Living Two Lives: What the Peacock and Hippogriff Spirit Guides Teach a Modern Witch About Becoming Whole

Suzi's Secrets #26: A Modern Witch Short Story about exploring the duality of life through Peacock and Hippogriff Spirit Guides

Two guides. One witch. A choice to become whole.

In the spirit of awakening and storytelling magic, this week’s Suzi’s Secrets takes the form of a short story, in which a modern witch meets the guides who call her into her power. Enjoy! - Suzi 💜

Mara pressed her fingers to her throat again. The swollen lymph node was throbbing again. It was more than physical. She knew her body too well. It had always been the first to tattle on her soul.

This wasn’t an infection. This was suppression.

It always began the same way. It was a small “it’s fine” when her boundaries were crossed, a gentle laugh when someone dismissed her instincts, a placating answer when she wanted to say no.

She had spent her whole life learning how to make herself smaller.

Growing up in a cramped, angry house where the walls held more shouting than warmth, Mara learned early that speaking up invited consequences. Truth would get you punished. Intuition would get you mocked. Her mother called her intuition, “being too sensitive.” Her father called her imagination “a waste of time.”

The first time she saw the sparks of witchfire was at age seven. A flicker of light in her palms as she woke up from a nightmare. She hid under the bed until her hands stopped glowing.

She learned silence equaled safety. She learned invisibility equaled survival. She became excellent at both.

Now, at twenty-six, she ran a small business that looked normal enough on paper. A digital marketing firm that did branding consultations and helped entrepreneurs refine their presence.

People said she was brilliant. People said she had a gift for strategy.

What they didn’t know was that strategy was intuition, and her gift was magic.

Her success came from the long, candlelit work nights with digital design and research combined with whispered incantations, sigils tucked in client files, and the quiet ability to feel what people weren’t saying and intuitively know what the right next step would be.

No one could know that of course. Not if she wanted to stay safe. Not in a world that still shunned at best, hunted at worst, anything it feared.

So she lived two lives.

The Modern Woman. And the Hidden Witch.

And her body was tired of carrying both.

Mara stepped into her backyard for a moment of air, a flash of iridescent blues and greens caught her eye. She cleaned her glasses, squinting at the image and put her glasses back on. No, there it was, in all it's glory.

A peacock. Right there in the center of her lawn, shimmering like a living gemstone. She blinked. There were no peacocks in her area. Maybe it escaped from the zoo? She thought in wonder. It turned its blue head to her. Looked right at her. And she knew it wasn’t. 

Its tail wasn’t fully fanned, but still it was glorious. It lifted its tail just enough to reveal a suggestion of eyes watching her.

Show off your plumage. A voice whispered inside her.

Her throat throbbed in response, a dull ache pulsing in time with her heart.

“What?” she whispered in confusion. Her voice raspy, even in her head, from holding back too much.

The peacock cocked its head as though trying to understand her thoughts. It fixed her with an intelligent stare. 

Embrace yourself. Put yourself on display. The voice whispered. Mara could have sworn she felt the air vibrate.

Before she could take another step, a shadow swept across the yard; enormous, winged, impossible.

Mara froze.

A beast landed in the clearing with startling grace. Half Eagle, half horse, its talons dug into the earth, wings folding in perfect arcs of power.

The hippogriff locked its eyes onto hers, golden and knowing.

I am Earth and sky. I am Instinct and intellect. I am Human and myth. I am a union of opposites, just like you. Embrace who you are.

The voice sounding in her head made her think of wildlife, rushing waterfalls. It boomed and was a whisper at once. It embodied ancient wisdom and cosmic law.

She didn’t breathe until both animals faded gently into the air, like stepping behind an invisible curtain.

That night, Mara dreamed she was standing in a vast field beneath a violet sky streaked with silver stars. The air hummed, warm and electric.

A familiar cry echoed overhead.

The hippogriff descended, wings glowing faintly in the starlight, and bowed its head toward her. Behind it, the peacock strutted forward, feathers glimmering like a royal cloak.

“Speak,” the peacock murmured inside her mind. “Be seen.”

“Your power isn’t meant to be hidden.” The hippogriff added.  “It’s meant to lead you forward.”

The hippogriff unfurled its wings, and in that moment she felt her two selves reflected back at her.

The witch.

The woman.

The parts she had split in two… because she thought she had to.

The peacock let out a low, resonant cry and shook out its full plume; a breathtaking fan of eyes and color, unapologetic and bold.

“Show the world your magic. Stop dimming what wants to shine. Your next manifestation depends on it.” They both said to her as the dream faded.

Mara woke gasping, but her throat didn’t hurt quite as sharply.

She stood in the mirror, probing the spot beneath her jaw.

It was still tender, but not swollen.

Something had shifted.

She thought of the manifestation she had been working on. The big one, the one she didn’t talk about, the dream so audacious it scared even her. The one her ex would have called her “pie in the sky.” Every time she tried to move toward it, something inside her pulled back.

You can’t be that big. You can’t be that seen. People will find out who you are.

But now she wondered…

What if her dream wasn’t being blocked by the Universe?

What if she was the one blocking it?

What if the next level required her whole self, not just the safe half?

Because a woman divided cannot rise.

A witch divided cannot cast.

A soul divided cannot manifest.

She met her reflection’s gaze. Her own eyes seemed brighter.

“I’m tired of hiding,” she whispered, and for the first time, she meant it.

Her sore throat once pulsing, now eased.

A sign.

A release.

A beginning.

Somewhere deep inside, she could feel it:

If she dared to show her plumage…If she united her two natures instead of pitting them against each other…If she stopped living in fear of the past or the world’s opinions…

She could already feel the tingle of power racing beneath her skin, like wings she forgot she had.

Glorious things were waiting, she had only to embrace herself.