Animal Spirit Guides

I have always been an animal lover and am overwhelmed by the connection we can build with them on a personal and also spiritual level. Animal spirit guides or 'totem animals' as some prefer relate to a particular animal that comes into your life to offer you guidance at that particular time.

 Some animal guides are at our sides for life and others come and go as you need them. Have you ever seen an animal in a strange place or one that particularly stood out to you for no reason? These are messenger guides that come into your life in order to give you a message or guidance, and once you have understood and interpreted this- they leave until you need them again. A few months back I saw 3 foxes on the way to work- I hadn't previously seen a fox in months perhaps even years. This was my fox guides way of getting my attention at that particular time in my life.




The next type of animal guides are 'Life animal guides'. From the earliest age I can remember I had a fascination with Grizzly bears, I watched films, documentaries, had bear t-shirts, mugs, I was so intrigued by their immense power and beauty. I had a deep spiritual respect for them. The grizzly bear is my Life animal spirit guide, and in times of need I will often seek guidance through meditation.
Did you ever have a favourite animal as a child? Children are so much more receptive to animal spirit guides, try to remember back to your childhood, perhaps this could be one of your animal spirit guides?




Other spirit guides may grab your attention by causing fear. Fear is one of the strongest emotions, and if animal causes you sudden unexpected fear then pay attention to it. It is creating this fear as a warning to you. It may bot necessarily be a real life encounter with this animal- often these spirit guides will come to you in a dream. I went through a phase of having a recurring dream about cows- not very scary I hear you thinking- but In the dream I was terrified. To be fearful of something you would not normally be afraid of is of even more significance. 

 So our guides have grabbed our attention- what next?

This is what I used to struggle with- I would notice a guide but then be a little confused where to go from there... if only animals could talk! 

Books

 
I purchased a lovely little book by Ted Andrews, called Animal-Speak Pocket Guide.

It is a fabulous pocket size book that gives a summary of what each spirit animal may represent or be trying to tell you. This is a great way of beggining to interpret your little friends messages.

 Meditation

 Next you could try meditation to search a little deeper into the message- there are numerous guided 'spirit guide meditations' available for free on youtube and I have found these to be very helpful.

 Oracle Cards

Oracle cards are another way of getting that all important message across, I have the 'Messages From your Animal Spirit Guides' deck as pictured to the right. 
It is a beautiful deck that comes with a little book explaining the meaning of each card. I tend to just pick one card per reading although im sure there are more fancy and complex ways of getting more details messages with different spreads.








There are many other ways of getting in touch and interpreting your guides messages but these are the ones I use myself and find work wonderfully. Animals are such beautifully intelligent creatures and we as human beings often underestimate their power, if we just take the time to step back and pay attention to them then they really can make a difference to our lives.