Animal Prophecies

In the last post, I described the power animal, or guardian spirit, as a primary source of special powers and knowledge for the shaman.  Often, these spirit beings assist in divination. Divination refers to acquiring knowledge (through nonordinary means) about something hidden (eg., the cause of an illness) or  about the future (eg., the success of a hunting trip). (See Harner’s “The Way of the Shaman,” Harper & Row, 1990.) A prophesying power animal plays a role in my novel, “A Second Chance Life.” In the following scene, Jude tells his friend Sara about a raccoon who he believes is quite extraordinary: In the hush of the closed-up car, Jude said, “Well, I guess it all began when I was seven. See, I wanted a puppy real bad. A little puppy I could play with,...

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