What is an animal spirit totem?
It is an animal spirit who can give insight into our innermost selves. It can give clarity to the divine powers that are working within us to heal us and allow us to heal others. It really is an animal whose energy that you feel closely associated with and it can change as you grow and change. A totem simply is a symbol of power that one can visualize walking down our spiritual journey with. Totems, in general, do not have to be a living thing, some totems are rocks, crystals, or a shell. Anything that can be tapped into for energy can be a totem.
An animal totem can give you strength or patience.
What the animal totem brings to you are their energy and their attributes. Some refer to animal totems as their Spirit Guides. The difference can be that a Spirit Guide can shapeshift and come into our lives as anything that can show or rely on a message.
Animal totems are animals that can teach us through their attributes and show us the way if we pay attention to them. Most people can say which animal they have been particularly attracted to or have pictures hanging up of them. Dogs and cats can be animal totems; however, it has been my experience that the animal totems that appear in my life are those animals that show up on a regular basis that are out of the normal. For example, having a Kestrel decide to make a nest over my outdoor dining room. Until this bird arrived, I did not even know what a Kestrel was. To me, that was a sign of a particular animal showing up on a regular basis that is out of the normal. Most of us overlook and miss animals that are trying to speak to us.
Divine Powers
If you take the time and make the effort to connect with the Divine Powers about you, you may begin to see a vast number of animals in your everyday life that you never noticed before. Animal totems pick who they need to guide, help, and heal. There may be an animal that appears that you have a fear of or are not particularly fond of that comes into your path. Instead of trying to ignore it, watch it. How does it react? Is it patient or energetic? Does it sing or pierce with its sounds? How does it hunt? There are a variety of sources that can tell you what their interpretation of any given animal is that can get you started in learning to watch the signs,
The real gifts of an animal totem will come when you realize that everything is connected and you make the effort to communicate with the animal through meditation or out loud and hear what it has to say back to you.
