Power Animals and the Way of the Heart with Brooke Medicine Eagle by Aluna Raphael

I interviewed Brooke Medicine Eagle during a warm August day in the summer of 2002. While we spoke on the phone, Brooke told me, an eagle circled the sky outside her office, silenting recognizing, honoring, and affirming our work together.

Aluna: Where did the idea or recognition of Power Animals originate?

Brooke: Primary peoples recognized that, because we're all related in the Circle of Life, animals will reveal themselves in visions and share their power or energy. Shamans and primary peoples have always been connected to the animals, both physically and psychically. They possess a spiritual connectedness, an inner knowingness, as well as living closely and harmoniously with animals.

It is a fact that as the human fetus develops, it recapitulates the whole of life, the entire phylogeny, including all the animals. We recapitulate as we move through our whole formation, from single cell to double cell to our many-cell system, through the states of fish, reptile, mammal — our body literally move those stages during its formation. So animals live in us. We are, in part, all of them. One can plainly, for example, see that we possess the territorial nature of the reptile along with the emotional body of a mammal.

Aluna: I understand that we have or can attract Power Animals, and that we can identify what our Power Animals are through visions. Could you tell us more about this?

Brooke: Animals live from the heart, with a deep instinctual knowing that is firmly connected to the entire circle of life. Because they live from the heart and are not entrapped by their reason, they can be powerful spiritual and emotional allies.

Power Animal allies are wonderfully useful to us Two-Leggeds, because we so need that direct, unedited, unmitigated connection with All Life that animals possess. We often work from our heads, trying to figure out everything, not allowing ourselves to live from the heart.

But the energy that comes in from Source is directed through our hearts, and Power Animals live in that direct connection and serve to remind us of what is innocent and truthful.

We come into our own power when we are in flow with the whole Great River of Life. The heart is the way to tune in with this power. All animals live their life in tune and in this flow, and can come to us as Power Animals to offer this much-needed medicine.

In the beginning, animals, and All Our Relations, were physically and psychically connected to the primary peoples on this planet. Unfortunately, we no longer have a relationship with what we call the "wild" animals: They keep their distance from us out of fear, and we do the same.

As a result, Power Animals have become for most people a theoretical construct rather than a relationship with a real animal.

I recommend that people who have a vision of an animal make an effort to get to know it. What are its habitats, its habits, its lifestyle? Go visit the animal, in the wild or in captivity. Research it. Truly get to know this animal, not just from a theoretical level.

And give back for what it offers you. Help protect its habitat through conservation efforts and so on. Be proactive about making the connection with a Power Animal that calls you.

We can become good friends with our Power Animal by extending it honor and respect, not just waiting for something to "come in," but interacting with it. We can give energy and actively seek good communication.

One simple way of doing that is to make offerings. Cornmeal, for example, is a traditional offering that carries a prayer for nurturing. Tobacco carries a prayer for communion and heart-felt communication.

Aluna: Does everyone have a Power Animal? Do some folks have more than one?

Brooke: Sometimes Power Animals come as visionary help through a specific stage or challenge in one's life. People may also seek or be gifted with an animal that stays with them their whole lives. In tribal cultures, a vision of an animal was often received during the puberty Vision Quest — the major initiation into tribal spiritual ways.

Such was the case for Chief Plenty Coups. He had a prophetic vision of cataclysmic change for his Crow people, which appeared to him as the forest being blown down in a tornado that wiped out the lands. This would later be interpreted as the coming of the white man and the devastation that followed. But in Chief Plenty Coups' vision, one creature remained safe and connected with everything throughout this ordeal. It was the chickadee.

Chickadee is very quiet, very gentle, and is welcome in any circle and therefore hears and knows everything. A chickadee is not excluded from anything and so is very wise. Chief Plenty Coups wore a dried body of a chickadee behind his ear for the rest of his life as a symbol of the power and understanding the chickadee gifted to him in this vision.

Also, if we have a symbol system like the Medicine Wheel which helps us interpret their messages, many different kinds of animals may appear to us on a daily basis. They may bring us information, or simply appear as reminders. A raven could fly by and caw, or a snake might cross your path in the garden. The trick is in listening from the heart to hear what they are telling you.

Aluna: Can you tell me about your own Power Animals?

Brooke: That would take a long time, since they are many. However, I will tell you of several.

One of the pantheon that helps me is a Black Jaguar, representing the deep unconscious, the primal space within myself. When I go to her in vision, I throw my leg over her and sit on her back as if to ride her. When I do, she assumes the size of a Sabre Tooth Tiger — six feet tall at her shoulders! I roll my fingers into the soft hide of her neck and hold on as she leaps and runs on visionary journeys. She has been with me for several years and only comes when I call her.

In contrast, the Eagle has been with me consistently for thirty years. Other Power Animals have come and gone during this time, but Eagle has been my constant companion. It was on my Vision Quest, during my first Saturn return at twenty-nine years old, that I became an eagle in my vision. Flying high, I looked down to discover that my wings were covered in turquoise and coral jewels. When I came out of that vision, I was awakened to reconnect with my native heritage and was connected forever to Eagle.

Eventually, on another major Vision Quest at Bear Butte, I was given the name Medicine Eagle, which basically means the Little Sister of the Eagle Who Walks the Medicine Way. My connection with this Power Animal profoundly impacted the unfolding of the purpose of my life: To the best of my ability, I began flying high and carrying the Light for all the People, as does Eagle.

I have now completed another Saturn return, through which my life path may again transform. During this process, I was gifted with vision of another Power Animal to assist me in this new cycle.

Here is a story behind this vision: I had been looking at a statuette of a baby eagle emerging from an egg, and contemplating my time since "becoming an eagle." I remembered that when I began that journey I had no idea of what being an eagle meant.

I found myself recapitulating my learning, growth, teaching, and sharing since the vision. There was a sense of bringing closure to that part of my life.

At that moment, I was taken into vision and found myself inside an egg of indeterminate size; I had no sense of who or what I was. With a gentle touch, the egg cracked, and the shell fell in. And as the light hit me, an irridescent blue-green and gold light filled the air. I was looking out through long, thick eyelashes at this amazing display of light, which not only originated from me but also nourished me!

When I asked, "What am I?," I found myself outside of the egg, standing on tiptoes, looking in. And I saw myself inside the egg as an amazing irridescent blue-green baby dragon blinking her huge eyelashes. This vision brought the message that I will be a dragon for the next thirty years. So now I'm in the process of learning what it is to be a dragon.

Being more aware of the process after 30 years of experience, I asked Creator to send dragon masters to teach me, bringing to my receptive arms the tools I needed to use this energy as well as I can. Since I am asked to serve the world through this energy, I invoke master teachers for my learning and the benefit of All My Relations. Receiving as I have asked, I have already been given profound teachings from several sources, among them magicians and ancient dragons themselves.

The dragon with whom I work is the earth/water green dragon who nurtures the Earth, and I remembered seeing this Mother of the Earth in a surprising and beautiful vision which I report in Buffalo Woman Comes Singing.

Aluna: I studied with a shaman of Arapaho tradition, Victor Umana, who warned me about my vision of an owl, as he had a very specific understanding of what this animal represented. However, when I studied with Wallace Black Elk, a Lakota elder, he had an entirely different and more positive interpretation. Can you speak to the differing interpretations of what animals represent, or the energy they carry?

Brooke: There are many native and tribal traditions, and these include animals in many and varied ways, according to the experience of those people.

Everything is represented on the Medicine Wheel. There is a specific place for everything. Where each animal is placed and what it represents is really dependent upon personal and tribal background and influences, or what teachings you have received.

Let's say that one tribe has experiences of great awakening associated with an eagle — then Eagle will hold the space of illumination. For another, it might be Snake that brings awakening, and so in that culture Snake will hold that same space of illumination.

If we find a traditional outlook that feels comfortable to us, then we can use the symbols of interpretation associated with that tradition to open up communication with the life around us.

For example, I use a Medicine Wheel that I am told is based on the Cheyenne and Arapaho traditions; it feels right to me personally and provides a common symbol language that I and others may share. Using this agreed-upon set of symbols, I can interpret the communication of the vision of a red bird flying from the East to mean that there is some kind of illumination or awakening coming that has something to do with red, which is connected with South, heart, and relationship. This combinations and many others can offer us messages on a daily basis.

It's valid to use any appropriate system/language that feels right for you to interpret your visions and relationships with Power Animals. Creator will speak to you in your language, in your own dialect, as long as that language is consistent.

I'd like to comment for a moment on your example of the owl. The owl demonstrates societal and cultural influences that strongly affect how people think about certain animals.

In the old days of the Primary Peoples, everything was viewed as a gift from Creator: Nothing was thought of as bad or evil. If a rattlesnake bit you, it wasn't because you were bad or the rattlesnake was evil. It was simply the animal protecting itself and its space. If you were awake and alert and in good relationship, you'd have no problem at all.

The owl, as a creature of the night, has the ability to fly through darkness into the Light with assurance and ease. Thus it is a guide for us in our dark times. This ability of the owl can also be seen as a metaphor for death. Death was not considered evil by primary people: It is one natural cycle ending so that a new one may begin.

The view of darkness itself as being evil or bad was integrated into many cultures with the Christian and other outside influences, but tribal people used to honor the night and the moon, adjusting their eyes to the dim light and spending time under the stars soaking in that healing energy for their nervous systems.

Over time, because they were associated with darkness and sometimes were adopted as guides by dark shamans, owls came to be viewed as evil. The owls, of course, are not dark forces in themselves. To illustrate: If you had a few thousand dollars you could buy some cocaine and sell it to children, or you could use the money to start a children's program to help treat them.

Money is neither good nor evil but is dependent upon your use of it. The owl is neither good nor evil. It is one of Earth's blessed creatures. It has been used in different ways, but there is no need to fear the owl itself. When using owl feathers or any other of your spiritual tools, or when working with Owl as an ally, just be sure to dedicate your work to the enlightenment and upliftment of All Your Relations. That dedication is very important.

Aluna: Would you like to share anything about communication with flesh-and-bone animals?

Brooke: I'm reminded of the teaching of White Buffalo Calf Woman: "How you treat and connect with any other in the whole Circle of Life is how you treat yourself. Because we are in fact One."

Deep within that understanding is the recognition that we have the power to communicate in our relationships with animals and to assist each other in our learning and healing in the whole of our lives.

For an example from my own life, whenever we move our horses, to reduce their stress and confusion we always talk to them and explain what we're doing. That is simple courtesy to this alive, aware, emotional being, and enlists cooperation rather than fear or resistance.

By opening to communication on that level, we are brought closer in the One Family of Life. This awareness brings us back around to the beginning of our talk — to communicate with animals, whether Power Animals or animals of flesh and bone, we have to be in our hearts.

Interacting with the animal kingdom is such an enriching opportunity for us all. To get into our hearts and learn what medicine these amazing beings have to offer our lives, and what we have to offer their lives, benefits the whole Circle of Life.

Brooke Medicine Eagle is an American native Earthkeeper, teacher, visionary ceremonial leader, sacred ecologist, songwriter, Feng Shui practitioner, and catalyst for wholeness. Her dedication is to bringing forward the ancient truths concerning how to live a fully human life in sustaining harmony with All Our Relations.

She is a member of Sacred Ground International, an educational foundation based in energetic research, sustainable living, and buffalo ranching on her home Crow Reservation, and the author of a spiritual autobiography, Buffalo Woman Comes Singing. Her latest book, The Last Ghost Dance, is about the transformational practices of Earth magic and ascending into our greater humanity.

Brooke and Feathered Pipe Foundation conduct workshops titled "Song of the Nations" and a new FlowerSong training called Wakantia — a blending of the finest teachings of Celtic, native, and other traditions to open a path of beauty into the future.

From her Montana home, she directs her teaching and participation in international workshops and conferences, wilderness spiritual camps, writing, and recording and videotaping of songs and teachings, plus education in harmonious, sustainable living.

You can contact her by email at or visit her website at .

For those who would like to explore the subject of Power Animals more fully, Brooke recommends reading in her books about the Medicine Wheel and other related subjects, and working with the process outlined in Eligio Stephen Gallegos's book Animals of the Four Windows.