Power Animals for the Modern World

I’ll never forget when Panther came to me and claimed me as her own.A little over a year ago, I was staying in Oakland, having just begun my year of travel. For a month, I was staying with a wonderful woman at an AirBnB in the misty hills of the East Bay. My soul was in a process of deep expansion, having just packed up and driven away from my 7-year-long stint in Los Angeles.On the full moon that August, I awoke in the middle of the night and sat straight up with a massive gasp of air. The spirits were in the room—I could feel them everywhere around me. This happens to me periodically—the dreams I am experiencing are so powerful, that my body actually wakes up, skin tingling, in between worlds, in the middle of the night.But this one was different.In my dream, the Spirits were giving me information about an unsolved murder that had taken place in the neighborhood several decades before. They showed me where it happened, how and why. They were telling me because the statute of limitations on the crime was coming to a close.I was in terror.I realized that there was a HUGE gap in my power. In order to be able to process and navigate this experience, I needed a certain level of power that I simply didn’t yet have. In my own personal journey, I needed to know how to navigate the realms of dreams of that nature, know how to interpret them and how to deliver their messages to others with integrity.I didn’t have that power yet. A gap was appearing—a space between where I was, and where I needed to be. That space was a lack of power, otherwise known as fear.You don’t need to be going through a shamanic initiation to face this moment._______________________________Imagine that you need to deliver a speech to a group of 500 people—and you’ve never spoken in public before. There is a gap between who you right now, in this moment—and who you need to be in order to deliver that speech. Fear and lack of power is your dilemma.Or perhaps that you know you need to tell someone you love them—but you’ve never been able to engage in that level of intimacy with another human being successfully before. Again, there is a gap between who you are and who you need to be to move into the next phase of your development.So, truly, fear is our friend—it is our roadmap for the places we need to go to grow.And in shamanic spiritual practices, we don’t have to go alone.________________________________So, when I woke up that night, dripping with terror at 2am, something happened.I don't know why, but I intuitively called in a panther (the mental, physical energy of a panther) to walk circles around my bed until I could fall asleep. In my mind’s eye (or the third eye), I could see her slowly and protectively pacing around my bed, keeping the dark energies of fear away. I finally fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I had almost forgotten that I called her in. But then, quite unexpectedly, I found her sitting, curled up at the bottom left-hand side of my bed.She has been with me ever since. Even as I write this, I feel a profound and overwhelming love in my heart for this spirit animal, who constantly comes to my aid when I need to make a leap across the chasms of fear, and embrace new levels of my power.She has shown up so many other times this year—in poetry, dreams, murals on street corners, stories from teachers, and two nights ago again, pacing and protecting my bed space. Except now she comes without my calling._______________________________________I vividly remember a time in the late fall when I felt that someone had strongly crossed one of my energetic boundaries. I felt panther arising from deep within me, and felt my body wanting to growl, to seethe and to bare my teeth to keep this person away. This poem spilled out of me: “No”, © Jane Mayer, 2016.NoNo, I will not do that.No, you may not treat me like that.No, I will not be spoken to that way.No, I will not abandon myself.No, I will not live like that. No.No.No.There is a panther in my belly who prowls and roarswith the fires of self-protectionI will keep her safe. No. That is the energy of a power animal. She starts to live and breathe within you, spilling forth in your actions, in your words, in your thoughts and in the way you live in your body. Panther came in that moment to help me cross the chasm between a woman (the old me) who let people cross her boundaries and one (the new me) who did not. It was a big leap for me.And recently, she has come again. I am in a tender place in the process of my shamanic birth, and having to let go of so many ideas of who I am, who I will be, and how I will relate to the world. Two nights ago, she came in my dreams, as a teenage panther pup, rolling around under my bed, walking laps, pacing and purring and letting me know that despite all the changes happening in and around me, she is here with me—and always beside me as I grow in my power.___________________________________So, power animals for the modern world. How can they help us?As humans in this time of technology, accomplishment and mental overload, we forget that we are, too, wild animals. We have forgotten that we have instincts—strong instincts—that guide many of our day-to-day reactions. We have forgotten that we often can use the support of the natural world as we grow, shift, evolve and expand our experiences of life.Power animals (yes, you have one, too) can help you make that leap. That can help you identify which animal’s characteristics (or medicine) will best support you as you stand on the brink of the person you were and the person you will be.Some humans need to learn to fly, others to release, others to pounce (like me).And at different stages in your life, you will need different ones. They will come. Owl and  horse came to me strongly in the Amazon. They have love to give and lessons to teach. They help me see parts of myself that I have been previously unable to reach.Traditionally, one of the ways of accessing a power animal is through shamanic drumming and trance work, but you can also sit in meditation and ask that yours show him or herself to you. Or, in the energy of the next two weeks, ask your power animal to reveal itself to you in dreams. The portals between the dimensions are very open right now—and very conducive to information from the Other Side. In the next few days, I will be creating a drumming and power animal meditation, which you can access from my website.No matter how you find it, once you have an idea of who is here to support you, talk to it, pray to it, walk and talk as it in the privacy of your bedroom. Practice flapping your wings, growling with your voice, ribbitting from a squatting position. See how you feel. See if you can access its ancient wisdom to teach you something you never knew about who you are.There is a world of energy that loves us deeply—that doesn’t want us to have to face our fears or make these leaps on our own. Humbly allowing the natural world to be your teacher, asking the animals to speak and reveal themselves to you, may just be the most empowering act you can take.I’ve seen people radically re-envision themselves once they meet and remember the spirit of their wildness, the animal within them.The world of the animals is waiting for you.Listen.