“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Humans are embracing animals with love, respect, and curiosity
today more than ever before in modern Western culture. Rather
than as nonsentient possessions, tools, trophies and consumable
resources, more and more people are recognizing them as family,
brethren, teachers, healers, and guides.
As we shift from being “pets” and “owners” to being animal
“companions” and “guardians”, we’re living more closely with
our animal friends. They’re joining us at work, cafes, parks,
beaches and on vacation, so animal-friendly accommodations are
multiplying. We’re sharing our healthy lifestyles with them, so
natural products, services, publications and
alternative health care for animals are fast entering
the mainstream. Our heightened consciousness
is making compassionate training methods the
current standard, and bringing new breadth and
success to animal advocacy of all types.
These changes are in many ways a return to our
earliest, most natural mode of coexisting with
the animals. In renewing our relations with our
pawed, hoofed, feathered, scaled and finned fellow
residents of Earth, we are reconnecting with
ancient wisdom that is embedded in our individual
and collective memories. Much as indigenous
people have always done, we’re exploring the
soul lives of animals and working with totem
and power animals to deepen self-understanding
and personal growth. Interspecies communication and after-life
spirit contacts are becoming increasingly understood and
popular practices.
Acknowledgment of the profound healing power of the humananimal
bond has generated numerous animal-assisted therapies
for terminally ill and autistic children, elderly shut-ins, at-risk
youth, and battered women. Service animals allow disabled people
to remain independent, search and rescue dogs perform heroic
feats, and animals of all kinds have displayed an ability and
willingness to protect human children from harm.
All animals are service animals, in one way or another. Their
unconditional love and acceptance comfort us in ways that nothing
else can. Wild animals stir cellular memories of freedom that we
can barely glimpse in any other way, reminding us to breathe
more deeply. Animals open our hearts, restore our self-esteem,
encourage us to be the best we can be, and convince us life is
good. People who have never known an open heart, sense of
empathy, or spiritual inspiration find these gifts for the first time
through the eyes of an animal. Those whose hearts have been shut
down by trauma or abuse safely experience healing and renewed
trust and hope in their presence.
What animal guardian has not been uplifted by the warm greeting
of their animal at the door or consoled by them when they’re sad?
Who has never been inspired by the sight of a wild animal reveling
in nature? How many of us greet animals on the sidewalk before
we greet the people who are with them? Whose childhood animal
friend is ever forgotten?
As an animal communicator and therapist, I meet many animals
and people seeking to enhance their mutual understanding and
resolve problems for one another. In my work I am privileged to
see miracles enacted daily. We may feel we
choose our animal companions … yet in time
we frequently find it is they who chose us. We
may feel we are their caretakers.…yet eventually
we often come to understand that they arrived in
our lives precisely when we ourselves needed
saving. We may feel we are teaching them how
to live in our households … yet their life lessons
generally prove to be much more important than
ours (not to mention loftier).
I’ve met cats acting as muses for artists and
assistants to healers, dogs persuading their
people to leave bad relationships, and birds
demonstrating how to release self-destructive
behaviors. Animals with whom we have soul
connections usually hold the blueprints for our
life missions – just as whales and elephants are record keepers
for Mother Earth – and they diligently nudge us back onto our
paths when we go astray.
As we progress through our lives, animals come to us and also
depart from us, in concert with our needs and their purposes. If we
pay attention, they guide us through learning curves, comfort us
when we’re down, and light the way for us when we’re lost. Then
when their work with us is done, they may move on. If we allowthem to, they offer us parting lessons on death and dying which
can ease our other losses and help us in our own final passage.
They show us that the circle of life is unbroken, and highlight the
threads we need to see that truth.
Animals offer us group lessons, too. They are masters of judging
character, letting go, releasing what is done, forgiving and forgetting,
accepting change, living in the present moment, and remembering
the importance of play. They shed accumulated stresses and traumas
much more readily than we do, wholeheartedly
embrace life, and exemplify living with
integrity and joy. All of which is not to say
that animals lead carefree lives and don’t need
our help in kind.
Our domestic animals show us how to love
unconditionally and mirror our imbalances to
bring them into the light of our awareness.
Some even absorb those imbalances in their
efforts to help us. When our animals behave in
inexplicable ways or suffer mysterious health
challenges, sometimes they are trying to show
us what we need to examine and heal within
ourselves.
Wild animals transmute imbalanced Earth
energies, help anchor energies in the wilderness,
and serve as incarnate symbols of life’s greatest mysteries. When
threatened with species extinction and shrinking habitats, they
show understandable signs of desperation.
All animals expand our compassionate natures and act as messengers
for the Divine. So, how can we return such magnanimous gifts to
the beloved companion animals in our lives and the wild animals
in our hearts? We can assist them with their emotional needs,
conscious awareness and soul progression, just as they do for us.
We can make amends for centuries of abuse and neglect and
enter a new state of grace alongside the Animal Kingdom, if we
choose wisely.
At home, we can start by creating a peaceful environment with
our own peaceful minds and hearts; this is what best ensures the
wellbeing and growth of awareness that our animal companions
seek from us. Wholesome diets and good medicine, safety and
protection, and daily affection and attention are minimum requirements.
Time and time again, animals whose basic needs are met
tell me that what they want most is for their people to be content.
They hold visions of us entering zen states of feline reflection and
canine aplomb by establishing harmonious habits of thought and
deed. (I suspect that current trends touting meditation with our
cats and yoga with our dogs were inspired by human-animal
teams on a mission!)
With the wild animals we share birthrights to a healthy Earth, and
we can honor their planetary work by living
lightly on the globe and working for change
that benefits everyone. Many of us feel the
burden of past injustices and ecological problems
that seem too huge to address, but there is
much cause for hope. Recently, saving wild
mustangs from slaughter brought activists,
conservationists, spiritually-oriented people and
the general public together in support and
celebration of equine nobility and our national
heritage. Finding common ground makes the
world a safer and more harmonious place for
all animals – including the human variety.
Out of unity arises true peace and joy. When we
begin by communing with the animals we
know and love, in time we find ourselves able and
willing to seek greater understanding with
others — other animals, other humans, other forms of life — and
learn to understand ourselves better in the process.
Listening to the animals is simpler than we might think, and more
rewarding than we might imagine. And it is in seeing through the
animals’ hearts, and acting accordingly, that we can most truly
honor them, heal our sacred bonds, and strengthen the
interspecies bridge for us all.