This is because there is much more to it than just finding it. As you work with your spirit animal’s energy, you may find that it enhances your mental, physical, and spiritual abilities. It can be an experience that will radically change your life, in countless ways, positively. Can help to enhance mental, physical, and spiritual abilitiesįinding your spirit animal can be transcendent. Seeking out a spirit animal is part of a hard and difficult spiritual journey that will reap rewards, but you must be willing to work for it. Why find your spirit animals?įinding your spirit animal is about more than just knowing you have one, saying you have one, or in a hope to seek out help in troublesome times. In many ways, these spirit animals are spirits which help to guide and protect you on a journey, and they may often have characteristics that you share or embody, hence the feeling of deepness and spiritual connection one might have with this animal. Thus, it is natural for people to connect with their spirit animals through the face of a familiar animal. In the Native American tradition, spirit animals are an embodied form of a spiritual guide, they can often present themselves to us in whatever way we might be willing to see them. A spirit animal is an animal that you are spiritually connected to. A spirit animal is not just an animal you relate to, or like. The internet is a fantastic invention, but it does make us sometimes misunderstand concepts, this is one of them. The concept was adopted by Pagan and Wiccan spirituality in the 90s and in this context it refers to spirit animals being literal, as spiritual guides or totems in the form of animals.
It is a deep part of Native American beliefs, and is passed down many generations in tribes. However, the notion is ubiquitous in many areas of the internet and social media, and while most of the time the term is just sued to express a favorite animal, childhood idol or humor, the association in the only world can often stereotype indigenous people, or misconceive the real religious beliefs behind the term ‘spirit animals’. The term comes from Native American traditions, yet the age of this tradition is hard to pinpoint. It comes from a Native American tradition Spirit animals are one form of this, of which enhances this connection. In a tribe, spirituality takes many forms, yet it often emphasizes spiritual connection with the world around you. It is not a novelty, as Native American spirit animals hold a sacred place inside tribal culture. A spirit animal is often characterized as a teacher or a messenger that comes in the form of an animal. Though, perhaps we can all agree the world needs fewer every day morons tweeting that a certain celebrity or pop icon is their 'Spirit Animal'.Spirit animals are also often known as a spirit ally, or an animal guide. In fact, there is no such term as "Spirit Animal" actually found in any historical Native American language - the phrase was only applied generically in more recent, modern language, and adapted.
The term has been a curious flashpoint in recent years due to an erroneous belief that the phrase belongs solely to Native Americans, who although they have their own mythology surrounding animal-like entities, are not the only culture to document or claim these types of beings.
The Spirit Animals across all cultures share a common theme of embodying various animals, or animal-like creatures, that represent or help educate a human being through characteristics of that animal or mythical creature. A catch-all phrase used to describe the many different types of myths, phantasmic visions, and totems across multiple cultures and languages across the world, such as the Alebrijes of Mexico, or the Chiwara of African tribes in Mali.