I love working with animal spirit guides. The first time I recall animals trying to deliver a message to me I was 18 and my Papaw (aka grandfather) was going back and forth between nursing homes and hospital stays. He was 83 years old, had dementia, and his body was failing him. As I was driving down the road one day, I passed five different animals, all of which were black in color. I cannot recall now, at almost 40 years old, specifically which animals. Most likely a cow, a dog, perhaps a bird, a cat and some other animal. At the moment, the thought came to me that my Papaw was likely to pass soon, and within two weeks he did. Interestingly, my aunt was with him at his moment of passing and she reassured him that she would make sure his dog, Peanut, and his granddaughters (my sister and myself) would be taken care of if he was ready to finally cross over. It was at this reassurance that he took his final breathe. My Mamaw often said he cared more about his dog (dogs plural over the years) than he did her, an assertion that his irritable behavior toward her certainly did support. In many ways, animal guides assisted with his death transition. He was reassured of his dog Peanut’s continued well-being, and the series of black animals I saw prepared me for what was coming.

                At the time though I had never even heard of the concept of spirit animals. For one thing, this was 1999 and although “spirit animals” have now become prominent in the public consciousness, they certainly weren’t then. I was at the time a fundamentalist Christian, though in a few short months I would go through a process of understanding that Christianity was no longer something I could believe in. So although I did take them as a sort of prophetic omen at the moment of seeing this series of black animals, I would later discount it, thinking, “Well of course he was going to pass. It was just a coincidence.”

                For several years afterward I was spiritually aimless, desiring to be a “spiritual” person but not connecting to any known religion that I researched. In my mid-20’s I finally found tarot and astrology, which lead me to a plethora of metaphysical spiritual concepts that collectively make up my spiritual identity and belief system today.

                From my early days of embracing this new metaphysical spirituality, spirit animals really appealed to me and seemed to want to give me the healing “medicine” of their wisdom, or to call my attention to a particular concept or prepare me for an impending event to occur, as they had when my grandfather’s soul was preparing to depart.

                I remember one day when I was 25 or 26, two of my friends convinced me that I should take mushrooms with them. I had never taken them before, but they told me they wanted to give me some. We had plans to take the mushrooms on a particular evening, and earlier that same day I headed to campus to attend classes as I was at the time pursuing a graduate degree in English at the University of Tennessee. As I was leaving my apartment, I opened the door to be greeted by a very large (probably 2-foot in diameter) tree that had somehow been struck in half! As I had already begun to acquaint myself with tarot at the time, I thought, “Wow! It’s like a Tower moment!” I was shocked to see the tree this way, because there hadn’t been any storms recently and when I had come home the day before I had not noticed it being like that. Also, if lightning had struck it there should have been burn marks, which they weren't, and as I said this tree was *huge*, so big that it’s hard to imagine a strike of lighting could snap it in half that way anyway. 

                After collecting myself from the shock of seeing this big old tree split so unexpectedly, I drove to campus, As I was driving along I approached an intersection where a man was standing on the sidewalk in bedraggled clothes. All of the sudden he whipped around and pointed at me, and his eyes and finger continued to follow me as I passed by him. It was a very eerie experience!

                Once on campus, as I was parking my car I noticed a hawk flying above me, right over my car, and as I got out of my car it passed over and pooped, narrowly avoiding me as I rushed to step out of the line of "fire.". As I began to walk away from my car, discombobulated by this strange series of events, a golden-colored dragonfly started whirring about me and my car. At the time I had never seen a golden dragonfly, so the color itself made its presence amazing to me. I also thought I would be too far from a water source for a dragonfly to even be there. Later I would learn that dragonflies don’t just hover right at water sources, they can be found a distance away from them, and I was parked in an area maybe a mile or less from the Tennessee River. I also learned that golden dragonflies do exist, so it wasn’t as bizarre as I thought it was in the moment, but this dragonfly, hawk, man and tree certainly had gotten my attention!

                Later that evening, when I went to visit my friends, one of them seemed to resent me for even being there. This “friend” had long made me feel unwelcome and a burden, making comical insults at me on more than one occasion, however at times when other friends weren’t available he would treat me quite differently so that I would visit him and keep him company. So, although I had never asked for these mushrooms and had no strong interest really in taking them to begin with, he haughtily decided that I should only get the tiniest sliver since I hadn’t put in any money towards them. Sigh. Well, I hardly had any psychotropic effects from taking the small sliver of mushroom that I did, but no matter because it seemed I had already had a pretty trippy day without them! That night though, the “friendship” with this person ended very abruptly when his unwarranted anger at me lead him to make some very hurtful comments comparing me to the width of two doorways side-by-side (his and that of his apartment neighbor). This man was overweight himself, but that didn’t keep him from hitting below the belt. All of the other insults and demeaning comments he had ever made to me just sort of accumulated in a moment of me being *done* with him, and that night our friendship ended and I walked away literally and figuratively. I believe that the series of animal and other omens I experienced that day had been warnings of what was to come that evening.

                That was a rather long wind-up to answering the question of, “What are Spirit Animals, and How to Connect With Them?” In some ways these experiences are not even typical of the spirit animal experience, and might be seen more as “omens.” However, our animal guides have many ways of connecting with us, and as can be seen in this story, messages came come to us through unexpected encounters with plant and human life as well!

                So… what ARE spirit animals already, you ask this Gabby girl? Well, each type of animal, due to its characteristics and specific way of approaching life, has a particular wisdom inherent within it. When a spirit animal wants to work with you, the essence of that animal realizes that you could benefit from the “medicine” of its particular wisdom!

                There are THREE PRIMARY METHODS I’ve experienced that animals will utilize when they want to get your attention so that you can receive this healing wisdom, and if you’re wanting to connect more to spirit animals all you need to do is be open to them reaching out to you in these ways.

One method a spirit animal will use to deliver its message and medicine to you is by showing up to you in some prominent, real-life scenario. I used to be in the habit of taking what I called, “intuitive walks,” for instance, in which I would leave my apartment and allow my intuition to guide me about which streets to turn down. On one particular walk of mine, I was guided simply to go across the street into the yard of a neighboring apartment building. I was then guided to approach a certain tree. Now at the time I had realized that when my energy felt very anxious and “staticky,” trees are very good healers that can help siphon off that static, toxic energy and through their root systems they can take it back into Mother Earth so that she can recycle it and make it new, fresh and vitalizing energy once again. So I approached this tree thinking that it wanted to connect with me in that way. Eagerly I reached out my arms and was about to embrace the tree when I noticed a WHITE OPOSSUM hanging from the tree, maybe a foot away from me! It scared me to death! When I went home, I looked up the meaning of opossum and it made total sense to me regarding something I was experiencing in my life at the time.

Not only was seeing this opossum unexpected, but the circumstances of how I came upon it were also notable. Even the color of it, white, was unusual. This is one way that spirit animals get our attention: they will present to you in ways that make it obvious, “this is not just happenstance, you are meeting me for a reason!” If an animal shows up in your life in a surprising or ominous way, it is very likely it is trying to give you its medicine.

                The golden dragonfly I mentioned before is another example of that. Although dragonflies do exist in this color, I didn’t know that at the time and presenting to me in that color made more of an impact. Another time in my life, I was hiking in Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, TN where a portion of the trail meanders along parallel to the Tennessee River. I was resting on a bench watching an occasional speedboat pass by, noticing that every time one passed, it sent out waves that beat against the shoreline, causing certain erosion. I was having a heavy heart about my romantic life at the time, but seeing the shoreline being eroded also made me sad for Mother Nature and I was feeling a very strong empathic sadness about this. Then suddenly I looked down and noticed a BUTTERFLY was sitting on my shoulder literally staring RIGHT IN MY EYES! Spirit animals have certainly learned how to get my attention! This butterfly continued to sit there for at least ten minutes, and who knows how long it had been there before that.

                A second method spirit animals can use to get your attention is by appearing to you in images, usually multiple times over a short period of time. Often these are animals that we might not ordinarily come across in our day-to-day lives, although they can be. I don’t live in an area where you would come across Pink Flamingos, for example, but once when the Pink Flamingo wanted to get my attention I KEPT seeing it in various images everywhere I went!

                Finally, a third way that spirit animals can get your attention is simply with an intuitive nudge. Yesterday, for example, I was journaling about something seemingly unrelated and suddenly “fox” spirit animal came to my mind. Not only did I understand that fox wanted to work with me in general, I got the specific message that he wanted to help me with a particular business project I’m working on. When I researched the fox, his interest in helping me with this project (getting an oracle deck of mine published) made total sense! He will help me negotiate the ins-and-outs of the publication process and getting publishers to pay attention to my work. I also found in researching fox that he is associated with the Super 7 Gemstone. I had never heard of this gemstone, but fox brought my awareness to it because it can help with life-purpose and aligning with a higher-dimensional understanding of our place in the world. Thank you, fox! :)

                Finally, I want to discuss the concept of POWER ANIMALS, as these are animals that usually walk alongside a person throughout their lives. You can often tell what a person’s power animal is because they will be very drawn to that animal, oftentimes collecting stuffed animal or figurines of it. My Mamaw collected cardinal figurines, for example, so this was likely her power animal. My sister has always loved frogs (not necessarily the living, breathing ones, but figurines and stuffed animals). When I read about the frog spirit animal, it reminds me of her so much! I had a college friend who collected ladybugs, and again, the ladybug spirit animal fits her cheerful personality to a tee! If you find yourself having a lifelong interest (or obsession!) with a particular animal, it is very likely that is your power animal. You can draw upon the strength and wisdom of this animal anytime  you need it!

                In fact, whether it’s your power animal or not, you can certainly draw upon a particular animal's energy and wisdom anytime you need assistance in an area where this animal shines. I know that rooster’s energy is very helpful to me when I have a lot of projects and “spinning plates” to attend to and need energy to keep up with it all so that I can take advantage of opportunities while they’re hot! When I’m in a situation like that, where life is busy and exciting and I want to make best use of the opportunities coming my way, I can invoke rooster. One of the ways I’ve done this in the past is by putting an image of rooster on my phone so that I am reminded of him daily! :) You could also get figurines or artwork featuring the animal of choice and place it in your home, or simply put a printed out image of it up on your fridge, your desk, your door, or even hang it up in your car, wherever you are most likely to see it regularly.

                I hope you’ve found this blog entry helpful! If you are walking the pathway of working with spirit animals, you are certain to experience many magical moments with your animal helpers! Have fun! :D