Finding Your Animal Guides

I'm certainly no expert but a young friend yesterday said she wished to know her animal guides & I promised to tell her the meditation I was given to use. This helped me identify mine. First, I highly recommend the works of Ted Andrews & Steven Farmer. I have "Animal Speaks" by Ted Andrews & "Animal Spirit Guides" by Steven Farmer. Ted Andrews has a lot of great information about animals in our lives, as messengers & guides, including how to awaken to yours. He asks us to think about which animal or bird has always fascinated us, which zoo animal we visit often or first, which ones we see most often in nature or have had encounters with in the wild, the ones we're most interested in, are most frightened by, have been bitten or attacked by, & dream of. These are all significant questions in determining your animal spirit guides & he gives an explanation of each question. He also includes a meditation on finding yours. See the last paragraph of this blog for how I used this information with a meditation to find mine. 

In one of the classes given locally by Dr. Marjorie Rivera, I was given a handout on animal guides. Of course, this happened right at the time that I was most seeking. According to the handout, we have 9 animal guides - east, west, south,  north, above, right & left, below, & within. "Within exists within you & around you since you have an entire universe inside your consciousness. Each one of these 7 directions has a corresponding animal that you have been blessed with to aid you in your Earth Walk by teaching you the lessons each one of the directions brings. Your animal to the East guides you to your greatest spiritual challenger & guards you while you are on that path of illumination. Your animal in the West leads you to your personal truth. He helps you find the answers you already have buried deep within. Your animal to the South brings you trust, balance, & innocence. He protects your inner child. You animals in the North is very wise. He helps you to discern when to listen & when to speak. He also reminds you of all the blessings that have been bestowed upon you. You animal from Above connects you to the Universe, & reminds you that you came from the stars & so shall return someday. This animal also brings you the dreams you experience, helping you connect to other dimensions. You animal from Below brings lessons about Mother Earth & how to stay grounded & balanced while here in the Earth Walk. You animal from Within brings you your heart's desire & give you the strength to be true to your dreams & Walk your Talk. You animal on your Right Side protects you like a father. he is your protector as well as the one who gives you your courage & spirit to fight when necessary. Your animals on your Left Side protects you like a mother. he teaches nurturing yourself as well as others. He teaches how to experience & have loving relationships." I'm not sure where she drew this material. There's someone named Danielle who does Medicine Card readings, & you can contact gina@lonewolfvisions.com for "your own unique Shaman's Portrait."

I am strongly connected to animals & always have been. Often when I say "always" my memories go back to my 20s but in this case I can't remember a time I wasn't drawn to animals. Even as a baby I was attracted to them. I have been more deeply attracted & affected by animals than by most people I've known, & love animals more deeply. One thing I can point to is crying at the end of every "Lassie" episode. I cried because it was over & there would be no more for a week. I cried because Lassie had been in trouble during the show & it broke my heart, but I also cried because she made it through & was ok. In the 90s I bought the Ted Andrews book because I was fascinated by the idea of animals speaking to us, messages from the animals & animal guides. I also bought books on animal miracles & animals as angels & healers in our lives. I was becoming spiritual at that time, truly beginning to believe in things beyond our 3rd dimensional plane so I also bought books by Edgar Cayce, books on soul mates, reincarnation, etc. However, I wasn't really ready then so I didn't read that much of them & didn't understand what I read. Fortunately, I kept them through several moves & still have them.

In my circle of friends, mostly Reiki practitioners, we talk a lot about signs given by animals, unusual sightings. That validated my experiences & early on I began looking up the animals that appeared in my life. At that time, all I had was the Ted Andrews book & it is really more about identifying you animal spirit guides than brief animal messengers. And I was more involved in the messengers, trying to identify the messages being given. So I was fortunate to get the Steven Farmer book, as he covers the messengers better. Generally, when an animal appears "out of the blue," & especially in an unexpected place or time or way, or in dreams, that's a messenger rather than your animal guide. There's something it's a sign of for the then & now. In my life, it's seldom monumental & these things happen to me regularly, perhaps because it's so easy to give me a message this way & I'm so connected to animals. Sometimes though, it's a powerful message, & can even involve one of your regular animal guides. This is new to me but has just happened & I'm still trying to determine the message. My 2nd strongest animal guide & affinity is with the groundhog. This connection is so strong that I'm very active with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. I moved to PA to be around them, Punxsutawney, & Punxsutawney Phil in fact. Since it's spring, groundhog sightings are common but I've had some jarringly uncommon things come up in the past 3 days - things out of place & time or of significance. These are great examples of animals as messengers so I'll list them. First, I "happened" to turn on the TV to watch while I ate dinner, something I haven't done in about a month. The show I ended up watching is one I've never watched before, a rerun from 2011 - CSI:NY. There was an outdoor scene & 3 times I saw one of the groundhog head trash cans created for the movie "Groundhog Day"! I still can't imagine how & why they got hold of one of those & put it in the show. It had nothing to do with the action. When I checked email that day, I found a reminder that the birthday of one of my favorite Groundhog Club Inner Circle members is this week, by the way. Then a day or 2 later (all within 3 days) I "happened" to be at the home of someone I'd just met & she showed us a scrapbook of her beloved grandmother. I went with Sandy for the long ride to pick up some plants for the community garden. When Sandy asks me to go places with her, I say yes because I enjoy her company & because I know something always comes of it. Instead of thinking about what I should be doing at home, I've learned to just accept it & go. She knows the woman & I didn't. We thought we were going to pick up plants & perhaps spend a few minutes, but the woman had a whole visit planned & we had a wonderful afternoon. When we were looking at the scrapbook, we came on a page with a picture of a groundhog & a story. The grandmother had once hand raised an orphaned groundhog baby & they became so close that they'd cuddle & sleep together! That's a huge dream of mine, one of the biggest desires of my heart! I understand that it's illegal now & that raising & taming wildlife like that isn't the thing to do, but I want it with all my heart. (They have permits to raise Phil, are fully within all laws & regulations & treat him like a king, by the way. I'd be the first to protest if Phil's life was wrong or bad in any way. And I know all the details of his care & housing because I'm friends with his handlers & have made it my business to know.) So that was sign #2 - it's very uncommon to raise a groundhog much less have a scrapbook page about it. Later that night a friend called to tell me that the movie "Groundhog Day" was on TV. I know this man through the Groundhog Club activities - that was our original connection. Now he's a client & friend & calls me often so that's not unusual, but this is an unusual time of year for the movie & it was a surprise that he called me to tell me it was on TV, & that he "happened" to be at a friend's house & saw it was on, called me from there. So these are the kinds of things I mean about unusual times or places for animals to appear, or in unusual ways. Just seeing groundhogs right now wouldn't have been anything but a source of happiness for me. Instead, these unusual occurrences point to a message here. Now I just have to figure out what, because the books really aren't helping at this point. By the way, groundhog is my animal from Below.

There were no real surprises for me when I did the following meditation to meet my animal guides & find out their directional relationship to me. I tried logically many times to determine who my animals are based on my affinity & had already been told my main one (Within). First, I set the intent to know before I knew we have 9. I prayed & asked the angels, & one day was just given the information during my time of affirmations & angel work, when I was in light meditation, heart open. After hearing about the 9, I set my intent & used Reiki on myself to get into a meditative state. I set the intent to journey & meet as many as possible. I put on music I use for meditating & Reiki, but different from what I now normally use for Reiki sessions. I believe I used "Slow World" by "Liquid Mind," which I love. I visualized walking along a path & over a foot bridge, to a waterfall. I went behind the waterfall into a cave. I walked through the cave & out the back, across a path to a gate. I passed through the gate into a beautiful meadow of wildflowers. If you have a place of regular retreat or a "happy place," go there. I don't usually do these types of meditations so I needed to take a distinct & long way to get there. You can go to any place in any way you want but a cave & meadow, distinct path you visualize, seems to be key. Perhaps a gate is too, or a foot bridge or waterfall - something that separates your place from all others, that once crossed signifies "now I'm here & this will happen." Once in the meadow, I sat quietly & waited for the animals to appear & talk with me. I didn't meet the one from Within because I already knew her. Instead I met 6 of the 8 I didn't know for sure, & was given their direction or place. I'll have to do it again to meet the other 2. I met them one by one, spoke to them, thanked them for appearing & expressed my love. They had no specific messages for me at the time - of course I asked. They were simply revealing themselves & briefly visiting with me as I'd requested. Once I was sure no one else was coming, I journeyed back the way I came & ended the meditation. Once you know your animals you can connect to them at any time just by speaking with them, & certainly if & when they show up in your lives. Or you can journey to visit them in this same manner.