Animal Spirits

Do you have a Spirit Guide? Native beliefs explain that a totem animal is one that is with you for life, both in the physical and spiritual world. Though people may identify with different animal Spirits it is actualy animal Spirits that we are born with.



I must stop here and tell you this is my favorite link a wonderful Link

ANIMAL SPIRIT GUIDES & TOTEMS (medicine)

a wonderful Web page

http://www.manataka.org/page291.html



Some Native Americans believe that upon birth an animal's spirit enters into that person.

Its duties are to keep each person strong and wise as well as to excel in matters of attributes given to that Animal.



A deer is an animal of love, tenderness,and swiftness, it guides throughout their lifetimes, it is this one totem animal that acts as the main guardian spirit.



The Animal Guide offers power and wisdom to the individual when they "communicate" with it, conveying their respect and trust. This does not necessarily mean that you actually pet or spend time with this animal, more that you are open to learning its lessons.



You do not choose an animal guide as your personal spirit guide. The animal chooses you and they decide to whom they will reveal themselves and make their friend.



Click the animals below and hear them speak. For more animal listening chek out this link Animal Spirits.







The emphasis is on their positive power, medicine or magick. Yes similar to the Native American spirit guide is the Wiccan familiar.

There are many spells in Wicca available on the Internet to find your familiar. However, it is better if you create your own prayer-spell to find your familiar. This is part of the Wiccan discipline, the ability to develop your own spells. You may not be ready for this yet, so please proceed with caution. Very often Wiccans find that their familiar-spell leads them to an animal they considered their favorite or they already have as a pet--the most common familiar is a feline. In some cases, your familiar will come to you without you even knowing it, or even casting a spell. This is because familiars are spiritual creatures that know to seek us out. If you have an animal hanging around your home that just won't leave, this may be your familiar.



Check out Spell Weaving by Sally Morningstar



Please take a look at these great Links

Manataka American Indian Council - Animal Spirit Guides & Totems

Shamanism, Working With Animal Spirits

Animal Totems, discover the healing and teaching aspects associated with your totems

Power Totem Animal Info, List of Animal Totem Meaning and Medicine Gifts

Animal Totem

Animal Totems

Paganism, Wiccan Magical Familiars and Power Animals

In many Native American groups, the vision quest is a turning point in life taken before puberty to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. When an older child is ready, he or she will go on a personal, spiritual quest alone in the wilderness, often in conjunction with a period of fasting. This usually lasts for a number of days while the child is attuned to the spirit world. Usually, a Guardian animal will come in a vision or dream, and the child's life direction will appear at some point. The child returns to the tribe, and once the child has grown, will pursue that direction in life. After a vision quest, the child may apprentice an adult in the tribe of the shown direction (Medicine Man, boatmaker, etc).

The vision quest may be a part of shamanism, more exactly, the learning and initiation process of the apprentice for achieving the ability for shamanizing, mostly under the guidance of an older shaman.Wikipedia:

The vision quest may be said to make the initiated establish contact with a spirit or force. Psychologically, it may have effected hallucinations.Wikipedia:
The technique may be similar to sensory deprivation methods. It may include long walking.

information from Wikipedia:

When I was in college, one of the guys my class was of Native American decent. He was from Colorado. I don't remember what tribe he was from. His father was Caucasian and it was his mother that was Native American, which I guess is irrelevant. I have always been interested in the Native American ways and even though he was perfectly modern he had a very traditional set of grandparents and they had taught him all about his heritage. One of the things that we had talked about was Vision Quests. He said that the first vision quest was a sort of initiation into adulthood in the old days. It is usually done for the first time before puberty to find oneself and place in the tribe and world. The child goes alone in the wilderness, fasting, for several days. Usually, a Spirit Guide animal comes in a vision or dream, and the child's life direction is presented. Often this is not immediately clear and the child's vision will be interpreted by the Shaman/Medicine Man when the child returns to the tribe. As he/shegrows the child will pursue that direction.

Later in life a vision quest can be used to cure emotional, physical, or spiritual illnesses; help discover your current direction in life; commune with nature, the spirits, your spirit guides or deceased ancestor; or find truth, balance and inner peace. Now at the time my Mom was recently disabled due to arthritis and couldn't work (my father died when I was 9), I was working about 25 hours a week to try and help make ends meet and so my studies were suffering, and some other things that I won't go into were causing me distress. The idea of communing with some higher plane of existence to try and get some direction and focus sounded pretty good. My friend was fairly reluctant and kept saying that it isn't really something that he was trained to direct. He knew how to conduct his own vision quests, but to help someone else was a disconcerting to him. We had a couple of other mutual friends who also wanted to try it so he spoke with his grandfather to get some guidance. His grandfather told him that he knew enough to lead us in a vision quest (personally I always figured the old guy said something like, who cares if a bunch of white kids fool around with it; but I may not be giving him enough credit).

Anyway, here is what happened. There were four of us total, our "Shaman", myself, and the two other friends. It was a Sunday. He wanted us to not eat anything all day, we could only drink water (as I said the first time they take a Vision Quest they usually fast for a couple of days). That night, I think we set out around 8pm, we went for a "walk". This was what my friend called it. He gathered us together and we set out across the campus towards the woods. Now I figured we would walk a few minutes into the woods and then get started, no such luck. We walked for over an hour, now I was in better shape then than I am now, but I was sweating and exhausted (and so were the other two I might add). We got to a little clearing and there was a pile of stones and wood in the middle. He had us take the stones and make a big circle around us while he built a fire (by the way this was already a very warm Spring day so the idea of a fire was less than appealing. Once the fire was roaring and we had finished the circle he had us sit down cross legged around it. He took out a small bag from his pocket and started pouring this concoction of various herbs onto the fire. Now we all thought he was dumping marijuana on the fire, but he assured us it was not, it was a traditional vision quest herb that was not illegal. We each smelled it and I never did find out what it was, but it definitely wasn't pot.

We sat in front of that fire for about 10 minutes while he explained the meaning of the stone circle and what we should do now. Basically, our job, was to not speak, not move, and not fall asleep, for about an hour. Have you ever tried to sit still for an hour and not speak and not fall asleep? OK, now try doing it after walking 3 or 4 miles? OK, now do it on a nice warm spring night sitting in front of a roaring fire. One of the guys fell asleep in about 15 minutes, I know this cause he started snoring. But I actually did have an "experience", which included meeting my Spirit Guide. I am not going to talk about exactly what happened here, as my friend said that it could offend the Spirits to talk about it with anyone other than our Shaman.

Now you can snicker all you want, but something happened. I saw many different symbols and people and things and situations. Many were juxtaposed and confusing, it seemed similar to the stories I have read about lucid dreaming. As the hour wound down, my friend diligently took each of us aside (except the snorer of course) using a tape recorder noted everything we could remember. He later called his grandfather to have it interpreted. I must honestly say it helped me at that time to focus and get through a tough time. After he recorded everything we put out the fire, he had put several gallons of water near the clearing previously, along with the wood and stones, and disassembled the stone circle. We started walking back toward campus not relishing another 4 mile walk, only to find we were literally only 10 minutes from campus (he had taken us in a big circle in the dark and we didn't even know it). At that point we all jumped into his car and drove around the corner from campus to a restaurant, where we ate and drank like kings (maybe not a Native tradition, but definitely an American one).

I am not going to claim to have visited another plane of existence, or contacted a higher power, it is too easy to call it a hallucination and chalk it up to heat exhaustion, dehydration, fatigue, and whatever those herbs were. But for me, it had a powerful effect and it didn't feel like a hallucination.

My animal spirit journey starts here, with this simple story of a dog's love for a little girl. When I was adopted I was 16 months old. My aunt, had a Border Collie pup she couldn't care for at the time and gave to me when I was 2. We named her Lady. No one knew how special this dog was. My Mom was one of those who harnessed their kids,I don't care, hubby hates the photos I have of it. It was so I could play outside and she could safely run in and tend to dinner if she needed. Well, I got loose one day and my Mom ran out as soon as she noticed. As I was running down the street she saw with Lady next to me and a neighbor's dog on the other side of me. I ran into the road in front of a car, the car was a few car lengths back, but Lady ran and jumped on the hood of the car and made it stop. Mom and myself tell/told this story often Over the years.

And there is more, when my parents where drunk and yelling and fighting Lady scratched the door open to my room, would lick my tears away. She was so strong, but then would shake all over and I would hug her tight. All my will and thoughts onto her, holding her tight, and it helped me forget the yelling and fighting. This happened so often and it was along time before I had wondered how she got into my room all the time. I tried over and over, shutting the door, slamming the door, it always latched perfect, there were hundreds of scratches at the bottom from her scratching to get in, but how did she get in? I was a freshman in high school when she had to be put down for a very large cancerous growth on her leg. Both we and the vet feared that while my parents where at work, and we were in school, the tumor would split and she would suffer horrible pain alone at home. I tried to say goodbye that morning before school, my eyes full of tears, just like now as I write this, and she sat in the front yard. She wouldn't look at me at all, instead stared into the sky. Those where the only tears I shed over her though, no matter how many times I tell her story (until now). I have shed many over other pets I have had, but not her because, perhaps, I know I don't have to worry about this wonderful spirit as she is so special.

This isn't the end of my spirit journey, I believe another animal has spoken to me for many years as a child i wandered off to be alone in the woods at my Aunt's, not really lost, but a little afraid I might be. I suddenly saw a big Buck. I reached out and barely touched his nose and he ran off. I practically jumped out of my skin. Then I had my cousins telling ghost stories of a mean deer in the woods that would be after me. And then, another experience was my father hunting deer and me crying at the sight of a mom deer and her baby they didnt mean to shoot the mother and knew the baby wouldnt survive. I was screaming and crying for days, which in turn made my father give up hunting or at least I didnt know if he still was, he just couldn't take my sadness.



Then in my twenties I moved into a shared home with friends and we had a garden out back and every night the deer would come and feed. They said hadn't happened for quite awhile, and normally only one or two. It started up again when I moved in & there where always more than a half dozen. And last, well, my husband and I, for a brief time, did delivery's early in the morning and I would often feel I saw a flutter and would have him slow to a stop and then sure enough a deer would pass in front of us. We would often see the deer during deliveries in people's gardens and flower beds . I remember when I moved out of my state with my husband, thinking "I wonder if i will ever see deer being in the city and near the ocean?" Well, I guess my question was answered. I don't know if the deer is my spirit animal or simply a animal I feel close to, but it keeps me thinking and happy.

Today is the day I am going to click the publish button on this lens!! Today we are also saying our goodbyes to a very special, spirited, happy, wonderful, friend. A friend of ours and our dog Tipper. Tipper and her shared some puppy and young dog play together growing up! Today we are saying our goodbyes to a wonderful Black Lab named Sam! So with tears, but wonderful memories of spirited play and love, I dedicate this lens to her and may her spirit have a safe journey full of love.

Can Dogs See Dead People? (Pets & paranormal)
"I see dead people." Uttered by actor Haley Joel Osment in M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, it has become one of the most famous lines in movie history. Although the film was based on a fictional story, we have all seen those people on television who claim they can see or communicate with the dead. Would it surprise you to learn that dogs may also possess that ability?

One of the oldest known paranormal beliefs is that dogs have the ability to see or communicate with the dead. It would be easy to believe that people have come to that conclusion based on a dog's natural behavior. We've all seen dogs stand still and stare or react to something we were unable to see or hear. However, there may be much more to it then that.

Most of the pet people I have known had some sort of a weird dog story to tell. The most common involves the death of a beloved dog owner. The dog owner would die and it always seems like his or her pet would know about the event before anyone else. My mother often recounts the story of Grandpa Bill.

Read more Here Ghost Haunts


Ok How about Cats and conections with the spirit world...

Goldie's Story
I have owned through my life about 10 cats, but only one was a bit different, Goldie, my Mom's last pet before her death. If you cried she would rub you over and over and yell at you to hold her, and yes it would be so calming. Mom couldn't get to the store to get a medicine refill for a couple days and she dropped one of her last 2 heart meds on the floor and didn't even know it. Goldie was rubbing her and she looked down and she dropped the pill, not on the floor or in her lap, but on her hand and it fell to the floor. My Mom being blind, and I in living room, she yelled "What is this? Can you come look?" And it was the pill. When Mom was really sick and needed a hospital Goldie would lay on her chest and I would know to call the doctors right away. Smart cat? Spiritual? I don't know.



Inspection rounds. Oscar the cat patrols the dementia unit of a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. Photo: AP, Colin Nickerson in Providence, Rhode Island, July 27, 2007

OSCAR's story
OSCAR the cat makes his grand entrances just as life is about to leave.
A hop onto the bed, a fastidious lick of the paws, then a snuggle beside a nursing home patient with little time left. Oscar's purr, when keeping close company with the dying, is so intense it is almost a low rumble.
"He's a cat with an uncanny instinct for death," said David Dosa, assistant professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and a geriatric specialist. "He attends deaths. He's pretty insistent on it."
In the two years since Oscar was adopted into the dementia unit of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence he has maintained close vigil over the deaths of more than 25 patients, nursing staff and doctors say.
Dr Dosa had an essay on Oscar published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Like any feline, Oscar gives a hefty portion of his day to sleep. He likes to doze on stacks of patient reports. Or on the desk at the nurses' station. Or in the linen closet.
When awake, however, the mixed-breed cat shows a solemn dedication to duty, making regular "inspection" rounds of the unit, sauntering in and out of patient rooms - as if checking on the condition of the occupants.
When death is near, Oscar nearly always appears at the last hour or so. Yet he shows no special interest in patients who are simply in poor shape, or even patients who may be dying but who still have a few days. Authorities in animal behaviour have no explanation for Oscar's ability to sense imminent death. They theorise that he might detect some subtle change in metabolism - felines are as acutely sensitive to smells as dogs - but are stumped as to why he would show interest.
In any event, when Oscar settles on a patient's bed, caregivers take it as a sign that family members should be summoned immediately.
"We've come to recognise him hopping on the bed as one indicator the end is very near," said Mary Miranda, charge nurse on the surprisingly cheery floor that is home to 41 patients in the final stages of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, a stroke, and other mentally debilitating diseases. "Oscar's been consistently right."
Keeping pets has been a trend in nursing home care for several years. The Steere Centre, founded in 1874, has 120 residents, plus six cats, a slew of parakeets and a floppy-eared rabbit. Oscar's sole domain, however, is the locked dementia ward. He came to the unit as a kitten in July 2005, brought by a staff member to replace the floor's previous resident feline, Henry, who had died some months earlier.

So Actualy Pets seem to have
the amazing ability to sense what we cannot, and, in ways that we don't understand, to communicate with us... perhaps even after death. Here are some true stories.

Do animals have a more finely tuned sixth sense than humans? This question was raised in the recent article, Are Pets Psychic or Just Super-Sensitive? Several readers, who are also pet owners, answered the question with their amazing personal experiences. Their beloved pets do indeed seem to exhibit a sensitivity to things unseen, or a psychic connection to another world. Here are their stories. and might I say Very very worth checking out.
Are Pets Psychic or Just Super-Sensitive?

Also Enter the Fascinating World of Dreams
Why do we dream? Mankind has asked that question probably since the first person ever dreamed. We have always been fascinated by dreams and what they are trying to tell another wonderful site to take a peek at.
Why Do We Dream?

Pet Story's

Do you have a story or lens you want to
share please let us know at the bottom
of this Lens would love to Feature it.

Snooky

Neighbors of ours had this little dog, Snooky. They also had two children a healthy daughter and a son with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He was supposed to die within the first 5 to 7 years of life. I recall his dad and mom walking the boy in a walker and, in later years, a hospital bed rolled down the road for fresh air. They never took vacations, always one parent was with the boy. He never spoke a word and never walked a step, but they felt he knew he was loved and I do too.

Well he lived much longer than expected, to the age of 14. The dog, Snooky, was never allowed near him, except to sleep on the floor. Snooky was loved though by there daughter very much, and by the family. He went on walks with the family with the boy. He was a good little dog. Well the night the boy died his Mom had him in a rocker, not knowing it was the boys time to go she had fallen asleep rocking him. Suddenly she awoke to the dog jumping onto the boy and licking his face and within a few minutes the boy died. At the cemetery the little dog would sit over his grave for hours. After a month passed the family took a vacation, mostly for there other child to help her get through this. They owned a 2 family home and the neighbor took care of Snooky while they were away. He got loose while the family was gone and they found him on the boys grave, he had died of cancer, the dog was also 14. Some say he died from being lonely for the boy, or for the vacationing family, or just the cancer they found he had. Or maybe he was the spirit watcher for the boy and his job was done. This really happened. All that I have written did.

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Right after World War II a soldier by the name of Joe was returning to his family in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. When Joe got off the train he was still a few miles from home and had to walk.

His walk took him down a road along the river. Eventually he had to cross the river. There were two different bridges: one, which was a new bridge, and one older girder type bridge. The newer bridge was closer so naturally, he decided to take that route. Just as he came near to the bridge Joe was met by Shep, the old family dog. He had missed the dog and evidently the dog had missed him too. He greeted the dog and played with him before continuing on. As he started to enter the bridge the dog stopped, and began barking. Shep tugged on the man's pants leg and it was obvious that he did not want him to go that way. Of course the man wanted to take the shortest route he tried to call Shep and to get him to come along, but the dog only got more insistent. Finally, Joe decided to let the dog have his way and he went on toward the older bridge.

Eventually, Joe made it home, and called out to the family. Of course, everyone came running, and they had a tearful reunion. Joe said, "I would have been here sooner, but Shep made me come the long way." Everyone got a funny look on their face, and asked him what he meant, so he explained the whole story. After a long silence and many meaningful glances, Joe's father said, "Joe, Shep died last winter."

The next morning, Joe learned that the river, which had been raised by spring rains, had flooded the new bridge and taken out the middle section. If he had tried to cross it in the dark that night, he would surely have been killed.

Did Shep come back from the dead to save Joe's life? What other explanation could there be?

This story was taken from a post to the newsgroup alt.folklore.ghost-stories by Jack Crenshaw. thank you Jack for sharing this true ghost story

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A different kind of spirit that has been seen inside of the White House, is that of a black cat. The ghost cat is almost always seen in the basement area, and there is a legend that goes with this cats appearance. The legend states that when the cat is seen, someone will die. So far this legend has proven true as the cat appeared before both Lincoln's and Kennedy's deaths.

AP MSNBC
NEW CASTLE, Ind. - A cat helped spare a family from death by carbon monoxide poisoning by jumping on the bed and meowing wildly as fumes filled the home, the owners said.

Eric and Cathy Keesling said their 14-year-old cat, Winnie, played a crucial role in saving their lives March 24 after a gasoline-powered water pump in their basement caused the odorless but deadly gas to build up.

About 1 a.m., the domestic shorthair began nudging Cathy's ear and meowing loudly.

see video and read more here

So Now I leave you with some final thoughts for now.
I wonder what you think I have only placed bits of info because this lens could go on and on and yes perhaps it will as I place more info when I can
I hope you will visit links and other lenses posted in areas above perhaps they will help with your intrest in the topic or to be a better judge of things I have discussed here, I am not sure where you are at with your beliefs nor am I sure of mine to be honest but that I am of the belief that respecting and loving animals brings a return so special and wonderful weather it be protection love a guide medicine miracle or lesson. animal respect and love is Important and for the animal lover I must say very easy. But again No Matter your belief the wonderful spirit of animals is always with us some we see and I believe some we don't.

Please help give or simply sign a Partition. Please visit these wonderful web sites they offer a lot of info and many ways you might help our wild Life!!



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Urge President Obama to Stand Up for Wolves
On March 6th, 2009, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the Bush Administration's discredited plan to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Idaho and Montana -- a decision that could lead to the deaths of more than 1,000 wolves!

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here are a couple more pages of great wall papers

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http://travel.webshots.com/album/561017674xRVHml?start=0