Power Animals:
Spirit Helpers in Animal Form
Power animals are actually quite common. Most people have had extremely personal, sometimes longstanding relationships with animal spirits, however they just didn't know it! When they learn about animal spirit helpers they are sometimes surprised to recognize a relationship whose potential was already there. When they have a power retrieval and obtain an animal spirit, they are empowered.
For instance, one person I taught to journey 'came back' from her first journey to the lower world having found a hummingbird as her power animal. She then realized that hummingbirds had been around her all of her life, and began remembering specific instances of their presence. She then recognized humming birds as having always been something special to her, frequently encountered in her life, and in other ways somehow more important to her than to other people she knew.
Power animals (which is a particularly American NorthWest term for spirit helpers in animal form) have specific skills and strengths that vastly out measure humankind’s, such as fearlessness, strength, and patience, and innumerable other abilities: powers that we can use to help ourselves, as well as serve in the course of bringing healing to others. Thus, a spirit helper in animal form can provide protection, guidance, or transportation (such as on their back, held in their claws, etc.)
Each of us has at least one, and more commonly a number of such spirit helpers waiting for us to simply find them and ask for their assistance. They want to help us and bring their special powers to us at a time of our life when we need them. They can also travel with us, guiding, protecting, and providing us with information. As is the case with our upper world teachers, these animals may also test you to determine the sincerity of your bond with them and the cleanliness of your heart.
It is because we are short in one or another powers that as a full self we would have, that we find ourselves stumbling through life. The retrieval of one's power animals, and in service to others the retrieval of such animals for another person, are a very shamanic way of restoring a balanced wellness to the full person.