by Berenice Andrews
The Preparation
On that long-ago first morning, we were 12 shamanic students sitting in a circle. Our only seeming connection was the “calling” we had each received to be there. In my case, that special spiritual summons had been very dramatic and much resisted. My first steps had taken me only as far as receiving hands-on healing and spiritual counseling from Patricia, my teacher/healer. Although I had known that she was a shaman, I had been certain that I would never travel that path.
One year later, I was taking my next faltering steps. Feeling an unsettling mixture of anticipation and anxiety, I sat there while Patricia prepared us for our first shamanic “journey” into the Spirit World. She was carefully ensuring that we would have a safe and familiar route for entering and leaving our destination.
While she guided us through a meditation, I returned to my childhood and found myself in my grandmother’s root cellar, located under a trapdoor in her tiny kitchen. (With no refrigerator, she had stored her milk and butter there to keep them cool. My childhood self had been delighted to go down and fetch them.) Now after 50 years, my shamanic route into and out of the Spirit World turned out to be my grandmother’s root cellar!
In the meditation, that special place immediately became an entrance opening into a long underground tunnel that ended at a veil separating that world from this. Still in the meditative state, we practiced the departure by going several times through our entrance and proceeding along the tunnel, but stopping before the veil, while Patricia drummed a hypnotic “departure beat.” Then we practiced returning, while she drummed the “callback.”
After that preparation, we were almost ready to make our spirit journey. But there was one essential piece still needed…
Because the Spirit World is an unlimited vastness, shamanic explorers have always required a spirit guide. Known as a “power animal,” that guide provides the steady presence, advice, and skills the “journeyer” invariably needs. Having come along thus far, I was feeling somewhat less anxious and starting to look forward to meeting my power animal. Before that could happen, however, there was a protocol to be learned.
As I listened, I started to realize that I was being prepared for a huge, new realm of awareness. Although the instruction resembled the preparation for a first-time visit to a foreign country in this dimension, there were some interesting dissimilarities. And there was one never-to-be-forgotten instruction. No matter how annoying and difficult the inhabitants of the Spirit World might be, we were to give them polite attention and to thank them for their efforts.
Then came the prime directive: we were always to travel with an intent. Without that focus and purpose we would be lost. And whatever help our soon-to-be-encountered power animal could give us would not be available. Thus, our first intent—that of connecting with our power animal—was truly the onset of all that was to follow on our shamanic path. With increasing anticipation, I awaited Patricia’s final instructions.
And she was very clear. Our power animal/spirit guide would always embody the power we needed. While this animal might change over the years, that first power animal would fortify us for all that would follow.
[I found this very interesting! Having felt rather inadequate on many occasions, I began imagining that my power animal would be a sleek, strong lioness of haughty demeanor.]
Then Patricia went on to tell us that for our first encounter, we were to remember further necessary details, namely …
On this journey, our power animal would approach us. However, because the inhabitants of the Spirit World are so eager to help, many might step forth to assist. We were to respond by politely asking each one who did if it was our power animal, but we were to leave them behind until we had encountered the same animal and received an affirmative reply three times. This would ensure that we had connected with the power animal that we truly needed. After that, we were to ask its name and to pose the all-important question: what power do you have that I need?
At last we were ready! With much anticipation and my intent firmly in hand, I entered into my first shamanic spirit journey. Traveling on the drumbeat, I speedily went down into the root cellar, along the tunnel and out through the veil.
The Encounter
What an amazing “world” was revealed! And what an adventure unfolded!
Although I had the sense of being surrounded by the energies of many beings, they were not approaching me. I decided to walk forward, while all the time hoping for my lioness. Then I felt a tug on my skirt. Looking up at me with a buck-toothed grin was a blue-eyed, light gray rabbit with ears that touched the ground. (Indeed, that rabbit was tripping over them!) It looked up at me expectantly and I reluctantly asked if it was my power animal. The animal nodded. I remembered to say “thank you” and hastened on. (I was hoping to elude the creature, while I kept looking for the lioness.) But that bunny persisted. It came to me the required three times, despite my efforts to escape. I was chagrined! What could I possibly need with a buck-toothed, blue-eyed rabbit who tripped over its own ears?
Yet, I remained polite and asked its name and what power it had that I needed. The reply was: “Welsh rabbit, name hug-wood, spell T-h-u-g-w-y-d-d.” Then I felt my hand being grabbed and off we went, running full tilt. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. But unlike Alice, I was crawling under bushes, leaping over stones and short hedges, crouching behind flower pots, splashing through rivulets and running again. Then, as abruptly as we had started, we stopped. The rabbit vanished. At that moment, I heard the callback and returned to this dimension.
There awaiting my revelations were a smiling Patricia and all my classmates. I felt like crying! But I knew that here was the turning-point moment in which I could stay or run. (Since then, Spirit has done that to me quite often!) I stayed. And I have (almost) never regretted it.
The Afterward
Since that inauspicious beginning, Thugwydd and I have spirit journeyed 20 years together. And why had he/she been given to me? That turned out to be a simple question with an answer that has taken me all these years to actualize.
Briefly, since I had already plenty of lioness energies (I discovered), the power I lacked had been the quickness and flexibility necessary to deal calmly with the unexpected situations…in this world and in the Spirit World…for which I had had little or no life preparation. Of all the physical, emotional, and mental qualities needed for my work as a shamanic teacher/healer, these were the most important. And the power animal in my life—that blue-eyed rabbit—has helped me to actualize that power.
There have been times, however, when I could have wished he/she had been a lion! In many an adventure in the Spirit World, I have found myself led to my destination and abruptly left. But in all that time, Thugwydd has never failed me.
In recognition and appreciation, I have sought to learn about the wonderful tradition to which he/she belongs. Probing into the “history” of shamanic spirituality, I have reached back into a time even before the Peche Merle cave paintings. As a result, I have marveled at the many ways Spirit has been moving mankind along.
In the “single evolutionary current” that is Spirit-in-action (Ken Wilber) there can be traced the incredible “story” that has unfolded for many millennia. And the story of mankind has always included the shaman. The word means “one who knows.” Even before religions with gods/goddesses and priests/priestesses, even before there was homo sapiens, there were the “spirit people”…the shamans. They lived in both this world and the Spirit World, and they were able to foster ties between this world’s animals and its people.
In that evolutionary current, first there were small tribes whose shamans found their animal totems—the identifying energies that held the clans together. As the eons passed and people slowly became “individuals,” i.e., they were developing the necessary microcosmic sense of “i-am”/self, the shamans helped each of them to connect with their own power animal. Thus, the “ones who knew,” along with those seeking spiritual connection and their power animals were all vitally necessary aspects of the ongoing evolutionary current. And they’re still around!
In this 21st century, there’s something new that’s emerging. It involves humanity’s next evolutionary step. Now, some people are starting to realize that a direct access to the Spirit World is available to anyone with the courage, commitment, and trust to be a journeyer. In short, we humans who are becoming aware that we are the microcosm of the macrocosmic “I-AM” are also becoming quite capable of being the “ones who know” our own multidimensionality. Thereby, we can discover that the Spirit World is within us, that we are actually an ever-expanding, multidimensional spiritual being having a human experience.
And in that place of indwelling, our power animals are awaiting us. I know that mine certainly is. Being a rabbit, Thugwydd probably has any number of relatives who would willingly help, if needed.
Berenice Andrews is a shamanic teacher/healer and a regular contributor to this magazine. To explore further into the ideas presented above (in addition to the world’s sacred writings and its myths and tales), see Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning, by Edward Carpenter and the biased but informative The Golden Bough, by James G. Fraser. To learn more about power animals, see Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Power of Creatures Great & Small, by Ted Andrews.
To find out more about Berenice and her teachings, please refer to her articles in back issues of Transformation Magazine and to her book: Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest for Wholeness…And Afterward. If you are interested in becoming her student, see the thestonecircleclassroom.com.