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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.

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    • DOUBLE VISION: PAST-LIFE PREFERENCES

      soulmates

      When people are attracted to certain types romantically, is that past-life related? For example, my daughter is a Caucasian, middle-class teenager, but from the time she first expressed an interest in boys, she has only been attracted to African-Americans. She has no interest whatsoever in boys of her own class and race. (The boys she likes are all “ghetto” types.) I just can’t figure out her reverse discrimination — she’s actually “racist” against her own race! It also makes me wonder about preferences for certain food, or aversions to certain food, that people seem to be born with. Is it possible all of these preferences/personality quirks have their roots in past lives?

       – Mags

      Dreamchaser:

      Mags, your daughter’s case has a multi-level answer. Yes, she does have past lives in which she was a black person. She lived in all different places and all difference races just as most of us have done. She did have quite a few lives as a black person when she was blissfully happy and led a basically peaceful existence. Our souls are naturally drawn to places or people who remind us of the happier and more peaceful lives.

      A part of her soul is reaching out to black people to give her some of that peace she remembers. I know that when I go to visit the homes of my black friends, there is usually music, family and laughter, and the homes seem so filled up with love. I used to love to go to my friend Penny’s house when I was a teenager. My house was somber and quiet and no one could sit in the living room and we could not turn our music up loud. Penny’s house was loud and fun and boisterous, and it felt so much like a home to me.

      I feel very strongly that your daughter is experiencing much of the same thing. She is wishing for a family life and a home life that is the opposite of what she has in your home. Your daughter loves that feeling of family and belonging; she likes being accepted and included. The people in her own community and social circle have always ostracized her.

      Let’s face it, Mags: She is not the typical child in your set of society and friends. Think back to when she was growing up and the stories she would tell you. Black people accept her. Of course she is going to be drawn to the race that accepts her. She is also physically drawn to black men. She finds them the most attractive type of man. I personally have a thing for dark-eyed, dark-haired men. I have only dated one blonde in my life. We all have our types; she finds black men sexy.

      It used to be so taboo in America to date inter-racially, but since we are becoming more enlightened, we are also dating in more enlightened ways. I know it bothers you, but you should be proud of her for seeing beauty where she wants to see it, not where she should according to society’s standards. Love is love, and love knows no color. Also, if you want to see things from her viewpoint, just watch a DeAngelo video, preferably the one where he is not clothed.

      She is being true to herself and, as much as you do not like it, it is her life at this point. Please try to embrace her and her decisions. Remember, what our parents push us away from is what we will tend to want that much more.

      I wish you acceptance and understanding.

      *****

      Astrea:

      When I start a past life reading for someone, I ask these questions: What’s your favorite color? What do you like to eat? Do you have a type of architecture you prefer? What type of furniture would you buy if you could refurnish your whole house? These questions help me discover how a person got here in this incarnation, and what stops he or she made along the way, because our preferences in this lifetime are indeed influenced by past life experiences.

      Those little clues from the now help me get started in exploring a person’s past experiences.

      Beyond these little preferences, we also carry from one incarnation to another the lessons we have to learn. Perhaps we were ugly to a spouse in a past life, and that makes us hesitant to enter a serious relationship for fear someone will hurt us like we have hurt someone. Perhaps we were poor and hungry in the lifetime before this, and so we are more motivated to achieve financial success now. If we didn’t have the chance to be educated in our past lives, we might seek learning and be motivated to get into a spiritual lifestyle. The big lessons always become apparent sooner or later.

      We bring into each incarnation our own Ka-Tet, or karmic family, and we have to learn to deal with those people all over again, hopefully in kinder and gentler ways. You and your daughter have probably spent a few lives together, and not always as mother and daughter. The relationship you have with her this time will teach you both things you were unable to internalize before. Perhaps the worry she causes you now is part of your karma.

      Your teenager will probably change her mind about the kind of boys she wants to date a hundred times as she grows into womanhood. Right now she wants to date African-American boys because they seem more interesting to her. I don’t feel it’s particularly a part of her karma, but the older the soul, the more likely she was to have been in Africa, as that’s where civilization began. Her karmic experience is drawing her to what feels safe and familiar.

      Because the question of race isn’t important when concerned with the spiritual aspects of our past lives, that rarely comes up. We have been every kind of person, every race and religion in our past lives. We have been both male and female. I’ve found that, while certain preferences for food, lifestyles and comforts are carried over from one incarnation to the next, a person’s race doesn’t matter at all. Everyone is the same regardless of the color of their skin.

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