What are Animal Medicines (aka Power Animals)?
The term power animal is something that 'spiritual people' might say. We also might use it as a joke, perhaps saying that some celebrity or TV character is our 'power animal'. It's become a cliche like chakras and crystals, just another thing that we can laugh about without ever delving into. It's a little sad to see our lack of reverence for life and indigenous cultures - although it's not too surprising given the cynical bubbles most of us live in.
Power animals are spoken about in a joking or dismissive way, dismissing the idea that things have a deeper meaning, and also dismissing an individuals right to learn from these beings in their own way. The implication is "what could these animals teach us?" This is the attitude of human beings who have cultivated a self proclaimed superiority. All the while we stay blind to our own insensitivity and destructiveness. We are a truly unnatural animal, having lost our ability to balance ourselves within our environment. Even the simplest organisms can manage this, so we can definitely learn a lot.
Paying our Respects
According to the traditions of the first nation people of North America; and in fact most indigenous cultures - each animal has certain abilities or powers which they embody. It's something that we can learn from animals by observing and humbling ourselves to life. For example, the badger is tenacious and powerful for its size - and a butterfly transforms and has stages. Dolphins are both playful and privy to sonic 'wavelengths' which most humans cannot understand. Manifesting these powers means reaching an affinity with that particular animal and integrating it into your consciousness.
Some powers and obvious, and some are very subtle. The power of a given animal may change depending on the context and the person perceiving it. For one person a vulture is a sign of their demise, for another person it is a symbol of survival and resourcefulness.
Each animal has their unique ways of being - they play their part on this earth walk by teaching us how to live in harmony with life. It's about being at peace with your existence and all of the pieces and parts within it.
Different Ways to Identify your Power Animals & Animal Guides
The traditional method for learning about your power animal or animals is having a shamanic practitioner do a journey for you. This could be a drumming journey or a plant medicine journey. When I was just starting on this path a practitioner journeyed for me. She retrieved the animal, which was indicated by it's appearance three or more times in the journey. She then told me about this animals particular medicine, as well as her intuitive guidance on what this meant for me at that time. This was super empowering and a little bit challenging, looking at it years later I can see how I have grown into a connection with that animal.
Respect for traditions and the greater experience of others can give great depth and power to the spirits that choose you. Although you can definitely journey to meet your own power animal, this is a legitimate way to get in touch. One merely needs the right tools, and the proper reverence.
Of course the simplest method is just by paying attention to life and recognizing which creatures we have an affinity for. You may already know that you have a connection to an animal, it merely needs to be further researched and connected with. With the understanding that all animals contain a secret wisdom, we treat out interaction differently and get different results.
Hawk - A Medicine That I Have Experiened
Hawk is a medicine which has come into my life. I keep a hawk feather on my shrine in my bedroom. This particular animal feels very innate to me, it is not something that I have gradually learned - it was already there.
Hawk teaches us how to see things from the bigger picture, and it also teaches us about an intuitive way of seeing things. By spontaneously observing the small details and happenings of life, they add up to a kind of story. You could even call this a mild trance state. In the trance we allow our seeing to be drawn to things - then we let the meaning be known to us.
Perhaps you have a friend who seems to always coincide with a particular color or style of music, or perhaps they enjoy a certain animal. You know that these two things are connected, so you come to understand what the associated symbol means or feels like. In allowing the information to come through, the energy has spoken to you in a way that is appropriate for your understanding.
Some times a pop song with certain lyrics comes on just as you are contemplating something a long those lines, this is another example of connecting the dots from the hawk eye perspective. Hawk sees everything as a symbol in a universal language.
Birds in general have always been powerful symbols for humans, even the small and overlooked ones. Birds have an incredibly liveliness and simplicity. Paying attention to the calls and movements of birds can be captivating and uplifting. They can also represent flight, freedom, and transcendence
Here Kitty Kitty
Cat's embody a gracefulness, and have a softness and playfulness which is loving. They also have highly variable personalities (like humans). We can learn a lot about ourselves from cats, and grown into a very loving way of being. There is also all different kinds of cats, including the large powerful ones.
A house cat can be a symbol for home and self care, whilst a tiger could be about power and energy. The black panther is a symbol for leaping into the unknown and living in the darkness of the night. This is a powerful energy for shamans who journey through the darkness of 'not knowing' and face their fear to receive insights.
In a multi dimensional way, a striped orange cat or a tabby could represent a tiger and a little black cat could represent that realm of shamanism and magic. This whole experience is an array of symbols, and if we choose we can interpret them in a way that empowers us and opens us to the beauty and mystery of life. Numbers speak to some people, and others find hidden meaning in music or brush strokes. Some people can know you by feeling the texture of your hand, or hearing the tone of your voice.
Coming into Your Own Sense of Things
We each have our individual capacities to understand life intuitively - to go beyond the level of logic. If we allow ourselves to move into the intuitive realm, surprising things can start to happen as we 'get out of the way'. Opening up to subtle energies and the symbolic nature of life is experiencing things in a more multi-dimensional way. We all do this naturally, although many people have become disconnected. Some of us focus more on our racing minds, and some of us become numb due to held trauma or lifestyle choices that degrade our sensitivity.
The snake; particularly a huge anaconda, is associated with the Ayahuasca plant medicine. People journeying often experience this huge snake. We could say that plant and animal medicines are related, it makes sense given how all of nature forms a connected system. All of these medicines work together with the larger energy of the planet herself, a profound nurturing life force which is infinitely giving and generative.
Animal medicines are a great opportunity for us to connect to our subtle energetic nature. We can also learn to humble ourselves, and become quiet enough to hear what these beings have to say. Wild animals will often dash away when they hear clumsy, loud people come near. If we wish to speak with the animal spirits, then we must quiet our overemphasized egos and purify our intentions.
I would love to hear which Animals you are connected with, and your stories of how they speak to you.
Many Blessings and
Much Love
