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5 Signs Your Knowledge is Integrating into Wisdom

Life
Wisdom

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May 23, 2016

5 Signs Your Knowledge is Integrating into Wisdom

“Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one’s being.” ~ Orison Swett Marden

We often don’t like to admit when we are ignorant about something, or when we have flat out been wrong, and because of this knowledge often masquerades as wisdom inside of our psyche. But let’s face it, every master has once been a student.

We don’t all start out knowing everything, even if our ego would like to think so. Knowledge is simply facts that we can reference until it has been integrated into wisdom either by experience or by raising our consciousness level to a more mature and evolved place.

It is important to always be aware and honest about where we are in our journey because it keeps us not only humble, but its also how we become better and more integrated versions of our former selves.

Below are five signs that will help you determine if your knowledge is beginning to integrate into wisdom:

1) Morality is instinctual rather than challenging

“Your beliefs don’t make you a better person, your behavior does.” ~ Unknown

We’ve all had the experience of someone who claims to be “religious” yet their behavior is the farthest thing from said religion that it can possibly be. Talking about how nice, generous, accepting, or forgiving we are is usually a sign that knowledge has not yet become wisdom.

Wisdom does not need to announce what a great person he/she is, he just is that person. A definitive mark of a being who is operating from their highest wisdom is that they often take the high road no matter what.

They are compassionate, loving and helpful to others not from a place of “trying to be”, or because they think they “should be”, but simply because this behavior is what comes instinctively to them.

2) Spiritual teachings or concepts that once resonated with you no longer make sense

“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” ~ Alan Watts

Have you ever had the experience of going back to a spiritual text or book or video months later and the content of it no longer resonates with you? Not like you no longer agree with it, but it doesn’t bring such a big aha moment of “yes! this is it!” that it once did. This is actually a sign that the knowledge that you once had to learn, has integrated into your being as wisdom.

We are constantly evolving and rising to higher states of consciousness in our journey, and something that made so much sense on one level will feel slightly confusing or even unable to be perceived once we have risen past that level of consciousness.

Once a “belief” that we were able to perceive (because it was still something that was told to us, not something that we truly felt) becomes a part of us, it will become literally impossible for us to understand.

Just like the quote above, when you are wisdom instead of just noticing it, the realization that the perceiver cannot be perceived will arise in us.

3) Something that used to bring about a strong emotional reaction in you no longer has the power to

Another huge indicator that our ego belief systems are unraveling and unhealed aspects are being healed is that things that used to anger us, make us sad, devastate us, etc. no longer have the power to do that.

As stated above, we are constantly evolving no matter how slow or fast that may happen for a particular person, but every heartbreak, fight, blow to our ego is actually the very circumstances that are helping us to unravel our ego.

So if you can look at a situation you are facing today and think to yourself, “wow, something like that would have made me so angry five years ago and now it’s like I don’t even care,” then good job! You have healed, evolved, and integrated.

4) You have periods of time where you feel confused about life, who you are, or what you believe

As our sense of identity of who we thought we “were” begins to transcend, we will often have the experience of disorientation or confusion. When an ego that was so used to referencing its “positions” and “stances” pertaining to particular subjects has risen above those judgments, it will feel strange at first.

We may feel like a shell of our former self because the person we were so sure we were at the beginning of our journey is vastly different than who we have become. When ego attachments have disappeared from our energy field only to be replaced with emptiness and stillness, it will feel almost boring to an ego that was so used to working on something, judging itself or someone else, or anticipating things.

True wisdom arises from a place of emptiness so if you have found yourself becoming slightly bored and almost apathetic towards life, it is a sure sign that your once overactive ego is desperately searching for something to do.

Once a being is fully integrated operating from this still place, it becomes a calm, peaceful, and natural way to approach life rather than something our ego fights against.

5) You no longer care to try and convince anyone of anything

“Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens.” ~ Jimi Hendrix

When we start uncovering all of the lies, untruths, and faulty belief systems we have been sold over the years, it is common for a being to become angry and frustrated with society and life.

This is where devouring knowledge becomes commonplace and spreading the knowledge to anyone (even those who don’t seem to understand or want to listen) becomes our “duty”.

And while this is not wrong, because each of our journeys will lead us through the proper circumstances that have the power to help us evolve, at a certain point instead of trying to convince others in an aggressive or angry way we begin to try and help them through love.

Wisdom uses love and compassion to motivate and inspire while knowledge uses criticism and insults to demean and humiliate.

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This is Your Wake Up Call

Sustainability

Clyde

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May 22, 2016

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When I was in college I took up jobs to complement my pocket money, which was negligible, for two main reasons – to hang out with friends and chill out, and the second reason was to purchase a cell phone in order to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Well my consumerist attitude didn’t stop there, as soon as college was over the easiest thing to do was join a call center, because they were known to be high paying as compared to any other fresher jobs and also easy to get in.

So I went with the flow, got hired with ease into a job that required no brain work and odd shifts. Its a different story that life propelled me out of the job a few years later but at that time its just what I wanted with my easy going attitude. There too I ended up spending my money buying the latest cell phones that would sometimes, cost half my monthly earnings.

It went on until I bought a particular fancy phone that looked really good for its time, but had major call dropping issues. The joke was on me, I couldn’t speak for more than a few minutes at a time. With each call drop my frustration increased, and the thought of spending my hard earned money on something that looked good yet wasn’t of much use, made me realize the worthlessness of it.

It made me realize that I can get done with what I have and don’t need to keep upgrading to keep up with those around me. This was my wake up call, its not always that an incident like this will trigger change. Perhaps one also needs to be ready for it and analyze what they are doing. It becomes easier to make these changes when you already are in a tight spot or you could put that money to far better use.

There is no stopping, the materialistic cycle doesn’t end. Things will keep getting upgraded and if I continue wanting to have a better car, phone or computer it means I’ll always be a slave to the wage. This realization led me not only on a little personal revolution, but also that this choice would have an impact on a global scale. It may not seem like much but this interesting video should help put things into perspective.

Wake Up Call

Today you would be happy to know that FractalEnlightenment is maintained on computers that I have personally assembled, we use free open source operating systems and share the same cell phone for years together to keep our carbon footprints low.

Although the video above gives you a good insight into the damages done to the ecosystem, it skips out one important aspect, Coltan – the mineral that goes into all our tech products but has a range of problems associated with it. You can read about the coltan issues here.

The truth is everyday the mainstream media just shows us one part of the picture trying to get us to keep consuming. Screens getting larger, phones getting thinner, cameras pushing the mega pixel barrier, computers getting faster but while all this happens, the Earth is getting unhappier with the pillage and plundering.

As usual it comes down to just one thing, we can’t save the planet until we educate and change ourselves. This is your wake up call!

Seven Signs You May Be Unfuckwithable

Life

Gary Z McGee

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May 21, 2016

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“When you are truly genuine, there will invariably be people who do not accept you. And in that case, you must be your own badass self, without apology.” ~ Katie Goodman

What does it mean to be unfuckwithable? It means being, becoming, and overcoming the pinnacle of yourself, in the moment, despite self-doubt or the doubt of others.

It means full engagement with being, becoming, and overcoming the best possible version of yourself. It’s walking into a room, fiercely radiating, doing as Rumi advised, “Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.” Because you simply cannot be fucked with when you’re the soul of a place.

Being unfuckwithable is the absolute realization that expectation and attachment are poison, because it is precisely expectation and attachment that makes one fuckwithable. In order to be unfuckwithable, expectation and attachment must be let go of.

Being unfuckiwthable is having confident vulnerability in the face of a world playing at being invulnerable. It’s absolute uncertainty and unconditional love in the face of rigid certainty and conditional love. It’s the utter subsuming of finite gameplay through infinite gameplay.

Here are seven specific signs that you may be unfuckwithable.

1.) You realize you are worthy:

“We are all unique medicine.” ~ Angeles Arrien

Self-gratitude becomes you. You are armed with self-actualized fortitude. You often ask yourself: does my calling choose me or do I choose my calling. You take both options into deep consideration, while understanding that either way you are the only version of you to have ever existed.

Your self-worth makes you unfuckwithable precisely because of an equal parts unique-as-your-own-fingerprint soul-signature radiation and a cosmic interconnectedness to all things resonation.

Do others think you’re worthy? It matters little. Your self-worth is a blitzkrieg that obliterates other people’s doubts and insecurities regarding you. In fact, your self-worth is so robust that it is able to alchemize the negative energy vomited up from others and then transform it into positive reinforcement and personal motivation. Your unfuckwithability is multi-edged.

You are able to cut the good from the bad, and even sharpen each into being more capable of shaving the superfluous from the other.

2.) You focus on what you can control and let go of what you cannot:

“In order to truly be unfuckwithable, you need to lose your need to seek validation or love from others and to judge them when you perceive that they are not giving you what you need.” ~ Vishen Lakhiani, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind

You can’t control how other people act, but you can control how you act. And you act with full acceptance of other people’s freedom. Should their freedom not give you what you think you need, you don’t whine or complain about it, but live and love by healthy example.

Maybe they will understand the example, or maybe not. That’s their problem, not yours. It only becomes your problem when you are attached to a particular behavioral outcome from them and expect them to act a certain way. But there is no certainty in the affairs of others. And that’s okay.

For you realize that it is precisely within this uncertain mystery where all romance and adventure lies dormant and waiting to flourish.

3.) You use fear itself to live fearlessly:

“It’s only when we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” ~ Tyler Durden

When you’re unfuckwithable, fear is mere fuel. What scares you compels you, for you understand that the comfort zone will not stretch itself. So you are proactive about stretching it. You could lose everything or gain everything, but the disposition remains the same: “Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure.” ~ Karl Frei

If, as Carl Jung wrote, “The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire,” then you are the fire, transforming fear into fuel and fuel into courage which becomes a mighty fire that spreads sparks over the kindling of the human condition. You are unfuckwithable because you are both prepared to burn yourself and capable of burning others. Either way, the ashes make for fecund compost within which to grow a healthier future.

4.) You do not seek validation, but pursue self-love instead:

“One must be willing to stand alone – in the unknown, with no reference to authority or the past or any of one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility.” ~ Adyashanti

You love yourself like your life depends upon it. Because it does. It doesn’t matter if everybody loves you or if everybody hates you. What matters is that you love yourself, and self-love begins with healthy living in mind, body, and soul.

This type of love is a mighty beacon. Nothing shines brighter in dark times or darker in blinding light than self-love radiating out from a healthy individual. Such insurgent love burns holes straight through hatred and gets down to the vulnerable guts of the insecurity of the human condition, revealing that hate is really nothing more than armored love, anxious and fearful of being vulnerable.

You are unfuckwithable because hatred and adoration alike slide off you like water off a ducks back. Haters gonna hate, lovers gonna love, but what matters in the end is how well you love yourself, so that you are capable of loving others and being Love itself. In the crashing plane of our unhealthy culture, you are the oxygen mask.

5.) You practice radical forgiveness:

“Therefore, dark past, I’m about to do it. I’m about to forgive you for everything.” ~ Mary Oliver

You know how to “be the duck!” Stress, fear, anxiety? All water off your being-the-duck’s back. What does it mean to “be the duck”? It means being fully present. It means the depressions of the past and the anxieties of the future are “parted waters” from your confident, in-the-moment, in-flow, flexible stance against an inflexible world. It means being a fulcrum of radical self-forgiveness.

The past is the past. The future is the future. Right now is all you have to be, become, and overcome the best possible version of yourself. And the best method for doing precisely that is radical forgiveness.

The kind of forgiveness that absorbs wrongdoing and rightdoing and transforms it into Being in Love, in the moment, full-frontal with absolute oneness with all things. You are unfuckwithable because you realize, as Lily Tomlin did, that “forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” And maybe even for a better future.

6.) You aren’t afraid of rattling a few cages:

“The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Rules? If they are valid, healthy and in accordance with the greater interconnected cosmos, then you work with them. If not, you brazenly break them. The same thing goes for laws. Man-made laws especially are meant to be broken. For you understand that mankind is exceedingly fallible and incessantly prone to making mistakes. So you choose to live a courage-based lifestyle as opposed to a comfort-based lifestyle. This way you are less likely to become rigid, complacent, or stagnant yourself, and more likely to reveal the rigidity, complacency and stagnation within others.

Like Yoda advised, you have “trained yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” And so you are free to always win, because even when you “lose” you gain knowledge. Even through your mistakes, you become wise. For you have freed yourself up for greater and greater freedom. Having left your cage behind you, having willingly walked through the open door of your own prison cell, you now have the physical, mental, and spiritual audacity to rattle the cages of others and to reveal to them as Rumi revealed to us all: “Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open?”

7.) You’re a badass Buddha as opposed to merely a bystander Buddha:

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” ~ Anais Nin

You have the wherewithal to create a dent in the universe. You are compelled by your vision. Having forsaken the petty notion of “finding a career,” or “becoming enlightened,” you have found your true calling: to persistently, audaciously, and lovingly self-overcome all current states, no matter how stagnant or overflowing they may seem.

The inner drive from your calling propels you proactively forward, in the moment. You’ve leveled up from finite-player to infinite-player, operating on a whole new playing field.

Your unfuckwithable spiritual fortitude is all-encompassing, interdependently flexing out like a cosmic muscle. Where others whine and complain about being in the world, you rise and transcend by being the world. Through what Ken Wilber calls “world-centric consciousness,” you intuitively connect with all of life without forsaking your own power to be a spiritual badass.

In fact, the more you connect with all things the sharper your badassery becomes. Your passion is your edge. Your ability to self-overcome is your sharpening stone. Your sword is sharp and infinite-edged, so there is no settled state, there is no limited sharpness.

There is only the infinite Now to sharpen your finite health against. And your unfuckwithable spirit is up for the task. Buddha is dead. God is dead. The path is littered with insufferable egos. Even your own ego has an enlightened sword penetrating through its self-righteous heart, and your soul is all the stronger for it.

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Then Again, I Could Be Full of Shit: On The Inherent Hypocrisy of the Human Condition

Life

Gary Z McGee

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May 20, 2016

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Then Again, I Could Be Full of Shit: On The Inherent Hypocrisy of the Human Condition

“We understand nothing! If you understand this, you understand everything.” ~ Paul Mic

The title of this piece (minus the subtitle) is the last sentence in a book I’m writing, entitled Self-inflicted Philosophy. Why is it the last sentence, you might ask? Because I’m aware that everything I wrote could somehow be false.

More than likely a great percentage of what I wrote reeks of ill-logic, false correlations, tautological reasoning, and maybe even some inadvertent solipsism. In some places it may even be downright wrong.

Then again, maybe not. But “maybe not” still doesn’t get me off the hook of hypocrisy. Nor does it get any of us off the hook. Indeed, our very existence is the hook.

Socrates realized that no one was wiser than he because no one understood their ignorance as well as he did. Similarly, no one is wiser than the one who understands his/her own hypocrisy. If we open our minds, realizing that we might be wrong or mistaken, then we may be ready to learn.

No matter how much we think we know, there is nearly an infinite amount of information that we don’t know. We are all hypocrites just as we are all ignorant of things, but the intelligent thing is to become aware of this fact. Ironically, you’re more likely to be right by admitting that you’re more than likely wrong than if you were to declare that you’re more than likely right. Huh?!

As Robert Kurzban wrote in Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite, “The modular design of the human mind guarantees hypocrisy. What remains to be explained is why you think this doesn’t apply to you.”

As such, the modular brain has become the modular mind. Our multifaceted nature makes us conflicted and inconsistent. Even hypocritical. But it also makes us flexible and fluid in the face of change. And when it comes down to it, change is really all we have to hang our hat on. It’s the only impermanent permanent, even if it is just an illusion mixed in with the equally powerful illusion of Time.

In a very real way we are all completely delusional. We’re each surfing on precarious waves of illusion that we claim to be reality. And really, we can’t help it. It’s inherent within the human condition. Hypocrisy is our core. How could it not be? Think about it. We are mortal animals in an ancient universe, torn between spirit and flesh.

We hold mortality in our heart and immortality in our head. We’re fallible and prone to make mistakes. We’re housed in clumsy, fur-less, animal bodies on a planet with environments that require both grace and fur in order to survive them.

And yet we’re blessed (cursed) with large brains that give us the power to create mesmerizing technologies in order to survive them. And, in a lot of ways, we’re prone to mistakes precisely because we have big brains.

It seems Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am,” ought to be replaced by Saint Augustine’s “fallor ergo sum: I err, therefore I am.” Indeed. When it comes down to it, fallibility is implicit in the concept “human.” We might as well own up to it.

Anti-certainty

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

In our human bias, we want so bad for the universe to be the thing that’s paradoxical. But it’s not. It’s us. More specifically, it’s our consciousness. We are the paradox, all wrapped up in our little biased animal-hearts. The trick is to embrace the paradox, to reconcile the hypocrisy.

If we can do this then we’ll discover the humility necessary to transform our certainty into sincerity, and with enough genuine sincerity we become more capable of living in the moment, authentic and engaged with the experience of being a hypocritical animal in a mysterious, counterintuitive universe. Sure it sucks that “being certain” turned out to be overrated.

But as Oscar Wilde articulated, “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”

If, as Thomas Berry said, “The only viable option for the universe is for it to be in a state of creative disequilibrium, holding together sufficiently to not fall apart, but open enough to be expanding,” then it stands to reason that the same thing applies to us, as microcosms carrying a macrocosm on our back. It behooves us to embrace our uncertainty so as to remain in a state of open, creative disequilibrium.

We are so overwhelmed by the impact of ourselves that it’s incumbent upon us to counteract our insecurity by weaving intricate symbolic webs that act as a sieve for our hypocrisy. It’s not that hypocrisy goes away, not at all. Its highest honor is the symbolic.

That which we call individuation is nothing more than a symbol of filtered hypocrisy. The key is not to get so caught up in it that we lose the creative spark, the sacred mystery. In other words, don’t make religion out of the symbolic, make art instead.

Indeed, as Julie Mertz intuited, “Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.”

We just need to tap into this symmetry, synergize with it, and then create art out of the paradoxical tangle of it all. Sure, it’s all fleeting. It’s all painfully impermanent. But the subjective creative process and the objective art derived from it, is a way to transcend the transitory.

As Ben Wilson said, “Everything is transitory, what’s important is the creative process.”

Anti-belief

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” ~ Douglas Adams

When it comes down to it, what is belief? Is it not just our vain yearning to force an idea, ideology, or worldview into being foolproof? Is it not our futile attempt at pigeonholing hope? Is it not pretense in hard makeup? Slow death beneath fast masks? We believe we need belief in order to remain “sane.” We believe that without hope or belief or something solid to keep us grounded, we’ll go “crazy.”

We tend to dodge the difficulty of thought, sidestep the challenge of imagination, ignore the superiority of having a good sense of humor, and then we go straight for the easy way out: leaning like a cripple on hand-me-down, ill-conceived, outdated beliefs in religion and politics that are spoon-fed to us in the form of propagandized cultural conditioning and indoctrinated brainwashing.

But if our inherent hypocrisy teaches us anything, it’s that it behooves us to take things into thoughtful consideration rather than blindly believe. As Benjamin Franklin (of all people) said, “He that lives upon hope will die fasting.”

Another thing hypocrisy teaches us is that all religions and all politics are created by human beings, and human beings are fallible and hypocritical, so we should definitely take it all with a grain of salt. The same thing applies to all things created by mankind, even words. Down the rabbit hole we go!

Philosophical fallibilism can help us with this. As Rebecca Goldstein said in Plato at the Googleplex, “There is a kind of quiet violence in philosophy’s work. Philosophical thinking that doesn’t do violence to one’s settled mind is no philosophical thinking at all.”

Indeed, good philosophy should lead us to Aporia, an impasse, where we’re unable to proceed a step further without honoring the inherent ambiguity, fallibility and hypocrisy of the human condition.

And in that state, a kind of hypocritical Zen overcomes us. We become truly okay with being completely hopeless, exceptionally imperfect, and absolutely flawed. We become fully able to accept our own fallibility, and that of others. Everything is seen through a cracked lens, and that’s okay. We know now not to take our imperfect perceptions so seriously.

We know now the cost of not accepting and embracing our hypocritical nature.

As Longchenpa humorously stated, “Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.”

And so we laugh, realizing as Tony Schwartz did: “The opposite of certainty isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”

In the end, we’re all flawed and fallible. But so what? Let’s embrace it. Let’s have a sense of humor about it. Let’s make imperfect, crazy, otherworldly art out of it. But let’s improve upon it. So we’re all full of shit. Knowing it sets us free. I’ve been known to use reverse psychology on the cosmos.

But I’m nothing more than a man with a pen and the audacity to put the universe in its place. Between “I” and “we,” “I” and “cosmos,” it’s all just one giant, pulsating, cosmic modularity interdependently smeared out, and we’re smack in the middle of having the honor to perceive it, no matter how hypocritical our perception may be.

As Richard Feynman famously articulated, “I: a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.”

So what we don’t need belief anymore? So what all we need is imaginative thought and a good sense of humor? So what we can never be certain about anything? So what we’re hypocrites par excellence?

Paraphrasing Stephen Jenkinson: “Awakening in our times does not happen to the sound of hallelujahs and choruses of angels, it happens to the sound of weeping.”

Indeed, but it can also happen to the sound of laughing.

Robert Kurzban explains Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite

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Understanding the Role of Animal Spirit Guides on your Path

Pia

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May 19, 2016

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Understanding the Role of Animal Spirit Guides on your Path

Ancient tribes acknowledged the power of animal spirit guides and the importance of our harmony with these fellow creatures.

Shamanic traditions around the world believed that every animal carries a unique energy and spirit, and one can call upon the power of an animal to help, protect and heal us on this life journey. They serve as an ally, guide, teacher, and a source of power, throughout the person’s life.

“One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don’t talk to the animals, they won’t talk back to you, then you won’t understand, and when you don’t understand you will fear, and when you fear you will destroy the animals, and if you destroy the animals, you will destroy yourself.” ~ Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh

Shamans often fall into trance states where they communicate with these creatures. In certain practices the Shaman will find a animal spirit guide that is best suited to you or bring back one that has been separated from you.

It’s important to know that you do not pick your animal spirit guides but it picks you. Power animals most often come to individuals in meditations, dreams, visions and initiations.

Power animals are a reflection of your deepest self and symbolise the traits which are often concealed.

Types of Animal Spirit Guides

“I think of animals more as spirits that come and go. They enter our lives at a particular time and they leave at a particular time. The whole glorious history of animals with people is about joy and connection. It’s about loving this creature and letting this creature love you.” ~ Jon Katz

Messenger guide

This guide comes to deliver a specific message or a lesson, be it of spiritual nature or a warning, and leaves as soon as it has been understood.

Shadow guide

This animal spirit guides represents the shadow self or innermost fears that you have to overcome in order to progress on your path. It reminds us of the unhealed aspects of our being which have been suppressed and needs attention.

This is a powerful spirit guide and keeps changing throughout your life depending on your progress. You must learn to respect and understand your shadow energies.

Journey guide

This animal spirit guides will come to you when you are at a crossroads in your life, and you need to take an important decision to choose a path.

This guide will helps you through that particular journey and represents the challenges and rewards. It will help you choose the best possible path at that time and guides you when you are lost.

Life animal guide

This life guide reflects your inner spiritual self. This guide is always with you whether you recognize it or not. It is like your arch angel always looking out for you, and reminding you of your innermost abilities and strengths.

Shamans would call upon the guiding spirit of a particular animal, bird, fish, reptile or an insect. Each creature had a special meaning and message:

Land Animal Guides

Land animals are usually associated with groundedness, and physical and mental stability. They are filled with great intuition and awareness.

Water Guides

They represent freedom and cleansing. They are also a symbol of the universal unconscious that reveal things to us through dreams and the subconscious mind.

Bird Guides

These guides are symbols of new transitions in life, assisting us in matters of higher knowledge. They have an excellent foresight.

Reptile Guides

Unsurprisingly they are a symbol of adaptation, being incredibly intuitive and independent. They are a reminder that every situation can be turned into one that is conducive for growth.

Insect Guides

These guides bear the gifts of patience, non-attachment and tenacity. They are communal, progressive and proactive. Similar to reptiles, they are also quite adaptive and are the first ones to survive massive disasters!

To look up the attributes of a particular creature try Spirit guides or Animal totem meanings

Finding your Animal Spirit Guides

“Animals are not only beholders of great beauty, but they are also beholders of ancient wisdom.” ~ Molly Friedenfeld

There is a sacred practice to find your animal guide. It may not happen in a day or two as it requires longer periods of focus. Before doing a visualization meditation for this, try and focus on it through the day.

Repeat to yourself, “I am ready to find my spirit guide.” and “I am open to receiving all it has to share.”

Be attentive to what animals crop up in your life. They could be totems or little signs or the animal itself. Do not rush to try and interact with it. It is better to just be present in a spirit of pure being. This process has to be approached with humility and intuitiveness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAl9v2w342c

An Animal Spirit Guides Visualization Meditation

It’s important to be in nature for this, away from the everyday trappings of technology.

Now, sit or lay down on the bare ground beneath you with your eyes closed. Allow your body to sink into the ground. Focus on the direction of the wind and the sounds of the birds, leaves, animal calls around you. Let your thoughts pass, without any resistance. Do not identify with any, just as if you were watching them on a screen, disconnected.

Focus on your breath, let it take its natural rhythm. As you breathe out let your body sink deeper and deeper into the ground.

Then, visualize a doorway in the forest before you. With each breath in you walk closer to it.

Finally, open the door when you are ready. The sound and feelings change.

You are now in a deep void. It may be scary and just when you start to feel lost you suddenly feel a presence along with you.

This presence feels familiar, safe and a guiding energy. It has come to introduce itself to you, and remind you that you are not lost. It offers its protection. You understand now that it is your animal spirit.

Is it small or large? Young or old? Reach into your pocket and you find a flashlight. Take a deep breath and turn the light on. For the first time, you can now see your spirit animal.

What does it look like? Is it a bird, a type of fish, a mammal, insect or reptile? You reach out your hand to touch it.

Spend some time bonding with it. Let its presence and wisdom illuminate your being.

Take as long as you need until you feel it’s time to open your eyes.

Listen to a guided version of this meditation.

Meet Your Animal Spirit Guide: Guided Meditation Visualization, Spoken Word, The Magic Book

Image Source:

Animal Spirit by Susan Boulet
Josephine Wall

References
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Fractal Enlightenment