One of our craziest adventures was finding out our spirit
animal/center animal on our power wheel. Now this may sound a little silly but
it’s actually pretty neat! One day we were all hanging out in the living room
after breakfast just talking and Sadie mentioned that she has always wanted to
know what her spirit animal was. Paddy said that she had a friend, Sue, who was
a shaman and she would probably be more than happy to do a drum journey with us
to find out our power creature. It was so nice of Paddy and Jo to get in touch
with Sue and set it up! Alrighty so you may be wondering what the heck a shaman
or a drum journey is. I had no idea at that point either. But basically (as far
as my knowledge goes) a shaman is a person who helps guide you through
meditation and they also have some healing powers. I guess another way of
stating it is they are spiritual leaders. A drum journey is a process where the
shaman drums a certain beat as you are guided through meditation. Sue was
really good at explaining the whole process and I’ll try and do the same so it
kind of makes sense. Pretty much I laid on a table and wore this eye mask to
block out all the light. Sue began to drum and she asked me to imagine a light
coming up through my feet then to my legs, torso, arms, shoulders and head. By
this point I was so calm and my body felt at one with the table. It was the
same feeling I have when I do yoga, super relaxed! Then Sue asked me to imagine
a specific scenery in nature either one that I knew or had made up. She got me
to visualize the details and imagine I was standing right there in the middle
of it all. I thought of a forest but it was really hard to focus at first. My
mind is usually everywhere and I can’t daydream let alone meditate. Finally I
got it all figured out and I was ready for the next step. She then asked me to
imagine myself in my scenery picking up a stone from the ground in the east and
then putting it down in the east. As directed, I did this for all the other
directions, west north, south, southeast and so on. This was done to build the
circle. After the circle is built you call in your center power animal. There
is only one so when it comes in you ask if it is your true center animal.
Sometimes you don’t see it right away or you only see a portion so you can ask
it questions to confirm what it really is. At first I saw a patch of brown fur
so I thought it was a squirrel but then it got bigger so maybe it was a beaver?
I asked it to show me its tail and there it was, not a beaver but a big fat......
MOOSE butt!! I was not expecting that. When I told Sue what it was she just
burst out laughing. She asked me to ask the moose what he wanted me to know.
Now this is the strangest part. I didn’t really expect to feel anything
considering I was a huge skeptic going in. By this point I was surprised I even
saw an animal, but I felt that his message was about self-esteem, self worth
and the power that I hold that I don’t even know about. He said don’t doubt
that you can do it! After you receive your message you imagine yourself stepping
outside of your circle and walking away; at this point the drum journey is
called to a close. It’s quite relaxing and was very interesting. Sue asked me
what moose had to tell me and when I told her she said “that’s really neat
because the power of the moose is self esteem. Each animal has a power that
they govern and that is moose’s power. He is strong and aware of his strength
but he does not boast in his power nor does he doubt it.” Then she whipped out
this power animal dictionary – like book and there it was- MOOSE: POWER OF
SELF-ESTEEM. She then asked if that held any importance to me. This is the
craziest part… self esteem has always been a huge issue for me. So often I
doubt my worth, abilities, skills and knowledge. Moose’s words rang true to me
and are a reminder to me that I am stronger, smarter and more powerful than I
believe. I walked in a skeptic and walked out enlightened. Now this was a cool
experience but I’m not going to delve deeper into it in the future. Some people
like to turn to their power creatures in “times of need” and receive guidance
from them. I don’t need that. I have Jesus and a Heavenly Father who will give
me the guidance I need in this life. However this makes for a neat story and I
feel somewhat liberated through the whole process. I am stronger than I think
but did I really need a moose to tell me that?
That is SO interesting! I wanna know why my animal is!
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