Finding Your Spirit Animal

A spirit animal is a term used in certain Indigenous, cultural or spiritual traditions to refer to a spiritual being that helps guide or protect a person on a journey and whose characteristics that person shares or embodies. It can also be used as a metaphor for someone or something a person relates to, admires or represents our personality, behavior and physical appearance.  A spirit animal can communicate between humans and the spiritual world as a spiritual being or energy and can take the form of an animal, bird, reptile or insect.  Ways to identify your spirit animal:

• Look in nature and observe around you animals and their behavior

• When an animal appears in your life either physically or in dreams, or when it has an unusual behavior; it may be a spirit animal trying to grab your attention

• Watch for repetitive encounters with the animal either in its physical or symbolic form (as object or image)

• Read books on animals and reflect on an animal that is standing out

• Meditate either with the general intention of finding a spirit animal or on a specific animal you’ve found earlier

• Be attentive to dreams featuring animals

• Process of journeying (for instance visualization accompanied with sound, shamanic drumming)

• Refer to internet sites that list different animals and their traits to help determine your guide