Summary
What are totem animals?
Animals are everywhere in our lives, whether it’s our dog or wild animals that we see from time to time. Yet we often lack an understanding of their symbolic nature and the main characteristics that define them. That’s why we’ve created this article to show you how to find your totem animal.
Traditional shamans believe that totem animals are revealed to guide and protect throughout life. They offer influential insights into our subconscious and convey meaningful messages if you’re willing to listen. Your spirit animal is meant to serve as a guide and bring attention to parts of your life that need to be explored.
How do you know if your totem animal is around you?
By becoming familiar with the archetypal traits and behaviors embodied by your spirit guide, you will begin to understand what signs you should look for to know when he is around you. When you invoke your spirit guide through meditation, mindfulness, or prayer, you can ask him to show a sign. You can also set an intention for your dreams before bed to encourage your spirit guide to show up and guide you.
Sometimes your animal spirit signs can be subtle, presenting themselves to you in a more symbolic form, while other signs can be more blatant physical forms. Spending more time in natural environments will undoubtedly help you connect with your spirit animal. Disconnecting from technology and reconnecting to Earth is necessary to establish this connection.
What is the purpose of finding your totem animal?
Finding your spirit animal can dramatically change your life in countless positive ways. Working with the “energy” or “medicine” of your spirit guide animal can help you improve your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual abilities.
How? ‘Or’ What?
When you find your totem animal, you will have a choice to make – either accept its messages and act on it, or leave. If you accept the messages from your animal spirit guide and act on it, you could see your whole life transformed.
Why?
Because finding your spirit animal and truly integrating its energy, medicine, and lessons into your life is a spiritual awakening. Relationships, careers, thought patterns, tastes (food, drink, clothes, music, etc.) – anything that no longer serves your highest interest will disappear.
When you find your totem animal, you begin to understand that there are worlds beyond the material world in which we live. Your senses may become sharper as you begin to use natural instincts to « think. »
If you weren’t ready for transmutation, if you weren’t ready to live a better life, you wouldn’t be looking for your spirit animal and reading this article.
Finding your spirit animal can help you discover…
- The courage to leave a toxic relationship, change career paths, go to school
- The ability to communicate more effectively or speak your truth
- The Path to Connecting to Your Psychic or Intuitive Self
- The strength to fight depression or addiction and find your joy.
- The wisdom to make tough decisions.
When a person is called to connect with their totem animal, it is a sign that they are ready to evolve into their “true or authentic self”.
Earlier we pointed out that your totem animal is a living part of you because all animals are related. Just as a child will have the same traits as its mom and dad, we are literally connected to all other living beings. What it really boils down to is that part of you is a tiger, snake, eagle, cricket, etc. Even if only in a tiny sense, you have a cellular memory of how you feel like any animal. When you are called to find your totem animal, you are truly searching for the part of your own spirit animal that has been fragmented, injured, or lost. This is why some shamans specialize in ‘soul retrieval’.
The idea of ’soul retrieval’ is that when our spirit experiences trauma, small parts of it become detached and are left along the soul’s path through each lifetime it incarnates. . A true shaman will enter an altered state of consciousness and return to your path, bringing those broken parts of you together to “bring them back” – helping you regain strength and wholeness.
By finding your spirit animal, you can act as your own shaman and rekindle your personal power.
How do totem animals work?
First, and most importantly, your totem animal is not separate from you. His energy and his spirit are now and always have been part of you – part of your basic nature. After all, humans are animals.
So in some ways you are your own spirit animal.
Spirit animals are not entities that are supposed to appear mysteriously and deliver messages when we need them. In fact, it is our own soul crying out to the animal kingdom for help. Animal spirits hear these calls and gather around us to offer protection, hope, healing and wisdom.
Technically speaking, our totem animal chooses us. However, because we subconsciously ‘ask for help’, that explains why they come to us.
Science gives us proof that DNA matches can be found between humans and many other animals, even plants. This means that living beings are infinitely linked. Native Americans call this relationship “Wakan” and “Wakan Tanka”.
For Native Americans, everything has its own spirit (Wakan) but all share the same spiritual essence (Wakan Tanka). This is why Native Americans call animals “peoples”. Because of this complex connection, when your soul sends an SOS all other living beings hear the signal.
So when you need help or advice, all the animals hear your heart and the appropriate creatures appear.
How to find your totem animal?
There are many ways to find your totem animal.
- Pay attention to animals that keep appearing in songs, pictures, movies, books, conversations, etc. Be sure that if they keep showing up to you, they are trying to help you in some way.
- Meditation involves reaching an altered state of consciousness and using deep imagery or visualizations with the specific intention of encountering the totem animals that are guiding you. These methods can be guided (spoken, percussion, music with voice) or unguided (silence, nature sounds, instrumental music only).
- Animal dreams. Humans often doubt receiving messages from their spirit animal guides, so they come to us in the dream state. Often it is much easier for people to trust their dreams rather than their own intuition during waking hours or meditations.
Listen to your totem animal
Once you have identified your totem animal, you can start listening to it. Animal totems teach us a lot about ourselves. They are believed to emanate from the traits and strengths that we should be honoring more in our own lives at some point. (Note: Because of this, your totem animal may very well change over the years!) For example, if your spirit animal is a crow, you could benefit from channeling the energy of the tenacious hunter inside of you. .
One way to remind yourself of the qualities of your spirit animal is to use a physical representation of your guide – be it a photograph, statue, or painting. In many Native American tribes, they are called totem animals because they are deeply sacred and passed down from generation to generation.
Every time you are touched by your spirit animal – whether you interact with it in real life, see it in a photo, or hear someone else talk about it – you can use it to remind yourself of the importance of its unique qualities.
Common Totem Animals and Their Core Qualities
Here is an introduction to the meanings of some totem animals:
Bear
The bear spirit is believed to be one of the most powerful. He is deeply emotional and feels a deep connection to the earth and the outdoors.
Butterfly
The butterfly is a symbol of transformation and development. He is incredibly adaptable and handles all changes with ease and grace.
Cat
The cat symbolizes curiosity, adventure and independence. He also masters the art of patience.
Stag
The deer is a sensitive and very intuitive spirit guide. It strikes a balance between confidence and success and gentleness and grace.
Dove
The dove represents peace, blessings and new beginnings. It is a hopeful and optimistic totem animal.
Dolphin
The dolphin spirit guide represents play and wisdom. He is a master communicator and unifier.
Elephant
The elephant symbolizes wisdom, gentleness and spiritual understanding.
Frog
The frog is the spiritual guide to healing physical and emotional wounds. This testifies to the importance of healing from the past in order to live in the present.
Fox
The fox is the camouflage guide. He masters the art of detachment and grows with the environment.
Horse
The horse is the guide of passion and dynamism. He is incredibly productive and goal oriented.
Falcon
The falcon spirit guide represents perspective and the ability to see things from all sides. He is extremely compassionate and empathetic.
Lion
The lion spirit guide represents heart and courage. He is a natural leader with a deep sense of authority.
Mouse
The mouse represents the importance of detail and scrutiny. She reminds us not to neglect the little things in life.
Owl
The owl is the spirit guide who has the ability to see what others lack. He sees the deep meaning of things and discovers the hidden treasures of life.
Peacock
The peacock represents resurrection and reinvention. He knows it’s never too late to change course.
Tortoise
The turtle is a highly spiritual guide who represents the path to wisdom, truth, understanding and peace.
Tiger
The tiger represents raw feelings and emotions. He is very intuitive and excels at following his instincts.
Wolf
The wolf is connected to intelligence, instinct and freedom. Above all, he follows primitive instincts.
Have you found your totem animal? What is it and what are its qualities?
