Channeling Nature Through Animal Spirits

Choose your spirit animal to help you tap into the power of nature.
Image by Okan Caliskan from Pixabay

“To merge with the animal nature through imitation is to invoke the primal force of the god or goddess reflected within.”
-Raven Grimassi, Hereditary Witchcraft

Choosing Your Spirit Animal

Shamans often channel nature by tapping into a specific animal. The animal spirit acts as a sort of guardian to the shaman while they partake of their journey to the spirit world. Animal spirits are used in the practice of shamanism to bring more power to one’s magic and acts as a form of sympathetic magic.

The witch or shaman through their actions or the way they dressed took on certain desired characteristics of their animal spirit. These characteristics made the magic that was practiced more powerful and meaningful. Native Americans, witches, and other shamans often use a variety of animal spirits in their magical practice.

Working With Animal Familiars

A similar concept to animism is that of animal familiars. Witches and wizards were believed to be able to temporarily remove their soul from their body and store it in their animal familiar. Some of the more common and magically powerful animal familiars associated with witches were cats, hares, serpents, foxes, owls, and toads.

Some of the more common attributes associated with each of these animal spirits are listed in this article for entertainment purposes. Choose the animal spirit you want to work with according to the characteristics that you want to emulate while working on your own tradition of magic. Or you may choose to work with the animals that you feel a special affinity towards.

The owl represents wisdom, intuition, and independent thinking and is a favorite animal familiar to practitioners of natural magic. Photo by Alexandre Silva from Pexels

List of Traditional Animal Spirits

Bear - astral travel, change, healing, primal power, solitude, transformation.
Bee - chastity, immortality, industry, purity, rebirth, secret wisdom, spirit.
Boar - courage, direction, leadership, strength, warrior.
Bull - death, fertility, resurrection.
Butterfly - metamorphosis, rebirth, soul.
Cat - guardianship, magic, mystery, protection, reincarnation, sensuality, wisdom.
Coyote - illumination, insight, intelligence, prankster, shape-shifting, stealth.
Crow - boldness, cunning, divination, omen, prophecy, shape-shifting, swiftness, thief, trickery.
Deer - gentleness, grace, healing, independence, innocence, kindness, love, nobility, pride, psychic powers, purification, sensitivity, strength, swiftness.
Dolphin - balance, change, freedom, harmony, trust, wisdom.
Dragonfly - change, grace, power of light, swiftness, truth.
Eagle - clear vision, courage, creation, healing, intelligence, renewal, spiritual power, swiftness, strength, wisdom.
Fox - cleverness, cunning, intelligence, invisibility, persistence, protection, provider, shape-shifting, slyness, stealth, swiftness, wisdom.
Frog/toad - cleansing, faith, fertility, healing, magic, medicine, miracles, sensitivity, shamanism, transformation.

Hekt is a frog-headed Egyptian goddess representing rejuvenation and fertility. Toads were once thought to be one of the more common animals associated with the witches familiars. It’s always a sign of good luck when a witch has a toad living in his or her yard as they are thought to be symbols of healing and represent the fertile growth of spring which symbolizes the reawakening of mother nature after her long winter slumber.
The very first amulet bag I ever made was of a glorious two-toned green frog on an amber-colored background which I created entirely from glass seed beads. This bag remains my favorite of all the ones that I have created throughout the years.

Goat - fertility, independence, power, preserver, protection, sexuality, virility.
Goose - fertility, fidelity, innocence, luck, parenthood, vigilance .
Hare/rabbit - alertness, balance, humility, fertility, nurturing, rebirth, rejuvenation, resurrection.

The hare is my personal animal spirit for magical visualizations performed during the day. In the summer of 2003, my ex-husband found a rabbit in the empty field next to our house. It was checking out my garden and looking like it wanted an invitation to come into our yard. It was really tame but no one in the neighborhood seemed to know where it came from. I think it was put there just for me.
We brought the rabbit inside and my husband made the Cadillac of rabbit cages to keep it in. My daughter named it Cuddles. Cuddles joins our animal family of Spot the spotted gecko, Brandy and Amber our dogs, and Nicki the Guinea pig and enjoys feasting on a variety of organically grown herbs and vegetables from our garden.

Horse - astral travel, endurance, freedom, grace, journey, magical ability, movement, power, stamina, strength, travel, vitality.
Owl - freedom, healing, insight, omens, patience, shape-shifting, truth, watchfulness.
Raven - creation, healing, initiation, magic, protection, shape-shifting, teacher, trickster, wisdom.
Salmon - abundance, fertility, psychic ability, secret wisdom.

According to Hildegard von Bingen salmon “… is more active in the night than during the day and likes the moon more than the sun. When the moon appears, it swims very much in its brightness, just as if it were the splendor of the sun.”
Salmon are considered to be the fish of knowledge in many cultures' mythology. An ancient Irish legend tells of how a magical salmon living in the River Boyne ate of the nuts of a hazel tree which was overhanging the river. The hazelnuts imparted great wisdom to the fish and this salmon was known as the fish of knowledge and whoever was the first to eat of its flesh would gain the knowledge of all things.
The Irish warrior Finn MacCumhail burned his thumb while cooking the fish of knowledge. To relieve the pain of the burn he placed his finger into his mouth and immediately gained the powers of magic, great insight and the power of words.

Scorpion - attacking from the rear, death and rebirth, transmutation of poison.
Shark - defensive ability, guardian, protector, savior, shapeshifter.
Snake - healing, immortality, initiation, rebirth, resurrection, transformation, wisdom.
Swan - balance, beauty, dreams, empathy, grace, innocence, intuition, longevity, love, mystic, sensitivity, soul.
Turtle - longevity, navigation, wisdom.
Whale - psychic, record keeper, telepathic.
Wolf - cunning, guardianship, intuition, learning, loyalty, perseverance, ritual, stability, teaching.

There Is a wolf mix dog in our neighborhood that I pass everyday when I go to pick up my kids from school. I took that as a sign to use the wolf as another one of my animal spirits. The wolf which can be perceived as being the opposite of the hare is the animal spirit I most often turn to for divinatory help conducted while I am dreaming during the night.

The gryphon, or griffin, is a mythological animal spirit that represents daring,
physical protection, and revenge. Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

List of Mythological Spirit Animals

Use these animal spirits found in ancient mythology to help guide the darker aspects of your magical workings. They can be evoked to help with banishing spells or to help prevent attack from evil entities or to send an evil spell back to its sender.

Basilisk - an ancient mythological creature said to be the king of serpents possessing lethal breath and a gaze that could turn anyone into stone.
Centaur - part human, part horse. Healer, teacher.
Chimera - a monster of Greek mythology. Part lion, part goat, part serpent, and which breathes flames. Elusive delusion, fantasy, figment of imagination.
Dragon - ancient powers, enlightenment, intelligence, protection. Gargoyle - dissolves negativity, protector of the light, silent guardian.
Griffin - head and wings of an eagle, legs, and tail of a lion. The griffin represents daring, physical protection, and revenge.
Hydra - a water serpent of Greek mythology with many heads, when one of the heads is cut off 2 more will grow back. The hydra is a water spirit that represents immortality.
Minotaur - head of a bull, body of a man. The minotaur represents arrogance, isolation, strength, strong will, and vanity.
Pegasus - a horse with wings. The Pegasus represents astral travel, boundaries, emotion, humility, inspiration, and protection.
Phoenix - rebirth, regeneration, reincarnation, renewal, spiritual growth.

Peace, Love, and Light
The White Witch, AKA Lynn Smythe
Founder of Craft of the Wise, the Essential Survivalist, and the Creative Cottage

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running! Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!