Discovering Your Spirit Animal: The Wisdom of the Shamans - Lucy Harmer 2009

How Can You Discover Your Spirit Animal?

There are many ways in which you can meet your spirit animal. Some of these methods are extremely complicated—calling for a high level of extrasensory perception or the carrying out of shamanic rituals—but there are other ways that are much simpler. In general, we have a main spirit animal who stays with us throughout our lives. Sometimes another spirit animal will appear, depending on the lessons we need to take on board at different times in our lives. It is also possible for other animal messengers or allies to appear to help us with a particular task. With a measure of meditation and observation, when we are listening to our intuition, we can start to recognize our spirit animal and our other animal allies. Given below are some exercises to help you determine your own main personal spirit animal:

The Animal to Which You Feel the Most Drawn

Is there an animal to which you have always been drawn? Do you collect miniatures or cuddly toy versions of a specific animal? Was there an animal that you particularly liked when you were a child, the thought of which still draws you? Do you live with a cat, a dog, a snake, or a horse to which you’re deeply attached? Has a grandparent or a close relative mentioned a specific type of animal medicine; does this animal frequently cross your path? Is there an animal that keeps showing up at difficult times in your life? Or is there an animal that just seems to hang around you?

You may have a subtle connection with your spirit animal and already be in possession of its medicine. This means that you’re vibrating on the same level as this particular animal and you have some of its qualities whether you are aware of it or not. This is why you will be drawing it into your life. Often a spirit animal or an animal messenger may try every means available to attract your attention.

If you are scared of a particular animal and you are able to overcome these fears, you may use its medicine. If you have been bitten by an animal, Native Americans and Toltecs would say that it is testing you to discover your strength, and that you are probably already in possession of its medicine.

I remember my first visit to my aunt in Australia. We decided to go on a road trip across the outback to visit a couple of friends who lived out in the desert near a gold mine. We were several hundred miles from the mine, and the landscape was dotted with small shrubs and eucalyptus trees. At dusk we had to stop every fifteen miles or so because we kept finding an owl sitting in the middle of the road. As I didn’t know the area, I didn’t take special notice of the owls, but my aunt was very surprised to see them because she had never before found one on that stretch of road. She explained that they were there for me; I didn’t understand until much later that the owls were there as messengers to show me that I should take a new direction in my life.

In order to discover our spirit animal, it is vitally important to stay open and to observe the animals that appear in our lives. During a shamanic journey, one of my friends was not in the least surprised to discover that his totem animal was an Elephant. After the exercise he explained that he had always been attracted to elephants. Each time he bought a calendar it had pictures of elephants; his girlfriend had brought him a blanket back from India decorated with elephants and, as a child, his favorite cuddly toy had been an elephant. Added to that, he had an elephant design on his living-room carpet!

Dreams

All ancient traditions and shamanic cultures—whether they are Native Americans, Toltecs, Huichols, Australian Aborigines, Hawaiian kahunas, African Sangomas, Tibetan Lamas, Siberian and Mongolian shamans, Balinese priests, or Celtic druids—consider dreams to be as important as the physical world; any meetings with animals in dreams should be taken as seriously as any unexpected encounter in our day-to-day lives. Your spirit animal can easily appear to you in a dream, because when we dream, we have no geographical limits and can meet up with an animal whom we wouldn’t ordinarily meet. A distinguishing mark of a totem animal is the fact that it appears with unfailing regularity. One of the advantages to discovering your spirit animal in a dream is that it’s easier to discover its qualities and its medicine by deciphering and reflecting on the circumstances and the way it appeared to you in your dream.

It is often the case that when we wake up we don’t remember our dreams, so here are a few tips to help you remember the main points: Before you go to sleep, hold a glass of water between your hands, magnetizing the water and asking your spirit animal to appear in your dreams. Drink the water just before settling down to sleep, telling yourself that you will remember the dream where your spirit animal appears. It is important to have a notebook and pen beside the bed so that you can write down what happened in your dream upon waking, before you forget. If you are not getting enough sleep, it is likely that you won’t remember your dreams. It really is helpful to get a proper night’s sleep and wake up naturally in the morning.

Observing Auras and Behaviors

When a spirit animal is close to someone, their energies mingle. The person will tend to take on the qualities, the movements, and even the behavior of that particular animal. When we’re speaking, we often use analogies with particular animals in mind. For example: “beavering away,” “busy as a bee,” “move like a cat,” “proud as a peacock,” “fierce as a lion,” “stubborn as a mule,” “strong as an ox,” “sly as a fox,” and “quiet and timid as a mouse.” We often refer to people’s qualities and relate them to animal attributes. For instance, someone may have “feline grace,” be “bearlike” or “birdlike and twitchy,” have “hawk eyes” or “puppy dog eyes.” Some people even start to walk like their spirit animals, striding, skipping, prancing, shuffling, hesitating, or sneaking along silently.

By being aware of how we move around and how we act, we can often work out which is our spirit animal. Now and then a person’s aura will take on the form of his or her totem animal. Normally this aura extends all around the person in a radius of between five and fifteen feet, and it is sometimes possible to see an animal taking shape. You can try looking at your own aura in a mirror. If you focus your eyes on a point just beyond your head and bring your peripheral vision forward, you can sometimes see your aura extending outward from your physical body. If you are lucky, your spirit animal may appear. However, it is often more difficult to discover your spirit animal using these methods. Ask your friends and loved ones for their observations on how you move and behave, or if they perceive an animal in your auric field.

Vision Quest

The vision quest is probably the most challenging way of meeting your spirit animal. It consists of spending time alone in nature. Details may change with different types of shamanic vision quests, such as the amount of time spent alone in nature, whether you can eat or drink, if you have to stay awake all the time, etc.

If you choose to discover your totem animal through the vision quest, opt for a method that suits your lifestyle. I really like the approach by Brandt Morgan in Vision Walk: Asking Questions, Getting Answers, Shifting Consciousness, which is easily adapted to the way most of us live. It is simple, but practical and effective; it includes a meditation to help you disconnect your mind and shift your consciousness, at the same time enabling you to improve your ability to hear and perceive messages from nature.

The general idea behind a vision quest is to spend time alone in nature, away from the hubbub of daily life, offering prayers to the spirits so that they will reveal your spirit animal to you. Many traditional cultures use vision quests as a tool to deepen one’s understanding of the unseen worlds, strengthen one’s connection to nature, and clarify one’s sacred path in life. A traditional vision quest can last anywhere from two to eight days with time spent before and after in ceremony. However, if you choose to go on your own vision quest, unguided by a tradition, a period of twenty-four hours can give you a wonderful experience in reconnecting with nature and sometimes even two or three hours are sufficient to discover your spirit animal. It is very important to tell a friend where you’re going and the amount of time you’ll be spending there. Do remember that if at any time you feel scared or apprehensive, you can always go home. Another excellent way to do a vision quest is during an organized course; there is almost always someone of experience to guide you, who will hold a fire vigil and maintain a spirit connection with you during your quest.

If your spirit animal is a species of animal native to your region, then he will definitely appear during your vision quest. It is even possible that several animals will appear physically, and in this case, send a prayer from your heart for a clear message as to which one is your personal spirit animal. The animal in question will make some sort of unmistakable sign. If, on the other hand, your spirit animal isn’t a native of the area, it could appear in a vision or a dream, or the landscape could seem suddenly to take on a form resembling an animal. Be aware of your surroundings with all your senses, as you could also hear the call of your spirit animal.

On the top of a Welsh mountain during a shamanic course I gave, two of the participants on a vision quest saw several eagles flying overhead, although they are rarely found in that area. The two people immediately recognized them as their spirit animals from the feeling of love and wholeness they felt. A third participant heard the eagles’ cries but didn’t want to turn around to look as she didn’t want the sun in her eyes. Their cries became louder and more insistent as if they were calling to her and she finally turned around but, losing her balance, fell and landed on her back. When she looked up at the sky she saw that the eagles had disappeared and the clouds had taken on the form of a stag, which she immediately recognized as her spirit animal.

Here is a very simple method to help you in your vision quest.

✵ Prepare. Decide on the amount of time your vision quest is going to take and, as explained above, tell someone in whom you have confidence where you are going. Remember to wear warm clothes and take a blanket if you’re going to stay out all night. Don’t forget your sunblock, sunglasses, hat, raincoat, and any other necessary equipment depending on the weather. Be prepared for any climatic situation. Better safe than sorry.

✵ Find the Right Place. Follow your intuition until you have found the place that most draws you. When you arrive at your ideal spot, stand with your eyes closed and sense how you are feeling. In order to find the exact spot, move slowly around until you are in a place where you feel totally connected to the earth and where you can feel your inner power.

✵ Create Your Sacred Circle. When you are vision questing, it is important to create a protective circle. To do this, mark the four directions—the east, the west, the north, and the south—and place stones, small tree branches, or whatever else you may find in a ring around you.

✵ Invoke the Protective Energy of the Four Directions. In order to anchor the protective energy of the four directions, you can call them with the help of a Native American rattle or a drum, or simply by asking and invoking them. There are different medicine wheels with slight variations in meaning depending on which culture they come from. If you already have a medicine wheel that you work with, use that one, or you can use the following Celtic one that I favor:

Turn toward the east; visualize and invoke the protective energy of the east. The Native American medicine wheel or the Celtic medicine wheel starts in the east, the place where the sun rises. The color associated with this direction is yellow and the corresponding animal is the Eagle, which flies high and sees far. The element of the east is air or wind, representing the mind, the intellect, spiritual consciousness, and clairvoyance. Our ideas, inspirations, and new beginnings come from the east.

Turn toward the south; visualize and invoke the protective energy of the south. This direction brings us fire, representing passion, sexual energy, willpower, enthusiasm, transformation, and transmutation. Red is the color associated with the south, and the spirit animals are the Fire Serpent, who transforms itself by shedding its skin, and the Phoenix, who rises from the ashes. This direction represents our transformation, our creative force, our imagination, and our inner child.

Turn toward the west; invoke the protective energy of the Dolphin, the element of water, the deepest color blue, the ocean, all of which represent our emotions and our connections. The energy of the west gives us the courage to look inside, to go deeply into our emotions and not fear these emotions, or those of others.

Turn toward the north; invoke the protective energy of the earth, the color green, and the Mole. The energy of the north represents our capacity to manifest. It is connected to the body, health, work, and money. It is the direction of silence, the ancestors, and the wisdom of our elders.

Put yourself into the center of your circle and, kneeling on the ground, invoke and visualize the protective energy of the underworld—of Mother Earth—the source of our nourishment and abundance. This direction represents our capacity to ground ourselves and to live in the present. Once we are balanced in this direction, everything becomes magic and our life fills with meaningful “coincidences.”

Straighten up and, turning toward the sky, invoke the energy of Grandfather Sky, the angels, and the light of the spirit realms, which nourish our soul. This direction represents our capacity to communicate with the subtle realm of the spirits. It is the life force that enables us to exist.

Close your eyes and place a hand on your heart. Invoke the protective energy within, call on your intuition, your capacity to listen to that still, small voice. The energy flowing within you is a reflection of the Great Spirit, or God, and of Creation. Invoke and honor your innate divine energy.

✵ Create Your Altar and Make an Offering. Construct an altar with natural elements that you find around you, or clear a space on the ground. Put on the altar any sacred objects you have brought to your vision quest. These could be crystals, stones representing your allies, your prayer wand, etc. If you want to use a candle, it is safest to place it in a jar so that it will be sheltered from the breeze. Then, place an offering on your altar to ask the spirits and the guardians of the place to help you connect to your spirit animal. You could offer tobacco, sage, copal resin, chocolate, oats, barley, etc. In the Native American tradition, offerings usually consist of prayer bundles. These are scraps of cloth in which a pinch of tobacco has been placed and a prayer has been said before it is tied up.

✵ Call Your Spirit Animal. It is a good idea to stay open to whatever form this could take. It could appear as a physical animal or more subtly in the form of clouds, a dream, etc. Don’t forget that you can leave at any time. If you are sure that you have met your totem animal, then your vision quest has been successful and you can go home, even if it has only taken an hour or two.

Invoking Your Spirit Animal with a Rattle or Drum

One of the oldest techniques for meeting your spirit animal, used by our ancestors for generations, consists of calling it with the sound of various percussion instruments during a sacred ceremony. Our ancestors used the sounds of instruments such as the drum, the Native American rattle, and wooden castanets. In other cultures, instruments used could be the didgeridoo,¹ bells, gamelan,² or Tibetan cymbals. Our ancestors used the rhythm and power of the sound of the instruments to send their deepest wishes to the spirit world, whether they wanted to connect with nature, the guardians of a place, woodland spirits, or animals. To call your spirit animal with a musical instrument, you must play it with this intention.

The rhythm used to invoke your spirit animal consists of a regular beat (around three beats per second). This regular beat enables our brain waves to go from beta to alpha and then theta—the waves at which the brain vibrates during dreams. In other words, when we listen to this rhythm it enables us to experience a deeper level of consciousness, close to daydreaming. This technique has a dual purpose. It enables us to become more receptive to the language of our spirit animal, at the same time raising our awareness. The sound of the instrument awakens and calls our spirit animal, who will seek to contact us.

This is my preferred method:

1. 1. Make yourself comfortable in a darkened room and light a candle or, if possible, a wood fire. You could also burn medicinal herbs such as sage or incense to evoke the right atmosphere.

2. 2. Sit down on the floor in front of the candle or the fire and start to beat your drum, shake your rattle, or ring your bell to a regular beat.

3. 3. Keep your eyes half closed and observe the candle or the fire while you call and invoke your spirit animal. Open your heart and clear your mind.

4. 4. Become receptive to the images and the sounds of the animals that may go through your mind. Their appearance could be in the form of a flash or a succession of images.

5. 5. Continue to beat your drum, ring your bell, or shake your rattle for around ten minutes. After this time, you should have a clearer feel of a particular animal. Perhaps you’ll suddenly think of an animal; it may be that you feel the energy of this animal rising up in you, or its presence by your side.

6. 6. Ask it if it’s your spirit animal and pay great attention to its reply. If it is, it will give you a sign you cannot misinterpret.

7. 7. Once you have discovered your spirit animal, continue to beat your drum, ring your bell, or shake your rattle, all the while concentrating on this animal. Let the animal’s energy fill you and feel its strength. You may even want to get up and dance with it.

This is an example of a search for a spirit animal, shared by a participant in one of my shamanic journeying courses:

I shook my rattle, looking into the candle flame, and after a minute or two had the feeling that I was running in a place surrounded by tall trees. It was as if all the shadows in the room had grown and become tall trees. I ran through these trees to the rhythm of the rattle. I saw a huge deer appear from the wood and I followed him. He took me to a clearing, where I saw several animals moving in the shadows thrown by the trees, but I couldn’t see what they were. The deer disappeared and I was unable to see any other animal. Suddenly I remembered that if I couldn’t see anything on the ground I should look upward, and there I saw a magnificent owl that had come to meet me. I asked if he was my animal guide, and in that precise moment I felt complete empathy with him. I had the feeling that I was flying, a feeling that continued until the end of the workshop.

Dancing Your Spirit Animal

In order to discover your spirit animal while dancing:

1. 1. Start shaking your rattle or beating your drum rapidly.

2. 2. Turn to the four directions in turn and invoke the animals that correspond to them. Start with the east and invoke the animals of the element of air—the birds and the winged allies of your choice—the eagle, the owl, the crow, the dove, the cormorant.

3. 3. Then, turn to the south and invoke the animals vibrating with the element of fire such as the snake, the lizard, the dragon, and the phoenix.

4. 4. Turn to the direction of the west and invoke the water animals such as the dolphin, the whale, the turtle, and the salmon.

5. 5. Finally, turn to face the north and invoke the animals from the earth element—the bear, the deer, the mole, the horse.

6. 6. Once you have gone through the list of animals of the four directions, get down on the ground, all the time shaking your rattle or beating your drum, and call the earth and nature spirits.

7. 7. After that, stand on the tips of your toes, look up toward the sky, and call the spirits of the heavens.

8. 8. Carry on beating out the rhythm and start to dance. Let your body be filled with the energy that comes in. Let yourself go and dance, even if the movements seem to be strange. Dare to move and get into the spirit of the game. Invite the spirits of the animals to join you, and ask your spirit animal to direct the movements of your body. After a while you will feel the presence of a particular animal and you will have the feeling that your body is integrating its qualities, its attitude, and its body language.

Shamanic Journeying

One of the most common methods in shamanism to connect to nature and to build up your inner power is the shamanic journey. This is a vital tool for shamans to travel into different realities, often called non-ordinary reality, beyond the veil that separates us from the mundane. According to shamanic tradition, there are three realms: the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world. When we are in the middle world we are in our everyday reality. The other two realms represent non-ordinary reality, or non-physical realms often known as the spirit world, the other world, the next world, the world beneath the water, etc. These realms are not limited just to an individual’s consciousness but, as Jung described them, pertain to the collective unconscious, which on the deepest level of the psyche contains the accumulation of all inherited experiences. For shamans throughout the world, these invisible and subtle realities, sometimes known as the “dreamworld,” are equally as important as our everyday consciousness. For example, in Bali, the Balinese shamans (“Balians”) call reality either sekala or niskala, the visible or the invisible. Shamanic journeying accompanied by the sound of the drum, the rattle, or the bell enables them to travel into the invisible realms in order to harness a certain type of energy or power that they bring back to the visible world—in other words, ordinary reality—to use in their everyday life.

Shamans never travel alone; they are always accompanied by their spirit animal. The technique for such a journey is very simple, using a regular beat to help to change levels of consciousness; in his book The Way of the Shaman, Michael Harner recommends 205 to 220 beats a minute. What is important is not to deviate from the initial rhythm or the intensity of the beat.

Before you start your journey to meet your spirit animal, it is important to create an atmosphere in which you feel safe. In order to do that, settle yourself near your altar if you have one, or simply light a candle and ask the light to protect you. Before journeying, it is always advisable to purify yourself with a sage smudge stick, which you light and then pass its smoke all around your energy field. You could also use a vaporizer in which you put several drops of essential oils (lavender, rosemary, sage, and juniper, for example). You may wish to create a sacred circle by invoking the directions in the same way as for the vision quest.

The traditional position for journeying is to lie flat, usually on the floor, with your right arm covering your eyes to cut out the light, although you can also travel sitting upright. The easiest way to do this exercise is to have another person drum for you. You can also listen to a CD on which the drum rhythm and the “callback” have been recorded. The callback is extremely important as it enables the person journeying to come back to the visible world of day-to-day reality. After fifteen to twenty minutes accompanied by the regular beat, the callback consists of a pause, followed by three or four drumrolls of seven rapid beats. The rhythm then accelerates for around one minute, which allows the person who is journeying time to come back into ordinary reality and regain ordinary consciousness.

Before you undertake a shamanic journey, it’s a good practice to announce your intention out loud, three times: “I am journeying to the lower world to meet my spirit animal.” At the exact moment the drumbeat starts, visualize a real place in nature that you already know and where you feel comfortable. It could be a garden, a field, or a beach. Take your thoughts to this place. Look around and find a hole in the ground; this could be a rabbit hole, a crevice, or a hollow at the foot of a tree.

Imagine that there’s a tunnel leading from this hole, and jump into it. This tunnel is the passage between the visible world, ordinary reality, and the lower world, non-ordinary reality. Like Alice in Wonderland, when she fell into the rabbit hole, walk down the tunnel and it will lead you to a landscape in the lower world. Once you come out into the lower world, look around and call your spirit animal. If you don’t see anything at first, don’t forget to look up because your spirit animal could be a bird. When you meet an animal, ask it: “Are you my spirit animal?” If the animal ignores you, it’s probably not the one, so continue on your path. If an animal appears and runs off, follow it because it can perhaps take you to the spirit animal you seek. Don’t go near any animal that appears aggressive or that frightens you. Once you’ve found your spirit animal, stay with it until the callback. At that moment, return to the entrance to your tunnel and travel back up it to the surface, to the place where your journey began and then, back into your body.

The callback is very important. Even if you haven’t met your totem animal yet—or if you have found it and it was about to give you the winning numbers for the lottery—you must come back at once! You can always try another time. If you didn’t discover your spirit animal, use the creative visualization described later in the text.

Here are some examples of journeys by participants on one of my shamanic journeying courses:

I went to a small beach in Morocco that I had visited before and found magical. I walked along the windswept dunes. There, under a rock, I found the entrance to my passage. It was a wide passage, well-lit and inviting, and it sloped downward. I followed it, feeling very much at ease. At the end of the passage, I came out into the red rocks of Sedona, and there I found a sweet, smallish brown bear. He put his paw around me and although he didn’t speak, I understood that he was my spirit animal. At that moment I realized that I had always known my totem animal to be a bear. As a small child I loved teddy bears rather than dolls, and my dearest wish would have been for them to come alive and play with me. In fact, one of my teddy bears was a little brown bear who looked identical to the one in my journey. I also realized that I often wear a pair of silver earrings with a bear’s paw carved into them.

The bear put his paws around me and explained that he was always there to protect me. It gave me a great feeling of happiness and peace, and when the moment of the callback came, I asked my bear to walk with me to the entrance to my tunnel, I said goodbye to him and returned to the surface to find myself once more among the dunes.

Another participant shares her journey:

I started my journey in the Bois de la Bâtie, a nature reserve near the center of Geneva [Switzerland]. There I found a cliff made out of stone and big rocks. I saw a crevice between two of the rocks and I slipped into it to find myself falling into a tunnel. I went down rapidly, following its twists and turns. When I came out at the other end, I found myself in a sort of brownish landscape where there was no greenery at all. I met a white rabbit who hopped up to me and I told myself that he couldn’t be my animal guide, although I asked him just in case. He replied that he wasn’t and just at that moment a huge black form appeared, baring its teeth. The rabbit shouted: “Run and follow me.” I rushed after him as fast as my legs could carry me and jumped into a hole with him that turned out to be another tunnel. Fortunately, the black thing didn’t follow us.

After going through a labyrinth of tunnels, we came out into a beautiful green meadow full of flowers. A powerful sun was shining overhead in a bright blue sky. We waited a moment and I asked the rabbit: “Where’s my spirit animal?” He replied: “Be patient!” Shortly afterward, an elephant came up and I asked him if he was my animal guide. I didn’t receive a reply but the elephant told me to sit on his back, and said that he would take me to my spirit animal. I saw very few animals along the way and I felt secure and at ease on the elephant’s back. Suddenly I caught sight of a tiger hiding in the tall grasses. I didn’t know if he was going to attack the elephant, and then I realized that my most ardent wish was for the elephant not to be wounded. Finally I asked the elephant again: “Are you sure you’re not my spirit animal?” He replied that in fact he was the one, but hadn’t told me right away as he wanted me to get used to him and not be disappointed. I let myself slide down his trunk and hugged him. As he held me against his body I felt a huge wave of love. I heard the drum call me back and I jumped on his back; we crossed the meadow at a run and I shot up through the tunnel like an arrow, finding myself once more in the Bois de la Bâtie.

Creative Visualization

This is a visualization that will enable you to discover your spirit animal. You can read the visualization then put down the book and do the exercise, or you can record it and play it back, or even ask someone else to read it to you.

Sit comfortably and relax. Breathe in deeply and breathe out slowly, letting all feelings of tension leave your body. Continue to breathe deeply and let go of any blocks that you may feel anywhere in your body. Keep breathing in and out until you feel that your energy is circulating freely and your breathing becomes soft and regular.

Visualize and imagine a place in nature that exists: somewhere you know and love. It has to be a real place; it could be a park, a garden, a beach, or a mountain. Imagine that you are flying through the air to this place. When you arrive, feel the ground beneath your feet and breathe in deeply. Let the warmth of the sun stroke your face. Look around to see if there is a hole in the ground. This could be a hole under a tree root or behind a rock; it could be a rabbit hole, a crevice, or a cavity in a tree trunk. Imagine that there is a tunnel leading down from this hole. Jump into the hole or cavity and see the tunnel open out. Follow it; feel the earth beneath your feet and the freshness of the air around you. You can run down the tunnel, slide down it, or simply walk. There is plenty of air and you breathe easily. The tunnel leads you through a labyrinth, until it opens out into a landscape in the lower world.

Look around you. What is the scenery like? Is it day or night? What sounds do you hear? Let your senses guide you. You hear the sound of running water coming to you from far away, and you head toward this sound; you know your spirit animal is waiting for you there. When you reach the source of the sound, whether it’s coming from a river, a lake, a waterfall, or the sea, you will meet your spirit animal. It won’t necessarily be the animal you expect to appear. As you reach the water source, you see your totem animal waiting for you there. If you don’t see it right away, look around. Look up in the sky, because it could be a bird; in the water; behind the trees; or even under a bush. Walk around and circle the water source; call it to your side. So as to be sure that the animal that appears is really your spirit animal guide, ask it: “Are you my spirit animal?” If it is your spirit animal, it will give you an affirmative sign. Make the most of this meeting to relax, to play, or even to ask your spirit animal heartfelt questions about subjects that have always troubled you.

It is now time to come back to the conscious realm of ordinary reality. Ask your totem animal to take you back to the entrance to the tunnel where your journey started. Say goodbye to it and thank it for being there, and for the help it has given you throughout your life. Then walk back up the tunnel until you come up out of the hole into the landscape where you started your journey. Travel through the air back into your physical body. When you feel ready, you can start to move your hands and your toes, and in your own time, open your eyes.

What Can You Do if You Haven’t Yet Met Your Spirit Animal?

If you have been on a vision quest or shamanic journey, if you have tried to dance your animal to life, or to discover it through creative visualization, and no spirit animal has appeared: Try again later. Perhaps your spirit animal is testing you to see how determined you are to meet it. Shamans tell us that we all have a spirit animal and guardian spirits; they believe that if that were not the case we would never have survived beyond infancy. To discover your totem animal, stay open so that the animal who has been by your side for many years can appear in front of you and communicate with you. Stay aware and listen to your intuition.

I remember when one of my friends decided to discover his spirit animal through the creative visualization in this book. For several seconds during his visualization, he felt as if he were on the back of a lion, but didn’t feel any particular affinity with it. Each year I organize a little party at Christmas, where everyone brings a small gift to put in the lucky dip and then takes a different one out. That particular evening, my friend mentioned his frustration at not having met his spirit animal and asked me if it could be the lion. I replied that he must ask for a clear sign from his totem animal. Just before leaving, he put his hand in the lucky dip and drew out a small packet. Imagine his surprise and joy when, on opening it, he was holding a miniature lion.

It is important to trust your intuition and stay open to the signs and omens that will present themselves in your life. If you have done one of the exercises in this book to discover your spirit animal and you feel frustrated because you haven’t yet met your totem animal, don’t worry, because just the fact that you did the exercise means that you have invoked and invited your spirit animal to make contact with you. It’s important to watch out for the signs and messages that will present themselves within the next couple of days. Sometimes an animal will draw attention to itself in an unusual way. One of my readers decided to use the dream method in order to discover her spirit animal. She invoked her spirit animal and drank the glass of water before going to sleep. That night she dreamed of giraffes. When she awoke, she thought, “How can a giraffe be my spirit animal? I don’t have any affinity with it. Anyway, it’s only a dream.” The following night she got into bed and thought, “I am lying on something.” She pulled out her two-year-old son’s milk bottle, which had somehow got caught in the sheets, and then realized that it had pictures of giraffes on it. She thought, “It’s just a coincidence.” The following morning she switched on the TV to watch the news but “accidentally” hit the wrong button. The TV had turned itself to the Discovery Channel and was showing an African documentary. There before her stood twenty giraffes!

1. The didgeridoo is a wind instrument used by the Aboriginal people in Australia; it consists of a tree branch hollowed out by termites.

2. A gamelan is a kind of Balinese musical ensemble or orchestra, made up predominantly of xylophones (gangsas). The term refers more to the set of instruments used in the ensemble than to the players themselves. Some of the instruments used are made from bamboo, and others are bronze. A wooden hammer is used to beat the rhythms.