Many of you may not know that my first job in Austin was working for the Humane Society of Austin and Travis County in 1976. I started in Animal Rescue and advanced to Animal Cruelty Investigator. The curious seeker in me loves a good mystery, animal stakeouts, and hard detective work. The position led to many adventures, and those stories of my life still reside in the forefront of my heart and mind.
I took the job out of desperation and the lack of employment opportunities. The long hours, low pay, and the reality of human treatment of animals were part of a time where I gleaned valuable lessons that would carry me through this life. As I prepared the latest section of the IEL Institute for the Spiritual Arts, many of those stories returned to my thoughts. The process of writing the Level 2.1 Animal Spirits was a spiritual experience that focused on several animals.
Animals help me understand my life, as they often appear in dreams and unusual ways in real life. We are experiencing an arctic blast that created a phenomenon. Our area has seen thousands of robins and cedar waxwings. For a few days our yard was moving (tee hee). The Audubon Society issued a statement that the migratory birds were fleeing in mass numbers to escape the frigid cold. What did they know? Let’s head North (upward) for a whisper from an angel on communicating with animal spirits:
Animals depend on instinct with all aspects of life. Their purity of spirit comes from a lack of karma and a void in ego, which creates distinction from humans. Animal instinct influences behaviors that are natural and free from every influence outside the environment. What an animal encounters in their environment establishes the conditions that trigger behavior. This allows for primal expressions to all events.
People, animals of their same species, predator species, climate, sources of food and water, and encounters with different species all combine to inform behaviors and distinctive patterns. Animals do not filter their instincts, so they know when danger is near. A tidal wave, fire, storm, or anything that threatens their survival creates a response that is pure and natural. An animal’s ability to communicate is instinctive and natural. They can understand language through inflection, tone, delivery, body movement, energy, and expressions through the eyes. An animal can look into the eye of a person and make judgments or calculations because of their innate ability to see the soul, the intent, the emotions, and the potential reaction.
In the spirit world, animals are messengers of the light. They deal only with the truth that is based in the present moment and does not involve prophecy, unless emerging danger is present. Communicating with animals provides the safest form of non-verbal communication with the non-physical realms. The ability to sense and feel such a connection depends on the development of human instinct unembellished by the defeating ego mind.
Internal cleansing of the human spirit illuminates the path to the connection with animal spirits and the individual totem.
Bring joy, ease suffering and create beauty, then dance like you mean it!
Blessings, Russell
“The Turtle’s teachings are so beautiful. It teaches us that everything you are, everything you need and everything you bring to the world is inside you, not external. You carry it with you, and are not limited to a place, space or time.”
Eileen Anglin
