In our last week of animal communication class, we practiced an exercise to attract and commune with our totem animals. Totem animals can affect our lives very strongly by bringing power into our lives. The animal chooses us, and it comes through his/her conscious choice.

The nature of totem animal is an indication of our gifts and powers. It can also reveal the subconscious blocks or repressed information that must be released for the inner journey. Totem animals also represent the symbolic and psychological processes of the journey into wholeness.

Totem animals can come through ceremony, dreams or may simply appear in our lives. One of my personal totems is the wolf. When I was three years old, I began having nightmares about wolves. Typically, I would awaken in the dream to find a wolf in my room or crashing through the window. I was terrified of wolves. Nevertheless, I fell in love with the first real wolf that I met and had to be in the cage with him.

Later, I would learn that feelings about totems often happen in this way. It is normal to feel either repulsion and fear, or, a magnetic attraction to the totem animal. The totem animals have such a profound effect on one’s life that it is impossible to have a feeling of detachment. As in art, a passionate feeling, whether positive or negative, is a sign of being drawn toward a totem animal.

When we are fortunate enough to be found by our totem animals, we incur profoundly, dramatic and intense moments in their presence. Our psychic powers increase, we become more sensitive and alive. Nature opens herself to us, and the shapes of plants become more distinct. Colors deepen. There is a new or heightened awareness of all parts of nature. The experience in the moment becomes much more exquisite.

We are one with Nature, and totem animals can indicate the life energies that require development. In the past, people understood the importance of our co-evolution with nature. Their ceremonies were about rocks, plants and creatures. It was not because they were primitive or because they thought that their ceremonies would allow them to possess of a power of an animal. They courted the energies of nature, by invitation through ceremony.

Totem animals also push us through fear, neurosis and blocks. Each animal represents a spiritual energy as well as lessons that must be learned. It’s impossible to experience power without having the courage to walk through it. The wolves taught me about my intuitive powers, which I kept hidden. It takes strength – at least, internal strength – to walk with the wolves. As I began to believe in my own powers, I became stronger, and I began to integrate my shadow.

The wolves revealed my shadow in biting words, through ruthlessness and persistence. It was impossible not to see my fear or when I failed to move forward. Through the wolves’ persistence, I finally realized that sometimes it is easier to open a door than to continue closing it. Perhaps, the most convincing argument for seeking a totem is that they teach – even the most stubborn of us – how to open doors.