About the Author
Dr. Steven D. Farmer is a shamanic practitioner, minister, and licensed psychotherapist with over thirty years experience as a professional healer and teacher. In addition to "Power Animal Oracle Cards," he is author of Power Animals: How To Connect with Your Animal Spirit Guide and Sacred Ceremony: How to Create Ceremonies for Healing, Transitions, and Celebrations, as well as several other books and articles.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Layout of This Book
This book is divided into two main sections plus an Appendix. Part I is a listing of more than 200 animals from around the world, all of which have pictures accompanying them. There’s no identifying information about, or descriptions of, every animal, as this is beyond the scope of this book. There are hundreds of other easily accessible resources where you can get detailed information about the animals themselves, and I urge you to do so if you’re interested.
For each of the animals represented, there are three sections:
1. If [ANIMAL SPIRIT GUIDE] shows up, it means: This is where you first look when you’ve had a sighting or visitation. It lists several possible messages, synthesized from communications I’ve received from that particular animal spirit guide and other sources. When you’re looking in this section, one or more of the messages will be the most relevant for you. You’ll intuitively discern which of these messages is most significant as you read through them.
2. Call on [ANIMAL SPIRIT GUIDE] when: This will give you some conditions or issues with which this particular animal spirit guide can help when you call on it through prayer, meditation, contemplation, or journeying.
3. If [ANIMAL SPIRIT GUIDE] is your POWER ANIMAL: If you’ve identified this spirit animal as your power animal, this section will tell you about yourself and how your power animal is reflective of your personality and characteristics. If you call your primary animal spirit guide your totem animal, these descriptions will also fit.
In some cases, there are two or more names for each animal. Whenever this occurs, you’ll be referred to the primary name of the animal by “see ___,” following the alternate name, such as “Mountain Lion (see Cougar).” There are also separate entries for different types of the same animal (such as Barn Owl or Great Horned Owl), which not only have their individual readouts, but also refer you to the generic animal, as in “Barn Owl” (also see Owl). Similarly, for a generic animal (such as Owl), in some instances you’ll be referred to the more specific types of animal.
In Part II, you’ll find a list of which animal spirit guides to call on for help with conditions you may have to deal with, such as discerning whom to trust or dealing with criticism, or qualities that you want support and reinforcement for, such as clear communication or manifesting your dreams. This list is alphabetized to make it easy to search for what you’re looking for, and most of the listings give several animal spirit guides to choose from so you can find one that feels most compatible and appropriate for your particular needs.
The Appendix contains a guided meditation journey that will help you get a message from your spirit animal and a list of resources, including books, Websites, and DVDs to help you develop a better understanding of various animals and the meanings of animal spirit guides.
How to Use This Book
There are a few different ways to use this book. The first way is when you’ve had a sighting of an animal and you suspect that it’s trying to give you a message. When this happens, find the animal in Part I and review the possible meanings. As you read these, pay attention to which ones jump out at you as the most pertinent. Once you’ve identified the most helpful message, you can read the other sections for that animal, which are some conditions you might call on that spirit animal to help you with and the information about the animal as a power animal. You may glean further information from these other sections that’s helpful in discerning the message that the particular animal spirit guide is trying to convey to you.
Another way to use the book is as a divination tool. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, relax your body, and think of a question. Once the question is clear in your mind, flip through the pages of Part I until you get a sense of when to stop. Whatever page you’ve landed on, read the messages from the animal spirit guide that’s on that page and see how they’re applicable to your question. You can use this method in conjunction with other oracle tools, such as the Power Animal Oracle Cards.
If you know who your power animal is or you think you know, look for it in Part I and review each of the three sections, particularly the one that suggests what this says about you if this is your power animal. At the same time, you may discern some additional information or messages from reading each of the segments under that animal.
In Part II, you can look up any condition that’s listed there to see which animal spirit guides might best be called upon to help with that condition, or find qualities and characteristics that you want to reinforce in yourself or bring out, and which spirit animals to call on in order to do so. Most of these listings have more than one entry, so when you look at the list of animal spirit guides to call upon, you’re welcome to call on any and all of them, or intuitively discern which one would be the most significant in helping you with your condition or embellishing a characteristic that you want. Once you’ve identified the spirit animal or animals that you want to call on, you can then cross-reference them in Part I to get additional information or inspiration.
Calling on an animal spirit guide requires only a sincere intention and openness to receiving their help and guidance. It’s very simple to do so, whether through prayer, meditation, contemplation, or through doing a shamanic journey. You may not get instant results (although this does sometimes happen), but observe what happens for some time after you’ve made your appeal. When you invoke an animal spirit guide for help or guidance, the assistance often comes in unexpected ways from surprising sources.
When you want to get more information and get further acquainted with your animal spirit guide or your power animal, use the listings in the Resources as a guide. There’s a wealth of information about the animal kingdom, and the more you work with spirit animals, the more useful it is to research and get additional information about your favorite animal spirit guides. As you become more acquainted with the traits and characteristics of your favorites, you become that much more intimately involved with them both in third-dimensional reality and as spirit helpers.
Honoring Your Animal Spirit Guides and Your Power Animals
Anything you do on behalf of our animal brothers and sisters will be looked on very kindly by the spirit world and especially by the spirit animals. Thanking them at each and every opportunity through prayer is a subtle but very powerful way of honoring them. Donating your time, energy, and/or money to any reputable animal-rights or environmental organization whose mission is in alignment with your ethics and philosophy is an active way to give something back to the animals. Intervening in any way when you know of an animal brother or sister that’s being mistreated scores high as well.
If you’re guided to forego using animal products in order to become a vegetarian or a vegan, this is another way to say thank you. However, if you continue to use animal products, be sure to say a prayer of gratitude for that animal’s contribution to your life and pray that their soul is readily transported to the spirit world. If you do eat animal flesh, it’s particularly important to offer prayers of gratitude before ingesting their bodies and do what you can to assure that these animals were treated kindly and fairly before they gave their lives so that we can sustain ours.
To honor the animals is very simple. All it takes is a consciousness and awareness of the tremendous contributions that they make to our lives each and every day. It’s a simple gesture to thank them and honor them in these ways and more.
