Connecting to the divine animal archetypes
By Ishtar
Carl Jung said that his compassion for animals did not stem from Buddhism but, "rested on the deeper foundation of a primitive attitude of mind - an unconscious identity with animals." People who do not sense the phylogenic and spirit connection with animals are closing themselves off to the reality and truth of their own natures. This disconnection is a cutting off from a source of guidance, clarity and power. Animal archetypes give us opportunity to eulogise the noble and natural aspects of our own awareness. All the animal kingdom can be tapped into and utilized in the connected model of the universe. Cross culturally and historically the position of animals as spiritual beings is correlated with the amount of so called 'civilization' of that society.
The metaphysical fusion of human and animal is expressed in the notion of 'Power animal'. These entities are derived from a variety of species. For some cultures the type of power animal that works with the shaman, indicates his abilities and power as a shaman. It is interesting how diverse cultures frequently have mythological similarities. This is true for the deification and spiritual identification in animals.
Children find it easy to commune with animals, they instinctively act out animal behaviors and understand the subtle communications of the non human world. When we are very young, children of all cultures naturally anthropomorphize animals. This tendency is reflected in the stories children like (which frequently feature animals with human abilities such as speech). Often these animals also have supernatural power. Hume in Natural history of Religions says "there is a universal tendency amongst mankind to conceive all things like themselves and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted and of which they are intimately conscious." I can remember how I could succinctly and unsentimentally connect with animals as a child. I think when interacting with any life-form we cannot totally disengage from self and other. So much of our interpretation of other beings are projections from our own inner psyche. This is more pronounced when we are young. When I was about 8, I would occasionally let my pet rabbits out of their hutch then get up at dawn to stalk them, catch them, and put them back. My rabbits enjoyed the freedom and I felt so alive, invigorated and natural when involved in my illicit dawn stalking activities. To catch them I had to really believe I was a cat. I sensed the metamorphism of my physical and psychic body. I felt my self dissolve into the grass and the trees. I could make myself very still and wait for the exact moment, when there was complete connectedness and coalition with all the elements, to strike. The loss of personal identity in those situations is ecstatic. One experiences a clarity of awareness and connection not normally experienced. I am a vegetarian, who is anti-hunting, but the joy of the human hunter in traditional cultures is similar to that of the cat or dog or any other predator.
People of all cultures began their civilization by deifying animals. (Perhaps if I had not deified my dog and cat so much they would not take so many liberties!) In this way they could connect to their energy and learn from them hunting and survival skills. Animals also functioned as a mirror informing humanity of the multi-faceted aspects of human awareness. In the holographic model of the universe we connect with animals in a very real way. Early creation myths tell of a Creatrix from whose dark void split to reveal the light. However earlier theories on creation involved animals as the creatures of the universe. Most creation stories name animals as the first beings to exist as creators and partners in the formation of the world. For most peoples, it was not a singular god who created the world; the universe was constructed by animal gods, who arrived here before us. Animal deities have been intermediaries between humans and gods. Native American totemic and animism are only two concepts that testify to the importance of this relationship. Ancient Egyptian religion was populated by animal Gods and Goddess and had other shamanic elements.
Shamans can connect with/become power animals because on a collective level we are the animal and it is us. The shaman is the one who can successfully access and distill within himself the essence of identity from the myriad of species that populate the universe. The connection between the power animal and shaman is an intimate fusion that becomes an amalgam of both identities. This phenomenon becomes apparent if the shaman is killed in her animal form, the human body will also soon die. Familiars are similar to power animals. Witches were said to be able to shape shift to become a variety of animals. If injured in these manifestations the injury would appear in the corresponding part of the witches human form.
Animals must be deified for specific psychic reasons, in that these aspects of human consciousness are worthy of praise and elevation. The contemporary human attitude towards animals is interestingly antagonistic. Animals are some times the subject of needless cruelty by modern humans. We have negative terms used to insult humans e.g. calling a disgusting person an 'animal'. In a sense, animals become the mirror in which man may see his own features and scorn his own image. In some respects they are the 'shadow' of humanity. Archetypal psychologist James Hillman insists that "a snake is not a symbol" (Dream Animals, 1997). He looks at animals in dreams, fantasies and myths as carriers of soul, as Gods, as "divine, 
in
intelligent, autochthonous powers demanding respect."
Shamanic literature does not often reference Egyptian totemism. Ancient Egypt had a very clear cosmology whose spiritual pantheon was initially only inhabited by animals. Egyptian ideas on spirituality are very ancient and influenced many other magical and spiritual belief systems. The occult approach was based on the unification of all phenomena - all beings are the same in kind and differ only in degree. Unity of all the kingdoms was recognized by the occultists and theologians of ancient Egypt. The divine form of Amen-Ra was a symbol for the concept of all forms in one Amen-Ra is addressed as "the One One", "the divine form who dwelleth in the forms of all the gods". Then, as now, the true teaching existed; that behind all forms is a nameless, invisible Power, the source of all manifested life, expressed in such passages as this: "You look and you see it not -- it is colorless; you listen and you hear it not -- it is voiceless; you desire to handle it -- you touch it not -- it is formless." The Hermetic texts discussed by Frances Yates’s, Giordano Bruno speak of a meeting of mystics in an Egyptian temple. Spirit chooses one of them as its voice, to explain - 'All descends from heaven, from the one who is all'. The hermetic explains that all things come from a 'continual effluvia through the souls of all species. Matter has been prepared by God to be the receptacle of all forms…' Egyptian and Shamanic philosophy conclude that all beings are contained and emanate from within the one. Shape shifting then is a matter of aiming towards our point of connection, the one, and tuning in from that to the desired physical form.
A totem is an animal, plant, or element of nature that has a relationship with an individual or culture. The fact that many spiritual/magical/mythological beliefs are similar cross-culturally suggests they have a concrete reality which is refracted through the lens of any specific culture that it is channeled through. Animal deities will usually be those in the local geography. Freud observed that within the Australian aborigines, 'the character of a totem is inherent not only in a single animal or a single being, but in all members of the species, attachment of the totem is the foundation of all social obligations in Australia'. According to Neumann there is a 'participation mystique' that exists between shaman and totem. In American Indian traditions, each element was associated with an animal totem. This provided a deeper insight into the essential nature and power of the totem. For example the hawk is associated with thunder and lightning so symbolizes the force of transmutation. In this sense, the hawk has the qualities that we generally associate with fire, i.e. initiative, enthusiasm, warmth, leadership and purification. The frog symbolizes water, the turtle; earth, the butterfly is the totem for air.
The reason why we have a universal response to animal totems was explained by Carl Jung. C.G. Jung kept encountering elements in diverse cultures, which he called "motifs" and "primordial images", until he appropriated the term "archetypes" for them. In his final work, Man and His Symbols, Jung describes how archetypes affect all human beings: "[our] inner motives spring from a deep source that is not made by consciousness and is not under its control". The perception of archetypes is timeless and cuts across cultures. Jung observed that modern people often dream or visualize symbols well known in other sometimes long dead cultures, of which these people didn't have any knowledge. Nevertheless, these dreams had powerful meaning for the dreamers. Animals in dreams are potent messengers, their essence speaks to the collective soul that is more receptive in sleep. The specific characteristics of various animals, their appearance in physical form, dream manifestation, vision or trance could be interpreted as a communication from Spirit.
When we connect to an animal archetype through dreams, creativity or, thoughts, we are connecting with a truth which is accessible to all. This is because these creatures have a metaphysical reality which resides in the collective mind. Carl Jung coined two terms which help define this universality of feeling and experience within the human race; "The Collective Unconscious" refers to the subconscious expectations and experiences we all share beneath the surface, simply because of our common human biology. The other, "Archetype", refers more specifically to the images and mythological patterns that arise in similar ways in all human societies. Archetypes are born on the level of the collective soul, but are enacted by individual souls. Every animal has a frequency that we understand if we pay attention to the essence of the animal. "Animals almost invariably represent instincts when we meet them in dreams and active imagination. Each animal represents a different instinct or, if you prefer it, another aspect of instinct," claimed Jungian analyst Barbara Hannah (1954).
Many spiritual occult truths look at the universal force as being of no gender. The earliest powers recognised in nature are represented as being of no sex. It is said in the Akkadian hymns, "Female they are not, and male they are not". Therefore they were not imaged in the human likeness. Egyptian mythology is one of the oldest in the world, and it did not begin as an explanation of natural phenomena, but as a representation within the conceptual information available at that time. As in most animal spirituality and totemism there is rarely an explanation of why a particular animal is symbolic of a particular aspect of natural phenomena. Early Egyptian spirituality does not explain why the Sun is a Lion or the Moon a Cat. These things do not need a literal translation as the connection and obvious combination are understood by the collective unconscious aspect of our mind.
The gods of the Egyptians and Indians are often composites of animal and human bodies. After the worship of animals we often then progress to an amalgam of woman and animal, the female form that wears the head of the zootype, the Cow, Frog or Serpent, on the body of a divinity. For example the Egyptians worshiped Bast/Sekmet the cat/lion headed Goddess. The earliest form of individual and group worship in ancient times was ‘the attention paid to, and simple reverence and adoration of local animals and things, personified and deified’ (Merca 1949). "Myth" or Mythology could be encapsulated by the principle of the word "Sem" in Egyptian. This signifies representation on the ground of likeness. The use of these symbols seems fitting and justifiable, but why did the Egyptians worship animals? Why was the cat sacred to Bast, the jackal to Anubis, the hawk to Horus? How come Set is to be incarnated in the fennec? The ancient Egyptians never did anything unscientifically; there are occult reasons for the choice of animal, myth and human conjunction. There are probably reasons too in other cultures that are hard to express literally, but animals are chosen to represent natural and metaphysical concepts for specific reasons. The description of these characteristics relate to Jungian ideas concerning the archetypal understanding of the elements, natural events, manifestations and individual animal archetypes.
We can all feel an attraction to certain animals. Analysis of what these are can be very revealing about characterizes of your own inner nature. What animals we are interested in, can be very insightful and objective as a study or reflection of our idealized/despised embodied and instinctive self. When Shamans communicate with animals or become their power animal, they have both a subjective and objective experience of what it means to be this particular creature. Many traditional shamanic cultures believe that at one time all the human race could once freely communicate with animals. Animals at this time were our friends. The fall of mankind was the end of this communication. Now it is only the shamans who share this special relationship with animals. Perhaps when we are very young,- in our uncontaminated form, we have that freedom to communicate on non verbal and non local ways with animals. Our journey to become socialized adults places emphasis on psychic separation, verbal communication and rigid conditioning to accept the prescribed social and cultural paradigms. We not only feel superior to animals but also to our own embodied nature - our instinctual side (associated with the female) is felt to be an inferior aspect of the total self. This creates a schism of superior mind/ inferior body, which then creates the conditions for humans to subdivide other beings into hierarchies and in its wake creates specisist, cultural, racial and sexual elitism.
In prehistoric times people’s connection to modes of survival was acute and to stay alive animals were needed. People seemed to express thanks for what animals gave them. Ancient people articulated their recognition to the power of the animal spirits by wearing their skins. Animals were the initial subjects for art such as the ancient and mysterious wall paintings in the caves of Lascaux (which may also have been a form of sympathetic magic). Social and metaphysical activities involved connecting to the essence of the animal through masks, mimicking and devotional songs and dances to specific animals. These techniques were often used to precipitate a successful hunt. Traditional peoples and our ancestors would bless the spirit of the animal they killed. The shamans were often used to divine where the animals would be. The shaman is the one who has a clear knowledge of the totem spirits and power animals. If certain metaphysical rules are followed, game animals allow themselves to be killed and on some level give their lives willingly.
Mythology and religion speak in metaphors and resonate on a primal level. Animals from divergent cultures often have similar archetypal traits. The Egyptian Anubis is a Jackal that guides the deceased to the world of the dead. Anubis is also connected with the dog-star, the Sothis of the Egyptians. Like a variety of shamanic cultures the ancient Egyptians perceive the human soul as multi layered. The dead needed to be helped to find their way to the Underworld were they resided. Canines also feature in Celtic mythology associated with death and graveyards and as a messenger from the world of the dead. The Babylonian Goddess Ishtar like Noah who came after her, released a dove and a crow across the waters as spiritual messengers. The lion and other heraldic beasts have archetypal meanings which span cultures. Cultures that have moved father away from nature tend to have different attitude to specific animals. For example in Britain we no longer revere cattle. The cow was sacred in ancient Egypt and integrated in Isis and Hathor. Hathor is often shown as a mixture of cow and woman. Both goddesses were allied to the sun and the moon, as the disk and the cow's horns (which form a crescent) Isis is cow-horned, the cow of plenty and as the mother of Horus (the physical world) she is the "mother of all that lives". Hindus have held the cow sacred for thousands of years and it is sanctified as a holy entity. In the Vedas the dawn of creation is represented by a cow. Robert Graves has written on how in Britain the holy white cow was worshiped as the white Goddess.
Interestingly, the animals that are used by shamans to assist them in their magical journeys do not always correspond to the flesh and blood animals that live in the vicinity. For example in Malaysia shamans will often use a hobbyhorse to help to symbolize their mystical assent (a prop common in a lot of cultures including British). Many cultures use various representations of horses to symbolize the metaphysical vehicle of their mystical ascent, however in the Malaysian example there are no ‘real’ horses living in the shaman’s environment.
The shamanic aspects of Celtic spirituality were highly developed, and animal totems and allies were often used. Those familiar with Native American spirituality will find many similarities in the Celtic way. Common totems included the deer, bear, swan, raven, eagle, otter, boar, horse, wolf, cat, hound, and salmon. In Celtic legend, for example, the deer often leads the hero through the mists or into the magical forest for an Otherworld meeting. In Celtic legend, many seek to catch the Salmon of Wisdom. The one who eats the first bite of salmon is given the ability of prophecy and shape shifting. The Celts have the land of the Sidh which is a light realm, were manifestation is immediate. In this shining realm there is a timeless existence for the inhabitants. It interesting that the beings of the Sidh realms often ride out from a horse (usually from a barrow or sacred ground). The horse is a very familiar motif in shamanic philosophy as it is often the animal that takes the rider on a soul journey into different realities.
The Australian aboriginal concept of 'dream time' also expresses the concept of a none linear type of existence. The upper worlds have their own population of spirits, deities, gods, demi-gods and power animals. The way of perceiving is apparently different in the other worlds, where everything can be seen from any vantage point. The lower worlds are often thought to be populated by the souls of the dead, together with totem beasts of earth, air and water (which is similar to the Egyptian geography and population of the world of the dead). Cosmological and totemic comparisons can be made between Australian aborigines, American Indians, the Celts and Ancient Egyptians. Many of the beliefs are similar although comparatively recent cultural and religious contamination is apparent. All these cultures distinguish between the worldly and otherworldly dimensions. In the earthy dimension events take place in a comparatively linear fashion. People are born, grow old and die. There is however, always the potential to slip into other worlds - beings from these worlds can enter the earthly planes to exert their influence on humankind. It is here where the totemic animals emanate. Also it is by becoming these animals that shamans can gain access to the other dimensions.
Certain psychological theories would attribute shape shifting to animal forms as merely being imaginary fancies, dreams or hallucinations. However the reality of these archetypal power animals is a shared one. Jungian philosophies would attribute the experience of these events as stemming from projections of the collective unconscious. Ultimately the nature of reality is a philosophical question, influenced by experience and cultural and religious conditioning. From the mystical point of view, nothing is real except the reality I am co-creating and how it feels for me. The super physical realms are places where thoughts and wishes become reality without a time delay as on this plane. Transforming the body to another shape may require a prerequisite of a change of normal consciousness. In the shaman’s case, there may be inborn qualities relevant to the achievement of ecstatic states, so the shaman has to be trained in techniques that involve the suppression of the hypothalamus (which processes sensory information) and/or the production of certain neurochemicals. From a quantum-occult perspective, absolute belief can transform the arrangements of energy in physical forms to any shape or being desired. Don Juan spoke to Carlos Castaneda about the Toltec belief that the assemblage point is a position in the energy body that makes us all agree on a collective reality. Don Juan explained how by moving this point we could rearrange the physical body into other shapes as well as immersing the person in other realities layered within this one. According to Don Juan, "the position of the assemblage point is what dictates what our senses perceive".
None traditional cultures are perceived as inferior and their belief systems regarded as naive by the west. This attitude is reflected in how we devalue the animal within as well as the one without, which can lead to a dangerous depletion within our psyche of vital energy. It also points to our intense ambivalence towards nature -animals and women being her representatives. This antagonistic stand towards nature is a form of masochism, for we are nature and it is us. Even people like George Bush has an unconscious recognition of this. Native Americans have known throughout the ages that we can and must learn from the animal kingdom: animals provide us with powerful medicine. According to this theory, everything ever present in human conditions still lives in every soul today. The Inuit also go on to say that, "human food consists entirely of souls". Everything living now is potentially the sustenance for other beings, dead or alive. We are all food for other beings. Charles Tart observed. Souls are believed not to perish so certain things must be done to prevent these souls taking revenge on humans by taking away their bodies, without respecting their contribution to our life. We cannot afford to ignore our intimate connection with animals and the rest of the cosmos.
We can tap into the energies of the animal totems for strength, healing for ourselves, and for others. Higher-level beings, along with Spirit Guides, can shape shift, transforming their energy bodies into animals and sending us important messages that will guide us along and teach us what we need to know. Many humans have lost their relationships with animals as teachers, and kindred allies. Animals, like women, become symbolic for the feared aspects of physical manifestation, including fear of the demise of the physical body and the overwhelming aspects of the instinctual self. For centuries now, the dominate social group has declared animals a terrain to be tackled with objectivity and detachment. In these last centuries we have become increasingly separated from animals and the natural world. As we become more closed down to the wonders of diversity of form and infinitesimal possibilities of our own nature, we loose connection with the component parts of our own psyche. It is our endowment of empathy and connection, embodied in the relationship between self and other aspects of the one, which enables us to thrive in this moment and create a future that allows diversification and expression of the multi dimensional aspects of reality.
As Jung observed, lifeforms share so much. Humans have a universal response to particular stimuli (archetypes). For many pre-industrial cultures animals have played a large part in the understanding of universal processes and also the understanding of the subconscious elements of the individual psyche. As lifestyles become removed from the natural cycles and phenomena in nature, the animal self is suppressed and with it there is a restriction of vitality. This is reflected by the change in attitude to animals in cultures from advanced capitalistic social structures. An adaptation of shamanic ideas concerning the totemic animal and nature beings to suit modern people can only enhance and empower individuals. Our connection to Gaia and her proliferation of the countless aspects of her manifestation are essential now.
I no longer get up just before the sunrise to turn into a cat and become one with the long grass and the big sky as the stars become consumed by the ever reddening glow. I do however run with my dogs in the forest and become one with them in enjoyment of running and just being alive in this beautiful world. Mine and others ease of communication with companion animals is evidence of our deep similarity and connection. The body and our instinctual nature should not make us ashamed. Observation of other cultures’ processes of deification, psychic and physical identification with animals, can only be healing and empowering on a physical, soul and collective level.
Ishtar, 2006
References:
Castenada Carlos
The Fire Within
Touchstone (1984)
ELIADE MIRCEA
Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Princeton University Press (1970)
JUNG C.G.
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
London Routledge (1990)
JUNG C.G
Memories, Dreams and Reflections
Flamico (1983)
Freud
Totem and Taboo
Pelican (1940)
LEWIS I.M.
Ecstatic Religion
Second Ed. Routledge (1989)
Jutta von Buchholtz
Animals and the Psyche
Jung Society Atlanta (2001)
KLANICZAY, G.
The Uses of Supernatural Power
Polity Press (1990)
Massey Gerald
Ancient Egypt the Light of the World
Kessinger Publishing
MATTHEWS JOHN.
The Celtic Shaman
Element (1991)
Merca S.A.B.
The Religion of Ancient Egypt
Lucas and Co. (1949)
TART C.
Living the Mindful Life
D.S Random house (1994)
WALSH R.
The Spirit of Shamanism
Mandala (1990)
Yates F
Giordano Bruno and the hermetic tradition
Chicago Press (1964)