Spirit Animal Resources

Below you’ll find a list of some of the best places to find information about spirit animals and nature totems. This is by no means an exhaustive list! If you have additional suggestions, please let me know and I will add them to the list. smile

***Disclaimer: I’ve chosen these as resources that I’ve vetted and believe to provide good, accurate information about spirit animals. Some of them contain affiliate links, which means that I’ll receive a small commision for any sales made through them. This helps support my site and YouTube channel so that I can keep producing more free content. I thank you in advance should you choose to make your purchases through my links. 

Spirit Animal Books 

Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small by Ted Andrews – This is the classic book on working with spirit animals and interpreting animal symbolism. If you only buy one book on animal spirits, I’d recommend this one. It includes quite a lot of instructional information as well as a pretty comprehensive directory of animals and birds.

Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson

I love this book, which is based on teachings passed down from tribal elders in nine Native American traditions. It’s meant as a complement and companion to the Medicine Cards oracle deck listed below. 

Spirit in the Stone: A Handbook of Southwest Indian Animal Carvings and Beliefs by Mark Bahti 

Written from an anthropological/art history point of view, this is a little treasure trove of Southwest Native American animal lore. Plus the multitude of photos of animal carvings are absolutely fabulous.

There are a lot of other spirit animal lore books out there that are worth exploring. If you have a favorite, let me know and I’ll add it to the list!

 Spirit Animal Oracle Cards 

 

Spirit Animal Awareness Oracle Cards by Ona Christie Martin

This is my own deck, written and illustrated by me. 🙂 I’ve included meanings for each animal (including shadow traits) right on the cards to simplify readings even if you are not super familiar with the animals. These cards feature a slightly narrower format than most oracle cards for easier shuffling and handling with smaller hands. The deck includes 44 cards, and like the Medicine Cards below includes 2 blank cards so you can include whatever additional animal you wish.

Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson

Jamie Sam’s awesome book is available as a set with oracle card deck (and yes, you do need the book – the cards wouldn’t make much sense without it unless you are very familiar with the animals already.) This is one of my favorite animal decks I’ve seen.  The art is beautiful, the instructions are clear, and I really like that blank cards are included so you can add animals that are not present in the book.

The Spirit Animal Oracle: A 68-Card Deck and Guidebook  by Colette Baron-Reid

Aside from my own, this is my favorite spirit animal deck I’ve found to date. The illustrations are gorgeous, it’s a BIG deck, and it comes in a very sturdy box. The write-ups are the best I’ve seen of cards that use the approach of one meaning per animal – I’ve often found them to be insanely spot on. However keep in mind when you use the cards that the animals will have multiple meanings so if the message in the book doesn’t resonate, you’ll want feel into or research an alternate interpretation. The ONLY gripe I have about these cards is that they are so thick that they’re difficult to shuffle; however don’t let that deter you from investing in this beautiful deck. 

Animal Messages by Susie Green

If you are looking for a deck that will provide a done-for-you framework for an animal reading, this is a great pick. Susie Green has done an excellent job pairing each animal with a meaningful message, and the included guidebook expands on the message in a concise yet impactful way. Like the Medicine Cards book above, this book also includes quite a lot of instruction on using the cards, including several suggestions for different types of spreads.

Power Animal Oracle Cards: Practical and Powerful Guidance from Animal Spirit Guides by Stephen Farmer

Also a really nice looking, easy to use deck. Each animal is paired with a single attribute (for example, Koala = empathy). The guidebook does include additional attributes for each animal, and of course you can always interpret the cards in your own way using your intuition and/or other resources. This would be a nice oracle deck to use for a “card of the day” sort of approach.

Shaman Wisdom Cards — Tarot Cards: 65-Card Deck by Leita Richesson

Based on Native American shamanic tradition, Leita Richesson’s cards include not only spirit animals but also the seasons (moons), plants, trees, stones, and medicine wheel elements. It might be a bit overwhelming if you are just starting out with spirit animals, but if you are familiar with or would like to learn more about shamanic principles you might really enjoy working with these cards. I find the more I work with them the more I get out of them.

Of course this is only a small sampling of the many excellent spirit animal decks available today. If you have a favorite, let me know and I’ll add it to the list!

Spirit Animal Websites

These are some of my favorite online sources of information about spirit animals:

What Is My Spirit Animal– Bernadette King has put together a beautiful site with comprehensive write-ups on dozens of critters, plus a spirit animal quiz and other resources.

Spirit Animal Totems – This website is a bit hard to navigate but has very helpful animal meaning interpretations. If you want to look up an animal you’ll need to scroll down on the home page and find the section where it has links to different animal categories: Land Animal, Birds, Insects, Ocean and Water Creatures, and Reptiles and Amphibians.  Also listed are a number of domestic dog breeds and horse breeds and colors as animal totems.

Spirit Animals & Animal Totems – Lots of ads, but pretty good spirit animal interpretations.

All Totems  – Nice, long, easily searchable A-Z animal totem list with pretty comprehensive spiritual meaning information about each.

Diana Haymond  – Diana is a psychic and healer. She has posted a few spirit animal interpretations on her site. There aren’t many (although she says she’s adding more), but the ones there are insightful and worth a read.

What’s Your Sign – Avia has extensive information about the spiritual meaning of many different animals as well as other symbols. One of the best spirit animal sites on the web.

Morningstar  – Lynx Graywolf’s website. In addition to vibrational essences she also has a list of animal totems and their meanings – extremely comprehensive and well-written.

Art of Awakening – Yep, that’s me! I’ve got a couple dozen animals now on my blog, and counting.  To browse blog entries in the Animal Spirits category, click here: http://artofawakening.life/category/animal-spirits/