The Best Totem Animal Book Ever!! At first I was dissappointed in lieu of how tiny the book appeared..but Yasmin Galenorn impressed me by way of a TON of very useful information regarding this topic and a lot I didn't even know..I would recommend it too anyone just starting out with Shamanism..totem work and shapeshifting...Enjoy!
A Must Read! I recently finished reading this book, and I was amazed! I've also read Animal Speak by Ted Andrews and Animal Magick by DJ Conway. This book left both those combined in the dust! The information provided in those books is helpful providing you already have an understanding how to work with your animal guides, but Yasmine's book is very experiential and helps one to truly understand how to work with the animal spirits.
Yasmine also has a bit different view as to the definition of totem. For her, a totem is much more than an animal guide, and she differentiates between totems and animal guides and guardians. In her way of understanding totems, as humans, our souls are composed of more than just human souls, but are also part animal. It is the animal parts of our souls which are our totems. "Power animals," then would simply be animal spirit guides. This view of totems may seem a bit radical, but it resonates quite well with me. Also, as someone with so many power animals, it would explain why traditional Native American totem poles were not sky scraper height. It also makes sense for me in terms of explaining why I feel I possess certain qualities of some animals while others simply seem to guide me.
More importantly, this book seeks not to explain what it means to have a certain totem or guide but, rather, seeks to instruct one in how to develop a relationship with one's own totems and guides and to learn what it means from the animals themselves. This book was genuinely fascinating and one which I had a hard time putting down.
Good starter book I really like this book. The author certainly has a unique viewpoint on animal totems and spirit guides, and I love her use of anecdotes. She's got a superb writing style and is quite thorough in her coverage of the topic. Truth be told, though, if I could give it a 4 3/4 I might, simply because I'm getting tired of books that rely on precrafted spells for content-filler--but I give her *major* props for not falling back on the totem-meaning dictionary that *everybody* does. And the pre-crafted magick she does have is inventive, so I'm definitely rounding up to a 5 for a good effort.For serious seekers, this is one of the best. Eclectic Pagan 102. Serious, thought-provoking, non-"fluffy," dark, ethical. Has sets of spells sorted according to general type of animal (geared toward people whose totems are avians, predatorial animals, mythics, etc) without really stereotyping specific varieties of animals. Unlike many animal totemism books, which say that you can identify as any and all animals in order to understand their unique energy, this book speaks of animal totemism as having a special connection to one particular species... or sometimes to a few particular species. The author herself has three animal totems, with emphasis on one more than the other two.
This book is genuinely thought-provoking, turning up a lot of things I'd never thought of. At first it seemed to be the kind of overly-sensual magic book that makes me nervous, diving right into the scariest stuff without explanation, but that was just the first chapter- then it backtracks and begins to explain, step by step with great depth, each of those intimitely personal visions and events, plus many more that really flesh it out. Like the astral projection books I read, my reaction in some cases was, "oh, that happened to me once... is THAT what it was? Wow."Fresh Information The information presented in the book is new material not presented over and over that is usually seen on this subject. I find the Shamanic approach in the core Shamanism category. Definitely well thought and prepared. Good info on a subject which needed expansion beyond the current written material.
