So for those of you aren’t yet sure who this animal is, and want some help finding out, there are numerous ways to go about it.
First of all, lifelong power animals are usually wild animals rather than domesticated ones. Of course you can have a cat or dog as a power animals, but these are usually linked to the wild power animals such as a dog to the wolf, or the cat one of the feline families such as panther, lion or tiger. You power animal chooses you, not the other way around. I once thought the stag was my power animal, but when I dream journeyed to meet him, he wouldn’t come at first. I was completely puzzled at first, but then I asked owl, who had always been there, why he wouldn’t show up.
She then told me that’s because the stag wasn’t my power animal, but a guide who comes to me in time of need. Bear, wolf and dragon are another example of these guides who have stayed with me for a good part of my life, when I needed them most. It then dawned on me that Owl had been my main power animal all along, (and in-fact, suits my personalty perfectly). That doesn’t mean the Stag, wolf or bear aren’t as important, it just means they are present in different times of my life, or in different areas, for example in my creativity, or healing work.
But we will get into that more in our next lessons, where you will meet some of these special guides.
For now let’s concentrate on our lifelong guide. Once we discover who they are, we can start to communicate and honor them by hanging or painting pictures of them, reading up all you can about them and keeping totems of them in your home. I have owls all around my house but I also have Stag on my fairy altar, Ram on my art desk who helps me to get projects done swift and sound, and Raven to help me tap into my intuitive magic when I create. These are examples of how you can draw them into their life. The more significance you give them, the more powerful they become.
Your main power animal is your doorway to the animal spirit realm, learn to work with her and she will guide and teach you how you can work with the other power totems.
Meeting your personal animal totem
This is an exercise that will help you meet your power animal. I know many people just go online and do one of those tests with questions and then at the end they tell you who power animal supposedly is. While those tests can be a lot of fun, sometimes they can be spot on, other times they leave you even more confused than before.
There are so many animal species that aren’t even listed there for one. And like I said before, it’s your power animal that chooses you, not the other way around. You don’t have to be into Shamanism to do this next exercise. It’s really more of a meditative journey, where we are merely getting quiet, opening our mind and heart to the animal realm, without judgement, and letting our intuition speak.
And for those of you who already know and work with your power animal, this is a great way to re-connect with and visit them there.
So I invite you to go into this meditation exercise with a creative imagination, and your animal totem will present itself to you. Don’t worry if you think you’re making it up at first, that’s totally normal, and sometimes even helpful. You’ll notice at a certain point when you’re not making it up any more. Usually us artists who normally have a strong visual sense actually have a hard time “visualizing” things clearly in our mind when doing this meditative journeying. So if you find this is the case (as it was with me at first) you can use your other senses instead, which you will find are all the more sharper.
Ask yourself how it feels to you? What sensations or emotions do you feel when you sense your animal is near? Do you feel movement or hear any sounds like buzzing, wings flapping, etc? Feel with your hands, does it feel furry or smooth? Feathery and light or powerful and strong? What does your heart feel? Your power animal doesn’t often speak with words but places it’s thoughts directly in your heart.
You’ll want to make sure you are undisturbed for the time you will do this meditative journeying , turn your phones off, get comfortable (I usually like to lie on my back with a blanket if its cold, you can even cover your eyes with a scarf or something ,if that helps). Just make sure you don’t fall asleep lol… or if you do that you’re already in bed about to go to sleep, then you can fall directly into your dreams and take all the time you need to get to know your power animal.
But I know how busy we all are so I made this recording short enough so you only need to take fifteen to twenty minutes out of your day, where no one can disturb you.
Here I take an excerpt from the book Animal Speak (added down in the resources) of the author Ted Andrews, with a little twist of my own.
You can also find guided journeys on you-tube I believe, if you want to try some others as well.
But I am pretty sure that after you do this one, the next time you will know where to go, and what to do. So even just playing some soft music, and taking your time to breathe deeply and relax, will be enough to let your mind wander from there.
So are you ready? Get yourself comfortable, turn off your phones, and enjoy this time for yourself!
So how did it go? What was your experience? I would SO love to hear them over in the Facebook group, and answer any questions you may have.
So now that we’ve met our animal totems, and have them fresh in our mind, we will now go on to the painting them, fun!