Spirit and animal guides

[blacksheep]

Okay so last night I was meditateing and doing an excersice so I can meet my spirit guides. So I visualize a tunnel and soon I see the wolf, the dragon, the fire bird, an air elemental and a water elemental. What does all of that mean?

[lovelyprudence]

I know this thread is very old but I found a good webside about totems and spirit guides.
www.spiritwalkministry.com/spirit_guides

I found some answers to my questions in it but it would be useful to know more.

I know that I have at least two spiritual guides, a female black cat and a male carrion crow. I know, it's seem pretty cliché but I have a strong connection with the black cat, in some of my dreams I'm her...
The link I gave you (as in everyone) explains the different meaning according to the color and it's important.

I have also an tawny owl by my side but it's more like the form of my soul or something like that.

I don't know how many spirit guides we're supposed to have, wicca and paganism are a free religion so I guess having two is not a bad thing...

[Lisa]

Here is a little info that I found about spirit guides and totems. I don't know if it will help or not.

Spirit guides usually send you subtle messages in dreams, or you can hear them as your small inner voice. Even if you have not see you guides in a dream, you can arrange to meet them on a meditative journey.
Once you have met your spirit guides and understand what the look like, they start to send you messages in dreams. Or they will make small things go wrong in the Physical plane to prevent you from doing something that you shouldn't do. Spirit guides that take the form of animals will use their animal instincts to keep you out of danger. When you start listening to your guides, to your inner voice, you will find that life goes a lot smoother.

I think that you should do some research on these animals and their meanings. Like books on spirit guides and totems to have a better understanding. Try to meditate again and converse with these guides and totems that you see. One at a time so that you get to know what they represent to you better.

You should check out that site that lovelyprudence provided. It looks like a great source for what you are looking for. But as I said before. Lots of research on this subjuct would help you out tremdously.

Here are a few sites that you could check out:

www.manataka.org/page291.html

self-awareness.suite101.com/article.cfm/animal_spirit_guides

They look like that they might give you the answers that you need. If I find any more I will post them. Let us know if any of them helped you.

[spiritwalk]

lovelyprudence

May I suggest to you that you look into the topic of “Traditional Witchcraft”. The black cat and the crow are familiars of traditional witches and are likely appearing to draw you towards a traditional approach to “The Craft” rather than a new age one.

A good starting point would be at “House Shadow Drake”, (I have no affiliation with them). , They are the best starting off place for traditional craft information on the internet.
www.shadowdrake.com/index.php

With Halloween/All Saints days approaching it would be a good time to use your spirit animals to help guide you into a transition of thinking on The Craft.

And…while many traditions do say that we all have 9 animal spirit guides most people do not have a good handle on the full meaning of them as they get all muddled with trying to understand a whole menagerie. Cat and crow are powerful guides and will take you a long way.

[spiritwalk]

Lisa

While the terms 'Spirit Animal' and 'Totem Animal' are commonly used interchangeably there is a difference. A 'Spirit Animal' is an animal spirit that comes to impart a wisdom or teach a lesson; while a 'Totem Animal' is an animal spirit that is called upon or invoked for power or protection. Simply and generally speaking, a 'Spirit Animal' is a guide and a 'Totem Animal' is a guardian. As always, you should never let your perceived image of an animal effect how you judge it’s a ability to serve as a 'Totem'. While it may seem incongruous for a warrior to invoke a rabbit as a totem for battle, remember the wisdom shown by “Bre’r Rabbit” in defeating an enemy.

While you are correct that a spirit animal will make its presence known in dreams or through meditative journeys it is often difficult to know when the image is truly that of a spirit animal. The human mind is unable to differentiate reality from the vividly imagined experience and a wish to see a spirit animal may seem to be as real as an actual appearance.

When a spirit animal wishes to make its presence known it will usually do so in person. This may seem difficult to imagine when living in an urban environment, but deer and coyotes are not unknown to appear in the suburbs and hawks even appear in Manhattan.

Although it is not unusual for an exotic animal to appear as a spirit guide those animals native to the land on which you dwell will always have more power within their home area.

While meditation and visual imagery can present your animal guides and it is also an idea to go to some place where animals are more likely to freely reside and move about. In any case, if an animal wishes to offer itself as a spirit guide, it will show up in person and you will know it has come for that purpose. There will be no doubt in your mind.

[lovelyprudence]

Spiritwalk : Thank you for all your informations, that does help me a lot.

I wonder, do we have any "spiritual ennemy" ? Because while I feel a great connection with cats, crows and owls (especially cats), everytime I dream of a dog, they are agressive and they generally kill a cat before trying to kill me as well...

[spiritwalk]

I don’t know if you read the bit about dogs as spirit animals on the site…

*“Difficulties exist when looking to the domestic dog as an Animal Totem. Most have been bred in order to produce some artificially accented appearance or behavior, thus creating a genetically muddled animal. Many of these dogs are mentally and spiritually "confused" about their identity, as they may be trapped somewhere between their original nature and their artificially bred persona…”

When you dream of dogs you are dreaming of people, because they are bred to be like people. They are bred to do the work of people and respond like people.

I would think that these dogs represent the people whom you are encountering who stand in opposition to your spiritual awakening to your cat like affinity. The dogs, like the people are showing you that you share the cat’s karma.

*“The cat's karmic sacrifice and burden is being the victim of “kick the cat". Cat Spirit often brings the warning of being the recipient of misdirected anger”

The cat is a free thinker, independent and unpredictable. That is why it is it engenders so much anger in others. The cat will not be controlled and when people feel that they are no longer able to predict what you will do and control you they become afraid. Nothing is more dangerous than a scared animal and the most dangerous animal when scared is Man. When scared it attacks.

I think that Mark Twain best summed up the difference between cats and dogs…

“By what right has the dog come to be regarded as a "noble" animal? The more brutal and cruel and unjust you are to him the more your fawning and adoring slave he becomes; whereas, if you shamefully misuse a cat once she will always maintain a dignified reserve toward you afterward--you will never get her full confidence again.”

Be the cat. It will be not only be your guide, but it will teach you how to be your own guardian.

[Lisa]

I am sorry if I offended you I was just giving the info that I had access too. Thank you for the information though and I am glad that you could help.

[spiritwalk]

Lisa

You did not offend me and I did not mean to give that impression.

My point is that when meeting with your spirit animal or invoking an animal totem it is a personal “interactive” experience.

When a spirit animal wishes to approach you to teach a lesson you do not need to do anything but be open to it. It will make its presence know to you,

Unfortunately, there are many people who want to make you think that you have to go through them in order to find your spirit animal. Basically, they want to “sell’ you a “reading”. While there are certainly shamanistic people who can help you to hear your spirit animal’s message a large number of people want to give the impression that spirit animals are like tarot cards and will give you winning lottery numbers and answers to mundane questions. Which is not surprising, it is just the old religious scam of “the more I’m paid the more you’re saved.” You don’t need to pay anyone to know your spirit animal anymore than you need to pay anyone to have God forgive your sins.

In regards to invoking an animal totem for power or protection during a certain life crisis then perhaps a “reading”, in a sense, is beneficial. If you are a novice and don’t really understand what powers that individual totem animals possess it would be a good idea to consult with someone who has more knowledge and experience. (That is the way with most things.)

We are not all in a position where we can make a shamanistic journey when we need to find a totem to aid us, so then it is time to ask for help. If someone asks me for such a “reading”, (for lack of a better word), I would try to find out as much about the person and their crisis. I might work up the person’s horoscope and see what planets are transiting through critical points in their charts, relate those planets to animals they represent and try to interpret the best totem energies and compatibility to deal with the persona and their situation.

But, that is where my job ends. You cannot get a “reading” and go out and let it happen. You are the one who has to make it happen.

[Lisa]

No problem hun. I am glad that you could help with the info. There are things that I did not know about. You were very helpful. Thank you for the information.

[spiritwalk]

Sometimes Lisa, knowing that we don’t know something is knowing quite a lot.

I always check the weblog to my website, especially to know what search phrases people are using to get to my site. This way I can keep track of the animal spirits that people are looking for, adding them when I do not have them already and getting more information for those I already do.

Sometimes the questions are relatively straight forward and require no real thought, but other times the question alone tells a story in itself.

The past couple of weeks there has been a significant increase in questions regarding witchcraft, which is not surprising being Halloween time. There was one question that stood out thought.

“Can a model become a witch or be able to do witchcraft?”

That is really sad to read, because it does tell a story. We have someone who is a model, apparently. Someone who has worked herself up to a position of prominence in what society has told her is the pinnacle of the feminine role in society. She has achieved the nirvana of the Barbie doll, beauty queen image of what a woman can be. Now, she is wondering if she can be a witch after being a model. Can she embrace the divine feminine after being the feminine divine?

You can follow the trail of thought yourself. Whatever it is you feel you do not know, at least that is not it. You aren’t doing that bad then, are you?