The Healing Magic and Power of ANIMAL SYMBOLISM
The woods became dark and forbidding as the girl tore wildly through the forest. Rushing sounds of snapping branches kept a close pace behind her. Chasing her were ferocious angry beasts. Absolute terror set in upon her as she plunged deeper into the darkness. Frantically she searched for an escape, a tree she could climb, anything. The panic began to slow her down, and all she could muster was a pathetic slow motion attempt to run. Their powerful black hairy bodies moved through the dark shadows closer and closer. All she could hear was the sound of breaking branches and her own foreign cries. With an instinct to fight, she felt the pull on her long snarled hair as a jaw gripped and tore her head back, throwing her off her feet. A fire seared through her scalp down through her neck as she fell to the ground unable to scream or move. Her brain screamed with fear. She felt the sensation of electric shock while waiting for the final blow of snarling teeth and claws as she looked into the faces of her three attackers.
The psychic medium awoke knowing the spirit of the girl was trying to reach her. There were three attackers and she knew than that the girl’s spirit would return as a wolf to appease her angry restless soul. Now she new there were three of them and she knew the name of the one who grabbed her hair and broke her neck. He caught her like he catches his spooked horse on the run.
Animal symbolism is everywhere. Nearly everyone at some time in their life has had dreams in which some kind of animal has played a dominant role. It is within these dreams that most of us have experienced this mysterious power of animal symbolism. Friend or foe the animal symbol today speaks to the very depths of our being. I think that this animal symbol is used to carry powerful messages to our conscious awareness from our core essence, the higher self, or even from the other side. Be it a tool to guide us through this life or just to get their messages through. The exploration of this connection that we have, with the animal, be it in our dreams, literature, art, music, and other such creative expressions, we will find insights into ourselves ,the mysteries of our world and the Great Spirit. This can be at a very personal level or at a shared level as in the arts. Where, the viewer's mind, can respond to the image stimulus, in a healing way. Healing can be triggered when there is an understanding reached that one can relate to, consciously or unconsciously. It can cause a release of energy or an opening that allows the energy to flow, triggering the body's natural chemicals to function at a parasympathetic level. Peace follows when the understanding is reached. This is one of the myriad ways that the animal symbol is used. There is a real need for our symbols beside just entertainment. Healing begins in the mind and emotions, than moves to the body where thoughts and emotions are held in the tissues. These thoughts and emotions are a vital energy. It is within the depth of our mind that animal symbolism most keenly takes its hold and first takes place to spread into other aspects of our lives at many levels.
In using an animal to represent our animal self or the different instinctive natures of the self we use various animals," lower life forms" as symbols. These symbols are what Jung has labelled "motifs". These "motifs" as well as others stimulate unconscious knowledge to arise and become conscious common knowledge and form a bridge between what is known and what is unknown, Jung describes an image as being symbolic "when it implies something more than its obvious and immediate meaning" (4).
This animal "motif", as Carl Jung states, represents our "primitive and instinctual nature "and because we have not killed the “animal within” ourselves, its rich symbolism permeates our life today. Yet most of us have never been fully aware of it. Our animal instincts live on. It reminds me of the saying you can do you what ever you want to my body but you can’t touch my soul.
Our primitive and instinctual nature is somewhat of a vague concept to most, as most people are out of touch with their own true natures to begin with. It hides within us. We don't even know how we are feeling most of the time, because we have been taught as children to suppress so much, especially our rage. These buried parts of us don't get to develop at the same paces as other parts of our selves, much more so when our true feelings are suppressed over and over again. Those parts become severely set back in development and this in turn becomes our hurting damaged inner child and the wounded animal. In trying to deny and suppress our true instinctual feeling, our "primitive nature, we as a species have a need to pay attention to it because its still there no matter how we try to disguise it. Its presence comes to us in awake and dreaming symbols. Our instincts have been referred to by Jung as "built-in physiological urges" that manifest themselves in fantasies and often reveal their presence by symbolic images, (58).
Many of our emotions as well as many of our thoughts appear to us as instinct or flows of unconscious energy. A feeling of exuberance may be translated into images of playing animals; those vital energies remain alive and active within the dreamers mind. How often do we suppress the good stuff? When its taboo? That is when it gets into the sex stuff and my first thought would be. I don't want to go there that’s where you may find playboy bunnies or bad experiences may come out as dangerous threatening wild animals.
So back to some basic suppressed emotions. Fear, for example, may "raise its ugly head” and appear to us as an unfriendly animal or demon monster. The more menacingly, or whichever the displaying problem related to the animal, the more likely that the dreamer is at odds with his own instinctive energies and the more is the need to heal the wounded animal. We have to own it, tame it and love it and most of all acknowledge it. The chances are, it just wants to be set free. Just as in the “messages of the wolf dreams” on the site wolfpie-art.com. “A wolf was circling a woman lying on the ground. It just kept circling her. It stopped to lick her and just kept pacing around the body.” I didn’t know what to think of it. But it reminded me of a real news story of a young aboriginal girl that was found dead near our home just off the highway.
The "wolf
dreams" showed up in the past but I didn't recognize them.
For example, at the time my daughter, was about to get
married, I dreamt that she needed to be rescued from some
kind of a cult and there was a group of people that came to
my aid. A group of approximately twenty that wore wolf skins
with the head parts hanging down over their faces.
During my last year of my failing relationship, however, the
wolf dreams came more often, and I was able to remember them
in detail when I awoke. At the time I thought that the
dreams were sent to give me courage.
In reality,
that autumn, some large animals had broken in to our
pheasant coop. They just pushed their way right through a
heavy gauge wire and squeezed them selves in .They were not
hungry, just determined to kill most of my husband’s
precious birds. The power of it was amazing .We found traces
of grey silver and black hairs left behind in the wire and
some very large paw prints.
In one of the first "wolf" dreams, there were wolves outside the house threatening to get in the door. My husband was out there with his gun trying to shoot them. The lock was broken on the door and I didn't have the strength to hold it closed. For one moment I though if I was fast enough I could step away from the door to find something to help me keep out the threatening danger. As soon as I did, one of the wolves broke in and lunged for me open mouthed teeth flashing. It got me and bit me in the face. I woke up after that and I could feel my face burning. That scene, I assume now was just to get my attention.
In the next dream, I wandered up to an outdoors cosmic study group. A native elder woman sat with her back to me looking at the night sky. She was teaching about the animal legends, pointing out in the panorama of stars the animal shapes and the constellations. I remember in particular her pointing out the planet Sirius, the Dog Star. She turned to look right at me and asked me if I had spoken to the wolf. I was taken by surprise and sheepishly said "no." I didn’t know I was supposed to.
In my next dream, I was outside working in the garden when I had noticed that the grass was very long. I thought to myself, "Now I know why we keep the grass cut. It's so the wild animals can't sneak up on us." At that point, out of the long grass came a huge grey wolf, chained to a smaller and darker wolf. I was afraid, but remembered that I was supposed to speak to them so I asked the wolf what it wanted. The big grey one put his paws up on my shoulders and asked me to unchain them. I was afraid to reach down and undo them, but I did. They just wanted to be set free.
It can be difficult at time to know what to do with these animal symbols. Early aboriginal beliefs were that we had animal spirit guides or animal totems. Jung gives a good illustration of how, in the infancy of our development, our primitive and instinctual nature must have created havoc and regret in our life, causing us to try to destroy the beast within.
"The bushman who in a moment of anger and disappoint at his failure to catch any fish, strangles his much beloved only son, and is then seized with immense regret as he holds the little dead body in his arms. Such a man might remember this moment of pain forever". (65)
It's no wonder we came to use the animal to symbolize our natures. Our primitive impulsive acts must have caused us and been blamed for much pain and regret.
Different animals can correspond to different strengths and weakness of the human, not just the savage beastie side. Each animal has its own behaviour patterns and characteristics that make it special. Therefore each carries with it; different attributes which we relate to our own natures; each attribute carries with it qualities that are parallel to our own instinctive natures. These qualities should be taken into consideration when looking for specific symbolic meaning. Chinese Astrology and the native medicine wheel are some examples that use animal symbolism.
From the native perspective, animals can communicate with the human by sending an impression, which is seen or received in the mind; the modern word, being telepathically. And because each creature is it self an expression of the Great Spirit, it can thus communicate to the human mind images and thoughts." This is why they are seen as the great helpers of mankind.
Some of the most widely used animal "motifs" in art and literature, as well as many other forms of communication, consist mainly the most common animals native to North America. These are the animals used by the First Nations people symbolically in their Medicine Wheel, which is used for the benefit of the growth and healing of an individual.
My mother did a medicine wheel work shop during my training to be a care aide. At the end of the work shop we all picked a card and we were to receive a message from that animal to help us on our journey into our new career. No … I didn’t get the wolf. As it turned out I picked the frog. It wasn’t until a year into my new job that I noticed that as I got out of my car there was a large cement frog on the lawn right where I usually parked. Also there was a pool that wasn’t used and the frogs had moved in. I remember my boss catching a frog from the pool to show one of the residents. The Medicine Book has a lot to say about the different animal medicine cards, “An ability of frog medicine people is to give support and energy where it is needed.” I still think it is up to my knowledge and experience of that animal and what it means to me in order to really apply it to my own world. For example, my favourite child hood pass time was wading around in the water filled ditches among the cattails looking for frogs and tadpoles.( )
The wolf, bear, deer, fox, squirrel, frog, butterfly, turtle, buffalo, mouse, eagle, hawk are some other more common examples. Some others that are less common are dogs, monkeys, pigs, lions and other cats, horses and unicorns, lizards and mythical beasts, rodents, snakes, fish and birds of many varieties. Many of these examples are more common to the Chinese astrology. When deciding on the meaning of an animal, first consideration is about what associations are made of that animal symbol by the viewer of the symbol .The dreamer or person the energy is directed to must interpret it from their own heart and their own inner knowing. If it something important it will be a reoccurring theme.
The animal "motif" is a universal symbol because it has survived the time barriers in many ways equally well throughout the world. Different cultures have passed on through the generations a variety of legends and myths, which contain the animal "motif”. Here is a wolf poem, from a novel based on a story that takes place in ancient Ireland.
“Remember the wolf that howled in his den
For he came to be a leader of men
Remember who brought two together as one
For the wolf gave us hope when there had been none
Remember invaders who marched out to meet
For the wolf brought us glory from certain defeat
Remember the blade that slashed through the air
For the wolf lost his life at Dun magochtair
Remember his sacrifice made out of love
for the wolf that runs free in the fields above
Remember the dream death couldn't erase
For the wolf left behind one to rule in his place
Forget about war and sheath bloodied sword
For the son of the wolf is our overlord”
Author (to be found) From a historical Ireland Novel
Art work is rich with symbolism and dates as far back as 60,000 BC to primitive society's cave paintings. Literature is also wild with animal symbolism. Some of our earliest recorded written communications would probably be the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, cave art, or even Easter Island's coded messages carved in the stone statues and their ancient Rongo Rongo tablets. These ancient picture codes all seem to contain some kind of symbolic images of animals. Innate within our minds it has survived and thrived right up to this modern day. It follows us, almost with a will of its own, right into our dreams.
The animal "motif" has shown up in many different religions as well as rituals and its presence worshiped and feared .This powerful motif has even presented itself as different spirits in animal form. Its presence has not only invaded our dreams, but coloured our beliefs, inspired artists, and enriched their creations, represented mythological gods and spirits. Its presence has certainly added much spice by way as symbol to our many means of self expression.
Being a mysterious symbol, it has made its way into the spiritual life of many religions. Many which tell of our first days and our first contact with the animal. The most familure story is the biblical account of "Adam and Eve". It seems our relationship with animals goes hand in hand with our relationship with God. These legends are often referred to as the “paradisiac myths" (Elaide 60). They show how we suppressed our instinctive natures to such extremes that we became alienated from Him, our Creator. But when we were still in Paradise according to most legends, we enjoyed many freedoms, which include a special friendship with animals, knowledge of their language, and an easy access to heaven, followed with direct communication with God. After the "fall", among the many losses, were man's loss of his special relationship with animals, and also the loss of the direct communication with God.
It seems as if one of the roles that animal symbolism plays is in the regaining of something that was lost in the "fall". The situation might be remedied by reliving the "paradisiac past" and attaining a type of special relationship with animals, through animal symbolism. According to Elaide, "the vital experience of this friendship with animals takes man out of the general condition of "fallen" humanity and enables him to re-enter the condition described to us by the "paradisiac myths"(66). It seems that getting in touch with our instinctive and animal natures is quite important in the religious and spiritual life. As Elaide says" it is only the mystics who obtain in part the restoration of that state: friendship with animals, ascent to heaven and meeting with God"(68). Saint Francis of Assise is another example of a religious nature. It is quite common to see pictures of "holy men", with birds landing on them or surrounded by some type of animal.
What is a Mystic? Who is the Shaman?
Shamanism - use of the archaic techniques of ecstasy that were developed independent of any religious philosophy they empirically validated, experientially operable techniques that produce ecstasy. Ecstasy is the contemplation of wholeness.
Source: The Archaic Revival by Terence McKenna
The shaman through animal symbolism attains a spiritual life that is richer than the average person. To put it briefly the shaman, in some cases will initiate the sounds and behaviour of animals and birds in order to reach the ecstasy state or through the help of different plants, like tobacco. Every culture has its plant helpers. The vocalizing is often refereed to as the secret language of the animals and it is used in preparation for a mystic journey into the spirit world. A meeting takes place with his animal spirit who then guides him through a vision where special knowledge is received (63). Here we see the pattern: from man ....through animal ....to God.
Other mystics? Our biblical profits seem to fit animals into their accounts here and there. There is a noticeable similarity among these mystics which most of us are familiar with. These examples are in many of our various religious accounts .The story of "Daniel and the lions" from the Bible is another example that a relationship with animals was attained and direct communication with God accomplished. Jesus quite often was and is symbolized as an animal. He was the Lamb of God, the fish, the lion; the serpent exulted on the cross, and the unicorn. The Lamb of God became the mediator between us and God. He also was deemed the sacrificial lamb. Since we showed a need to sacrifice animals or our animal nature in hopes to please God, He gave us His sacrificial lamb instead.
The presence of animal symbolism in our lives today is quite often felt on personal levels such as our dreams and fantasies. The reason is because much of its presence is on a subconscious level. Yet if we were to really open our eyes to it, we could become fully aware of the hundreds of symbols around us in animal form and be astounded at just how much there is .All the subtle uses of animal symbolism in any toy department is a growing phenomenon on display in almost any store are a multitude of stuffed toy creatures, books and toys, from cute and cuddly to grotesque and aggressive. The children’s movie the Golden Compass was a wonderful expression of integrating a sense of wholeness in having a relationship with our animal selves. It seemed that this inner animal is considered a daemon“ .In the movie from the book The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, daemons take animal form and are always with or very near their human, somewhat like a pet, but they are more than that. Children's daemons can change shape, but as children grow into puberty, the daemon takes on one shape. The animal form usually reflects the power, status, and characteristics of its human.”[ ] He also quotes from the wikipedia "In Neoplatonism, a daemon was more like a demigod rather than an evil spirit" (Wikipedia,) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(mythology).Fear is equated with evil, we have been taught to fear wild animals. Just like the wolf in “little Red Riding Hood “ the wolf is a creature to be feared and is seen as the evil one.All of us seem to be drawn to the animal "motif”, even children, and most of us have never given it any thought. Subconsciously we respond to the symbolism, especially at Easter. Be it spiritual implications of religious origins or just subconscious reminders of our suppressed instinctual natures.
We have not succeeded in cutting away the animal within, so
we might just as well get to know it, make friends with it
and love it. Jung, in his book states the importance of
recognizing the symbolic animal within and coming to terms
with it.
"Suppressed and wounded
instincts are the dangers threatening civilized man;
uninhibited drives are the dangers threatening primitive
man. In both cases the "animal" is alienated from its true
nature; and for both, the acceptance of the animal soul is
the condition for wholeness and a fully lived life.
Primitive man must tame the animal in himself and make it
his helpful companion; civilized man must heal the animal in
himself and make it his friend
(266)."
We see it emerging because it is a part of us: a strange and quite often unknown part of ourselves, therefore viewed as mysterious and occult. Whether we like it or not, there is a little beast in all of us. Sometimes that little beast is a wounded spirit trying to communicate and maybe just wants to be acknowledged.
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