How to Recognize Your Animal Guideby Jacquelene Close Moore
Shamanic Healer, Reiki Master/Teacher and Meditation Instructor
Taking a special note of the behaviors, traits, habitats and eating habits of your animal will reveal a lot about what would be helpful to you in your situation. For instance do you tend to stock up for the winter, and then become quite lax until spring? Are you better to take small amounts of food/activity often in order to speed up your metabolism/life rather than stocking up or getting cluttered? If you are unaware of your animal guide avoid pushing for one or assuming as most people do, that yours is a Lion, Eagle, Wolf or a similarly popular image. Working with the magick of such archetypes as these from the beginning is like deciding you'd like to take up absailing or hiking, by attempting to climb Mount Everest on your first outing. I guess that's why people are so attracted.
Instead look back to your childhood. Is there an animal that either terrified you or fascinated you? Is there a story that involves an animal that you have never forgotten, so much so that it is still in your mind as an adult? Do you find yourself being surrounded by images of this animal everywhere you go? For instance, do people, (without being told you love a particular animal), keep giving you cards, pictures and statuettes of that animal or plant as gifts? Do you find that whenever you are in the garden, shopping or at sanctuaries etc that this animal in particular is there in front of you and seems to be trying to interact with you?
In order to learn the most from an animal spirit you first need to respect it, look at, listen to and learn about the animal. Consider how it lives, as well as what symbolism, mythology and legend surrounds it. Read about your animal's habits, habitats and mythology, visit the zoo if your animal is not native to this country and above all honour the gifts that it presents to you in teaching you more about yourself. You may have more than one animal work with you during your life, but it is important to understand and work through the issues that the one dominant animal's symbolism presents in connection to your own life before starting with any others.
As a child, I used to sing the song of the magpie, in the school ground, during Spring and Summer each day before school started. I didn't want anyone to see me doing this, so I'd get there especially early. I would sing to the magpies, who obliged in reply with the same song. We'd joyfully carry out this conversation of tones and warbles over and over. I took great joy in being able to perfectly mimic the call of a variety of animals. But there was one animal that scared the wits out of me. The first time I met crow was as a child staying up a little too late and seeing parts of the famed Damien Omen movies. The crows in the movie had red in their eyes and were depicted as being evil in some way. Whenever I saw Crow out and about (in Australia the Raven), I would think back to how I had feared Crow. Crow seemed to hold a lot of answers for me, but I feared what these answers might mean. Crow has had a history of symbolizing death.
As a five year-old, I had a near death experience, being dead for a few minutes in a drowning accident before coming out of a coma three days later. I had trouble in seeing Crow as being a good tie, let alone coming to terms with joining its magick within myself. As an adult, when my husband and I married, we moved to a leafy eastern suburb in Melbourne, at the foothills of the Dandenong ranges. We rented a home with a huge third acre block, filled with large strong trees, leafy green plants and a lush fernery outside what became the spirit room. I felt safe and nurtured there. The spirit room was a place in the house that I would relax and communicate with the spirits. This room was a sacred room in which nothing else except relaxing and communicating with spirits whether through mediation or creating visionary art for people was done.
More and more, when I went into this room, I would see many forms of bird life through the window, wandering around the garden. Sparrows, pigeons the odd dove even a heron one day. But nothing prepared me for meeting Crow. I had seen a few Ravens popping and hopping around the garden for some weeks. They'd pop in, caw a bit and fly off.
On the day I met Crow, I was in the spirit room meditating. In my meditation I was advised that it was time to face my fears. In that instant, my husband yelled from the lounge room "Honey there is a family of Crows on the front doorstep, I think you should come and look at this!" A cold lightning bolt of fear galloped and thundered down my spine and through my body, I had cold chills all over, and goose bumps on my skin, it was like the hairs on the back of my neck had stood up. I went to the lounge room and gasped as I looked out the window. Mumma, Dadda and Bubba Crow were there, all calling in unison looking at the front door. They turned to look right at me and called even louder. Fear ran straight through me again. I stepped back, remembering the meditation and said to myself, "Why am I afraid? Is this my fear, or is this a fearful situation?" It became crystal clear. This was a fear of my own but I didn't know if I was ready to face it.
I went to the kitchen. 'This is stupid,' I said to myself. What is this? Afraid of some crow /raven bird thing? 'What's the big deal?' Then I looked out the kitchen window and there was another Crow in the backyard, looking me right in the face. This crow was staring, almost as if he was trying to say something but didn't know how to make me understand. A little fear ran through me again. I felt it was time to face this desire to run by standing my ground. I stepped forward, right up to the window and said mentally to Crow "Well I am not going to run now…" "Crow, you are valid, I accept that you have purpose in being on this earth. what is it that you want to tell me?" With that Crow walked forward from the middle of the back yard to within 2 or so metres of the window where I stood. He stopped, tipped his head and gazed. I looked into his eyes. I could see that they weren't red, in fact they were such a light green that they were almost white, His eyes sparkled. I was enchanted. I thought for a moment that I could see the universe in his eyes. I plucked up my courage and conversed with the crow. "I am listening now, what is it you are telling me Crow?" I him asked out loud. He cawed some comforting, almost parental tones. I was transported back to my childhood days of singing in unison with the magpies, and learning from the stories that Grandpa told.
I looked back out the window, Crow had moved back into the yard. He stopped walking and turned to face me. He tipped his head to the side and cawed. I said "Ok, I got it" He seemed to want me to take note of what he was doing. He then walked in a diagonal direction from that point further up the yard, South West of where he had stood. Then he stopped, cawed and tipped his head before walking directly horizontal to the North from that point and then stopping again. I took note, he had made a backward number seven. Eeck! I thought, this was my destiny number! How did he do that? What's going on here? I settled back down, Crow got my attention again by cawing loudly and dancing quite oddly on the spot, flapping his wings and jumping. I calmed down, and again he moved off, this final time in a South West direction. He stopped and flapped his wings, this time for a lot longer. Then he stopped, he turned and he faced me in a still silence.
He had made a seven and then he had made the runic sign of Sigal/Sig the Sun Warrior in our backyard. I felt a feeling of wonder and sceptisism, inspiration and dread, uplifted but hesitant. I was intrigued, how a crow could be so intelligent, and communicate like that?
Crow flew up from the ground ascending so quickly and so high that his dark sleek wings vanished out of my sight against the lush backdrop of the leafy trees. 'So this is it' I thought to myself, there's no turning back now. In the months that followed, Crow was everywhere I went, especially out the window of the spirit room talking to me. Every time I heard his voice, I'd ask 'What is it Crow?' An answer or some good advice would come back in a language I could understand. He was teaching me a lot about tones, sound and intuition. I would often be reading for people from the spirit room, when a host of crows would fly into the backyard and call loudly.
I would have to acknowledge them in order to continue the reading or healing. Crow grew to become connected to varying parts of my life. So much so that one day the landlord came to do an inspection of our home. She mentioned out of the blue that she had been amazed to find that what was a few Crows started nesting in her back yard a few months had become around forty Crows residing permanently and loudly in her backyard. I chuckled to myself silently. I hadn't realized this whole Crow thing had become so intense.
One day as I left the house I heard Crow calling out to me in a voice of splendor, it was a song I had never heard him sing before. I replied 'Good morning Crow, how beautiful you sound.' I then realized that I didn't have a Crow feather to take with me that day, as I usually carried a crow feather everywhere I went. I was running late, and I could not go back home and get one. I asked crow if he could leave me a spare feather to take with me today as I had to walk to a friend's house, who would then drive me a long distance as we were going to visit someone in the country.
He didn't answer me, instead there was a strange still silence from Crow. Suddenly I felt disconnected from him, and very odd. For a moment I could not hear the song of even one Crow whether near or far, in fact I could not hear any calls from any birds at all. All I heard was the traffic at the main road almost a kilometre away, in eerie silence. A sparrow flew in front of me to the right, crossing my path, then the silence went back to the normal hum-drum of traffic and bird sounds. I could hear the calls of a few different birds again, but not Crow, not even off in the distance. I walked to the main road, and found a horse-shoe on the ground as I crossed the road. I picked it up. A sparrow flew across my path to the left. As I crossed the other road, I found out why Crow had become silent.
There he was, Crow was dead on the side of the road. He'd been hit and was lying dormant. Burning hot tears rolled down my cheeks. Then I heard Crows voice, 'Please pick me up, my friend.' I heard him say. I picked him up, he was still warm, but he was not moving or breathing, no pulse no heart beat that I could find. I thought to myself, 'Geeze a psychologist would have a field day with this one.' But I knew this was real, it had been proven to me over and over for months now. I gathered myself and continued to listen and follow the guidance of Crow. I thought to Crow, 'I'll put you beside the railway line, there are lots of trees there.' I placed Crow on the ground I created a ritual for Crow. I said "Crow, may your wings remain unbroken in spirit as they were in life, I thank you for the guidance and wisdom you have shared with me, may you fly free eternally, I love you Crow, I will miss you." I sat and gave Crow healing and did what I knew would help his spirit disconnect peacefully and fully from his deadened body. I then recalled how I had asked him for a feather. Yet, I had been presented with a whole bird.
"Crow?" I asked "Was it unreasonable to ask you for a feather today, and why have I got the whole bird?" Crow replied, "No it was not unreasonable friend, you are to take my wings now." "Your wings?" I asked.. I just asked for a feather.' I was perplexed. "I don't understand Crow, why your wings?" Crow replied "It will be revealed to you at the right time, take my wings friend." Crow fell silent again. I took his wings, saying the same prayer as I took each wing. I left the rest of Crow's body there under the tree covered by some leaves and wished him good luck. I went on my way.
Three days later I was told by another healer that in order to walk with the wisdom of my animal I had to let the wings cure in a sealed box for at least 7 days. She would nor tell me how to prepare them or what to do, as this had to come from within. I followed her advice as it felt right and I had not heard from Crow since I had taken his instruction to take his wings. I found a large plastic container, and into the bottom of it I instinctively placed a layer of dirt, then a layer of sand, then the wings with feathers pointing to the ground. Then more sand to cover the wings and then ashes from the outside barbeque on top of it all. I closed the lid, and wrapped it all in my own cape. I placed this in the shed, off the ground.
Seven days came and went, It didn't feel right to open the box. One moon cycle, then two. Still not right to open. On the third full moon I automatically woke at midnight and went out to the shed. The yard was so bright it looked almost like daytime. I opened the box, and dug into the contents, I found under torchlight that the sand, ash and dirt was no longer in layers, it had all mixed in together, like some kind of strange dust. The wings had also turned over to face the sky inside the sealed box. I became a little freaked out by this, and had to stop for a minute. I calmed myself and relaxed, I picked up the wings in my hands. A breeze appeared in what was a still Spring night. The breeze circled around me, it was a calm, warm spring breeze the breeze ran up from my feet, spiraling in both directions at once it spiraled up around my body and above my head and then it disbursed. I picked up some more of the mixture in my hands and held the torch to it, 'definitely mixed in,' I thought. The mix of the ash, sand and dirt had completely combined and was some kind of light dust.
Instinctively, I spread this dust all around the outside of the house. Since then I have come to work with other animals as guides and totems as well as maintaining a connection with Crow. This work has grown to include helping other people to understand themselves more through teaching and drawing their animal and spirit guides for them as well as, plants and other images through Visionary Art Readings.
A couple of years ago I finally told my mother what I do. On telling her, she laughed so hearty that she nearly fell off her chair and said "Of course you are!" "Gosh anyone could figure that out. You are just like your grandpa, and his grandma, and her grandma before her and who knows what before that. They all had the family spirit, your grandpa gave you some of the keys, you just have to figure out what to do with the rest of it yourself."
Visit Jacquelene Close Moore on the web at www.jacqueleneclosemoore.com for help with decisions, clarity & guidance in business, shares, relationships and success.