Smile, They're Watching You

Last week I went to a class on Shamanistic Journeying. The purpose of the class was to introduce us to the practice of Shamanism and the journey to meet and work with one’s power animal. I have heard of the idea of the power animal as a spirit guide and an animal lover this was an appealing concept to me. Our instructor explained the basics to us and guided us on what was for some of us our first journey. My visualization was not as detailed as I would have wished, but I was visited for a brief instant by an angry white horse that stood on his hind legs, gave me an angry snort and was gone. About the same time he left, I saw a white snake coiled up and it too was gone very quickly. I was intrigued and amused that my power animal was not a warm, friendly talking creature as many others have described their animals to be. Whether he is my power animal remains to be seen but I have figured out that he, and the white snake, were there to deliver a message. With a little research I uncovered some aspects of the power animal horse and snake and narrowed them down to the aspects that I felt applied to me. They are as follows:


The aspects of the horse are:
• Power
• Stamina
• Endurance
• Faithfulness
• Awareness of power achieved with true cooperation
• Expanding one’s own potential abilities
• Friendship and Cooperation
• Guide to overcoming obstacles
The aspects of the snake are:
• Messenger from the Gods
• Regeneration
• Exploration of the mysteries of life
• Primitive or elemental energy
• Healing
• Goddess energy
• Psychic energy
• Connection to or forms the magic cord by which the shaman travels to the soul world

The snake is said to depict a message form the gods or divine message. With the horse being rather unhappy I came to the conclusion that I was being sent a message from my guides to start believing in the aspects of the horse who overall represents the concept of strength . I was failing to believe in not only my own personal power, faithfulness and the ability to overcome obstacles, but also those same qualities in others who surround me. Another key point from horse was to be aware of the power of true cooperation in order to achieve success. I had suspended disbelief both in myself and others and this was enough to garner the attention of the guides to deliver to me the whack over the head they clearly thought I needed. As in most everything with the universe, the timing was exquisite for me. When we take back our power, we take back the belief that we can accomplish anything. When we are involved in relationships and take back our power, we can use it to cooperate with the other partner in order to overcome obstacles by using communication and understanding as opposed to coming from a place of fear. We can then invite them to join us in our experiences rather then command them to. Walking hand in hand in mutual cooperation, assures that when one stumbles they will not fall because they are holding the hand of their friend.
I’m looking forward to taking the journey again.