Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

My Cougar Spirit Guide
Other Ghostly Animals

by Eileen Smith

The following story concerns an animal spirit guide, which is also called a totem or power animal. It happened when I was under apprenticeship to a shaman who taught both Peruvian and Native American shamanism. It was a traditional apprenticeship that lasted years and required much emotional and spiritual work on the part of the apprentice.

I was going through what is called a Medicine Wheel, which takes several years to complete. During one portion, or “direction” of it, I was in a forest with the shaman. One night after going to bed, I had a very vivid dream of a cougar up high on a large overhanging tree branch staring down at me. She slinked down and jumped to the ground, her eyes on me all the time. She came up to me and bit my hand. I grabbed my hand in pain and saw three puncture marks oozing blood.

When I awoke, I immediately looked to my hand, because it was still in pain. I expected to see puncture wounds because the dream was so vivid. But there was not a mark on it. During breakfast I told my shaman teacher what had happened and, in excitement, the shaman told me that I had been “marked,” that it was an initiation by my power animal.

For days that hand hurt. It was as if the puncture wounds in my dreams were throbbing but just could not be seen. Not long after, I became a healer. Many of those who can see spirits see a large wild cat walking by my side or close by. In my own visions, meditations, and abilities, I have formed a close bond with this powerful cougar spirit.

In a related story, I purchased a statue in honor of my cougar spirit, and people who saw it swore that its glass eyes moved and watched them. I had seen it, but thought it may be my imagination, until others saw it, too. A psychic once came over and saw the statue and said a large cat lived within it.

One night, years later, the glass eyes looked so real I took my camera to take a picture of them. A voice in my head said, “Don’t take a picture,” yet I did anyway. The next morning, the statue fell and smashed. I had had it for years and was very upset. I glued it together, but the spirit never dwelled in it again.

I believe my cougar spirit may have entered into the statue when I purchased it. My cougar is still with me, but does not use the statue anymore, although I wish it would. It was rather special to have it show itself like that to others and me.