Witchy Wednesday- Working with Power Animals #PowerAnimals #AnimalGuides


Meeting Your Animal

Power animals may appear to you in visions, meditations, dreams, shamanic journeys, or right in front of you in their physical form. Power animals can be mammals, birds, reptiles, or insects. Even mythical creatures such as unicorns or dragons can be power animals.  But since spirit animals’ power is drawn from their wild nature, it’s very uncommon for domesticated animals such as cats and dogs to be power animals though they may serve as familiars and guardians.

If you don’t feel that you have connected with your spirit animal yet, look around your life; what animal seems to be everywhere? Is there something you collect featuring an animal- do you have knickknacks, paintings, or jewelry of a specific creature? That may be your animal. It’s been there all along trying to connect with you.

          Dreams

Dreams are another way to connect with your animal. Have you dreamt of a specific animal repeatedly?

To connect with an animal if you have not already, ask your animal to come to you when you sleep. Write down any impressions you have upon waking.

          Take a Walk in Nature

Still searching? Take a walk in nature. Ask your animal to come to you. Pay close attention to any animals that may appear. Try sitting down somewhere, maybe against the base of a tree. Now be still and just watch. See if anything comes to you in the real world or in your mind’s eye.

Guided Meditations

You may want to try guided meditations. 


Here are 2 on Insight Timer, there are many more that you can explore:

 

https://insighttimer.com/nickysutton/guided-meditations/meet-your-spirit-animal-guided-meditation-2

 

https://insighttimer.com/psychicmediumjennlefevre/guided-meditations/meet-your-spirit-animal-guided-meditation


If all else fails you may want to visit a shaman who can help you connect with your animal.

 


Types of Animals – You May Have More Than One Because They Can Serve Different Purposes

There are many types of power/spirit animals. You may have a core animal that stays with you throughout your lifetime and others that come and go, or ones you add at different junctures in life.

 

I also want to point out that when you get an animal the power behind it is not just one animal, it is all of them. For instance, if your animal is a bear, you have the power and knowledge of all bears at your fingertips.

Guides

Power animals may always be considered a guide or you may have one that is a true “spirit guide” however other animals may come to you to guide you through a hard time, to lead you somewhere spiritually, or to nudge you to go in the right direction. This animal may only stay with you during that specific journey.

          Teachers

A teacher is similar to a guide but they might appear to teach you a lesson you need at that moment or they may be the wisdom that whispers in your ear throughout your lifetime. The wisdom you need to turn to when times are tough 

          Protectors

You may receive protectors when things get bad. You can call on their strength and power to protect you from the things coming your way.

Messengers

Sometimes a spirit animal may just be a messenger, bringing you their energy or wisdom for something specific in your life. It will come to you with the message and then never really play a role in your life again, or not for years.

 

There may be times when you seek wisdom from other animals that are not yours to call. Sometimes you may get help, sometimes not so much. I have learned that corvid energy (crows and ravens) does not mesh with my energy. 


Healers

Power animal are excellent healers and can show us not only how to heal our own emotional, physical and spiritual issues but also how to heal others. Your animal spirit guide can lend you healing energy and show you the best treatment or technique to use to speed up the healing process.

A Lifetime of Animals

Over your life you may acquire several animals. Some people may tell you that you animal is private and not to be shared with others. Your animal may even ask to remain private and that is OK. You can keep it to yourself.

I am going to share some of my core animals to showcase how and when my power animals have come to me and how the animals and I share characteristics.

My core animal is a turtle and like the turtle of Native American myth that held the world on her shell, she is my foundation. I was made aware of her as my turtle totem/spirit/power animal around the age of 18 but I think she'd always been with me. I had these 3 tiny plastic turtles I carried everywhere as a child. They were for "luck". I still have them 40+ years later. I keep them on my desk.


Different stages of life may bring new animals. My owl became known to me maybe in my late 20s to early 30s when I was mothering 2-3 children. She is now the loudest and the one everyone associates with me. My bestie even got a tattoo representing the most important people and things in her life. The base of it is an owl in a witch hat.

 

Trauma or times of transformation may bring a new animal to you to give you power and knowledge to get past what has hurt you or to get through the changes in your life.

 

The red fox came to me during a Reiki training meditation in 2020. I had to find my soul home and spirit guide. This fox first appeared to me as a red-haired woman in my soul home. This shapeshifter is my spirit guide, my counsel.

You may even inherit a power animal from a loved one who has passed on. The deer came to me after my mother passed away in 2021. I learned it was one of her power animals and she sent it to me, to watch over me and share with me the things I would need to get through my grief and become “more”.

Often your animals will represent a facet of your personality or even your appearance. I am an artist, a creative person, very solitary in my work but very solid and dependable.

A turtle represents self-contained creativity. It can also represent an introvert that has to be coaxed to poke her head out of her shell. That is so very me.

Then the owl, typically associated with wisdom. I’m a bookworm and a lifetime learner. The owl is also closely tied to witches, particularly Hekate, who became my patron deity. The owl is also closely tied to Santa Muerte who came to me when I was diagnosed with cancer.

The red fox is a tricky creature that is quite capable of evading and escaping danger. The fox is often associated with cunning and craftiness. And anyone who knows me knows that I employ creative thinking to fix or alter a situation.

The deer symbolizes gentleness, the ability to move through life and obstacles with grace, being sensitive and intuitive, and being in touch with life’s mysteries. This was very much my mother. To a T. And while I am still very much myself, I feel that I am becoming more like her every day. Striving to be better, gentler, kinder.

How to Work with Your Animal

Altar – You can keep small statuettes on your altar or you can add them to your altar when calling on their strength and power to aid you. When I am working with Hekate or Santa Muerte an owl is added to my altar.

Spell Work- You can call on your animal’s wisdom, strength and abilities to aid you in spell work.

Meditation- when you meditate you can commune with your animal and ask it questions.

Shadow Work – animals are not all kind fluffy creatures. Nature can be brutal. When doing shadow work you have to be able to acknowledge and accept that you are part of nature and it is perfectly natural to have a dark side. The world is not all “love and light”. Our animals can teach us to accept our darker parts just as we accept theirs.

Dream Interpretation- animals and animal symbols have corresponding meanings that can be used to interpret your dreams. You can also ask you animal to help you with guided dreaming.

Honor Your Animal

Donate to protections and preserves- mother earth and her animals are in danger and as witches it is important for us not just to honor nature but to do our best to protect it. One way we can do this is to donate time or money to programs that help our power animals. Preserves, rescues, etc.

Connect with your animal in real life- obviously, this can’t be done for all animals but if your animal is a somewhat domestic creature like a horse, goat, pig, cow, etc. You might be able to visit a farm and connect with one. You could also visit a zoo for more exotic animals, just don’t expect to touch any of those.

Keep images of your animal around you- my house is filled with owls and turtles. I also have added many of my mom’s deer images. I don’t have many images of foxes because she is my spirit guide and my family does not know about her so they don’t buy me a gazillion things representing her like they do with owls and turtles.


Some sources used for this post:

https://medium.com/@jennifermonahan_28426/working-with-your-power-animal-a5d4cdf00e5a

https://www.gaia.com/article/3-spirit-animal-meditations

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/beneaththemoon/2020/09/animal-spirit-guides/

https://www.spiritanimal.info/

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