has children or if the Qarin lusts after its human twin. Sometimes Qarins sabotage human
relationships from jealousy or because they wish to keep their humans all to themselves. Qarins visit their humans in dreams for sex. (If
you compulsively dream of having sex with yourself or someone who looks just like you, this may be more than narcissism.)
In some parts of the Semitic world, the Qarin is just a fact of life, something that exists but which one rarely, if ever, has contact with.
Sometimes Qarins behave like allies, especially those whose health and well-being is linked to yours. In other places, however, Qarins
are feared. The Qarin may threaten the child of its human counterpart. The Qarin is a formidable opponent if it's angry with you because
it knows you like it knows itself. A Qarin will not kill you because it will die with you, but a Qarin with no children may threaten your
children because it will suffer no corresponding loss.
Amulets are used to protect against the Qarin, especially:
• Fish-shaped amulets
• The Seven Covenants of Solomon (See also:Umm es Subyan.)
• Put seven grains each of seven different kinds of grain in a charm bag. Hang near a cradle, carry, or wear.
M anifestation: The Qarin is generally invisible, but the psychically gifted may sense or see
them. Qarins are doppelgangers.
Looking at your Qarin is like looking into a mirror. Some Qarins are also able to assume the form of cats or dogs.

Creatures: Cats and, to a lesser extent, dogs. These animals may be the Qarins in disguise or some Qarins may just be inordinately
fond of them. (Odds are if you're crazy about cats, so is your Qarin.) Cats and dogs may also serve as messengers of the Qarin.

Qarin folklore includes all kinds of admonitions against harming or even offending cats. The cat may be the Qarin or these
may be vestiges of ancient traditions that considered cats holy.

See also: Bastet; Karina

Qebhut
Also known as: Qeb-Hwt; Qébéhout; Kebehet; Kabachet; Kebhut; Kebechet
Origin: Egypt
Qebhut is the goddess of the mystical Water of Life. She presides over the magical, reviving powers of water. The daughter of
funerary deity Anubis, Qebhut serves as her father's assistant. She blesses and empowers water; then carries it to him so that this water
may be used in funeral rites.
Qebhut is actively involved in the traditional, sacred mummification process that Anubis pioneered. She personally bathes the entrails
of the deceased during the mummification process. The souls of the deceased were envisioned as being essentially on "stand-by" during
the traditional seventy-day embalming process. During this period, Qebhut brings refreshing, purifying water to these souls, keeping
them "alive" until the process is complete and rituals of reanimation are conducted.
Invoke Qebhut to preside over cleansing rituals. She has the power to purify any atmosphere or situation and may be able to oppose
or reverse any sort of decay or contamination, physical or spiritual.
Favored people: Funeral workers; those who cleanse or detoxify water; those actively engaged in sacred cleansing rituals
Iconography: Qebhut is portrayed carrying water in the guise of a snake or ostrich.
Spirit allies: Her father Anubis and grandmother Nephthys
Element: Water
Bird: Ostrich
Creature: Snake
Offerings: Incense; pure spring water and/or the alcoholic beverages known as eaux-de-vie ("waters of life")
See also: Anubis; Nephthys; Satis

Quetzalcoatl

Lord of the Dawn
Quetzalcoatl means "the plumed or feathered serpent."
Although often described as an Aztec deity, Quetzalcoatl predates the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico by centuries. A plumed water
serpent spirit recognizable as Quetzalcoatl was venerated in the region from at least 1200 BCE.

Quetzalcoatl was a Toltec deity, the mysterious civilization who dominated the Valley of Mexico between approximately 1200 and
950 BCE. According to Toltec myth, Quetzalcoatl with his brother Tezcatlipoca—his sometime partner, rival, and alter ego—created
this world. After the Fourth Age was destroyed by floods, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca helped Cihuacoatl create a brand-new Earth.
They separated land and sky and repopulated Earth by stealing human bones from Mictlan, Realm of Death. Quetzalcoatl ground up
those bones like corn, mixing the flour-like powder with his own blood to harvest a new crop of people.
Quetzalcoatl invented the calendar, metal-working, and agriculture. He gave people maize corn, their staff of life: it had previously
been hidden away. Quetzalcoatl taught people science, architecture, and art and established government and spiritual rituals. He
discouraged human sacrifice, recommending flower offerings instead. Unlike many other deities, Quetzalcoatl was consistently
benevolent and caring toward people.
His people lived well. Quetzalcoatl became placid. Tezcatlipoca, force of chaos, arrived to shake things up. He showed Quetzalcoatl
his reflection in an obsidian mirror. Quetzalcoatl was shocked at his appearance: truly he did not look well. Tezcatlipoca produced what
he called medicine—the elixir of life, an alchemical longevity, vitality potion. Really it was just alcohol, something which the ascetic,
celibate Quetzalcoatl had never tasted. One sip led to another; Tezcatlipoca got Quetzalcoatl very drunk. At some point, Quetzalcoatl's
sister Quetzalpetlatl or Xochiquetzal arrived. (Different versions feature different names. It's possible that both names refer to the same
spirit.) Depending on the version of the myth, this sister may be a celibate priestess. Quetzalcoatl gave her some of the medicine.
In the morning, they woke up together in bed. Different myths posit different versions of what happened.
• Maybe they really did commit incest.
• Alternatively, too drunk to actually engage in sex, they were also too drunk to recall their actions: Tezcatlipoca told them they
had sex and they believed him.
• Yet another version says rival priests raped Quetzalpetlatl but blamed Quetzalcoatl.

Regardless, Quetzalcoatl was ashamed and devastated. He suffered a crisis of faith and felt he must leave. He traveled to the sea and
sailed away to the east, maybe on a boat with sails, maybe on a raft of snakes. He vowed to return someday.
As their power waned, some Toltecs moved to the Yucatan where they exerted strong influence on Mayan culture. They
brought spirits with them: Toltec Quetzalcoatl became Mayan Kukulcan. Quetzalcoatl and Kukulcan are generally considered
two names for one deity.

Quetzalcoatl's significance and place in the Aztec pantheon is now unclear. Some insist that he is the most important Aztec deity,
others that he is comparatively marginal. However sixteenth-century Franciscan missionaries were very taken with him. Aspects of his
myth were perceived as Christ-like. He became a tool for evangelists who identified his second-coming from the east with the arrival of
the conquistadors. They may have encouraged the still-popular legend that Moctezuma mistook Cortes for Quetzalcoatl.
M anifestation: Quetzalcoatl is a pale, bearded man who wears a conical hat and a robe decorated with flowers and crosses.
Iconography: Quetzalcoatl is portrayed as a snake covered with quetzal plumes.
Attributes: Quetzalcoatl wears a cross-section (slice) of a conch shell as a pendant or chest ornament.
Element: Water
Bird: Quetzal (Pharomachus mocinno)
Creatures: Snakes, especially rattlesnakes; also now Quetzalcoatlus, the pterosaur named in his honor
Planet: Venus, the Morning Star
Sacred sites:
• His temple at Teotihuacán dates to the third century CE.
• Cholula was the center of his veneration and an important pilgrimage site.
Offerings: Flowers especially hyacinths, copal incense, seashells, chocolate

See also: Cihuacoatl; Kolowisi; Oiwa; Malinalxochitl; Mictlantecuhtli; Tezcatlipoca; Xochiquetzal; Xolotl