The Book of Beasties: Your A-to-Z Guide to the Illuminating Wisdom of Spirit Animals

By Sarah Bamford Seidelmann

Beastie [bee-stee]: The overarching spirit of any species of insect, reptile, bird, mammal, or mythical creature that exists or has ever existed; also known as an animal totem or spirit animal.
 
“From an ancient perspective, everything—including all natural things, like rocks, flowers, trees, insects, birds, and mammals—is alive and infused with conscious energy or spirit,” writes Sarah Seidelmann. If you’re one of the many people looking to reconnect with the creativity, wisdom, and vital energy of the natural world, here is a fantastic guide for tapping into the power of animal totems, or “beasties.”
 
The Book of Beasties invites you to explore why certain animals show up in your life—and what teachings they may be trying to share. Packed with information, illustrations, and traditional and modern insights into the unique qualities of different beasties, The Book of Beasties teaches you about:
 
• Guest Beasties: how certain beasties enter your life to give you messages or assistance you need just when you need them
• Core Beasties: meet the guiding beasties who are your lifelong companions, friends, and helpers
• Beastie Relationships: tips and techniques for deepening your relationship with beasties and becoming more receptive to their support
• Beasties A–Z: an expansive compendium of individual beasties and their unique qualities—including bats, wolves, elephants, salmon . . . even unicorns and dragons!
 
“A message brought by a beastie may be about beauty or family or work,” teaches Sarah. “It might offer you guidance on a prickly problem. Or it might make you smile just when you need it.” Whether you’re a long-time shamanic practitioner or simply curious about what secret messages your favorite animal might have for you, The Book of Beasties is an ideal resource for discovering the wild and wonderful world of spirit animals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sounds True
• Release date: Jul 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781683640509

Sarah Bamford Seidelmann

Sarah Bamford Seidelmann is a fourth-generation physician turned shamanic healer and life coach, who deeply enjoys shenanigans. She's a frequent guest blogger at Maria Shriver's site for Architects of Change and has led sold-out retreats combining surfing and shamanism in Hawaii and a sacred pachydermal pilgrimage to Thailand. She loves to help others find their own "feel good" so they can live courageously and enthusiastically. Visit Sarah at followyourfeelgood.com.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

BEASTIE (BĒSTĒ)

(1) any insect, reptile, bird, mammal, or mythical creature that exists or has ever existed; (2) the spirit of any insect, reptile, bird, mammal, or mythical creature that exists or has ever existed, including Ladybug, Woolly Mammoth, and Dragon, to name a few; also known as an animal totem or spirit animal.

Years ago, I fell madly in love with a taxidermied walrus. I couldn’t stop myself from returning to the shop where he lived so I could stare at the grand mysteriousness of him. I wondered, "Am I supposed to buy this walrus?" That felt like a really inappropriate impulse because he cost several thousand dollars, and I already wondered how I’d replace the income my family would lose if I quit my job as a surgical pathologist. My husband and I are both physicians, and we were also busy raising four kids (ages five to fourteen, at the time). I had the sense that I was no longer meant to be working as a physician, and my desperate aim was to figure out my feel-good vocation. But so far, I was just extremely worried.

I took a sabbatical that summer from my medical practice. I was unaware I’d been living a nature-starved, overcivilized life for a long time. As I started spending more time outside, taking more walks and noticing what was happening around me, I began to feel better. It seemed the more time I spent outside, the better I felt. A few weeks later, I stumbled into the ancient idea that the wild animals that cross our path might have messages for us.

The night I made this discovery, I must admit I was skeptical. Wild animals can deliver helpful messages to you? How could a wild animal visit be of any possible consequence to a person? But I was also excited and delighted at the prospect. As a young kid, I was utterly obsessed with Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom TV series (hosted by Marlin Perkins); I collected Beatrix Potter animal figurines (Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle!); and I secretly fantasized in my under-the-bed diary about becoming a veterinarian. Truth be told, I was a pretty anxious child, terrified of actual animals (especially the neighbor’s dog), so that career choice would have been disastrous. But the thrill of wild creatures had never left me.

Bond with Your Beastie Book

Before you begin reading, I encourage you to take the following strange steps: give your Book of Beasties a big fat kiss, place it over your heart for a few moments, pat it gently three times on its back, and silently and sweetly ask it to become a steady source of personal inspiration and truth for you and everyone you share it with.

I began to learn that if you feel muddled, exhausted, depressed, overwhelmed, or need help of any kind, communicating with animal spirits can help—a lot. I learned that this amazing new sort of communication wasn’t limited to living creatures. There was an aliveness to everything—especially in nature. During my training to become a physician, nobody mentioned the ineffable and profoundly loving aspect of the Universe that the beasties can help you connect with. My parents and other good people had tried to point me to it, but I hadn’t been able to see. Lacking this critical knowledge, I had been struggling mightily to live out my mission to relieve suffering in the world—to be useful in the way I longed to be. But with a new willingness to explore the unknown, I learned that if you want to truly be well, this transcendent way of viewing the world is most vital.

Connecting with the taxidermied walrus and the spirit I sensed in him (even in his stuffed and breathless state) felt deeply reassuring. In time, I discovered that Walrus is a powerful beastie, offering strength, abundance, gregariousness, deep diving, and a generous skosh of sensitivity. To this day, whenever I think of that taxidermied walrus, a feeling of deep security washes over me, and I am deeply grateful for the wisdom that Walrus, the animal spirit, shared with me. I didn’t need to buy the taxidermied walrus; it turned out I could carry Walrus with me everywhere. (Incidentally, the taxidermied walrus still hangs in that shop in downtown Duluth. I suspect he’s whispering beneath his whiskers to other unsuspecting shoppers as we speak.)

Once I started communicating with beasties, things began to feel much better. During my radical sabbatical, many amazing things began to happen in rapid sequence: I attracted a remarkable opportunity to travel to South Africa, I realized I was yearning to step away from traditional medicine altogether, and I found the resources to make all of that possible.

But the most important and best thing that happened that year was something I will forever cherish: as I forged a sacred connection with beasties, I recovered a deep sense of peace, joy, and belonging.

I began to have a deep knowing that love and support surrounded me. My resistance to what I wanted decreased dramatically, and I began to recognize beauty everywhere. I also experienced many moments of ecstatic joy. In my early forties, it seemed like my whole life needed to fall apart a little so that I could become more buoyant. And the beasties were the doorway to that lightness.

That’s why I’m passionate about sharing the messages of beasties I’ve received and teaching others how to discover theirs. Connecting with beasties helped me, and I know it can help you too. Plus, it feels good!

Whether you are a skeptical new explorer of these spirited seas or a well-traveled, savvy life pirate, it is my intention that this book and its large collection of Beastie Portraits will shed light on their fantastic attributes and provide you with delightful provisions to fortify you on your unique voyage.

Part I (chapters 1, 2, and 3) of the book will help you get started connecting to beasties and introduce you to the two types of beastie visitors you’ll be receiving: guest beasties and core beasties. Chapter 4 will take you on a deeper dive once you have explored the basics. Part II is a compilation of Beastie Portraits, which you can use like a field guide to help you discover more about their possible significance in your life. This not a typical field guide to help you identify beasties, but to help you identify with beasties. As you go through this book, I invite you to ask yourself, What might this beastie be saying if it were trying to help me?

And if, for any reason, you are struggling on your path right now, I invite you to gently ask yourself another powerful question—one I learned to ask myself often during my radical sabbatical—How good are you willing to let it get?

And, as many wise ones like to say about this beautiful path, the world is what you think it is. So if your experience of the world is currently unpleasant, I lovingly invite you to pay attention to beasties because they can shift your perceptions.

On behalf of the beasties, welcome to your new adventure—and welcome to The Book of Beasties!

With love,

Sarah

QUICK START

for the Irrepressible

If, like me, you tend to recklessly plunge in without reading directions and cannot wait to get your first message, you could turn now to part II and look up the animal you’ve been seeing most often in your day-to-day life. Or the beastie you’ve loved for a lifetime.

Before you read the portrait, think about what has been the biggest challenge for you lately. What is troubling you? Or what are you longing to create?

Then set your intention to receive helpful information from this beastie, and read the message shared in the portrait.

If you like, also consider the specialized messages about the essence of the beastie, the chakra it speaks to, and how its messages might apply to the vocation, creativity, relationship, and love aspects of your life.

See if anything resonates with you, and please ignore anything that doesn’t seem to fit. Always trust yourself first. If something seems to fit, simply apply its message and see what your outcome is. If you feel better and/or your outcome is better than expected, then you may be onto something. Keep going!

Chapter 1

GETTING STARTED

THE ANCIENT PRACTICE OF CONNECTING WITH NATURE

There’s a bigger, deeper world swimming all around you all the time. It’s full of messages and support. We’re all marinating in it. It permeates and surrounds our ordinary reality.

From an ancient perspective, everything—including all natural things like rocks, flowers, trees, insects, birds, and mammals—is alive and infused with conscious energy or spirit. Working with this spirit of nature is an ancient practice that’s been going on for tens of thousands of years on every continent.

Most of us have long forgotten how to tune in to the spirit of nature and hear its messages because we’ve been raised in a culture in which the prevailing belief is that humans are superior to the rest of the natural world in terms of intelligence and abilities. Why would you want to tune in to the spirit of something you have been told is inferior and not as powerful as you are?

I’ll tell you why. First, connecting with nature is a fast and effortless way to feel good. When you walk with your dog outside, stroll along a beach, take a hike, sit on the grass, or simply look out the window, you tend to feel better. This isn’t just a platitude: the scientific evidence behind forest bathing, what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, tells us that walking in the forest can decrease stress hormones, blood pressure, and heart rate; calm our nervous system; reduce anxiety; and improve our mood.¹ I encourage you to do your own research. My personal laboratory study (of me!) has demonstrated a radical, 100 percent improvement in mood after just ten minutes of exposure to the outdoors.

Second, being in nature opens you and helps you connect to something that’s bigger than you are. It raises your vibration. One could say that the spirit of things in nature is inherently high. I believe that nature (and everything in it) has that positive quality or vibration because it doesn’t experience a lot of resistance to itself. Like Deepak Chopra says: Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. Flowers don’t try to bloom, they bloom. Birds don’t try to fly, they fly. This is their intrinsic nature . . .²

Being in nature feels so good, I believe, because by raising our vibration, it helps us see past all our human fears, judgments, and resistance to being . . . well, ourselves. When we come into harmony with the earth and our self, we experience progressively more flow, ease, and gratitude in our lives.

Third, when you spend time in nature, you rekindle your primal connection with the earth. That’s why the sounds of nature—the crash of waves, the hum of rain, the wind in the trees—are so very grounding and reassuring to most of us. It is through our senses that we perceive our reality, and these ancient earthly sounds remind us of who we are and where we are rooted.

Finally, connecting with nature is an empowering way to step out of your intellectual self (for just a bit) and invite the creative, receptive part of yourself to play. Many of us (I’m raising my hand) can get really stuck in our heads when trying to navigate challenging legs of our journey. Does that happen to you too? Your left brain is great for solving some problems in your life, but using logic alone can make problem-solving difficult in many areas, especially matters of the heart. Stepping into nature is an easy way to access more of your brain or consciousness and to connect to your heart and your own spirit.

And I want to tell you a little secret: you will manifest change more effortlessly if you can shift out of your left brain and into your creative, intuitive, and holistic right brain. When you tune in to Mother Earth, you tune in to one of the most powerful manifestors of all. I mean, will you look at her? She’s nothing short of astonishing. Working with nature is also like having direct access to a gorgeous, infinitely powerful charging station. She ripples with potency.

We can benefit from the natural world in many ways, simply by beginning to open to it. And one of the easiest—and most fun—ways to begin to open to nature is to connect with animal spirits, or beasties.

TUNING IN TO BEASTIES

I wasn’t aware of the deeper world of nature until the beasties found me and I started connecting with them. I believe the reason so many of us are drawn to animals and hold them in such high regard is that they are vibrational role models, and working with their spirits is an invitation to join in their high state of alignment.

For example, animals are radically self-loving. Animals don’t judge or resist their own existence the way humans often do. A walrus doesn’t say, Oh, good heavens! I’m getting too fat gorging on all these clams! What am I doing lying here for hours in the sun at the beach with my friends? I should be exercising or starting that diet or catching up on my email. No. The walrus is doing what she loves and what serves her. She’s following her instincts with quiet confidence. Doesn’t that sound nice? When you become able to love and accept yourself, as the walrus does, there’s really no other work to be done. You are aligned with life. You will naturally experience joy and abundance and do good work.

But I’m not just talking about tuning in to living, breathing animals. A beastie is also the spirit of an insect, reptile, bird, mammal, or extinct or mythical creature. When I talk about a beastie—for example, Hawk—I’m not simply talking about a single particular hawk that you saw on a treetop yesterday at the edge of the highway. Nor am I talking only about the spirit of that single particular hawk (though he has his own spirit too). I am speaking of both: the living breathing creature and the grand, collective spirit of all hawks who have ever lived or who ever will live—the eternal and timeless essence of Hawk.

If you spot a hawk during your day, I could say that you are catching a glimpse of its spirit. Seeing a beastie in any form during daily life (or in your dreams) is like glimpsing the tip of an iceberg. It’s an invitation to dive deeper and explore the 99 percent of it that is hidden. Discovering that hidden aspect is often where the help is.

For the purposes of this discussion, a beastie is a spirit that bears a special significance for an individual. It is a source of strength and insight. This creature’s spirit is aligned with the spirit of the person who works with it.

I believe working with beasties in this way is embedded in our DNA or our collective experience. Though our Western culture currently lacks a strong connection to the practice of working with spirit animals, many beloved creative works point to this possibility again and again.

For example, many Disney heroes and heroines have deep friendships with an individual tiger and monkey (Aladdin), fish (The Little Mermaid), mice (Cinderella), dragon (Mulan), panther and bear (The Jungle Book). The animal friends in these Disney movies are portrayed as individual animals, but just like spirit animals, they demonstrate a deeper-than-average sentience and an ability to communicate clearly with humans. These creatures also serve as cheerleaders, protectors, companions, and instructors for their chosen heroes. And their qualities are perfectly matched to the qualities the heroes either have or need to bring forth in their situation.

In the 2009 fantasy movie Avatar, when the hero meets a horselike creature in the world of Pandora, he takes the end of his own long braid of hair and connects it to the end of the horse’s tail. At first this connection feels awkward to him, but it soon becomes a powerful bond between the two. And because of this bond, the hero is able to ride to many wonderful places and do many things he simply couldn’t otherwise.

This is how the connection between you and a beastie might feel: it may be awkward at first, but once you get accustomed to it, you’ll find it to be a deep bond that allows you to experience many wonderful things that you couldn’t on your own.

You don’t have to believe in beasties or their power simply because I said so; you must experience this work directly to see if you believe it. Faith in beasties is personal and can only be acquired over time through firsthand experience. So let’s keep exploring!

TWO KINDS OF BEASTIES: GUEST BEASTIES AND CORE BEASTIES

There are two basic categories of beasties you’ll be encountering. The first I like to think of as guest beasties. They’re around for a limited time. They come to stay with you for a moment or a month, or even a year, to bring a message or share some wisdom. Guest beasties arrive to guide you through something important that’s going on in your life. They’re basically saying, "Hey! Over here! Notice me, because I’m trying to tell you something that’s important for you to know right now."

The other kind of beastie we’ll explore is what I like to think of as core beasties. They are often referred to as guardians, familiars, protectors, or power animals. The word power often seems to be thought of only as intimidation and strength. While it’s true that a core beastie does offer strength, it’s not the strength of being more powerful than others, but the strength that comes from being connected to your true self. The core in core beastie is the core of you.

The next two chapters tell you more about each of these types of beasties.

Chapter 2

GUEST BEASTIES

Guest beasties are beasties that appear for a limited time to bring you a specific message. It’s kind of like a guest coming to visit who won’t be around forever. The good news: unlike houseguests, you won’t have to change the sheets or get up early to make coffee for them. Instead, the visit of a guest beastie can lighten your load.

They show up in your life to point you in a new direction, offer a solution, or teach you something. Even our biggest fears, like not having enough money, a place to live, or good health, can be calmed by connecting with a simple message from a guest beastie.

You don’t need to dwell in a yurt in the Gobi Desert or sleep in a hammock on the Amazon River to experience the power of guest beasties, although being exposed to nature will definitely facilitate the process. You don’t even need to be in the geographic area where the living beastie makes its home. Remember, I found Walrus in a downtown shop. Just begin wherever you are.

WORKING WITH GUEST BEASTIES

The first step to working with guest beasties is to notice which beastie is showing up. Although they sometimes make a dramatic entrance, beasties often simply appear as you go about your day—as you read the newspaper, as you pick up the mail, or as you walk down the street.

You don’t need to see the actual, three-dimensional version of the beastie for it to be a guest beastie with a message for you. Beasties you see on a digital screen, that you read about in a book, that appear in a dream, or that present themselves on a gift someone gives you—they all count. You may even hear a beastie rather than see it. Or, even more mysteriously, you might see just a tail, a tooth, a glistening trail on the sidewalk, a web, scat, or other evidence. All of them count. All you need to do is pay attention.

For example, if Tiger wants to get your attention, the man making your latte may have a tiger tattoo that catches your eye, and you ask him about it. Or you visit the zoo, and you can’t get enough of watching the tiger lounging majestically in its habitat. Maybe a friend gives you a birthday card with Hey, Tiger! as part of the message. Or a PBS documentary on tigers is playing at the dentist’s office while you get your teeth cleaned, and later your child offers you their stuffed tiger toy to snuggle with. You might even have all of these things happen within the short space of a few days.

And please don’t ignore mythical or extinct beasts like unicorns, dragons, or dinosaurs, because the principles for working with them are the same. Maybe a dragon figure captivates you at the Harry Potter museum you visit in London on your business trip, and that evening Dragon Lager is what’s on tap. Pay attention. These strange coincidences might be whispering, Dragon wants to be your guest. Invite her in!

If more than one beastie is showing up, simply pick the one that feels most important to you. Or pick the one that’s shown up the most times. You can’t make a wrong choice.

Beware: once you start paying attention like this, you may be astounded at the number of beasties trying to get your attention. I call this the Beasties Anonymous phase, because you might start to feel a little loco—like you could use a support group to understand what’s going on. Having a friend to share these experiences with can help. Or just pick a beastie to focus on for the moment. Again, it’s impossible to choose the wrong one.

The second step is to notice how your guest beastie is showing up. Ask yourself the following:

Where is this beastie showing up? If you’re at home, it might be in the front yard, which is a public area you share with the world, or it might be in the backyard, perhaps representing a more unconscious part of your life. Or is it showing up only on your commute to work? Or when a particular person calls? Be curious about why the beastie might be appearing where it does.

What is the beastie doing? What activity are they involved in? Are they flying, sleeping, defending, hunting, peacefully present, or snuggling? Simply notice. This can be an important clue.

What was on your mind when the beastie entered your awareness? Are you thinking about an issue you’re having with a business associate? Are you mulling over a big step you’re thinking of taking? Are you reviewing an incident with a friend? Or thinking about a relationship that needs healing? Again, simply notice.

The third step is to find out more about the beastie you noticed. Research the animal in a way that feels good to you. That may mean turning to the back of this book, seeing what its beastie portrait suggests, and noticing if any or all of the insights resonate. Or it might mean searching a trusted resource for scientific information about the animal’s behavior, biology, or habitat. Sometimes watching a narrated online video about a particular animal can provide earth-shattering insights into what the beastie means for you.

The fourth step is to ask yourself, What insights does this exploration reveal or evoke in me regarding what’s on my mind? Another way to put it might be, "How does the way in which I’m seeing this beastie make sense in the context of what I have been wrestling with?"

When you identify with this beastie, does any new insight arise about your current struggle?

If you are having trouble, take a deep breath and try this: Imagine yourself as that beastie for a moment. Become the beastie in your mind’s eye, and then silently ask it, How are you here to help me? Listen for its instruction. For example, you might hear it say, "I am Rabbit, and you just need to freeze so you can get clear on the best decision for you. Don’t feel pressured to decide. You have plenty of time."

What instant Aha! do you get, if any? If nothing rises to the surface, simply be patient and wait. Often, a significant insight will occur to you later.

When I first started sharing this idea of guest beasties offering guidance, I had a discussion about it with a dear friend. Afterward, he went to a café and sat with a hot tea in a to-go cup, waiting until it was cool enough to drink. It had been a rather harrowing morning. His wife had just been served papers for a surprising and upsetting lawsuit. On top of that, he had been out of work until recently, they had just begun rebuilding their savings again, and a lawsuit sounded expensive.

He lifted the lid on his tea and took a sip just as he noticed there’d been a fly trapped under the lid. Before he could stop himself, he swallowed the fly along with the tea. Yuck, right? But wait—maybe not. Our conversation about beasties was still on his mind, so he thought, Maybe there’s a message here. He went home and researched the fly. In the particular reference he used, this passage stood out: This is a time of rapid abundance growing. It went on to say that in a short period—two weeks or so—abundance would show up. He connected with that possibility. It felt true and reassuring. That little fly helped him raise his vibration that morning, enabling him to shift to hope and positive expectation despite his circumstances.

It turned out that many good things did come his way as a result of his wife’s lawsuit. They began to reach out to their community for support, and they learned how beloved they were by friends. Also, because the lawsuit was stressful, it brought them closer together as they supported each other. They found affordable legal counsel, and the lawsuit was eventually dropped.

Often, a guest beastie will show up just for a moment to remind you that, no matter what, all will be well. Feeling good (or at least a bit better) in the moment is sometimes all that is needed to shift our perception of the situation.

Jess had successfully worked at a software development company for ten years when she began to feel the pull to return to graduate school to pursue her passion, creative writing. It felt like a big risk, and even her steady dad seemed worried.

Sweetie, you’ve got a great job. Why don’t you just keep working? he said. School will just delay you from being able to purchase a house.

In the cafeteria of the company where Jess worked, there was a beautiful view of a field with dozens of trees. One day while eating her lunch, Jess noticed a pure-white squirrel leaping through the branches. Flabbergasted, having never seen such a thing, she turned to her coworkers.

"Did you just see that?"

Oh yeah, one coworker said, nonplussed. That’s just the campus white squirrel.

Weeks later, Jess had courageously decided to put in her resignation so she could pursue her dream of graduate school. She was still scared. Was she making the right choice, leaving this secure job to explore the unknown? She went to her company before sunrise, when the building was empty, to collect her things and clear her desk. As she stepped across the threshold to leave the building, with her box in hand, can you guess what happened?

That extraordinary white squirrel leaped, right into the threshold of the open doorway, and looked straight up at her. They stood staring at each other for what felt like a long time.

Jess shared, "In that moment I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on anymore. It was so bizarre, but—and this is going to sound weird—I felt like he was saying to me, ‘Everything is going to be okay, Jess. Now go!’" She left the building that day feeling reassured, and she is now living out her dream of becoming a writer.

Sometimes something singular and spectacular, like a white squirrel appearing on our threshold of change, can give us a strange sort of support. Finding that relief when everything feels terribly uncertain can be reassuring. Messages from guest beasties are powerful because they reconnect you to the all-knowing part of yourself, the divine part that knows all is well and all will be well. This message can help you stop swimming upstream, and you can relax, let go, and get back into the flow of life. And sometimes, when you try to explain your guest beastie encounter to others, it can sound a little ridiculous. Because these connections are often beyond words.

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS, MESSAGES AND METAPHORS

We often make intuitive connections while studying beasties and their meanings. If you consider guest beasties to be symbols, it can be easier to tap into your right brain’s ability to notice and use metaphor and intuition to interpret their messages.

Our souls communicate in the language of symbols and metaphor, which is why art can be so powerful without anybody explaining it or saying anything about it. Symbols are something you must use your intuitive, creative self to interpret. Using both logic and intuition is powerful, whether you’re building a business, raising a child, or changing the world in your own unique way. If you’ve ever read about or experienced the power of interpreting dream messages, you already know that working with symbols can illuminate otherwise baffling experiences.

An animal’s life cycle or reproductive cycle can be part of a beastie’s metaphorical message about how much time it may take for abundance to appear or for the manifestation of a creative project. A fly reproduces quite quickly, so it can be a symbol for quick abundance and renewal. In contrast, elephants have a very long gestational period, so elephants showing up everywhere as you work on a project could indicate it’s going to take longer than a few short weeks to finish the project or see results. Relaxing about the project’s timeline can help our patience grow.

Beasties can symbolize and mirror qualities you seek. A taxidermied walrus (odd, I know) drew me toward the strength and power of Walrus, which helped me find my own unique strength and power. A fly in a to-go cup showed my friend a pathway to trust in abundance, helping him to get through a difficult patch. When you’re open to connections between what you want and need and what beasties show you, you can discover so much about yourself and what you are going through.

If the message you get rings true or resonates, fabulous! Say thank you to your guest beastie and honor it by applying its message in your life.

Sometimes a guest beastie will show up, you’ll read about their message, and you’ll think, That makes no sense or I don’t like the message I’m getting from that. That’s okay. You don’t need to accept anything that doesn’t feel right to you. There’s no need to push. There’s no need to try to make sense of a beastie’s appearance. You can let its message unfold. More may be revealed later.

Oftentimes I won’t understand a guest beastie message on the day it shows up, but a couple of days later, it’ll all become clear. Sometimes, too, I resist a message. I don’t worry about it. If it’s a message I’m supposed to get, it’ll show up again later. The beasties can be quite patient.

It can be powerful to keep a little notebook handy and write down what guest beasties are showing up and what possible interpretations might be. Then you can start to learn more about yourself and ways of interpretation that work for you. It’s also great to record this stuff if you’re feeling skeptical. Beasties don’t mind skeptics at all! You can check back and see if the messages you received became helpful over time. And you can record those times when you acted, inspired by the beastie’s message, whether it helped or not.

As you notice patterns and themes, they can help you see a bigger picture. The accumulation of messages and meanings can show you how you can make your own life as fabulous as it can be. You can begin to see your own dreams coming true as you explore and track what guest beasties tell you.

Exploring what the appearance of a guest beastie means may be as simple as asking yourself, What feeling do I get from this beastie in front of me? Quick! What’s that flash of insight—some call it an intuitive hit—that pops up? Hint: their messages are often ridiculously short and sweet. Listen carefully for it—before your logical mind jumps in to squash or edit it.

My dear friend Amanda told me about being in a time of great distress in her career. She went on a walk and ended up sitting by an inland lake. As she was thinking about the challenges she was facing, a single dragonfly showed up and buzzed around her. For about an hour it never strayed more than a few feet away. Amanda thought to herself, Gosh, I don’t even really need to know the specific significance of the dragonfly beastie message because I have such a feeling of protection from it right now. Dragonfly was simply a presence, a witness, for her when she really needed it.

Other beasties have more humorous intentions. Michael, a cardiologist, was starting to enjoy exploring beasties. He was driving down a road, through the woods, toward his regional clinic, and he saw hundreds of geese in a pond. They all had their beaks submerged in the water with their tails up in the air. He asked himself, Okay, what could possibly be the significance of this? He remembered that I’d suggested he notice what they’re doing and also what was on his mind. As he did that, he started to laugh. Ha! he told me later. "I suddenly knew exactly what the geese were doing! They were all mooning me (tails up!) because on that particular day I desperately needed a good laugh."

Some guest beastie appearances will seem exceedingly rare and unusual, and it can be easy to recognize that there is a message being sent. At the same time, don’t dismiss a beastie simply because it is common. People often ask me things like, You know, there are always a bunch of crows cawing in my yard. Is that significant? Should I begin there? I say that if you are noticing a beastie, it’s definitely carrying a message for you.

BEASTIE EQUAL RIGHTS

A question people frequently ask is, What if it’s a bad sort of beastie or a beastie I don’t like who appears? I’ve learned that there are a few beasties that scare many people—snakes, roaches, rats, spiders, and sharks, to name a few. Rightly so, because in our physical reality, a few of these species can inflict harm on us, and we must be careful of where they live and how they behave. It’s also important to remember that all beasties have their own special significance, power, and strength. In nature, there’s no judgment that the lion is good and the hyena is bad. There are no bad beasties.

In our culture, there are many popular stories that put judgments on particular beasties—films like Jaws, for example. Historically, certain cultures or religions, too, may have negative associations or superstitions associated with particular creatures. But in the natural world there is no judgment. Each beastie plays an incredibly powerful and important role. Without each beastie playing their part, the entire web of life suffers. We’re all connected. It’s good to consider yourself and all the beasties as vital partners in that web.

This idea that every beastie is equally important in the web of life correlates well with the idea that every human is equally as important as every other human, that we’re each here for a specific purpose and mission, and none of us is more or less important or belonging than the other. It’s my belief that things work best if we all share our specific gifts. When we do that, the whole earth benefits. The same applies to beasties.

If a beastie that you’re scared of shows up, like maybe a spider or snake, I invite you to get curious. Learning a