FAQ from paganwiccan.about.com
From @paganwiccan (paganwiccan.about.com) on twitter:
Power animals - why is no one ever a wombat? See
here.
I haven't been able to read the article yet, so I may do an ETA on this post when I do1, but I have seen this question many times without a sensible answer, so:
First off, I do know people who work with totally obscure animals (think lupabitch, for one), but most of the time that's because they have sought those animals out. When people go journeying, the animals they are most likely to encounter are from a certain set that have a tendency to work with humans. Whether this is more in the nature of the animal, or just that certain animals are significant enough to humans to be well-represented in the collective unconscious, is one of those questions about which I am content to be agnostic.
I haven't pushed this practice much myself. I have encountered wolf, serpent, crow (as a messenger, frequently with messages I don't understand), and my token "obscure" animal, otter. I actually do wonder why we don't see more primates, and for that matter, rats, on our journeys, as these are animals that share a lot of characteristics with humans. Perhaps one is more likely to encounter primates if one comes from a place where they live.
I'm only counting animals as "mine" if I have actually interacted with them on this plane or the other place, including transforming into them. I don't even remember all the animals that may have watched from a distance or been glimpsed disappearing.
Now that I have given a justification for the apparent over-representation of popular species, I will give a nod to the idea that this perception also owes a lot to the fact that there are plenty of completely fluffy twinkies out there inflating their daydreams into shamanic journeys.
1. I gotcha ETA right here: the about.com article is not even 101 level, so I don't need to revise my thinking because of it.
Power animals - why is no one ever a wombat? See
here.
I haven't been able to read the article yet, so I may do an ETA on this post when I do1, but I have seen this question many times without a sensible answer, so:
First off, I do know people who work with totally obscure animals (think lupabitch, for one), but most of the time that's because they have sought those animals out. When people go journeying, the animals they are most likely to encounter are from a certain set that have a tendency to work with humans. Whether this is more in the nature of the animal, or just that certain animals are significant enough to humans to be well-represented in the collective unconscious, is one of those questions about which I am content to be agnostic.
I haven't pushed this practice much myself. I have encountered wolf, serpent, crow (as a messenger, frequently with messages I don't understand), and my token "obscure" animal, otter. I actually do wonder why we don't see more primates, and for that matter, rats, on our journeys, as these are animals that share a lot of characteristics with humans. Perhaps one is more likely to encounter primates if one comes from a place where they live.
I'm only counting animals as "mine" if I have actually interacted with them on this plane or the other place, including transforming into them. I don't even remember all the animals that may have watched from a distance or been glimpsed disappearing.
Now that I have given a justification for the apparent over-representation of popular species, I will give a nod to the idea that this perception also owes a lot to the fact that there are plenty of completely fluffy twinkies out there inflating their daydreams into shamanic journeys.
1. I gotcha ETA right here: the about.com article is not even 101 level, so I don't need to revise my thinking because of it.