If you do, how did you discover it? Do you know what your animal represents? Do you even believe in spirit animals and animal guides?
My spirit animal is a cat. I know this because cats are arrogant, selfish and annoying while at the same time being devilishly charming and handsome - this is an obvious representation of my own self. Either a cat or an ass, for obvious reasons... No, I'm afraid I don't believe in spirit animals. I really believe that the universe is as simple and complex as it presents itself... To me, life is wonderful enough without the promise of spirits and supernatural beings.
@HelloThere : Haha, yes, fair enough I don't look at it that way, though. I believe everything in this universe is connected, and physics as well as quantum mechanics sort of hint at this being true. So does taoist philosophy, which makes a lot of sense to me. I think shutting ourselves off from everything we don't understand, or have no scientific proof of, is shutting our eyes to the significant portion of existence. With animal guides/spirit animals, it's the same as with any omen or instance of serendipity. It's an opportunity to contemplate our own situation, and to let a certain energy into our lives. This behaviour is mostly missing from our daily lives, where everything is a rush and fixated on material things. They say often, the spirit animal is the one we are irrationally afraid of. Others say it's animals that come into our life, either as signs, pictures, words or physical beings. I always felt kinship with dogs, but also cats love me. As for the spirit animal, after a lifetime of fear, I accepted it must be a moth. And the next day, the most beautiful, bright Barbie pink moth came to my lawn and hovered there for good half an hour. I've never seen anything so intensely beautiful, I felt really privileged.
Hmmm... don't know, as I'm not quite sure what that constitutes. I have a way with both horses and hounds. It goes beyond liking, they respond to me and I feel a sense of connection with them. The breed of dog I feel most connected to and that compliments my personality best is the greyhound. They are really easy going, a little bit shy, very occasionally flighty, 'though very self assured when it comes to the things they know they are good at. I generally like dogs, but hounds appeal to me in a way that, say, terriers and retrievers don't. Now that would put a different spin on it. I'm not irrationally afraid of any animal but the ones that cause me the most discomfort are birds. I like 'em, don't get me wrong, but I find them rather inscrutable. I once screeched the car to a halt in the middle of rush hour to free a pigeon from the slobbering jaws of a pitbull, despite the fact I'm not their biggest fan. (Yeah, I know, That might have ended badly but I honestly didn't stop to think. Besides, dogs in general love me, even bad tempered toothy ones.)
I can only think of animals I'm rationally afraid of—and I like some of them, too. But hey. Am I going to stick my arm into the tiger's cage and go hey kitty kitty kitty? No. Or go swimming off the Cape of Good Hope? Nope. Or take a barbequed side of beef into my sleeping bag with me when I'm camping out in grizzly bear country. Nah.
We've always had dogs and all dogs love me. Even mean dogs that people say yeah, don't play with her, she's not nice, even those dogs love me. I know how to be a dog when interacting with dogs and play with them the way they want to play. Cesar Millan didn't invent that. But that's not my spirit animal. I relate to my Hellenistic sign, the fish. Life is an ocean and I am swimming through it. It is huge and unending and there is so much to see, and I am swimming through it. I am silvery and slick and I will swim with you so long as you swim cool, but if you give me reason to dart, I will, and when I'm gone, I'm gone.
Haha! Something I can contribute to! lol As a pagan, I of course believe in spirit animals, except you're twisting a few different things together. There are animal totems, then there are spirit animals. Animal totems are often temporary, while spirit animals are who we are inside. Journey totems are the animals the represent us while we're going through a new phase, the animal we need to be more like to help get us through it. Message totems are just that: a message. They appear to help you understand something that you are missing. Shadow totems are the animals that are completely different from you that you need to learn from to be the best you that you can be. Shadow totems are often the animal you are most afraid of. I had a moth as a journey totem once. I saw them over and over, huge ones the size of my hand, pink and yellows ones, white and spotted, green and elegant. We don't get many special moths where I'm from, so when I started seeing all of them within a short amount of time, I knew it was time to take notice. Your spirit animal is more often than not your favorite animal, because it's who you are. Mine is an owl at the moment, but crows and foxes are making their way up there. I actually took a spirit animal quiz, knowing what my spirit animals were, and my result was owl, with fox and crow in second and fourth place. If you want to know what your spirit animal is, do some evaluating. What do you love? What do you value? Your spirit animal will be the animal form of you, so it shouldn't be hard to discover.
These two quizzes are fun. The second is the one I took mentioned above. http://www.spiritanimal.info/spirit-animal-quiz/ http://www.jerismithready.com/quiz/
I'm f*****g freaked out by slugs, what is that supposed to mean? I should be slimy and go around savaging people's flower beds? I mean I do that already so there's not much to learn.
My spirit animal was revealed to me during some Shamanic journeying I did a few years ago. It is a hawk. I wanted, wanted, wanted a wolf as that is one of the animals I have great passion for, and identify with, but no, it is a hawk. If you want a laugh, google Martha Beck and Lame Animal Totems - gives you some spirit animals you don't want
My shadow totem would be the centipede. It's the only animal that makes me react in way that completely shuts down my neocortex and frontal lobes, and everything goes limbic from there.
I'm big enough to fill the role, but I'm not hairy. There is nothing funny or sexy about my new spirit animal, the hairless bear:
I'm sitting here taking a break from cleaning my oven so I thought I'd do those two tests. First link says my spirit animal is a deer, the second says it's a spider. I've seen that pic before... distressed me then, too. I can't remember the circumstance, but it was either badly treated in its zoo home, or was a rescued dancing bear, one of the two. Just horrible.
I had one of these come screaming out of a pail straight into my face, one dark night when I was dipping smelt with my dad. I never forgot it, and still don't ever want to see one in person again. It was HUGE and made a horrible hissing noise, jaws wide open. I dropped the pail which is what saved me. Gack... spirit animal? I devoutly hope not.
@jannert : But...It's adorable! This is my irrational fear spirit animal @We Are Cartographers : That's impossible! @obsidian_cicatrix : I found an article about some bears in one German zoo losing their fur. It's cruelty and stress. I can't believe some internet 'comedy' sites are hailing this as 'funny'. Re: greyhounds, I had a rescue ex-racer Irish greyhound called Wolfie. He was so wonderful, such a noble beast, incredibly kind and intelligent.
This is the story I shared in the tattoo thread. I always thought of totem and spirit animal as interchangeable (symbol/presence that makes itself known)...but now I'm confused, lol. What I've thought of as my totem hasn't been temporary over 20 years but it's not my favorite animal even though I do identify with its symbology. As for the shadow one...never heard of that. Anyway...here it is again.
