Power Animal heals us in journeys, on whatever we bring to it, and it brings us Power, the life-force that comes from being connected to Mother EarthMother Earth. The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: “The Earth is indeed our Mother.” More about this and the web of life. Its unconditional love helps heal self-criticism and begins to heal the deep Mother-woundMother-Wound. The near-universal injury of inadequate mothering in Taker culture, scaling from the personal wound to a collective distortion of the Mother archetype itself. Largely pre-verbal, it is healed not by insight but by receiving healthy mothering: from the Lower-World, the Power Animal’s unconditional love, and Mother Earth. More about this. It teaches by doing rather than by words, and in everyday life it becomes a reassuring presence we can turn to when we need it.
What does my Power Animal help with? #
Almost anything that needs healing. In the first journeys, one suggestion is to ask for healing on “something physical (healing on your bad back, headaches etc.) or something mental or emotional (anxiety, procrastination, lack of confidence etc.)”, or simply for a general healing.1 Once the Power Animal has been found, the advice is the same: “When you do meet your Power Animal, then ask it for some healing.”2 Asking regularly is also one of the main ways the bond deepens.
What it does not do is give advice about life in the middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer. In a Lower-World journey there should be “no advice about whether to apply for the new job or not, or whether to stay with your partner or leave them”. A Power Animal is not some sort of magical cure. Its real expertise is right relationship, and it is of the Lower-World, so it does not understand human-made middle-world things such as bank accounts, promotions or parking spaces. Wanting a being who makes our decisions for us is handing our power over, which is not animist. A Power Animal wants us to grow into Adults who take responsibility for what is ours and find our own way in the middle-world.
Why is it called a “Power” Animal? #
Because it brings power, in the shamanic sense of life-force. “Another major reason to always work with your Power Animal when journeying, is that it brings you power. That is why it is called a ‘Power’ animal! By ‘power’, here, what shamans mean is essentially ‘life-force’.”3 Shamans see Power-lossPower-loss. Disconnection from nature, the web of life and our place in it: like being unplugged from the national grid. One of the two root causes of shamanic illness, healed by reconnection (not by soul retrieval), beginning with the Power Animal bond. Read the full answer as one of the main causes of illness, and it comes from being cut off from nature and from Mother Earth.
Power Animal is the first remedy. Anything that helps us reconnect helps heal Power-loss, and “First and foremost in this is doing a Power Animal retrieval, as they are your most important connection to the more-than-human.”4 The other side of it: “Without them, you are suffering from Power Loss, leaving you vulnerable to intrusionsIntrusion. Something lodged in us that should not be there, having entered through the holes soul-loss and Power-loss leave. Four broad types: unhelpful thought-forms, introjects, foreign-body energetic intrusions, and entity possessions. More about this, unhealthy entanglementsEntanglement. An unhealthy energetic tie hooking us into another person, a role, an object or a family story; released by disentanglement. More about this, and entity possessions.”5 See What is Power-loss?
How does my Power Animal’s love heal? #
By being unconditional. A Power Animal has been described as “Mother Earth trying to tell you, in a form that she thinks you will understand, how deeply she loves you and how much you are welcome on the earth.” Human relationships are always conditional in some way, but “By contrast, your Power Animal loves you unconditionally.”6
That love works on old wounds. “It will show more love, acceptance, understanding and compassion to you than you show to yourself… It helps heal the self-criticism and lack of self-compassion that most people have deep inside. And it helps to begin to heal the deep Mother wound”, the sense of not being welcome in the world. Unconditional does not mean soft: “At times your Power Animal may chide you. It may tease you, or be stern with you. That is as any good mother should be.”7
How does a Power Animal heal in a journey? #
Through what it does, not through what it says. Healing in the Lower-World “can take many different forms”: an Animal may take out things that do not belong, in some symbolic form, and put something healthy in their place. This is a classic shamanic extraction.8 Paul Francis’s own Power Animal, Panther, rarely teaches him by using spoken words. Words are limited, mostly left-brain and middle-world things. Rather, Panther teaches him by doing and by demonstrating.9 Watching closely what it does is how you begin to learn from it. See What is shamanic healing?
Can any Lower-World Animal heal me, or only my Power Animal? #
Any of them can. An animal met in the Lower-World, “like all the Animals, Plants and Stones”, has a healing gift for you.10 And amongst Power Animals there is no ranking: “all Power Animals have their own powerful healing and wisdom, and none are ‘better’ than others.”11 So it is fine to receive healing from other Animals in a journey, with your Power Animal beside you. What makes a Power Animal different is not that it alone heals, but the depth of the relationship and the fact that it is with you always.
Can my Power Animal be experienced in my body? #
Yes, in several ways. The retrieval itself has a bodily part, and it matters: “The physical, somatic aspect of this is important in helping ground, deepen and anchor the experience.”12 In journeys you can shapeshift into your Power Animal, or “invite it to flow into your body and for it to shape-shift into being you and experience being you.”13
In everyday life it is often felt beside you. As you practise sensing it, “it settles into a favourite place beside you. It may be on your left side or your right, behind you or in front of you, or on one of your shoulders”.14 Out walking on the beach, Paul may experience walking with his Power Animals and GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this beside him.15
How does my Power Animal support me in everyday life? #
By being there. “Your Power Animal keeps you connected and plugged-in to shamanic reality.” Over time it becomes “a familiar, real and reassuring presence that you can rely on, and turn to when needed and at will.”16
An example: when a student is anxious about giving a presentation, Paul might suggest they become their Adult self, and “sense their Power Animal by their side too, because, remember, a true Adult is not an independent being but an interconnected being.” Imagining the presentation from there, “the anxiety is usually considerably lessened, and often gone entirely.”17
What is the purpose of Power Animal work? #
To reconnect. Power Animal is our first and closest link back to Mother Earth and the other Peoples, and so the beginning of healing Power-loss. It is also the Guide who makes the work Spirit-led: “It is not the shaman that does the healing, but the guides.”18 And the relationship goes both ways, so giving back to its species in the middle-world is part of it. The extractionsExtraction. Drawing a foreign body (an intrusion) out of a person and packing the hole with something healthy. The iron rule: only ever foreign bodies, never a part of the self: extracting a genuine part of self creates soul-loss. More about this, soul retrievals and other healing that happen in journeys can be remarkable, but the deepest healing is the relationship itself, coming to know that we belong here and are welcome here, that each of us has something of our own to contribute, and that the world around us loves us and is full of beings who want to help. See How do I build and deepen my relationship with Power Animal?
