Strengthening the Bond
To keep your power animal happy you can dance it regularly, or go the kind of environment it likes and connect with it there. If your power animal is a dolphin it will appreciate you going swimming regularly. A deer may enjoy trips in the woods, etc. I often make my clients dance their power animal right after they have received it. As Westerners most of us are very self-conscious about dancing or “making a fool” of ourselves. However, when the animal takes over and the client experiences the power first hand they are more likely to keep working with the power animal afterwards. It becomes real for the client and then there is real enthusiasm in the relationship with their power animal.

Loss of Power Animals
As mentioned above, the totem animal, or your main power animal normally stays with you for life. Through shamanic work one can acquire more power animals. Shamans often have a good number of power animals. Some power animals will only stay with you for a short while, until certain lessons are learned, then they move on and you may get other power animals later. However, there are various ways one can lose a power animal, or even all ones’ power animals, even one’s totem animal!!!

• One way of losing power animals is by not honouring them. If you ignore the animal world as a whole, thinking humans are superior, etc, or if you treat animals unethically, don’t be surprised when your power animals leave you!
• Leading a boring material life, totally unaware of spiritual matters can also make your power animals leave you. Your power animals don’t care about money, titles and degrees. They care about power. Are you journeying, dreaming, meditating? Or are you just in the treadmill, living the rat race? Remember it’s a symbiotic relationship, so if there is nothing in it for your power animals, if you ignore them, are unaware of them and do no spiritual work at all they will eventually leave.
• A big trauma can cause your power animals to leave you.
• When you become totally disempowered through whatever reasons, including through habitually giving your power away all your power animals can leave you.
• Through sorcery and “black” magick your power animals can be taken away from you or blocked from working with you. They can even be wounded or destroyed. (I will soon write an essay titled "Sham Shamans", which will help you to spot black magicians among shamans and avoid endangering your power animals!)
  

Power Animal Retrieval
To find a new power animal or retrieve a lost one, the shaman, on behalf of the client journeys in the Otherworld - to be precise into the client’s Underworld - to find a power animal for the client. This in itself can bring about healing though it usually is complimentary to other healing techniques. The shaman needs to be able to enter the client’s Underworld and find the correct power animal for them. Sometimes several animals show up. An inexperienced shaman may grab the first one, or take the one they think most likely for the client. It is of utmost importance that any preconceived ideas, or ego are kept out of this work! The shaman must work with great focus and integrity. Power animal retrieval can go wrong, when done by inexperienced or negative persons as the following example shows:

An Involuntary “Demon Retrieval”
I witnessed the following on a workshop: The participants were to do a power animal retrieval for a partner. Two women worked together. One of them, let’s call her Carla, had about two years of experience with shamanism, the other one, Sandra (not her real name) was a beginner. Carla at that time still had a lot of negativity and entities. She retrieved what she thought was a lion for Sandra. In retrospective I don’t think she was focussed. Anyhow, Sandra immediately felt ill after the “power animal” retrieval. Later that day she suffered from bloating and felt very heavy.

A few weeks later I met Sandra again on another workshop. She told me she had been very ill ever since that power animal retrieval, she still suffered from bloating and heaviness which had started with the retrieval -- prior to that she had felt great, she told me. She was convinced that something wrong had been blown into her and asked me to check her for demons and entities, and if I found any, to extract them. She trusted me as I had done healing on her before and she knew I specialised on extractions. So I looked. I was very shocked to see that she had a huge demon in her solar plexus, blown in by Carla! I extracted and destroyed it, and Sandra immediately felt better.

I later questioned Carla about it, and it turned out she just saw a lion and couldn’t feel there was something wrong, so she took it and blew it in! Carla at that time hadn’t dealt with her own demons yet, so she attracted what resonated with her – which was demonic energy -- and blew it into her partner unquestioningly! I am happy to tell you that Carla has made a lot of progress since. But let this serve you as a warning: people with demonic energy shouldn’t be healers! And if you have any sense, don’t let them work on you, and NEVER let a negative person blow something into you!

But don’t let that example scare you off! Power animal retrieval is completely safe when done by an experienced shaman who works with integrity. It also feels really good having your power animal in you and with you, and being able to call on it anytime you need it. Plus your power animal will give you protection, strength and teach you the lessons you need to learn. It just has to be done properly and then it will be very beneficial for you!

To ensure maximum benefits for the client the shaman must have total control over his / her mind. I always make sure that I retrieve the power animal that the clients need most at that time of their lives and for the challenges they are facing -- not the one I think they need. Rational mind is not part of the equation, in fact I never allow myself to guess what the client’s power animal might be. Instead I let it happen by itself. It is not about grabbing the first animal one sees once in the client's Underworld, as inexperienced "shamans" are prone to do, but it needs experience and skill to track the correct power animal. This can take time and must not be rushed. Though generally I am quite fast with power animal retrieval, there have been cases when it took unusually long, often this is an indication of the client's resistance. It is important not to let any expectations or ego get into the work but to be completely open to whatever happens.

Wisdom of Power Animals
Many times the power animal will have a message for the client. This message may be conveyed to me in words, in symbols or by the behaviour of the power animal. For example, one time a power animal was running in a circle, indicating the client was running in circles in her life. She later confirmed that was exactly how she felt. The message of the power animal is to help the client to achieve wholeness. It may be anything such as eating healthier, reducing meat intake, exercising more, a need to spend time by the sea or in the forest, certain herbs to work with, negative patterns to give up, boundaries to keep, etc. Whatever the message may be, I convey it to the client as it is. It is amazing how acurate messages from power animals are!

A power animal, once retrieved gets “installed” in the client and will then be with them for good (provided they honour it and keep it happy!). From then on the power animal will protect them and enable them to draw of its power and wisdom anytime and in any situation.

So get empowered, get a power animal! You can book for power animal retrieval or any other shamanic work directly with me.
Just click one of the e-mail links on this page!