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How did you find your 'power animal'?

  
 
reFLUX
20:58 / 28.12.02
i was curious for weeks to find out what my 'power animal' was, but with no idea how to find out. i was trying to will myself to dream about it but to no avail. so having no access to any halucigenics, one morning i decided to just look out my window to see what animal i first saw and make that my 'power animal'.
maybe you would like to comment on my experience and share yours.
do so below.
 
 
--
21:14 / 28.12.02
I think I have two, cats and crows. I'm a cat person and I've never met a cat that has not liked me (or vice-versa).

And as for crows? I've liked them since I was a kid. They appear in my dreams a lot. A few months ago I was pushing shopping carts outside in the parking lot and, bored, mentally called for the crow spirits to send some of their children to accompany me if it pleased them (and I made a hand gesture like the one Tom O'Bedlam made in the Invisibles to call a pigeon over). 5 seconds after I did this two crows flew over the roof of the store and landed near me. They then followed me around the parking lot as I did my job. I would visualize them flying to certain spots and they would fly there a second later. I asked one to talk to me and it looked at me and started to caw. Soon there were crows everywhere. When my shift was done I thanked the crow spirits and dismissed them. They all flew off. That's how I knew crows were my totem/power animal (I also dress in black a lot too, so there you go. Crows are also considered to be mysterious and having an interest in the occult, much like myself in reality).

I always see them at my campus too, they're like the campus guardians. Whenever I see one I say hi to Macha. Sometimes when they fly over me they look me in the eye and caw. Very weird...
 
 
Seth
00:59 / 29.12.02
Mine found me. I wasn't looking for a guardian/tutelory spirit, and it was a long time before I realised that the being that gave me so much assistance was a power animal. It took a few synchronicities that I coldn't ignore before dumb ol' exp realised what was going on.
 
 
illmatic
12:10 / 29.12.02
There's an excellent book on this subject called "Sacred Animals" by Gordon MacLellan, aka Gordon the Toad. I haven't worked from it, not being of a shamanic persuasion but it looks damn good to me. He makes a lot of interesting distinctions between power animals/ personal totems and other animal spirits/friends that might just be passing through your life.
Be interested to hear anyone's comments on the relationship between power animal/animal spirits and their relationship to the local eco-system.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
12:12 / 29.12.02
I did some pretty intensive trance-work specifically aimed at finding mine. Eventully I found myself (in the trance state, not in the flesh) in a fairly typical region of British deciduous woodland. I walked and walked until I found myself standing under a huge tree, something like an elm. Then I saw my power-animal: an armadillo. A tiny pinkish-brown armadillo.

It took me about another year to identify the critter; I finally came across one quite by chance in the Natural History Museum.
 
 
Papess
16:19 / 29.12.02
I think I have mentioned this before, but I encountered my power animal I was 17. I had ingested some shrooms and began to sit as if meditative (or catatonic, I am not sure how it would have looked to the observer). I noted during this the unusual posture I choose to be still in - my hands tight and fingers half curled in with my thumbs pressed tightly against my knuckles, my palms stuck in my eye sockets...

And not a bloody clue what I was doing!

I decided to push through the veil, in this posture and I came out the other side, I could feel a pressure in my head. These huge ram's horns came out the top of my head and curled around my ears like some massive Princess Leia 'do. This shocked me but I was willful (or not, depending on who you ask) and decided not to distract myself from this experience. I kept moving forward and into this new form. I could see the landscape from my high perch on the mountainside, the misted valley, the distant peaks beyond it and an azure blue sky above.

In that form, I could feel this power of solitude and independance, my footing sure, as I climbed higher. I could see the birds of prey swoop near, sometimes screeching as they did.

This was such a powerful experience for me. Just re-telling this story evokes strong sensations and inspiration. Thanks for letting me share it again.
 
 
gravitybitch
22:12 / 29.12.02
I did some salvia-guided meditation, looking for inspiration and a little direction for the narrative hypersigil I'm working on, and ended up following a little cloud of moths down a tunnel/corridor. This isn't the first time I've seen insects - I tried to follow a cluster of fireflies down a path about a month ago when working with mushrooms.

Has anybody else worked with grouped guides? Or bugs, for that matter? It's interesting to me that these are specifically not hive-mind insects...
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
22:29 / 01.01.03
found mine durning a guided meditaion (finding one wasnt the point) i found a baby turtle that followed me for a bit. later on i totally tranced outand flew up to the moon where there was a humaoid fuzy white thing that came closer, turned into a giant sea turtle and melded with me (its shell over my chest, its fins out my shoulders like giant wings and its head on the back of mine) crazy.
 
 
mixmage
00:28 / 02.01.03
Mine is the Scorpion. I was gonna post to the earlier toad/scorpion thread, but reconsidered. Now Barbelith tells me I should have spoken up... okay, here's the story.

I'm a scorpio, pretty much a text-book example of the sign. I was given a silver charm of a scorpion within a ring when very young, wore it for years. It is now in a secret place, attached to a gold ankh.

Somewhere between age 5 and 7 my family took a trip to North Africa. We were travelling across the Sahara with a guide to meet the Blue Men/Tuaregs. Ashtuk was a good man, very good at his job. He pulled the car over to give us a break, under the shade of a solitary tree - the kind you see goats in.

While my parents chatted with Ashtuk and tended to my toddling sibling, I took the opportunity to explore the immediate vicinity. There was a single rock, about as big as my head and, being an inquisitive child, I rolled it over.

Right there was a scorpion. The first one I had ever seen IRL, and it was mere inches away from my naked feet. It had its thin claws on the body of a scarab, but didn't appear to be devouring it. The beetle didn't move, but the scorpion decided that it was time to disappear. I stood and watched as it scurried toward the rock. This whole scene took maybe five or six seconds, it felt much longer. Suddenly I was being whisked up into Ashtuk's arms and carried back to the car. I never felt the fear that had shocked our guide into action, or the relief of my parents when they realised what had happened.

So... there you have it.

When the previous thread came up, it inspired me to try and identify the little critter I have etched into my memory. I found it alright. Then I understood. Androctonus australis is one of the deadliest scorps in the world. And I'm not dead yet.

While trying to find medical uses for its venom, I discovered that the species is currently being genetically engineered to make it even more deadly and that the gene responsible for expressing the toxin has already been cloned... to make deadlier pesticides.
 
 
Mike
10:56 / 03.01.03
I think most people know what their power animal is simply by being aware of what animal they can gain the most power from invoking/visualising/communicating, or, to put it another way, with which animal they are most magickally intimate.

Is there any reason why a 'power animal' may not be mythological?
 
 
Bear
11:23 / 03.01.03
Is there any reason why a 'power animal' may not be mythological?

Not that I know of, I know of people that say their power animal is a dragon.

No prizes for guessing what mine is Found him during meditation, on a little island next to a stream and he seems to be getting bigger everytime I talk to him.
 
 
betty woo
23:26 / 03.01.03
Went on a long trip around north america by myself, five months in an old Buick, only to figure out that I'm a lizard dreaming - which I should have accepted long before that, given that lizards tend to intrude and offer advice in all kinds of strange ways whenever I'd hit a crossroads in my life. But noooooo, I needed the big dramatic gesture of waking up with a lizard sitting on my chest, blinking at me, in order to get the hint.

I tend to think of power animals as being innately mythological. Even when they're based on a real animal, its the archetypal powers and traits that are generally being drawn upon.
 
 
Kobol Strom
21:26 / 04.01.03
In my dreams I've ncountered all kinds of intelligent animals,like wolves and monkeys,that have imparted some wisdom or service,but not at any time have I felt myself to be an animal 'dreaming'.If at all ,I'd say I was an alien dreaming -sometimes I can sense my alien body lying in another place,surrounded by other aliens,with watchful doctors around me with deep grave voices.
 
 
Nietzsch E. Coyote
22:18 / 04.01.03
For along time that was my outwardly expressed power creature, the grey alien. I wore a shirt with the depiction that was from the cover of whitely striber's book on a t shirt. I went through pretty classic shamanic trials with them. Now I relate with a different animal, but the greys still hold special signifigance for me.
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
15:14 / 07.01.03
does anyone else find that the more time you spend working with your power animal (or whatever) that it changes and evolves. mines developed a big eye on its shell and a string of eyes that hoover in horizontal line either side of my head (but they sometimes move to make a ring around my head, about eye level. Hes also somewhat melded with a spirit form i sometimes took when threatened, transpanty purple spikes.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
15:33 / 07.01.03
I've had relationships with several power animals. The first was a raven, who first turned up during a serious illness, and acted like a psychopomp, often showing up when I was totally out of it during extremes of gnosis or bouts of psychoactives. Once I started taking care of my body, it fucked off. Later went through a phase of association with a 'cybernetic shark' - this 'power animal' being more of a form used for astral theriomorphic explorations. For the last decade or so, my PA (power animal - personal assistant?) has been a hedgepig, whom I discovered at a Lionel Snell workshop (ended up with everyone 'dancing' their PA - altho' I was curled under a table).
 
 
Skit
11:03 / 20.04.04
I found my power animal doing lotsa meditation and dancing. I dont agree with using drugs. Also how does this if u see it 4 times work, my power animal is the coyote, if I live in britain how can I see 4 of them in a row!?
 
 
reFLUX
20:43 / 20.04.04
for a long time i was sure my animal were Crows/Ravens because i see them everywhere i go and am so sure they are following me or showing themselves to me, but lately alot of Wasps have been coming in my window in the morning and not leaving when i try to coax them out. might i have two 'power animals'? how can i be sure?
 
 
The Prince of All Lies
21:23 / 20.04.04
Damn it, another Barbelith synchronicity for me...
Yesterday I was meditating, and when I entered trance I saw a white tiger. He was looking the other way, then he turned around and jumped at me, attacking me with his paws. Then his image exploded like a nova and I was showered by waves of energy/light.
If that one's my power animal, it's great----beats having a lizard or an armadillo (no offense intended)...
 
 
Liger Null
21:51 / 20.04.04
No prizes for guessing what mine is Found him during meditation, on a little island next to a stream and he seems to be getting bigger everytime I talk to him.

Is it a bear?

I used to dream about mutated animals a lot when I was a teenager. I would wake up sweating and freaked out, even though the muties weren't agressive or anything. I haven't had those dreams in a while though.

Any good advice on finding your spirit animal?
 
 
C.Elseware
22:36 / 20.04.04
Hmm. I've always wondered as I really have no idea. Which is kinda exciting. I figured I'd wait until the time seems right and then try and do it proper-like.

I do have a kinda paranoia that it would be something obvious like a dragon. I am clearly special and unsual and should have something unique (although that seems unlikely).

Although I've seen documentaries about furries - possibly that's taking the power animal thing too far.
 
 
Skit
07:32 / 21.04.04
Cool a white tiger that is something special, however if it attacked you then perhaps it is signalling that it is not your power animal, and that you must look elsewhere?!
When I think of my power animal (must really ask its name, I'll say he as I'm sure he's male!) and then I try to think of another animal he chase them away, or I cannot visualise them. If its a large animal, like say a bear he moves away from them and I cannot help but follow him. Ask your power animal to take you on a meditative journey, this is very useful. They can show you things to help with your life, mine showed me that I shouldn't be shy asking for help and that it doesn't show failure it shows wisdom and the ability to get along with other and work as a team, and also that I will be better off for it. Before I was scared of asking for help, I wanted to be totally independant, but now I can balance independancy with dependancy. Thanks Coyote!!
 
 
Skit
07:33 / 21.04.04
Also does a person have one power animal or a set, and can these change!
 
 
Sekhmet
12:44 / 21.04.04
Do they have armadillos and coyotes in Europe?? They're both damn common where I live, but I thought they were strictly New World critters...

Skit - I think maybe it's possible to have multiple animal guides or helper spirits, but not sure about multiple "power animals". By definition, "power animal" seems to me to be an exclusive thing... the one animal spirit you are most strongly bonded with.

I'm sure if you asked any of my friends they'd say mine was probably a cat... but I identify strongly with several different animals, and I don't think I've figured out a "power" animal yet. Does everyone necessarily have one?
 
 
Shawn Graw
01:59 / 24.04.04
I smoke marihuana in the midle of the mountains... and get over a three for i dont know how many hours... i start to make a shaman exercise called "find the hole in the sound" You close your eyes and try to find these hole in the sound turning your head around. When you are sure you open your eyes in try to see the hole o you go there to look what the hole contains.
When i open my eyes i have a enormous White Owl looking right in front of me in a branch of the same tree. I was very surprised, because he was like trying to speak, because he made that hohoho sound.
I look the Owl for i dont know how many time, the he fly and i got sleep at home... Form that ocasion i see them more frecuently than ever, and more often when i made some magickal treeking in cementeries or forest.
They find you, dont bother them trying desesperately to take them.
 
 
macrophage
10:27 / 26.04.04
I am very fond of spiders now, I got that through dreams and meditation. I was scared of them when I was young. I am quite fond of dogs as well - which probablly relates to my ongoing Sirius obsessions. Last night I found some pages off Fortean Times about the Camel Spider which seems like a right beauty!!! It's like a cross between the spider and the scorpion and has folklore of extreme repute. It is said to eat Camels from the inside. In my inner planes my spider seems like its black and seems to take on the appearance of a Black Widow. Obvious comparisons to Kali, Inktomi, Arachne, Anansi, etc.... I find that some of us may gain power animals through the process of shitting our pants when we were young at certain creatures and then merging with that fear. Another insect that seems to draw itselves to me are Ladybirds, fuck knows why. Mebbe it was the books my parents used to get me from Woolies I dunno. Bit more Vanilla than Spiders eh.
 
 
XXII:X:II = XXX
07:58 / 02.05.04
I only kind of sat down and muddled out a suspicion of what mine are, and that's certainly Coyote (I include trickster dogs as part of that archetype). The Coyote is definitely stronger in me. I believe part of my fictionsuit sprouted in more than one way from a childhood totem that had to do with Snoopy, and I've observed the face of Coyote in both the clouds and around a portrait of Sitting Bull that I've always had. A potent sage character from my college days went by the nickname "Coyote," and as the professor emeritus of the Psych department he was always mildly, playfully fucking with students' heads.

Despite the strong presence of Coyote in my life, a lesser spirit animal for me may be a cat. I feel a great connection with them, and have always recognized more distinct personality in them than in dogs. We even say in our family that my dad's previous three cats were reincarnated into his three present cats, and while this may be a stretch at times I certainly can't deny definitely recognizable personality traits.

After that, my spirit animal dips into cryptozoological arcana with unicorns, a conviction that's only been strengthened in the past week as it played a role in establishing a new relationship for me. Also, as a kid, I invented my first identifiable fictionsuit as the human incarnation of an interdimensional race of intelligent unicorns. This totem, I think, was incorporated into the VJB2 persona, too.

the aforementioned VJB2
 
 
Quantum
10:38 / 03.05.04
I followed a lucid dreaming exercise from a book- imagine a white space, wait until it comes to meet you. I was imagining standing in the white space, slightly sceptical, when a chinese dragon approached, a white one with the mane and all (no Neverending Story jokes please, he was big and scary). The book said the scarier it was the more powerful, so I kept calm, and then it gave me a ride which was totally exhilarating. I've got no cultural background involving China or any particular interest in dragons so I was a bit surprised, but there you go, they choose you.

Recently I befriended a 'spirit' called Lord Badger, an anthropomorphic badger from the English upper classes with a monocle and dry wit. He's cool. Did you know the fiercest fight in the English countryside is badger vs. badger? Grr.
 
 
farseer /pokes out an i
20:23 / 03.05.04
Hm.... Too many scattered thoughts to really tell a story, but I don't think I have what would necissarily be called a power animal (PA, lol)... Though animals have definitely helped me, provided wisdom (though sometimes a bit non-human and alien wisdom at that...) Usually I commune with the Dragon (gold chinese dragon tinged with red scales), the coyote (trickster), the wolf (pack-mind and simultaneously lone), the cat (the happy play time kitty and the inscrutably wise lap-empathizer). I know that when I see Bluejays I feel lucky- as if the Bluejay is there to show me that now I'm on track and to look out for the opportunity as it's about to fall into my lap. Bluejays have followed me for a while; and sometimes following them is the thing to do.

There was a while back when I would have named the Eagle as my power animal- during some initiations in the wilderness I first saw an eagle spiraling high above the lake that stretched before me. Two years later when I underwent the next portion of my initiation at the same place there were two eagles I watched, both in the clear wisconsin sky above me. A year or so after that when I underwent my third initiation with that group I expected to see three eagles; instead I saw one eagle and two bats. Maybe six bats. Bats, flying way faster and closer, and much more difficult to count. Now in Texas, there is nary an eagle ever in the sky; only in my mind's eye.

nap time.
 
 
Z. deScathach
05:22 / 05.05.04
The weird thing about that is I had always thought that my power animal was the serpent, as I have always been attracted to snakes. I also have thought that spiders might be a power animal, as I always had a fascination with them when I was younger, although I was quite frightened of them as well. I've also had visions of them. I was doing an inner plane exercise once however, when a bear showed up and sat down next to me! I've never had any affinity to bears whatsoever. I perceived that the bear was there to provide "help", whatever that means. It has made me think that the animals that I "think" might be power animals may not be, and the one's that I don't think are power animals might be.
 
 
deja_vroom
14:47 / 05.05.04
Ok, I started a topic on the discovery of my personal animal totem a while ago. I'll paste the beginning of the post here, but to read the thread in its entirety, check here. There's some nice contributions there.

"I had been living a shielded life. A boring succession of days that looked like the same. It seemed that there were no new possibilities, that I was stuck somehow, and due to my own fault, 'cos I'm the biggest chicken I know. I have this problem where I *know* what's going on, I see it happening but I cannot *feel* the situation inside me, and so I cannot really act. It's like I was watching someone else's life. Then I decided to change this. To change *me*. And, seeing this as a psychological working as well as a magickal one, I set to change certain characteristics of mine that I thought were blocking my development.

First, I thought of which strong magickal icons I could use as translating protocols between my conscious mind and my unconscious. I'm not well versed in magick but I think I have a hint of what it is about: understanding the Process. Getting into the code of the thing and, when possible, making some tweaks of your own. Most importantly - magick changes *YOU* more than it changes the outside (and by changing *YOU* of course it *also* changes the outside). So, instead of searching for already established rituals and spells, I decided to go chaos instead (or lazy, you decide - which reminds me, feel free to put me down as a deluded fool. I don't claim to have the answers, I'm just reporting from where my headspace is at the moment).

What did I want to accomplish? I wanted to experience life more. That immediately brought to my mind Jorge Luis Borges and the image of the tiger. Borges wrote some pieces about tigers, including this poem:

"THE OTHER TIGER

A tiger comes to mind. The twilight here
Exalts the vast and busy Library
And seems to set the bookshelves back in gloom;
Innocent, ruthless, bloodstained, sleek
It wanders through its forest and its day
Printing a track along the muddy banks
Of sluggish streams whose names it does not know
(In its world there are no names or past
Or time to come, only the vivid now)
And makes its way across wild distances
Sniffing the braided labyrinth of smells
And in the wind picking the smell of dawn
And tantalizing scent of grazing deer;
Among the bamboo's slanting stripes I glimpse
The tiger's stripes and sense the bony frame
Under the splendid, quivering cover of skin.
Curving oceans and the planet's wastes keep us
Apart in vain; from here in a house far off
In South America I dream of you,
Track you, O tiger of the Ganges' banks.

It strikes me now as evening fills my soul
That the tiger addressed in my poem
Is a shadowy beast, a tiger of symbols
And scraps picked up at random out of books,
A string of labored tropes that have no life,
And not the fated tiger, the deadly jewel
That under sun or stars or changing moon
Goes on in Bengal or Sumatra fulfilling
Its rounds of love and indolence and death.
To the tiger of symbols I hold opposed
The one that's real, the one whose blood runs hot
As it cuts down a herd of buffaloes,
And that today, this August third, nineteen
Fifty-nine, throws its shadow on the grass;
But by the act of giving it a name,
By trying to fix the limits of its world,
It becomes a fiction not a living beast,
Not a tiger out roaming the wilds of earth.

We'll hunt for a third tiger now, but like
The others this one too will be a form
Of what I dream, a structure of words, and not
The flesh and one tiger that beyond all myths
Paces the earth. I know these things quite well,
Yet nonetheless some force keeps driving me
In this vague, unreasonable, and ancient quest,
And I go on pursuing through the hours
Another tiger, the beast not found in verse."

He also once made a famous analogy - and this was what first sparked to my mind - of life's surprises with the image of a *tiger in a library*. That was what I wanted, so I took it and use it.

How?
 
 
Iniquisitive
08:44 / 06.05.04
Since I was about 10, my mother has been taking me to various sweat lodges. When I was that young they never held that much power for me; it was like a dark steam room with strange people.

When I was 15, however, I had an experience while in a lodge that was very intense and strange - I felt wings sprouting out of my back and my body turning into that of a lion. I could feel my claws raking on the ground and everything. Ever since then, I've sort of considered the sphinx my power animal.
 
 
h3r
19:36 / 07.05.04
i buy into the concept that one has several different totem animals for different periods in ones' life. One finds them through various methods, many of which have been brought up above.
I got to know my recent monkey totem in a dance/drumming ritual, in which you are supposed to feel the animal emerge out of you through bodymovement, which worked well for me on the first time I attempted it.
Another one was during a travelling session where I performed a healing ritual for an acquaintence. I sucked on his mouth to get the sickness out of him, and sucked out a swarm of mosquitos as well as a tarantula spider into me. They are now my allies.
also have met a bird on the beach once. he seemed to talk to me.
 
  
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