Animal medicine is a Native American tradition that involves gaining insight and understanding through spiritual alignment with animals. Each animal imparts specific lessons, and personal “power animals” indicate major challenges and talents. Animal sightings, even seemingly insignificant ones, have diverse meanings and insights. The tradition emphasizes the importance of dreaming and living in harmony with nature.
Animal medicine is a tradition passed down through generations of Native American tribes including the Choctaw, Seneca, Aztec, Lakota, Yaqui, Cherokee, Cheyenne and Mayan civilizations. It is a belief in the ability to gain insight and understanding of our inner nature and life through close observation and spiritual alignment with animals.
In its basic form animal medicine refers to the spirit essence of each animal in the animal kingdom, which, according to tradition, imparts a specific lesson to those who wish to learn. In a broader sense, every animal imparts many lessons. “Medicine” gains aids in healing the spirit, mind, and body through expanding self-awareness and, in doing so, each person’s place on life’s “Medicine Wheel.”
Mountain lion medicine, for example, imparts lessons about leadership or the balance of power. The mountain lion is the king of the jungle, but he only kills what he needs to survive. He balances his power as he balances his body, leaping gracefully with perfect agility to the ground in strike or stare poses. Ants, on the other hand, also impart medicine. Ant Medicine is about the benefits of community work, patience, and knowing that little by little the job will get done. Every animal in the animal kingdom has its own essence.
The animal medicine tradition dictates that particular animals travel in spirit with each person as they make their “walk on earth.” These are called personal “power animals” or “totem animals.” The nature of these animals indicates major lessons that the person will face and also talents or skills that will help them overcome their personal challenges. A person’s power animals are divined through various means, with nine power animals in all. These consist of a totem animal for each direction (East, South, West, North), an animal for above, below, inside, the left side and the right side.
According to animal medicine each direction or place on the animal totem pole has its own lessons. For example, the animal of the Orient imparts lessons and insights into a person’s greatest spiritual challenge. If this power animal happens to be the mountain lion, this person will likely face a fundamental challenge that evolves around power. It could be an abuse of power or an abject lack of power. In both cases, the main challenge will have to be conquered and the mountain lion will have the keys to conquer that challenge.
Animal Medicine is about the importance of dreaming and how power animals will often impart their medicine (lessons) through appearing in dreams. However, according to animal medicine, no animal sighting, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is accidental. This is as true for Westerners living in cities as it is for tribal members. The passage of a butterfly, dragonfly, lizard, hummingbird, or crow have diverse meanings and rich insights for those who ascribe to animal medicine.
In a practical sense, applying animal medicine might be something as simple as noticing a hawk soaring overhead during a walk to cool off after an argument with a spouse. Falcon medicine involves receiving messages by observing, as the falcon’s keen eyesight misses nothing, seeing “the big picture” from above. Someone who ascribes to animal medicine might see the hawk and realize that he or she hasn’t been looking at the big picture in the context of the discussion, or conversely, hasn’t “got the message” that the relationship is over.
Native American tribes believe that all beings and nature itself come from the “Great Spirit” and that by sharing lessons we can learn to live more gracefully and at peace with ourselves, with each other, and with our environment. Animal medicine is still practiced today by many tribal peoples and those in the West who are drawn to the natural essence and poetic beauty of this insightful tradition.
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