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Meeting your Power Animal: Guidance and Connection in Shamanic Journeying

  • Writer: Andrea Lawrie
    Andrea Lawrie
  • 12 minutes ago
  • 4 min read

One of the first experiences we have in shamanic practice, is meeting our power animal – a compassionate spirit guide, often first encountered in the Lower World.


On this Full Moon, I’m continuing my blog series where I’ve been exploring shamanic practice step by step. So far I’ve covered: What Is Shamanism?, The Shamanic Journey, the role of the Shamanic Drum, Preparing to Journey, The Axis Mundi and this month I want to explore power animal encounters, or retrieval, as it's sometimes known as.


Some traditions describe this spirit helper as having been with us since birth. Others say it’s a guide who steps forward for us when we begin to listen more deeply. However it’s understood, the experience often feels like recognising something we’ve met or known before.



It’s common, however, especially when we begin, to question whether we’re making up what we see in the journey. But over time, as the same animal presence returns in our journeys, that doubt begins to soften and a sense of trust begins to grow and a deeper sense that we’re not separate from the living world and that we’re in relationship with it.


Meeting Your Power Animal

When we journey to meet a power animal, we journey to the Lower World and set a simple intention:


“I journey to the Lower World to meet my power animal.”


You can write this in your journal. A short journey of no more than 30 minutes is enough.


Begin at your Axis Mundi with a drumbeat sound, with the intention of moving downwards. If you feel a sense of being static or stuck, there are simple ways to help the transition to the Lower World, such as imagining a doorway, a spiral staircase, or using a key if something feels locked, or bringing light in if it feels too dark.


Eventually, something shifts and you will arrive in a different landscape.



What we experience will be our own. It’s important not to shape it or compare it to others. For some, the experience may be visual and vivid. For others, it is felt or sensed. We may see many animals at first such as flocks of birds, swathes of insects, life, activity. Or nothing at all.


Let it all be.



As the journey continues, things will begin to settle and become clearer. If nothing happens the first time, you can simply try the journey again.


My First Journey

When I first journeyed, I used some of these approaches to move through the threshold for the first time. At first, I remember seeing a hillside covered in rabbits, then a flurry of movement. They cleared and one brown rabbit remained. Was this my power animal?


It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. And it’s no coincidence stories like this appear across cultures because they resonate with something we recognise on a deep level.


And so I followed the rabbit. It led me through the trunk of a tree to a spiral staircase and lit the way as I descended. Eventually, I arrived at a forest clearing.


And for what seemed like a long time, nothing happened. I just wondered through the beautiful forest.


Then, towards the end of the journey, I pulled back the branches of a tree and saw a beautiful white horse grazing quietly on lush green grass. Then the drumbeat changed tempo. It was time to come back.



This was my first power animal.


What stayed with me most was not only what I saw, but how it felt. These experiences are often felt in the body as emotion or deep relaxation.


Often, the animal we meet is unexpected as they’re not always the ones we feel drawn to or have an especially strong affinity with in everyday life.


What a Power Animal Offers

So why meet a power animal? Across many traditions, they’re understood to be spirit guides that help us to navigate these vast, endless landscapes of the other worlds safely, offering us protection, guidance and perspective as the journey unfolds.


Power animals are highly evolved beings who know these landscapes in a way we don’t. They will not take us somewhere we’re not ready to go, or somewhere that isn’t needed. If we ever feel unsure during a journey, we can simply ask:“What do I need to do next?”“Can you guide me?”


Over time, in my experience, people experience their power animal to be wise, steady and deeply compassionate. And like any relationship, it deepens over time.


When we connect with them, we may feel a renewed energy, groundedness, or a deeper connection to our instinct and intuition.


There can be a temptation to look up meanings or assign symbolism to them. But a more helpful question might be: What is my experience of this being?


Meaning will emerge through relationship.


For example, if we meet an eagle, we might notice how it moves – rising high, seeing clearly, holding a wide perspective. Sometimes these qualities feel familiar to us as they can reflect qualities in our own personality. Sometimes we’re being shown what will help us at a particular time in our lives and we’re being invited to nurture or cultivate these qualities within ourself.


In this way, a power animal can reflect something of who we are and at the same time gently guide us towards who we are becoming.



What Comes Next

Next month, I’ll explore the shamanic worlds in more depth, including how to formulate journey questions, interpret the guidance we receive and how to integrate the experiences into our everyday lives - because the journey itself is only part of the work. What matters is how it begins to shape how we live.


And shape it, it will.


Closing

May this season bring a sense of connection, trust and gentle unfolding as you begin, or continue, your own shamanic pathways.


If you feel called to explore further, you are warmly invited to explore:


Upcoming Ways to Work Together


With warmth and heartfelt gratitude,


Andrea - Raventail signature



Certified Shamanic Practitioner • Teacher • Based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland




 
 
 

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