Über Krafttiere

Chickadees (Meisen) are the most amazing birds.

They may be the most trusting of all wildlife. They always come to my feeder, rain or shine, and they return right away when I was gone for a while.

The little blue ones came to the window sill when the realtor showed me my house for the first time, peering in curiously. Now, they follow me around the house when I move from room to room, changing trees and song tunes, always inviting me to come out and enjoy their company.

The well known American tracker and nature connection pioneer Tom Brown Jr., whose work is directly passed down towards my own nature connection practice, wrote: “Nobody flies with more reckless abandon than the chickadee, and nobody flies with more delight”.

As many of us had a chance to observe these past few snowy weeks, the little birds are out there, “singing that everything which has gone under the snow is neither lost nor dead and that life survives beautifully somewhere else and will return. There is a joy in its song that says that everybody who is hiding from the storm is missing the best part.”

The sentiment goes back to Tom Brown´s own teacher, the indigenous North American elder Stalking Wolf. He spent his entire life weaving connections between the spiritual practices of many different cultures, and passed on this universal wisdom to a white young boy who ended up becoming one of America’s most famous trackers.

Stalking Wolf taught his young student that all animals, and all birds have skills and traits to admire, who we can learn from and work to emulate their energy. But to him above all the birds, even the most skillful hunters, ranked the chickadee - because of its indomitable spirit. Nobody can oppress the spirit of this tiny bird, who flies straight into the storm as if there were no tomorrow.

While it can be challenging to tap into the energy of animals out there in the wilderness without knowing anything about their habitats, it’s very easy to absorb the joyfulness of the chickadee. You only have to sit next to your bird feeder for a little while to pick up that sense of exuberance.

They are always on the move, always on the lookout for predators who can end their short lives in an instance. But it doesn’t faze them. They come to collect the seeds in an orderly fashion, and drop some of their bounty to the ground for the robins and blackbirds to enjoy.

There is great value in being around them. One could even call them the most accessible power animal we have.

Generally speaking, I feel ambivalent about the concept of power animals, although it is an established practice in many indigenous cultures. For us Westerners, who are for the most part thoroughly out of touch with the essence of wild animals, it just doesn’t feel authentic to call a buffalo or an elephant one´s power animal.

Indigenous folks have relationships with certain animals who were cultivated over a long period of time, and they are always connected to the land they live on.

The Maori in the South Pacific have deep ties to the whales and know through their ancestral ties how to sing to them. Northern American tribes have adopted totems like beaver or bear as the name of their clan, because they live nearby and know all about their lives and their habits.

Many of us have gotten used to connecting only with the spirits of the animals without knowing much about how they survive and cultivate relationships amongst each other. I know that because I used to do the same thing. Yet only a few clues from a spirit card deck or a paragraph written on a shamanism website doesn’t make a relationship.

Indigenous children often receive their birth totem at a very young age. But we can still be called at a later date, when an animal wants our attention repeatedly, which is why these are named "call totems”.

Not surprisingly, many of us feel drawn to big cats or wolves because of our deep connection to our pets. Contrary to popular belief, it is not us who are in charge of our cats and dogs. It is they who are our guardians and who have much to offer to us through their wisdom and presence.

So next time a raccoon (Waschbär) moves into your barn or a group of deer keeps crossing your back yard, ask yourself if they have a message for you.

They may invite you to come into relationship with them. Not just with a request for food or shelter. They have their own wisdom and energy to share with you.