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Four Ways Your Energy Animal Can Appear to You, by Melissa Alvarez

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Animals. We share our world with them, we have them as pets, and they can be a source of comfort and love. Animals can also be spiritual guides for us during times of need or to help us grow on our spiritual path. I call them energy animals because I work with energy and animal frequency, but they're also known as totems, spirit animals, power animals, familiars, and animal spirit guides. All of these terms describe animals that guide, teach, and connect with you in order to deliver messages from the spiritual realm that you need to know at specific points in your life and on your path. Some appear for a short time, others are with us for a lifetime.

When an animal has a message for you, the energy surrounding the animal will feel different. It may feel as if the animal is staring you down, or you just intuitively know that there's something unusual about the bird that keeps perching in trees near you, making you notice it. The animal will not give up until it gets your attention and delivers the information. If you're not paying attention, things will start to happen that captures your awareness and makes you take notice. Your animal encounters may happen more often and with more intensity until finally you say, "What is going on?" That's when you'll be open to receiving the message that the animal is trying to deliver.

I'll give you an example. When I was writing Animal Frequency, there were so many animals showing up at my farm that every day I expected to see a new one and I usually did. It was also foaling season, and for ten days I was dealing with a mare who had retained part of her placenta after foaling out, which is life-threatening and meant I was up every two to four hours throughout the night giving her three to four antibiotic injections at a time to try to save her life in conjunction with her veterinary care. Being severely sleep deprived, I stopped paying attention to the animals showing up and didn't get much written during that time. Then one day shortly after the mare was over the incident I found myself bombarded with dragonflies. I walked out to the barn and there was one flying along beside me. While I did my work I'd find them sitting on the pitchfork handle or on the bags of shavings or they'd land on my arms. I acknowledged them and thanked them for the appearance but I was so tired I didn't think past that. Then I walked out into the yard by the barn and was swarmed with dragonflies all around me. There must have been fifty or sixty of them flying into the wind all around me. They've done this before in this spot but none had ever landed on me, and this time I had four land on me at once and they seemed to be looking right at me. Then when I went on an errand I was sitting at a stoplight and looked over and there was a tiny baby dragonfly sitting on my window starting at me. As soon as I got home I looked at my Animal Frequency manuscript to see what I'd written about the dragonfly. The line that stood out to me was, "Dragonfly means you need to add lightness to your life. Don't get bogged down in the heaviness of the world but be the light, airy being that shines in a multitude of colors." I had been bogged down in heaviness due to the issues with the mare and lack of sleep. I was still worrying about her even though the crisis had passed. Dragonfly helped me see that I needed to let it go so that I could get back to the lightness of being that I try to keep my frequency at. Once I did, everything flowed easily again.

By knowing some of the different ways that animals can try to capture your attention, you'll become more aware of their appearances. They can show up in any way that they believe will make you notice them, so this list is just a mere sampling. Here are four of the most common ways that animals can appear to you when they have a message to deliver.

1. Media
   With more and more people participating in social media, you're sure to see animals in videos, memes, advertising, news, and in online documentaries. When these animal appearances start repeating or standing out then that means there's a message. Seeing a cute lion cub video and then seeing two more lions online can be a sign that they're trying to get a message to you. Now, let's say you're driving to an appointment and see a lion on a billboard, and as you drive past the local zoo you notice a new advertisement for the lion exhibit, and the radio announcer is talking about a show about lions that he saw over the weekend. Once you get to your appointment you open up a magazine while you wait and there's a huge lion staring back at you. Later at home, you turn on the television and hear a lion's roar. By now you have probably realized that lion has a message for you. Take some time to sit quietly and ask lion what its message is and then trust in the first thoughts you receive.
2. Dreams
   When your spirit guides have a hard time reaching you when you're awake, they often appear to you in your dreams. It's the same with your energy animals. In dreams you're more open to receive their messages as long as you can remember the dream. They will return to your dreams multiple times if you forget it. When you see an energy animal in your dream notice what kind of animal it is. What is it doing in your dream? Is it acting as it normally would in real life, or is it doing something that it could never do in real life—like speaking actual words? If it is speaking words, then it's delivering its message the easiest way it knows how—in your native language. Try hard to remember what it said. Also look at the environment of the dream. Is the animal out of place or in its natural habitat? This can all be part of the message. If you dream of a hippo swinging on a swing set maybe it is trying to tell you that your life is out of balance and you need to have more fun. How are you interacting or reacting to the animal? This is part of the message too.
3. Spoken Word
   Sometimes, when you're not paying attention to the animal, the animal will enlist the help of others to get your attention. You may have noticed those lions and they've piqued your interest, but not enough for you to start looking up what they mean or to meditate to ask what the message is. So now your co-worker starts talking about going to the zoo and how wonderful the new lion exhibit is. She might tell you about how they changed the enclosure or that the lioness had cubs. Then your neighbor tells you about a dream she had that featured a lion. Or your significant other tells you about a new project at work that is featuring a lion. After several people have told you their lion stories, now you're inspired to find out exactly what message lion has for you.
4. In the Flesh
   Many times you'll notice animals because they simply show up in person to get your attention. There have been many times when a hawk, snake, alligator, or other animal has shown up on my farm and just stared me down. I believe that the "stare down" is one of their favorite ways to get your attention. I mean, how can you possibly ignore that? Once I had a big red-tailed hawk perch right on the fence and watch me clean a paddock. I kept looking over at him and just got stared at. When I moved to another paddock, the hawk flew over to a low tree branch and stared me down again. By the time I got to the round pen, where it perched on the panel about four feet away from me, I just stopped what I was doing, stared back at him and intuitively opened my energy to its message. Once I'd received it, the hawk made a loud screech and flew away. So when you see an animal in the flesh that seems to be looking at you or that you intuitively feel like there's something special or unusual about the animal, pay attention to it. Take a few moments to commune with it so that you can discover what it needs to tell you.

Connecting with your energy animal can help you in many different ways. It can even be life changing. If you're not paying attention, energy animals can and will use all of these ways at the same time to inundate you with their presence so you pay attention and start to learn more about the animal. Getting your attention is often the hardest part. Once their message is delivered, the animal usually disappears from your life, but you'll probably always remember the message.

I encourage you to take time to open your heart, mind, and intuition to the animals that appear in your life. Connect with them through animal frequency to experience the Divine with them and within yourself.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2017. All rights reserved.

Over the past few months, I have stopped dreaming (or stopped remembering my dreams), but at the same time, my psychic abilities have really taken off. My perceptions seem to be much stronger and far more accurate. I have been doing a lot of reading on spiritual subjects like chakras, astral projection, etc. I'm wondering if there is a connection between my lack of dreams and my abundance of psychic experiences. What do you think? My birth date is 12-14-66. Thanks! - Wandering Mystic

Dreamchaser:

What is happening to you is quite exciting in my opinion: You are growing spiritually by leaps and bounds.

If you've ever been on a diet, you know that you will lose pounds quickly and then slow down and perhaps plateau for a while. It seems to be that way with our spiritual growth too. Sometimes we hit a plateau where nothing seems to happen, and then suddenly we start to evolve again. Youíve emerged from a plateau, and are evolving spiritually at a good pace again.

You have not stopped dreaming, per se - you have changed what you are doing while you are sleeping. Lately you are going off and being instructed spiritually. You're rehashing what you learned that day and being given information about what to expect next.

Your soul is growing and learning at a fast pace right now, so you are being helped to deal with all these changes while you are asleep. When we evolve that quickly, we often have to deal with physical changes as well. Sometimes, for example, we will not be able to sleep or stay awake, eat or stop eating. It will often go strangely quiet in our heads.

What has happened is your main guide has stepped back, and you are in the process of getting to know your new teaching guides ñ those that come with this new level of spiritual growth. Your body itself has to get used to the new vibrations at this level. Sometimes you will almost feel like you want to rip your skin off because it is so different. You will adjust. Give yourself time.

As a result of being on this new level, you are realizing that you are becoming more aware. Your thirst for knowledge is healthy. You should continue to research and learn about every subject you feel drawn to learn about.

This period of spiritual growth is all about education. You are educating your mind by studying all these subjects. You are educating your soul by learning how to trust this new level of ìknowing.î You are also being educated in how difficult it can be to be keenly ìaware.î

The key word on this spiritual level (or ANY spiritual level, for that matter) is TRUST. Your soul will not guide you in the wrong direction. Just follow what you "know." This not only goes for what you know about yourself, but also what you "know" about others and the outside world.

So to answer your question, yes - there is a connection between you not remembering your dreams anymore, and your psychic abilities taking off.

I wish you continued evolution.

*****

Astrea:

You're on to something when you say you're dreaming but not able to REMEMBER your dreams right now. Sag folks go through periods like this as other parts of the psyche are awakened.

While not remembering your dreams might be connected to the blossoming of your psychic abilities, it seems more likely to me that you've come to an age where you can tap into your own personal resources, which have always been there.

As we grow older and mature and get our lives in better shape, our psychic side begins to emerge much more forcefully. Practical, mundane issues become less important as we become happier, more settled, and more successful.

Then we begin to explore all the things we didn't have enough time to experience and enjoy while we were struggling through boyfriends, weddings, babies, college and wrong jobs and career choices.

Also, for a Sagittarius life begins to take on new meaning at the age of 40. Really, I see that all the time with folks like us; it's almost as if by magic we begin to come into our own on a psychic level. That whole world seems to open up for us as we get to be that age.

I have VIVID memories of those kinds of things beginning to happen differently at forty than they ever had before. That's when our minds begin to perceive the psychic side of life in different and more useful ways.

Certainly during that transition time, it's possible for us to stop remembering our sleeping dreams. Our minds and bodies are overloaded with new inner stimuli, and we can't hold everything in our conscious awareness at the same time. Memories of your dreams will return as soon as you get a better hold on what you're going to do with the abilities you've been given.

If you feel lonely because you can't remember your dreams, try this ritual. Take paper and a pen with green ink, and write down the subjects of the last three dreams that you can remember. It doesn't matter if they're in or out of order - just pick the three you remember as being the most recent.

Light a white candle on the left and a pink candle on the right and say: "Dreamweavers, Angels and Heavenly Spirits, cause the mist to lift from my mind so that my dreams return to me with clarity and beauty."

Pray in your own way for your dreams to return, blow out the candles and fold the paper. Place the paper under a piece of silverware at the right side of the foot of your bed, and your dreams should return to you within a few nights.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.