10 Ways to Connect with Power Animals

Great Horned Owl

A power animal is an archetype that represents the entire species of that animal. When we connect with a power animal, we align ourselves with the collective strength, wisdom, and archetypal energies of the entire species. Owl, for example, carries the archetype of the wise one, the seer, the prophet. Power animals are the gatekeepers to the deeper truths that exist in our collective consciousness. They are valuable allies who can help us navigate the inner planes of consciousness during shamanic journeys. Without this alliance, the practice of entering a trance to journey into the inner realms is risky.

With an earnest desire to connect, we can develop close, reciprocal relationships with power animals. We also discover through relationship with them that the animal spirits may have very individual and specific teachings for each of us. Similar to the way friendships develop gradually, our relationships with power animals grow and deepen based on repeated interaction and building trust over time. Here are 10 ways to connect with power animals:

1. Hang pictures of animals around your house or work area.
2. Read books about animals.
3. Observe an animal in nature to learn more about it.
4. Take time every day to meditate and tune into an animal.
5. Put on music and dance to help welcome the energy of a power animal into your body. Embody the power animal and move like it would move.
6. Give gratitude to a power animal whenever it shares a piece of wisdom or supports you in any way.
7. Simply visualize and call upon an animal. When you call or invoke the power of an animal, you are asking to be drawn into complete harmony with the strength of that creature's essence. Meditate with it. Ask what message it has for you. How does it want to be honored? What does it want to tell you?
8. Contemplate what it means if you're not comfortable with a power animal. If you dislike or are afraid of an animal, it's especially important to connect with it and learn its wisdom. The message it holds for you will be particularly meaningful. Power animals help us connect to the parts of ourselves that we've lost or denied, so it may be mirroring a trait or quality that is ready to come back to help you be in your wholeness.
9. Put items on your altar to honor a power animal and represent its energy.
10. Ritually feed and honor helping spirits with offerings such as cornmeal or a "spirit plate" with bits of food placed outdoors at mealtime. Cornmeal is a good offering because corn is a sacred gift from the beings that live in the spirit world. The one offering the cornmeal first breathes on the grains so that the spirits know who is offering the gift. To learn more, look inside my drum guide Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits.

The Therapeutic Drumming Network

Kalani Das

Kalani Das is a Percussionist, Orff-Schulwerk Music Educator, Board-Certified Music Therapist, and Host at the newly launched Therapeutic Drumming Network. The Therapeutic Drumming Network is a place to share articles, products, programs, and information related to the use of drumming and rhythmic experiences to promote positive change. They welcome professional drummers and percussionists, drumming facilitators, music educators, music therapists, musical healthcare professionals, music and medicine practitioners, and anyone who has a passion for music and helping others.

According to Kalani, drumming is considered 'therapeutic' when it is engaged intentionally as a means of creating a positive physical, cognitive, emotional, and/or psycho-social outcome. It's not as much about the specifics of the drumming, as it is about the intention and outcomes. There are many types of music making that may or may not produce positive physical, cognitive, or emotional results. Therapeutic Drumming represents those drumming experiences that ARE aimed at creating positive outcomes. To learn more about Therapeutic Drumming, read "9 Ways Drumming Can Be Therapeutic" by Kalani Das. 

Playing Community Drums

Community drums are large drums that can be played by many people at the same time. A community drum symbolizes the heartbeat of a drum circle. Community drums are usually open to any participant who wishes to join in, however it is a "sign of respect" to ask permission before you sit on a drum. Each drum is different, but there is some basic protocol when you play on a community drum: Have respect for the drum and the drum keeper. Anything being passed at a community drum should be passed clockwise around the drum, never over, across or counterclockwise. Do not rest anything on top of the drum except for a drumstick or blanket when instructed by the drum keeper. Community drums are usually covered with a blanket when not in use.

Some drum circles like to open each gathering with a round of drumming on a community drum. One way to do this is to ask a community drum keeper to set up the beat, and then the rest of the circle will stand up and join in one at a time. When no more room is left to drum, the first drummer leaves to make room for another, and so on until everyone has drummed.

The community drum in the photo of this post is named "Rolling Thunder." She is a Taos cottonwood log drum with a bison hide head. She is the most powerful, healing drum I have ever had the good fortune to connect with. True to her name, she sounds and feels like rolling thunder! To learn more, look inside my Shamanic Drumming Circles Guide.

"The Gift of Shamanism"

Itzhak Beery is an internationally recognized shamanic healer, teacher, and founder of ShamanPortal.org. In his newly released book, The Gift of Shamanism: Visionary Power, Ayahuasca Dreams, and Journeys to Other Realms, Beery recounts his journey from a skeptical New York advertising executive to a gifted shamanic practitioner and teacher. Through engaging stories from his own shamanic experiences, Beery connects emotionally with the reader and guides them indirectly into the shamanic ways of "seeing" (our sixth sense or intuition), which he believes is an important part of our ability to survive.

As Beery explains it, "I'm now convinced that we human beings are truly living in multidimensional realities and that as humans we have the ability to perceive knowledge, images, and information otherwise hidden from our ordinary senses by shifting from the earthly plane into a shamanic state of higher vibrational consciousness. I believe that this is the key to humans' survival for hundreds of thousands of years."

Distilling years of experience as a shamanic practitioner, Beery details his shamanic way of seeing to diagnose spiritual, emotional, and physical ailments. According to Beery, seeing is not linear or logical. It communicates to us in symbols, through poetry and idioms, and in body language, colors, shapes, smells, and bodily sensations. Deep within each and every one of us lie dormant visionary powers waiting to be realized and freed from the confines of our fears, habits, and cultural taboos. Being in touch with our seeing can help us also chart new paths not only for our own life, but for society as a whole. Seeing helps us sustain and preserve the soul of humanity, shapeshifting us, from fear-based attitudes to a life-affirming sense of hope.

Through his riveting stories of visions that manifested in reality, Beery reveals that we all have dormant visionary powers waiting to be realized. This capacity to bring knowledge and healing from alternative realities and parallel dimensions is "the gift of shamanism." It is a gift that all we humans share and oddly enough it is what makes us good survivors on this planet. By embracing this gift, we can actualize our shamanic potential to change ourselves and the world around us. All you have to do is open a portal, trust your intuition, and trust the spirits to guide you. I highly recommend that you read this insightful book and apply its teachings to your life. Beery's forthcoming book, Shamanic Transformations, featuring stories (including my own story) by notable contemporary shamanic practitioners, will be released in September 2015.