Animal Power for Healing & Spiritual Development: An Animal Medicine Article Some of Mayastar’s most popular courses are those that work with animal energies. It’s hardly surprising; everyone loves animals! In fact, as of 2022, 59% of UK households have pets. And the animals in our lives often become as important as the human family members. They provide companionship, can help us to wind down after a long day at work, & can even give us emotional support or be trained to provide essential help for those with disabilities. Animals are strongly drawn to energy healing too! I have often used Reiki on my cats and dogs over the years – for healing, for end-of-life care, or at times they were stressed by storms or fireworks. Animals respond beautifully to receiving energy healing. The Sacred Chihuahua: History, Magick & Healing At the time of writing, I’ve just spent an intensive couple of months settling a new puppy into my Chihuahua pack, after losing my senior dog, Charlie, last year. It’s been a beautiful time! Getting to know a new dog is like getting to know a new “best friend”. Training a dog is hard work, but it’s very rewarding and really helps you to bond with your new family member. For me, Chihuahuas are special because of their sacred roots. The ancient Aztecs & Toltecs believed the ancestor of the modern Chihuahua (the “Techichi”) was a mystical breed. They were credited with the power to bring healing. Different coloured dogs would be chosen for different healing purposes. And the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma had a pack of 100 golden coloured Chihuahuas that he took into battle with him. The golden coloured dogs were considered to have the mystical power necessary to guide a soul to its afterlife. My pack certainly plays a big role in my spiritual life; but they are also the “love batteries” of my abode. In that role, they keep the good energy circulating & make the house a home. But my pets are not the only animals I work with magickally and spiritually. Animal Power in Energy Healing & Spiritual Development In my magickal and energy healing work, I regularly connect with animal medicine. I have favourite energies that I work with regularly: Dolphin, Bear, Wolf, Fox, Owl & Dragon. And over the years, I’ve developed my own rituals for working with them & my own routines for bringing their powerful influence into my life. Here are a few ideas to get you started if you’d like to experiment with animal energies to enhance your own spiritual practice. I’m going to use Dolphin as my example because several Mayastar courses include this energy: Dolphin Rainbow Chakra Healing, Dolphin Heart Reiki, Dolphin Trilogy Reiki & Animal Medicine Empowerments. Creating an Animal Healing Ritual with Dolphin Energy for Inner-Child Healing & Overcoming Trauma | Crystals, Perfume, Symbols & Spiritual Practices Dolphin is a great energy to connect with for support of the inner-child, healing emotional trauma and learning to live in the moment. Dolphin energy is playful, light-hearted and fun. But also soothing, protective, and powerful for connecting with your imagination & intuition. A good way to connect with Dolphin Medicine is to develop a ritual for the purpose. For a Dolphin ritual, you could select music that reminds you of your childhood, or a background track that plays the sound of waves to help you conjure up the right feeling. You might even choose to perform your ritual in the bath to help you connect with the element of water. You could choose to burn incense or wear perfume that reminds you of the sea. Coconut or something with a salt note might work well! But it’s important that whatever you choose helps you to connect with the energy. Everything you include in your ritual should mean something to you. The more each component of your ritual means to you, the more potent the ritual will be. And the more often you perform it, the more powerful it will become. Having a representation of a Dolphin present can give you something to focus on while you meditate: a statue, piece of jewellery or a picture of the sea or a dolphin could be good options. And perhaps a crystal like Amazonite, Rose Quartz or Sodalite that can help you to balance your emotions and find tranquillity. Direction & Elemental Associations to Enhance your Ritual If you work with Mayastar’s Elemental Pentagram & Magic Circle Empowerment system, creating a circle for your Animal Medicine ritual is a great idea. It can contain the energy while you’re performing the ritual; and can protect you from negative external influences while you’re working with the energy too. If you create an elemental circle for the your ritual, you might want to consider the direction you face for your meditation. The western quarter is associated with the element of water which governs our emotional and spiritual health. Or, you might prefer to face south – the direction of the fire – because the solar associations of that quarter could be used to amplify the energy & help you to connect with the child-like nature of the Dolphin. Setting Your Ritual Intention However you choose to structure your ritual, try to decide beforehand what you hope to achieve through it. You don’t need to have great ambitions for a ritual to be potent. Simply creating a sacred space with the intention of allowing yourself to fully unwind & relax for the purpose of receiving healing is a powerful objective! I hope these ideas have inspired you to explore ways animal energy could enhance your spiritual practice & that you’ll find deep healing & soul-nourishing enrichment through your animal medicine experiments. If you feel ready to embrace new possibilities, I invite you to check out my latest mystical musings on YouTube, or visit the articles menu… Go to... 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