According to many online and offline sources, a spirit animal is the representation of traits, skills, and characteristics one is supposed to have or want to achieve. Thus, they are closely related to the animal totem, which are supposed to remind their owner of their strength and goals. While spirit animals and totems are vestiges from ancient pagan religions, they are still used and venerated today.
In esoteric and other natural movements, spirit animals serve as important reminders for the good and desirable traits. They are also said to provide a way to come to peace not only with yourself, but with the nature around you, thus helping you to tackle daily life tasks easier.
There are two ways to look at the essence of a spirit or power animal. On one hand, they function as spiritual guide or helper. This concept was established in Neoshamanism and is still kept alive in some New Age traditions. The Totem, however, is said to be the kind of representation and reminder that has been talked about above. In the further course of the article, both terms – the one of the spirit animal, and the one of the totem – will be interchangeably used to refer to the concept of a representative of the traits and skills attained or desired.
A Modern Take On Ancient Traditions
Nowadays, many concepts from psychology or other intuitive studies and works have been incorporated into the old take on spirit animals being a mere representation of the characteristics and skills a human honors and wishes for. Thus, these tokens from an ancient time are used to help people in their everyday struggle, improve their life and view on themselves, and help to set achievable goals.
Furthermore, the peaceful message behind the deeper study of power animals and friendly spirits is to be reminded that all life is sacred and worth preserving. This closely represents the ideas and principles of the New Age movement. Especially the human relationship to nature and it’s fauna in particular is encouraged to become better due to a better understanding.
Spirit Animals
It is said that there is a specific set of animals that function as power animals as they combine all traits, characteristics, and skills within this group. Of course, the perception changes from tradition to tradition, from approach to approach. Each animal unites a different set of characteristics and skills in itself, differing in combination from the other animals. A common listing of power animals may look like the following:
Bear, Butterfly, Cat, Coyote, Crow, Deer, Dolphin, Dragonfly, Fox, Frog, Hawk, Horse, Hummingbird, Lion, Owl, Panda, Panther, Sheep, Snake, Spider, Tiger, Turtle, Wolf, and Whale
If you want to learn more about the unique meanings and symbolism behind those power animals, you can check out this guide on SpiritAnimal.info. There, you can also find information on how to find your own spirit animal.
Give Your Spirit Animal A Voice
If you found out about your animal totem or knew it all along, it is time to give your Spirit animal a voice! Trying to get in contact with your power animal or simply concentrating on your own inner peace can gain greatly from accentuating meditations or autogenic training sessions with the fitting musical background.
Sounds Of The Animals
One way to give your power animal a voice is to do this quite literally. Depending on your animal totem, sounds produced by the animals in question can help you to connect with your spirit animal even easier.
- Is your spirit animal a wolf? Then tune up the sound of wolves howling in the rain.
- If your animal totem is a whale, the songs of whales in the deep blue see should be your choice.
- Owls mostly sing in the night. The sound of owls can help you to connect to your nocturnal bird totem.
- Your spirit animal is a frog? Then feel like seated next to a pond with a chorus of frogs.
Sounds Of Nature
Another way to connect with your animal totem is to reproduce the environment your spiritual animal at home. Different sounds of various nature scenes can help to bring you into a state that enables you to comprehend the feelings and roots of your power animal.
- If your spirit animal is a coyote or snake, sounds of the windswept desert fit perfectly.
- People with spirit animals like lions may rather enjoy the sounds of the vast African grasslands.
- Whales and turtles enjoy the presence of water. Thus, underwater atmospheres are a perfect match.
- Tigers, snakes, panthers, and pandas may feel more at home in a rainforest or jungle.
Of course, these are only suggestions and by no means an exhaustive list. Browse through the category of nature sounds or use the search function to find your best suited ambient noise background for connecting with your power animal. Of course, you can create your own mix just as well!
