Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

What is your perspective on spirit animals?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    What is your perspective on spirit animals?

    Erm...what the title said: What is your perspective on spirit animals?
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
    sigpic

    #2
    Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

    I do believe we connect on more than a physical level with animals,and a spirit animal even more so. Yes,I think spirits come in many forms...
    MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

    all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
    NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
    don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




    sigpic

    my new page here,let me know what you think.


    nothing but the shadow of what was

    witchvox
    http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

    Comment


      #3
      Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

      I agree with Anunitu. I have had a spirit animal, a wolf, ever since I was a little girl. I don't remember exactly how I connected with him. I think it was through my dreams. We are a lot more receptive when we are little. Anyway, he is still with me and I have a great belief that we all have some form of spirit animal that wishes to guide or communicate with us.
      Anubisa

      Dedicated and devoted to Lord Anubis and Lady Bast. A follower of the path of Egyptian Wicca.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

        I believe in them. I personally think a person can have more than one.
        And I think the connection can happen both on a spiritual and psysical level - I have a deep connection with crows, and a deep love for them. Just sitting with them brings me a special kind of calm. I have a few half tame crows now, I know some day they won't be there anymore, but the connection still will.
        You remind me of the babe
        What babe?
        The babe with the power
        What power?
        The Power of voodoo
        Who do?
        You do!
        Do what?
        Remind me of the babe!

        Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

        Comment


          #5
          Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

          I believe in spirit animals. When I was in the fifth grade, my class read a book called "The Sign of the Beaver" in which a white settler befriends a Native American. I really don't remember the plot, but I remember at some point in the book it discussed the concept of spirit animals. One day, my teacher had the class do this exercise where we would find our spirit animal. She burned some incense, played some traditional Native American music on a boombox and we closed our eyes, relaxed and imagined ourselves walking through the wilderness. Whatever animal we saw the most frequently was our spirit animal. The animal I saw the most was a Northern Cardinal, flying through the sky, landing on tree branches, etc.

          Ever since then, I've always felt some kind of connection with the cardinal. Especially when I see one on a cold winter day
          "Well I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer,
          The future's uncertain and the end is always near"

          Comment


            #6
            Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

            How come no one ever has an armadillo or sloth as their spirit animal?
            It's I'm Cleopatra in a former life all over again.


            I'll take sloth.
            Satan is my spirit animal

            Comment


              #7
              Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

              Originally posted by Medusa View Post
              I'll take sloth.
              I vote team sloth.


              Actually, I love armadillos. We have them here, you know. See 'em on the side of the road nosing around.

              I once met a guy with a cockroach as his spirit animal--said it was "a survivor" like him. From most people I'd assume it was sarcasm or a joke, but I'm pretty sure he was serious.
              Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
              sigpic

              Comment


                #8
                Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                I get a lot from dreams and watching animals in nature to see what they may have to tell me. Sometimes I watch them or notice them simply because I need a reason to smile. The simple things in life are very powerful, and animals, spirit or otherwise, teach us that.

                My cat got put down last year and recently I have had thoughts about him. Because he was a hunter, feisty, and had an orange coat I see him as a large Tiger. I always thought of him as a Tiger when he was alive and now it feels he is watching over me and offering me strength in these times of change I am going through.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                  I believe in spirit animals, but not necessarily in the exact same way that a lot of people do. I prefer to call them 'animal guides', because I think that is a more accurately descriptive term for what most people talk about when they talk about spirit animals (we used to use the term 'animal totem', but it's fallen out of favour over the years due to the appropriative and out-of-context nature of the term). To me, there are several forms that animal spirits take when working with people...

                  Animal guides are the overarching 'grandparent' spirit of an animal species. When we talk about 'Grey Wolf' or 'Grizzly Bear' or 'Three-toed Sloth' or 'Field Mouse', we mean the overall energetic entity that represents the lessons and symbolic meaning of that animal species. People can have an affinity for certain animal guides that stay with them throughout their entire life... mine is Horse. Other times you can work with an animal guide for short periods of time, if their lesson is relevant to your life at that moment, or if you wish to invoke their energy and strengthen the lessons they have to teach within your life. These guides aren't individual spirits of an animal though... they are more like an energy or archetype, though they can communicate with you via an individual spirit.

                  Animal spirits are the spirit of an individual animal, usually a manifested part of the overarching animal guide that has been sent to you rather than an actual deceased animal (which would be an animal ghost). These are the individual spirits that you form personal relationships with, which may have names, and which serve as guides and helpers for you during shamanic Innerworlds or Otherworlds work. I have a number of animal spirits as part of my household, as well as a few spirits who have taken animal form because that is how they can easily interface with me. They are different than the animal guides that I work with.

                  Spirits that manifest as animals. Clunky name, I know, but an animal form can be adopted by some spirits, not because they are that animal, but because it is a recognisable form that helps them interface with us in a way that we can easily process. Deities do this all the time. It is also possible for us to manifest parts of ourselves as animals, which results in internal 'animal guides' that are actually just us, but wearing an animal form that resonates with that particular part of ourselves. This is actually a really useful Innerworlds work tool that I've been using for years, adapted from Stephen E Gallegos' 'Personal Totem Pole' technique by a totemist and author named Lupa.

                  Animal ghosts are the ghosts of deceased animals. I call them that to differentiate between them and animal spirits, because I have worked with both and they have very distinct identities. An animal ghosts are like human ghosts... they still have some of their prior identity and may be earthbound for whatever reason (like the grey cat ghost that was living in Torey and I's rental house when we moved in, which we invited to come with us but which opted to stay behind), or may have become a part of the local landspirit complex, or which may actually be an imprint rather than at true autonomous ghost.

                  Originally posted by Medusa View Post
                  How come no one ever has an armadillo or sloth as their spirit animal?
                  It's I'm Cleopatra in a former life all over again.


                  I'll take sloth.
                  One of Torey's animal guides is Horseshoe Crab. He also has an affinity with trilobites. So it's not always the big impressive animals

                  It's a well known phenomenon in animal-guide-worker-previously-known-as-totemist circles... people have a tendency to have one of a core dozen or so well known animals as spirit animals. There are a lot of theories as to why that is, the 'Cleopatra-ina-pas-life-syndrome' thing comes up often lol.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                    Originally posted by Rae'ya View Post

                    It's a well known phenomenon in animal-guide-worker-previously-known-as-totemist circles... people have a tendency to have one of a core dozen or so well known animals as spirit animals. There are a lot of theories as to why that is, the 'Cleopatra-ina-pas-life-syndrome' thing comes up often lol.
                    Ehh, I'm slightly more forgiving of a couple thousand with a wolf guide than a couple thousand former Cleos. Lots of wolf guides doesn't require this earth to be stealing souls from every nearby alternate earth while not using this ability to access alternate dimensions for pizza production. Skipping the Eldritch Horror gripes momentarily though, I have a couple views and I don't consider them mutually exclusive.

                    1. People are good at lying to themselves and if they really want to believe Wolf is their guide then they will.
                    2. People aren't always contacting their own personal guide so much as a spirit tied to distant ancestors who looks in and goes, "Hey mortals are looking for me again. I haven't dealt with that clan in ages (literally). I'll go see what's up. Maybe, I'll like them and maybe I'll eat extra tonight."
                    3. If people are dealing with aspects of their own psyche... well there are several very prominent archetypal images. A person may not want Bear as a guide but their subconcious may have a distinct use for the archetype of a bear so when some unlucky indiviual does Inner Work.... they meet a bear.
                    4. Pick miscellaneous option I haven't thought of

                    Toss the above into a bowl and mix well, recipe for an limited scope of guide/allies.
                    life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                    Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                    "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                    John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                    "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                    Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                      Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post
                      Ehh, I'm slightly more forgiving of a couple thousand with a wolf guide than a couple thousand former Cleos. Lots of wolf guides doesn't require this earth to be stealing souls from every nearby alternate earth while not using this ability to access alternate dimensions for pizza production. Skipping the Eldritch Horror gripes momentarily though, I have a couple views and I don't consider them mutually exclusive.

                      1. People are good at lying to themselves and if they really want to believe Wolf is their guide then they will.
                      2. People aren't always contacting their own personal guide so much as a spirit tied to distant ancestors who looks in and goes, "Hey mortals are looking for me again. I haven't dealt with that clan in ages (literally). I'll go see what's up. Maybe, I'll like them and maybe I'll eat extra tonight."
                      3. If people are dealing with aspects of their own psyche... well there are several very prominent archetypal images. A person may not want Bear as a guide but their subconcious may have a distinct use for the archetype of a bear so when some unlucky indiviual does Inner Work.... they meet a bear.
                      4. Pick miscellaneous option I haven't thought of

                      Toss the above into a bowl and mix well, recipe for an limited scope of guide/allies.
                      I'm inclined to go with option 3 90% of the time. There ARE some very prominent, common archetypal animal images... due in part to exposure and familiarity, in part due to the tendency of those species to encroach on human habitations, and in part due to the historical significance of the species (bear, wolf and crow are also very common animals in historical imagery and spiritual iconography). It makes perfect sense that these are the ones that a person's subconscious latches onto when they are searching for animal imagery to help translate an internal trait. It's much easier for the average person to attach Wolf to their idea of social bonding than Chimpanzee or Guinea Pig, even if the social structure of Grey Wolf is actually nothing at all what the person thinks it is.

                      Number 1 is also very common. Wolf is my favourite animal therefore it's OBVIOUSLY my power animal/spirit animal/totem/personal animal lackey.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                        Originally posted by Rae'ya View Post
                        It's much easier for the average person to attach Wolf to their idea of social bonding than Chimpanzee or Guinea Pig, even if the social structure of Grey Wolf is actually nothing at all what the person thinks it is.
                        this...THIS is something that I see more often than not...
                        Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                        sigpic

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                          Pretty much everything Rae'ya has said is spot on for me.

                          I would add though that I think a lot of Animal Spirit concepts passed into modern paganism via the rise of the Medicine Wheel package created by Sun Bear. Each quarter has a guardian / watch animal for the four houses with each month having an individual animal that guides and influences each month. In some ways it tied into the book Animal Speak by Ted Andrews and his usage of animal guides / totems / spirit animals / etc.

                          It's like under Sun Bear's program I fall into the Frog Clan which puts me under the Water element with Waboose and White Buffalo controlling the Northern section of the wheel, the Cougar being the specific teacher / guardian for the month of March which puts me under the Big Winds Moon. It's sort of a generic made Wheel as it applies to no specific nation but there is supposedly some influence from the Sioux and Black Elk. So a lot of animal influences passed into paganism though near as I recall his wheel goes back to the late 60's and early 70's when it started to become well known.
                          I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                            I've never really been that intrigued by the idea of spirit animals, partially because of the phenomenon of people having a narrow few spirit guides, and also because I've never really felt a strong pull in that direction. I won't knock anyone who does, because experiences obviously matter more than just theory, but it's just not for me.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: What is your perspective on spirit animals?

                              The British fashion retailer Missguided has just hired Pamela Anderson as a model and tweeted "Pamela Anderson is our spirit animal". Well, it makes a change from a bear...

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X