The power of animal spirits

According to Native American beliefs, human beings have 9 animal spirits, also called animal guides, to follow you throughout your life. Some of these come in and out of our lives, while others will stay beside you for your entire lifetime. Finding them is not always easy - and while some people struggle discovering their animal totem others instantly feel the connection. Animal spirits can help us to gain insight, self-awareness and stay connected to the past while being at one with nature, but opening up to their wisdom is far from easy. Explore the world of animal spirits and indigenous beliefs – and who knows? Maybe you will end up finding your own animal guardian one day.

Image courtesy of Frontier Canada, Husky Ranch Experience

But let's not jump right into fairy-land, first you need to learn about indigenous culture. In fact, Native American communities are also referred to as People of the Land – guardians of Mother Earth. Within their unique culture all things are considered to be equals and should be honoured with a sense of mutual respect. We are all children of Mother Earth, brothers and sisters despite our different purposes in life.

Image courtesy of Tambako the Jaguar

Elisabeth A. Lawrence, a researcher from the University of Tufts, carried out a study about human's perceptions of animals and spent time with The Crows, a Native American tribe, where she learned about their special relationships with animals. Indigenous communities have a tendency to view nature and mankind as a whole without distinguishing between animals and humans, materialism and spiritualism. Animals have spirits, they carry with them important knowledge and are not for anyone to own – which contradicts modern belief in ownership, not only of animals but also of land and resources.

Image courtesy of Frontier Canada, Indigenous Reserve Project

Humans are said to have once been able to speak to animal but when they started dominating their surroundings, they lost their abilities. Native Americans believe that there exists hundreds of animal spirit guides out there, but talking to them takes practise.

Some animals stay with you for your entire life while other types of animal spirits are only with you for a shorter amount of time, either as messengers, signs of warning or as spirits helping you to embark on a new journey of your life. However, since most people today spend their lives detaching themselves from nature and wildlife, animal spirits are far from easy to discover. For indigenous people it's different. Those who hold on to their traditional culture generally value all living-beings and honour them as being a part of nature.

Native American culture is also strongly connected to totem poles that often portray animals due to their strong connection to their spirits.

Sadly, these totem poles were considered wrong by the white settlers that colonised America, which is why they now hold a lot of socio-cultural history and symbolism. They are the symbol of a culture people have sought to destroy for centuries in their attempt to ‘civilise' native tribes and many cultural forms of expressions were banned by settlers in the area.

But how could they have been so wrong? In a time of global warming, we have a lot to learn from indigenous beliefs and their respect for nature. So get out of your city crib and start spending some time in the forest, it might help you connecting to the animal kingdom.

Image courtesy of Jeremy Keith

But hang on for a second. How do you actually find your animal spirits? Well, it's certainly not easy for newcomers. Native Americans' believe that animal spirits can manifest as a vision in your dreams, they can approach you when you least expect it. Animal totems cannot be chosen by man – animal spirits choses you. So if you are one of the lucky few, make sure you study everything you can about the animal that has come into your life. Learn about its life circle, patterns and behaviour in order for you to build up relationship built on respect and mutual understanding. All beings can learn from each other. We just have to listen.

Caroline Edwards is an online media intern at Frontier, an international non-profit volunteering NGO. Frontier has over 300 dedicated conservation and community development projects as well as plenty of inspiring gap year ideas to help make your time out meaningful. For more information on all the opportunities available please visit www.frontier.ac.uk. Check out Frontier's blog ‘Into the Wild' where you can read more articles like this! Get more from us on social media with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. See more from volunteers on YouTube, Flickr and Instagram #FrontierVolunteer.