[@Frettzo]That might, of course, be the original intention.

It'd be something like -- burning a child's toy in order to delve into the submaterium in [Spiderweb Forest] to see if there were any shape-shifters there. Rather than burning the toy to then see shape-shifters around you.

EDIT: now that I say that, being able to go into a semi trance-like state to see into the submaterium sounds like a good ability for experienced occultists. If need be, the similarity between shifters and the thing they're shifted into can lore-wise make it difficult to distinguish them (although their relationships with other things will always give them away after enough searching; they could run away by then -- among other things).