by Dr. Alberto Villoldo: This month we have been talking about power animals and how to care for them. Power animals are part of a soul retrieval journey to the lower world…
After soul parts are retrieved from the four chambers of the lower world, retrieving a power animal is the final element in your journey to the Lower World. At the end of the journey you will call out for a power animal to accompany you back to the middle world. Quite often, this will be one you haven’t foreseen, perhaps something as simple as a caterpillar or a swallow, or as scary as a crocodile. Whatever the animal is, embrace it, bring it with you, and integrate its gifts as we discussed in this month’s newsletter (newsletter cite).
Sometimes you will retrieve a power animal you dislike or fear. Remember that it represents an instinctual part of yourself that you may have become disconnected from or even find distasteful. Many people don’t like serpents, but a snake power animal can teach you to move sinuously through life and to feel your environment with your entire being. An ox might seem to be a less glamorous animal to retrieve, but an ox might have a lot to teach you about developing nurturing partnerships, long-term commitment, and equality. The ox needs to be watered, cared for and rested, qualities you might need so that you don’t feel overworked and resentful. Or, perhaps the ox might help you to realize that you need to pull your own weight in a partnership, without subconsciously expecting your partner to be a beast of burden in your relationship.
Even though power animals symbolize the attributes we need to acquire to become whole, they also have pitfalls. The female jaguar, for instance, is fiercely dedicated to her young and amazingly protective, but the male jaguar is only around her for two weeks of the year and the rest of the time he’s marking territory a few dozen miles away. So, retrieving a male jaguar may indicate that you’ve become too homebound and domesticated and need to come back to your explorer self. Retrieving a female jaguar might indicate you need to increase your sense of safety in the world. Perhaps you lacked a protective parent and the female jaguar has come to help you feel safe.
Working with a power animal is an instinctual process about who you’re becoming, not about who you’d prefer to be in your own mind. Be sure to keep the strengths and weaknesses of your power animal in mind as you work with it. Retrieving a power animal will connect you to your natural unspoiled state – without these resources, it’s easy to overintellectualize the journeying process. Your animal will ground you in your instinctual self, and you can embody its teachings by communicating with it and learning its rhythms, movements, and way of perceiving he world.
