28 Mar 2024
Spirit Animal
You have probably heard the term spirit animal before as it is regularly used in spiritual practice. This concept originates from ancient shamanistic practice, where each person would have an individual spirit animal or animal guide. This was not an animal that was easy to find or bond with. Your personal spirit animal had to be found during trance like states where the person involved would journey deep into meditative practices. Over time and during these meditation journeys, the shaman would find, bond and work with their own unique spirit animal or animals. Most often a person would find a land or sea-based animal that they felt deeply connected to, however many shamans also bonded with a bird of some sort to aid their journeying into the spirit realm.
This may all sound quite deep and tricky at this point but do not worry! Whether you are a deep spiritual person with a lot of knowledge and experience under your belt or simply someone who wants to connect a bit deeper with their spiritual side, spirit animals can help guide you and give you a much deeper understanding of you as a person and your own identity.
Are you drawn to a certain animal?
Do you have an animal that you have always been drawn to? Maybe you find you have certain characteristics of a certain animal. Do you feel that you have always communicated better with a certain animal over others, or just have that feeling that you ‘get’ each other on a different level? This could in fact be your spirit animal! It is worth mentioning here that spirit animals and Familiars are often totally different things and soon I will be writing an article on Familiars and their role in spiritual practice. A Familiar is a physical animal that you are bonded with on a very deep level, an animal that you regularly interact with in the physical realm. A spirit animal is an animal or type of animal that you connect with simply on a deep spiritual level. Many people will never have physically met or interacted with their spirit animals (although if they have it would be a very emotional and spiritual experience).
Meditation may be the key!
There are various ways to find your spirit animal. Perhaps you have always known what this is. Maybe others around you have told you as they pick up on your similarities and mannerisms. If you feel you need to go on a journey to find yours, meditation is a fantastic way of doing this. Meditate and focus on which animal you find in your journey, or even which animal you feel that you have become or see through the eyes of. Dreams also play a key role in your interactions with your spirit animal. Do you regularly dream of a certain animal or find that you actually become the animal itself?
However, you find your animal and whatever animal it is, be sure to realise that this is a gift to you to help you on your life path. Learn from this guide and share skills with it, build a strong relationship with it and enjoy this new side to you and your spiritual practice.
Best wishes as always,
Tweet
