Image by Saul Mata
Developing symbolic communication systems with animals can be exciting and informative and help us to advance our spiritual growth and awareness. It can take place in the physical third dimension or in the nonordinary realms and can be used for many diverse purposes, including obtaining and understanding animals’ spiritual counseling and guidance; seeing and comprehending more layers of a past, present, or future circumstance; and understanding our subconscious and unconscious primal instincts, fears, and desires.
The development of this communication system presumes that we are doing so with an animal we feel some kind of spiritual connection to or an animal we feel we cannot ignore for whatever reason.
Ways to Develop Animal Symbolic Communication
An integral aspect in developing a symbolic communication method with an animal guide is courting: either we are courting them or they are courting us. Animals, like humans, are susceptible to energy and will pick up on when we are trying to connect with them, especially if we are enjoying it.
When we choose a way to connect with them, such as inviting them to guide us during our meditations, we place attention and energy toward this method of communication. They may then appear to us in our mind’s eye or in the physical world with a message, when we are in the following meditative states of consciousness—taking a meditative introspective walk, sitting down meditating, or doing house chores while in a relaxed mindset.
Trust that whatever method of communication you choose to use, it will be picked up energetically by an animal guide you have allowed yourself to open up to.
The process for developing animal symbolic communication includes the following techniques:
? Familiarizing yourself with the animal
? Gaining insight into the symbolic meaning via intuitive energy surges
? Developing intuition to comprehend symbolic meanings
? Practicing shamanic dreamwork
? Practicing automatic writing
? Becoming familiar with the animal’s mythological symbolic discourse
? Strengthening the energy lines of communication
Familiarizing Yourself with the Animal
One of the most practical and useful methods for developing a symbolic communication is to learn about the animal—its physical attributes, natural habits, and instincts—and focusing on anything in particular that catches your attention. Look at pictures of the animal as well, especially those that show them doing whatever stood out to you in your research. The internet is a great way to quickly research the habits, appearances, patterns, and traits of animals and to start to discern what stands out to you about them.
Knowing the natural traits of the animal can often help you interpret and make sense of what you saw the animal doing and what it looked like and where it was when it was doing it. If you saw, for example, a nocturnal animal engaging in one of its typically nocturnal activities during the day, whether you saw it in a dream or a waking state, it is more than likely that the animal has an urgent message for you.
Another example is if you saw an animal that looked larger in her belly than most animals that you saw in your research, it would then prompt you to find images of what that animal looks like when it’s pregnant. If you confirm that the animal you saw was pregnant, then you know that it has a message for you concerning the birth of something.
While I may provide insight as to the symbolic meanings of animals, I encourage you to focus on the animal’s natural characteristics and what it is doing when you see it (however you may see it). I highly recommend doing this before you research the spiritual symbolism of the animal.
Learning about the animal first typically helps to strengthen our connection and bond with it, allows the message it has for us to unfold in multifaceted ways, helps us trust our intuition and the messages we receive, and encourages us to develop our own modes of communication with our animal guides.
Animals are generally very telepathic. If they believe that you understand the message they are trying to convey to you, they will communicate with you substantially more and be willing to engage in more forms of symbolic communication to convey different messages.
For instance, pay particular attention to what an animal is doing or carrying when it approaches you. If it is carrying something in its mouth, you can thank it for delivering a message to you, verbally or internally. Unless you have a different symbolic communication developed with that animal, the delivered message will be related to the symbolic meanings of that animal, which typically have to do with the animal’s natural instincts and habits.
If you feel connected with the animal, you can ask it to deliver a certain message to you by appearing and doing something related to its natural instincts and habits. For instance, when I see a large flock of crows or parrots, I know they bring messages of abundance and great fortune—crows bring divine guidance and parrots fiscal-related abundance.
Gaining Insight into the Symbolic Meaning via Intuitive Energy Surges
To determine the message or purpose of an animal visit, whether it came to you in the physical realm, in a dream, or during a trance journey, try to intuit its meaning and see if you get an energy surge that what you are intuiting is right.
Tune in to what emotions are triggered within you based on what you saw, and what you sensed about it. You can start by asking yourself what kind of feeling(s) the image of the animal elicits and what it was doing to incite that feeling(s) within you.
In this stage, you are simply gathering information, so don’t censor it; just take it as it comes. For example, if you have a dream about an animal burying something, and you feel a strong connection to it, ask yourself what words or ideas come to mind when you think about what you saw.
Here are some possibilities:
? The need to store or hide something
? The need to preserve something
? The possibility that something is being hidden
After you have invested some time in brainstorming on the incited emotions and associations of what you saw, go through them in a relaxed state and see which emotion and association combination triggers a lot of intuitive energy in you and provides a “yes” as to the meaning(s) behind what you saw and felt.
Symbolic messages are created out of energy whether they come forward in dreams, trance journeys, or something that transpires in our waking third-dimensional state. Tuning in to the incited emotion and association helps to make a connection to the energy source of the message. A surefire way to determine the essence of a symbol is to go where the energy is—connect it to the emotion and association that brings up a surge of intuitive energy.
Developing Intuition to Comprehend Symbolic Meanings
Purchase a journal or create a note on your phone that is exclusively dedicated to recording your symbolic meaning of animals. Include the date and time, as meanings tend to change depending on what we are going through in our lives. A
t the end of the journal, create a list of animals and their related symbolic meanings. Creating our own symbolic meanings for animal spirit guides enhances and personalizes our connection to the animals and encourages them to work with us more frequently.
When you are journaling, write in the present tense. Writing in the present tense can put you back in the dream, trance journey, or space you were in when you saw an animal spirit guide and allow you to recall more aspects of what you saw. If something profound comes to you, but you are in a hurry, write down keywords and bullet points. You can expand on them later.
Pay attention also to how the messages and counseling come through for you. Be aware of which intuitive skill(s) they come in through and the circumstances involved. This allows you to develop your intuitive skills and the manner in which you communicate with your animal spirit guides.
Here is a list of the most common intuitive skills:
? Clairvoyance: the art of clearly seeing something or someone that is not physically present. Gazing* and developing our imagination are excellent ways to further open this channel of communication. *Gazing involves having our eyes one-tenth open and using a soft meditative focus to observe something.
? Clairaudience: the ability to hear energy information. Hearing energy information can be experienced internally or externally. External hearing involves hearing information that seems to be coming from an external source, such as hearing your name and looking around to find that no one is physically present. Internal hearing is similar, but the source is clearly coming from within; it’s an inner voice that is speaking to you and relaying energy information. You’ll know it is intuitive information versus random inner dialog, when it comes forward in a calm, yet persistent and consistent manner.
? Clairsentience: the ability to intuit (without thinking) the present, past, or future physical, mental, or emotional states of other people and environments. We can intuit what someone else is feeling or intending or whether they are ill, and we can better relate to others in general and avoid dangerous or stressful circumstances or environments. In this context, we simply sense the presence of our animal spirit guides.
? Claircognizance: the ability to tune in to the energy of the mind, the unconscious, and the collective consciousness. This intuitive ability comes through our mind as insight or inspiration.
Practicing Shamanic Dreamwork
Mesoamerican peoples believe that in dreams we travel to non-ordinary realms. Dreams are experiences created through the interactions of the unconscious and conscious mind. The unconscious mind is a marvelous universe of unseen energies and forces, forms of intelligence that live within us. It is the secret source of much of our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The unconscious mind manifests through a language of symbols. As we learn to read those symbols we gain the ability to perceive the workings of our unconscious.
An animal spirit guide can come in via our dreams and communicate to us through these symbols. Again, to understand the message, reflect on what the animal was doing and research its natural instincts and habits. To determine the message or purpose of the visit, see if you get an energy surge that tells you what you are intuiting is right. If the message(s) or purpose(s) is still not completely clear, simply be with your question(s) and invite the universe to help you become more aware of the answers as time unfolds.
If you feel you understand the message, before going to sleep or in a meditative state connect with the animal and thank it for its guidance and let it know you understand it. You can also write a letter or leave something on your altar or somewhere special and let it know you want to communicate more with it.
Practicing Automatic Writing
Automatic writing is another way to discover the meaning(s) behind what you saw an animal doing.
Close your eyes, and take some deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Open your eyes, and write down some of the possible meanings behind what the animal did and how they relate to the sacred medicine you were seeking from the non-ordinary realm and your life.
After you are done with this subconscious automatic writing dump, slowly read the meanings while taking deep breaths to see which meaning feels right; ideally it will be the one that gives you some type of energy surge.
Once you have decided on the meaning, proclaim and share it with the animal. Close your eyes, imagine the animal in your mind’s eye, and thank it for the message and the medicine it provided. The animal will more than likely appreciate your efforts to develop symbolic communication with it and will continue to appear in trance states—or in the physical realm if it is a local nonmythological animal—to grant the same or similar messages and medicine.
Article continues with the next two points (? Becoming familiar with the animal’s mythological symbolic discourse and ? Strengthening the energy lines of communication) here: The Symbolic Meaning of Animals in Our Dreams.
©2021 by Erika Buenaflor. All Rights Reserved.
All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
Bear and Company, an imprint of: www.InnerTraditions.com
Article Source
BOOK: Animal Medicine
Animal Medicine: A Curanderismo Guide to Shapeshifting, Journeying, and Connecting with Animal Allies
by Erika Buenaflor, M.A., J.D.
Providing multiple methods to connect with animals for spiritual guidance, self-empowerment, and healing, Erika Buenaflor reveals how each of us can enrich our lives with ancient Mesoamerican wisdom for working with animal guides.
Offering an alphabetical guide to 76 animals most prevalent in ancient Mesoamericanlegends, ceremonies, and medicinal rites, the author details each animal’s spiritual gifts, shapeshifting medicine, the realm they are associated with, and their symbolic meaning when they appear in a dream or vision.
For more info or to order this book, click here.
About the Author
Erika Buenaflor, M.A., J.D., has a master’s degree in religious studies with a focus on Mesoamerican shamanism from the University of California at Riverside. A practicing curandera for over 20 years, descended from a long line of grandmother curanderas, she has studied with curanderas/os in Mexico, Peru, and Los Angeles and gives presentations on curanderismo in many settings, including at UCLA.
To find out about her workshops, classes, book signing events, and retreats, or schedule a session with her please visit www.realizeyourbliss.com.
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