Finding your power animal

As anyone ever tried to find their spirit/power animal? It is a method shamans use and they call upon their power animal for different things

I find it very interesting. My dad tried it once when I was younger. He put himself in a trance like state with drums, and deep in his imagination he found out his power animal was a white horse.

When he came out of his trance, there was a white horse in our yard. . . we lived in a suburb with absolutely NO farms or horses anywhere near us. It was really really strange.

Has anyone else ever experienced anything similar?

Hi there....yes, I've done this, and I sometimes work with animal totems as a form of divination. It's a really interesting way of combining spirit with nature, and really watching for answers. Makes us so much more aware, and it's quite profound how much your animal totem can teach you. Mine is deer....all about gentleness and awareness, and not holding fear.

There is a simple meditation that you can do...although it helps to be talked through it by someone else...someone you trust...or you could use a card deck like the Samms one, which has beautiful cards to work with.

Cait x

That's awesome. I love deer. They are so cute.

Yeah it's pretty amazing what the mind is capable of when you push it to a new level of thinking/meditation. I want to try it out soon. I've slowly been getting into the process of different meditations and ways of thinking. The other day I tried to find my aura color, and turns out its a greenish yellow. So im slowly working my way into these mystical things. But I really want to know my spirit animal!

Now that strikes me as a pretty unusual, and beautiful coincidence, the white horse appearing like that.

caitlinfae: I'd be really interested in learning a simple meditation technique to discover this for oneself. I've heard my native friend talk along these lines, but had never thought to pursue this.

Ok, without the meditation, the easiest way to do this would be to use a deck of cards, animal cards. Cleanse them with incense smoke and shuffle them for a while. It's important that you make some time out if you are to do this properly...turn the phones off and make sure you have an hour or so to yourself. Make a little ritual of it if you want to, with candles and incense. Just play with the cards, and ask Spirit...or God, or the Universe...which ever name you prefer...to give you the information you need about you animal guide. Ask to be shown which animal is your guide. Allow yourself to be relaxed and happy as you think this...don't get all stressed out and needy...you will get the answer you need. Eventually, and you will know when to stop, either a card will jump from the deck or you will have the urge to put the cards face down and pick one. Take your time with this, and allow it to flow.

Relax and have fun with it, and use the animals for guidance whenever you need it. It's amazing how accurate they can be.

Let me know if you need more help...I'm happy to.

Cx

reply to post by mystiq


Hi!
Well, I don't have one recorded, but if you give me a little while, I will post one here for you. Although I do have one that is about finding your elemental guide if you are interested...I was wondering which meditation to post here next, so maybe you would like that one? I would have to find it and convert it, so I could do it tomorrow for you.

Cx

I have had this done and was told that my spirit animal was a snow goose.
I have a fabulous book on the subject which can be found here:
www.amazon.com...



[edit on 2-11-2008 by AccessDenied]

Where would I be able to find a deck of these animal cards?

I haven't heard much about elemental guides. But I was rather interested in the animal guide, for some reason it resonates with the spirits of nature, of this planet, especially since a close friend was certain I should discover mine soon, for some mysterious reason. Thank you so much. I don't want to trouble you too much though.

I just remembered this...the last time my snakes had babies, I thought that all the eggs that had hatched that were going to...we had three beautiful big healthy snake babies. I left the eggs in the incubator just in case, although I was pretty convinced that there were no more to come. I left for work, and on the way there, 4 magpies flew right in front of my car in formation, really close together...magpies are magical birds anyway, so I took notice ...just as well I didn't throw the rest of the eggs away, as when I got home, snake baby no.4 had hatched. I've never seen more than two magpies together before or since. Definitely a message to watch for the final egg to hatch.

Cx

Here you go...this is the deck I was talking about...

www.medicinecards.com...

Cx

The weirdest thing happened the other day. I was looking up random divinations or ways of meditation to make it rain.. because it hadnt rained for months and I wanted to see some rain! So I found one, and I used it, and by later afternoon it was already getting very cloudy, and the next day not only did it rain, there was a thunderstorm!

I dont know if it was just coincedance or what... but it definitely spiked my curiousity.

I'm uncertain about the outcome, but I just went to a site that had meditations to find your power animal. I had the thought in my mind merely that I wish to know mine, and briefly read the meditation. I was just relaxing and trying to walk through the steps lightly at the computer when I saw a beautiful eagle. What do you think is the likelihood it will turn out to be that when I do the meditation?

Wow that is very quick to see your power animal. Eagles definitely are an iconic animal, so if it is yours, thats probably a very good thing.

well my buddy insisted on doing my 'medicine cards' and oddly, the animal I blindly picked from the deck has some intricate ties to my past, wasnt my favorite animal, just subtly significant in areas that lead key insights to the animals aspects in contrast with personal developments.

It was the wild boar. When I was little, I loved this razorbacks sweatshirt from my grandmas state arkansas because of the wild boar on it. It was not my favorite animal, but I liked the fierce appearance of the boar. I am also born in the Chinese year of the boar. Plus, when I was living on the streets in co, this hells angel Gary who taught me a lot about philosophy and life in general, one day out of the blue gave me a wild boar bone, for what reason I do not know, he handed it to me with a smile on his face like Id know what it was for later. And even more coincidentally(synchronistically), boar medicine: "when you find a boar it is asking you to confront your fears having full knowledge that you already have the wit and wisdom to overcome anything in your path without having to get physically tough with it. Many ancient cultures have used Boar Medicine for its healing powers because of its ability to confront the unknown without fear."
ALSO "courage and protection; while at the same time remaining defiant and confident that your wisdom through experience will get you to place that you desire to be."

Which at the time was spot on with the dealings I had going on internally. I was always worried that my bluntness would hurt another's feelings and would hold back my true thoughts, but using the boar to break through this weakness or fear, I stopped pandering to peoples delicate ego's and just tell it like it is. It was greatly liberating, because it seems people already understood I'm not the person that is going to play mind games over focusing on the truth, and it has lead to many deep and productive conversations that would otherwise have been altogether avoided through the fear of upsetting the other party.
Edit to add: Plus the aspect of not fearing the unknown is a key part of taking the meditative psychonautic path.

[edit on 11/2/2008 by psychedeliack]

I kept thinking it couldn't be that, but now I'm not sure. It kind of feels right. Of course it would really be fast if one would greet me out the door. I'd be concerned for its safety.
I think I'm going to see what crystal links says about eagles. I kind of like that website.

If you haven't worked with totems before, one of the easiest ways to find out one of your totem animals is ask "what animals do you have around -- pictures, tattoos, keychain dangles, etc, etc."

They can change over time (as you need different kinds of advice in your life.) You may have more than one.

Some may not be Native American.

All of the above are fine -- it's up to you to discover why you picked this particular animal and what it signifies to you.

Originally posted by psychedeliack
well my buddy insisted on doing my 'medicine cards' and oddly, the animal I blindly picked from the deck has some intricate ties to my past, wasnt my favorite animal, just subtly significant in areas that lead key insights to the animals aspects in contrast with personal developments.

It was the wild boar. When I was little, I loved this razorbacks sweatshirt from my grandmas state arkansas because of the wild boar on it. It was not my favorite animal, but I liked the fierce appearance of the boar. I am also born in the Chinese year of the boar. Plus, when I was living on the streets in co, this hells angel Gary who taught me a lot about philosophy and life in general, one day out of the blue gave me a wild boar bone, for what reason I do not know, he handed it to me with a smile on his face like Id know what it was for later. And even more coincidentally(synchronistically), boar medicine: "when you find a boar it is asking you to confront your fears having full knowledge that you already have the wit and wisdom to overcome anything in your path without having to get physically tough with it. Many ancient cultures have used Boar Medicine for its healing powers because of its ability to confront the unknown without fear."
ALSO "courage and protection; while at the same time remaining defiant and confident that your wisdom through experience will get you to place that you desire to be."

Which at the time was spot on with the dealings I had going on internally. I was always worried that my bluntness would hurt another's feelings and would hold back my true thoughts, but using the boar to break through this weakness or fear, I stopped pandering to peoples delicate ego's and just tell it like it is. It was greatly liberating, because it seems people already understood I'm not the person that is going to play mind games over focusing on the truth, and it has lead to many deep and productive conversations that would otherwise have been altogether avoided through the fear of upsetting the other party.

Interesting that you say its not your favorite animal. In many cases, power animals arent the persons favorite animal. Many times its an animal that disgusts the person. I almost feel like mine is a spider. Ive always had a strange hatred of them, yet at the same time a curiousity about them. who knows!

I have done this too!

I would say that cards are a bad way to try to discover a power animal. I think it defeats the point to depend on a physical meduim to connect to the animal.

A better way to do this would be to meditiate, to go outside specifically to "meet" your animal and watch who shows up, and pay specifically close attention to what animals show up in your dreams.

Try very hard not to expect a certain animal to show up. You do not choose the animal, it chooses you, and it may not be one that you particularly like or what you would have expected.

Be respectful of course. You do not own your totem animal, and it is not there to do you favors. THe point is to learn things from its habits that you can translate into your own life.

Don't expect a certain message to come up; if you already know everything, what's the point?

And whatever you come up with, try to read into the mythology associated with that animal.

[edit on 2-11-2008 by asmeone2]

My favorite animal is a dolphin, and my sign is cancer the crab, cardinal water. My chinese sign is that of a rabbit, or a cat in the Tibetan I read, so I always call it a cabbat. These signs seems so much like me too, the rabbit in me would scamper really fast if an eagle soared overhead. But, I always rejected grounding myself during meditation to the earth. Though I've seen myself hugging and loving this planet's spirit. But I can't ground myself that way for some reason. I always feel like I need to feel free.