HEAR THE THUNDERING of the hooves across the plains; feel the earth tremble as they approach; see the clouds of cosmic dust rise in their coming. These are today's power animals and their power is awesome to behold.

I dreamt of the plains last night
I felt the earth beneath my hooves
I felt the dust fly into my nostrils
I ran

I ran underneath the glowing moon
Until the stars dissolved into night
Until pink streaks of dawn stretched across the sky
I ran until I wondered if I could run more
And then I ran more

I am the buffalo that thunders
I am the eagle that soars
I am the giraffe majestic against the African sky
I am the elephant who walks in wisdom
I am the tiger tireless in beauty
I am the force that embodies the best and highest that we are
I am pure and raw and unleashed
I am the power of the power animals unleashed upon this world

I began developing www.PowerAnimalsUnleashed.com with a simple concept in mind: to create a website for you to intuitively select your own power animals. But as I worked on the site, I became aware of a vibrant energy force that was being unleashed around me. As I created each animal's webpage, I felt a new presence emerge, unlike any I had experienced in all my years as a shaman.

I finally came to understand that the power animals were leading me through an energy expansion process, and that it was my job not only to build this website, but to reveal to you a new energy force leading us to and finally through the golden doors of possibility and manifestation.

Today's Power Animals
But what exactly are these power animals, these gatekeepers to the portals of such vast energy? Are they, as the shamans of old believed, the spirits of animals who bring us their strengths in exchange for being able to once again walk the earth? Are they spirit guides in the form of animals, come to help us, whispering guidance in our ears?

They are metaphors, symbols, for power that goes far beyond our imagining. They are tools for us to use to open up our lives in ways we have never dreamt of. They are not literal animals at all, nor even literal spirit guides, but a hand held out to lead us, trembling with power and desire, as we reach for the finest and highest we are capable of being and achieving. They are power beyond description, beyond even imagining, made accessible to us in the oldest and most primal symbols humankind has ever known.

First Steps
We are to embrace the power given to us by inviting power animals to be one with us in our daily lives, informing our decisions and actions, utilizing as many power animals as we require - as often as we require them - living and breathing this new energy daily until we finally lift higher into the energies of pure manifestation and beingness.

Let your intuition guide you toward the right power animals to bring into your life, allowing yourself to join with different power animals for different circumstances.

• Each morning, choose a power animal to help you meet the challenges of the day, perhaps a panther to bring you alert awareness and patience.
• Choose a power animal for each important relationship in your life, perhaps a thick-skinned rhinoceros to help you better tolerate your boss' irritating manner; perhaps a dolphin to bring leaping joy back into your marriage.
• Allow a power animal to be one with you at each event, perhaps an elegant swan to get you through that dinner party.
• Ask a power animal to help you improve your daily habits, perhaps a squirrel to help you save money or an athletic cougar to motivate you to exercise.
• Ask a power animal to guide each enterprise, perhaps a tortoise to teach you that no goal is too great if you simply keep going, step by step, and never quit.
• Ask a power animal to help you through difficult times, perhaps a bear to help you sleep and to remind you that spring always comes again.

Do this and you will find that several things happen: relationships will become deeper and more mature, tension and worry will lessen, your finances will improve, bad habits will dissolve. In short, life will transform and move toward peace, joy and fulfillment.

Invoking the Power Animal
When you choose a power animal, it is important to allow your intuition, not your will, to make the selection. I have been guided to offer you www.PowerAnimalsUnleashed.com specifically for this purpose, free of charge, but you may also do it on your own, especially if you are adept at accessing your pure intuition.

Either way, follow these steps to invoke the power:

• Intend your use of the power. For example, "I ask that a power animal be one with me as I make this presentation."
• Choose your power animal, using your intuition only. Breathe down and ask for a power animal, and then note the animal that first runs across your mind.
• Clear yourself with golden flowing energy from head to foot, opening your mind to new ideas, your heart to new ways of loving and your center to embracing new truths.
• Become one with your power animal, asking the power to pour in and fill you completely. End with a declaration: "I am now one with the lion." Allow this ceremony to evolve over time as your level of power increases.
• Give thanks for the great gifts that are now yours.

As you go through the day, be the lion, walk with dignity and pride, speak with authority, act out of confidence and courage. After all, you are now the lion.

The Next Level
Continue inviting this power into your life every day, and one bright morning, one of the power animals you have grown to love will open wide the golden portal to the next level of energy and power, where thought becomes reality and the line between what might be and what is begins to blur and finally to disappear.

Together we shall explore the contours of this brave new land, where the water shimmers with possibility and energy blows in the wind, where the awesome power of the power animals is fully unleashed.

© Carrie Hart, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTE: Beginning in January, "Power Animals Unleashed!" will become a series. Carrie will explore one power animal each month in PlanetLightworker's paid section. Check it out!

Carrie will be featured as a guest speaker this month
on WorldPuja.org. Click here to see the full line-up.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carrie Hart is both a spiritual explorer and a successful business woman. As a management consultant and Vice President of a Fortune 50 company, she has learned how to effectively utilize the power of spirit in daily life. It is her mission with www.PowerAnimalsUnleashed.com to bring the powers of success and prosperity into your life as well.

To Contact Carrie Hart, email: carrie@PowerAnimalsUnleashed.com, or visit her websites: www.PowerAnimalsUnleashed.com and www.CarrieHart.com.