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, and tell him everything . . .

“So did you get a puppy?” (Sara asked.)

. . . “No. When I asked my mom, she said, ‘No dog, because your little sister has bad allergies. How about a turtle?’ You can imagine, I was bummed . . .

“But then, that very same night, after everyone had gone to bed, I heard this scratching outside my window. I stood on my bed and looked down into the vegetable garden that ran along the side of the house. There was this raccoon, balanced on her haunches, looking up at me with that dark mask they have. She had her paws folded across her pouched belly, like she was waiting. Two little fuzzy mounds—her babies—dug around in the dirt next to her. She kept looking at me, like I was supposed to say something, so I started talking to her. I told her about wanting a puppy. I told her about my dad. I told her how hard it was in school. Then she rounded up her babies and waddled away. I fell asleep feeling a whole lot better, almost like making up for not having a puppy.

“Did she ever come back?”

“Yep. Pretty soon I’d hear her rummaging outside the window almost every night. She’d sit back on her hind legs and shine her eyes up at me. I’d ask her things, like, how will I do on the spelling test? Will I get that basketball for Christmas? Will I get to pitch for the baseball team? After awhile, she started to answer me. She had a high, whistly voice and she was always right, like she knew what was going to happen. She’d say, ‘you’ll get seventy percent on the test’ and I would. ‘You’ll get a basketball,’ and I did. And she told me ‘No, you’re not that good at pitching,’ and I wasn’t.”

. . . “What did your parents think about the raccoon?”

“My parents? I never told my dad. I told my mom about the whole thing . . . She made me promise not to tell anyone—not my friends, and especially not my dad. She said I had a creative mind and an excellent imagination, and I was to tell her about the animals helping me if they kept on. I think she put my experiences in the category of “imaginary playmates” and assumed I’d outgrow it.”

 

Jude’s mother interpreted his experiences as imagination, and one could assume that Jude already suspected the answers to his questions, and simply imagined he’d heard them from a raccoon. After all, he was a little boy in need of someone to confide in.

The idea of prophecies, power animals or not, is a fascinating one. But is it possible to truly “see” into the future?

In a partial answer to this question, there are some intriguing current scientific studies about glimpsing the future, studies that are published in respected, peer-reviewed journals. Since I promised science as well as psi and psychology at this site, the next blog will take a look at some of this science.