Our Animal Companions

by Lesley Nase

Over the past twenty years, the role of companion animals in peoples' lives has changed dramatically. As humans' lives become more hectic, isolated, and removed from Mother Earth and all life, we tend to rely on our animal companions for comfort, often expecting a pet to have human traits and to fill that void of human relationships.

As a shamanic animal communicator and healer, I am called upon to help people commune with their companion animals. Experiences from my work as a shamanic healer illustrate how our human state of mind and our body condition can affect our pets' emotional, physical and mental states.

Many of the calls I receive are from people who have lost a beloved pet. The questions I am asked are: "Do they know that I love them?", "Why did they have to leave me?" and "Will I ever see them again?" There has been a common thread in the past few years of dogs, cats and horses coming into a client's life when they were in emotional trauma or having to make major life changes. The journeys I do to these animals that have passed over is one that bring resolution, comfort and peace to the owner. Animals ask me to relate to their owners that it was time for their pet to leave, and that the owner is strong enough to carry on and to let go of what happened. As to the question, "Will I ever see them again?" the answer is, yes, in many different forms and ways.

Some animals say they will be waiting for them when they pass over. One horse told me that he was coming back, and that his owner would know him by the look in his eyes and the star on his forehead. Another animal, a dog, said he wasn't going to leave, that he would be sitting up on the hill overlooking the owner's land. The owner, when told of the journey, related to me that an old rooster who was particularly fond of the passed dog, trudged up to the top of the hill and sat, giving the owner verification of the spirit dog.

Much of what I say to people validates that which they already sense, that their animal's spirit is still with them. The journey confirms the sensation of the animal's head resting on their knee, the shift in the bed at night as the spirit animal lays down and the lick on the cheek when the owner cries over the physical loss of their loved one. All of these encounters are because of their connection to their animals.

I have a client who writes books about his experiences living with his dogs. It all started in the New Jersey suburbs and with his search for fulfillment. He now lives on a farm in New York where he raises and writes about border collies. This, in turn, has led to numerous sheep, five donkeys, two cats, two cows and a book on the best sellers' list. During this time, he had one extraordinary collie whose complex behavior led him to seek my help. He told me from the start that he was a skeptic but willing to hear what I had to say.

I know that the work I do is not for everyone. More important for me, I know I am a channel for information to flow through. I hold no attachment to the journeys I do. I just hold the space and relate what I see, hear, feel and smell in my journeys.

I did soul retrieval for this troubled border collie, and as I was ready to give thanks to my guides, I was whisked away for one last vision. I found myself in a crowd of people on the sidewalk watching a Nazi parade featuring the high-stepping precision German officers. It was a shock and rather frightening to be suddenly in the frenzy of that time in history.

I relayed to the dog's owner all that happened in the soul retrieval and then told of the experience of the Nazi parade. My client looked at me with no reaction at first. Then he told me how this dog had been trained in what was referred to as Nazi dog training. This journey started a friendship between us and many journeys for his animals. It also set him on a path to understand what body images he was projecting to his dog. In doing so, he became more in tune to the dog, whose early life experiences had clouded his every day perceptions. In the end, the owner had to let this dog go, and in a journey to the dog after its passing, the dog said it was the right thing to do, that the mental damage in his early life was too much to overcome. The relationship that he and his owner had was one of growth and respect for each other. This was the reason he entered this man's life.

Several months later, I was doing journey work for someone else, when I had a visit from Rose. Rose is a working dog who takes her job very seriously. She herds the sheep from one pasture to another on the farm of the writer. Never before had an unsolicited animal just appear in my work. Rose was worried about her owner's health and she couldn't get to him. She showed me a picture of him falling. I knew he was on book tour, so I sent him an email telling him of Rose's concern about him. He called back to tell me how he had fallen in the hilly part of the pasture when it was icy with only Rose to help him. His hip had starting hurting on this tour, causing him great discomfort. This dog's vibration is finely tuned to the subtle disturbances on the farm. Her responsibility to all the animals that live on the farm, even the human ones, is clear to her. Rose was keeping an eye on all of her charges even when she couldn't see them miles away.

I work with my local animal shelter and many of the dogs and cats give me an exact description of their new owners. There was a big old orange tom cat that had been at the shelter several months and he never took interest in the people who came to view the cats in the adoption room. The animal coordinator thought the cat was depressed and asked if I would journey to him. When I did, the cat told me he was waiting for an old man with large worn hands. The cat's vision of this man was that he would be hunched over when walking and dressed like he worked on a farm. I relayed this information to the shelter staff, and within a month, an elderly man walked in the cat room to find an older cat. This big tom cat jumped off his high perch, walked over to the man and started rubbing against his legs. The cat went to his new home that afternoon. This example shows how the animal world can tune into non reality to make it a reality.

Friends of mine have three rescue greyhounds. The male greyhound picked the husband as his person right from the first time they met. Their story is a good example of how our emotions can affect our pets.

Recently, I spent the weekend with them to watch the husband race up Mount Washington in NH on a bicycle. He had spent the last six months doing special training above and beyond his normal routine. The morning of the race, the mountain temperatures dropped to the mid thirties and the wind gusts were 70 miles an hour. Needless to say, the bicycle race was canceled. My friend was frustrated with the unspent adrenaline coursing through his veins. He had nowhere to place this pent-up energy. You could see him trying to control it. Moments later, his wife's phone rang. It was the pet sitter. She called about the male greyhound. The dog appeared to have had a seizure, and she wanted to know what to do. The wife realized that the dog was channeling and dissipating her husband's unused energy. She calmly told the pet sitter to keep an eye on the dog and to call if anything else happened. Not wanting her husband to become even more anxious than he was, she calmly told him what had happened to the dog and that she knew that he would be alright. Then she quickly directed her husband's mind and energy into doing something else. The pet sitter never called back.

Last October, I attended a weekend at Spirit Hollow, a Center for Shamanic studies and nature-based spirituality. The workshop was called Star Nations. The evening session entailed dancing to raise the energy for the work we were doing. During the high point of this dance, I twisted my shoulder, leaving me in great pain. My expanded spirit suddenly slammed back into my body, and I sat the rest of the evening on the sidelines wondering what had just happened. Over the next month, my physical body struggled to heal, while my mental state deteriorated. My emotional state didn't fair any better. I cried at the sound of a comforting voice. I could not concentrate to meditate or journey. I kept finding myself asleep. By the end of that month, my English Mastiff, Malloki, was also having problems. She couldn't run without losing control of her hind legs. She was also becoming incontinent when she rested. She never cried out in pain when she fell or during any of the veterinary or chiropractic tests she had. In many ways, she was imitating her owner. I knew I had to dig deep within myself to find the answers to her healing as well as my own.

Every day, as I walked her and my Great Dane, Elera, I reached out to ground myself in Mother Nature. I envisioned my MerKaBa as being straight, strong and spinning. I said mantras over and over to myself to regain back that which in me had become off-balanced.

I was scheduled to fly to California to visit my daughter within the week, when Malloki was taken ill. I almost canceled, thinking I should stay home and take care of her. That is, until my guide said very loudly, "No, you need to go!"

I boarded the plane, knowing that my dog was in the hands of her angels. That plane ride was the worst I've ever had. I was sick from the beginning to the end with motion sickness, an affliction that never affects me. By the time I touched down in California, I had voided all the toxins in my body — we'll leave it at that. And when I reached my daughters place, I slept for 12 hours. The next day, I knew that my magnetic field had been blown apart as well. I began to understand the significance of my having to leave my home, and that my body could only heal away from that magnetic field. As I grew stronger, Malloki also became well again. That entire series of tests that were performed on her never showed any physical reason for her malady. I know that the lesson was one my guides wanted me to experience first hand, so that I would have a better understanding of my animal and human clients. It gave me the opportunity to be more aware and compassionate in my journey work.

On the night that I wrapping up this article, a severe warning was issued for gusty winds with thunder and lightening storms. Elera, my two-year-old Great Dane, is very fearful of thunder. I could see the storm approaching over the mountain and quickly shut down my laptop. From experience, I know that I can head off any problems if I sit on the floor with her and massage and hum to her. My mastiff has no problems with storms, but thinks she should get the same treatment as the Dane. She laid on my other side. The storm cracked overhead and the downpour of rain began. Outside, I heard a terrified cry from one of my cats. He desperately was trying to get my attention by yelling my name. I went to the door with the two dogs on my heels responding to the cat's frantic energy. Then I walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch. The dogs lay down on their dog beds at my feet and the cat jumped up into my lap, trying to get as close to me as he could. I took a deep breath, sending out calm, reassuring thoughts to my animals. As they started to calm, I hummed, sending my vibration out across the room to reassure them. Another cat found my lap, and within minutes the dogs were relaxed to the point of sleeping. The frightened cat was on my chest, purring. I know that when I project calm, reassuring energy, my pets are in harmony with me and their surroundings, even while a storm is raging.

People rely on their companion animals to give them comfort in their ever- changing lives. In turn, our companion animals are taking on more and more of our issues, trying to help dissipate the built-up excess energy our bodies are holding onto. Being aware of your own well-being will lead to not only your own health and happiness, but the health and happiness of the animals in your life.

About Lesley Nase

Lesley Nase is a Shamanic Animal Communicator and Healer working and living in the southern part of Vermont. Under construction at this time Lesley's website Moonspinners Tearoom, www.moonspinnerstearoomshamanichealing.com, will be up and running the beginning of November. In the summer months, she manages a small campground founded by her family 35 years ago. Presently Lesley serves on the boards of two nonprofit organizations. Spirit Hollow — A Center for Shamanism and Spiritual Ecology where she teaches workshops on animal communication. The second is the local animal shelter called Second Chance Animal Center.

Website: www.moonspinnerstearoomshamanichealing.com

Email: lnase20@moonspinnerstearoomshamanichealing.com