Nicki Scully - Power Animal Meditations: Shamanic Journeys with Your Spirit Allies

To the healing of Mother Earth and to all my relations

Nicki Scully is a true modern day shaman who demonstrates a rare gift for leading us into the realms of magic which inspire and transform. Her ability to artistically weave evocative images enhances the well-documented evidence that guided imagery strengthens healing and personal growth.

Rev. Sonia Sierra Wolf, Healing Hypnosis and Spiritual Guide, and Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D., author of Mind into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit

For anybody who is interested in broadening their life quite instantly faster than going to Egypt or Balithese inner journeys will help you retrain your consciousness and have at your fingertips a whole array of archetypal energies.

Gay Luce, Ph.D., author of Body Time and Your Second Self

Nickis light and playful approach is a relief from some of the more common versions of creative visualization.... I can imagine using it as an oracle that falls open to whatever page it selects, showing a message for the day, reminding us of our essential animal nature.

Vicki Noble, author of Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess

Nicki Scully has managed to translate her vast knowledge of Egypts archetypal gods and goddesses into journeys for the seeking soul, where the ancient path becomes relevant to this most difficult present. The journey of life to self-fulfillment not only becomes a path for self-healing, but also helps empower one to help and to heal others and all living things.

Oh Shinnah, Native American healer

In this remarkable book, Nicki Scully takes her readers through various initiations, rituals, and shamanistic journeys.... Those who take the journey with her will find it challenging, enriching, and rewarding.

Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Saybrook Institute and coauthor of Personal Mythology and Dreamworking

The natural history of mythic images presented in Nicki Scullys Power Animal Meditations brings myths to life, allowing them to open inner doors, activate energies, impart wisdom, and move the reader to action.

James A. Swan, Ph.D., author of Sacred Places and associate professor of anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This kind of work is never done in isolation: it takes a group effort, with each person contributing a crucial piece in order to create the whole. In both the first and second editions, every guided meditation was inspired through the focus of students and friends who made the initial totem animal connections. They then journeyed with me to clarify the specific experiences that each totem wanted to offer these pages.

I would like to give special thanks to the following people, whose focus and attention helped bring this work to life: Roland Barker, Jane Bell, Anita Bermont, Lief Caroon, Bo Clark, Gayle Clayton, Christine Coulter, Normandi Ellis, Steve Harter, Charla Hermann, Myrrah, Gloria Taylor-Brown, Kalita Todd, Kay Cordel Whittaker, Paul Wolf, and all the students and friends who took these journeys and gave me their feedback.

Boundless appreciation goes to Barbara Hand Clow and Gerry Clow for believing in the importance of this work and to my editor, Laura Schlivek, for her clear insights.

Deepest gratitude and devotion goes to my husband, Mark Hallert, without whose constant vigilance, support, and keen vision I never could have accomplished this work. And finally, I offer many blessings of love and gratitude to my teacher and mentor, Thoth, and to all the totems and deities who have shared their wisdom and teachings in this book.

SPECIAL NOTICE TO THE READER

Although this book suggests experiences that can result in healing, it is not meant to give specific recommendations for the treatment of particular illnesses, either physical or emotional. This book explores a variety of alternative possibilities that are meant to be used as adjunctive approaches to conventional modalities and are not intended to replace recognized therapies or medical diagnosis and treatment. It is suggested that the reader approach these journeys with caution, for they, as with any deep explorations of the psyche, can sometimes catalyze states of emotional intensity.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

In its first edition, this book was published as The Golden Cauldron, which refers to the internal alchemical process used for connecting to your power animal totems in a safe and effective way. Although the title has changed to emphasize the animal guides, I have retained the use of the Cauldron in the text as a symbol of the alchemical beaker that we access within ourselves when we journey into the spirit world.

I strongly suggest that before you jump into these meditations, you read the introductory material and the chapters in Part I. These will give you a deeper understanding of how the journeys in this book actually work as a process for achieving transformation. Once you have learned the alchemy and language, you will find that although the journeys have been arranged in specific groupings, you can take any journey that is of interest, without regard to consecutive order.

Since the publication of the first edition, I (along with a circle of students and friends) have conducted ongoing research into the expansion of consciousness. This research has included numerous encounters with intelligent totemic beings, which have provided healing, spiritual advancement, and accurate and beneficial guidance for my students and myself. As a culmination of our research, seven new journeys have presented themselves for inclusion in this second edition.

Our human biological inheritance includes evolutionary lessons from all of the species with whom we share this blessed Mother Earth. Every chemical that we manufacture in our bodies, even those related to our emotions, was first explored and developed by another living entity eons ago. For example, we know now that plants contain brain chemicals. So an animals teachings are not simply an apt metaphorthey literally tune us in to the reality of what we have inherited from that creature. As we journey with that animal, the abiding wisdom of its species, based on its evolutionary history, awakens the same wisdom in ourselves.

The deeper teachingand this applies to all the plants and animalsis that what we choose to call a metaphor is actually the traces of a universal form. When we say the web of the spider is a metaphor for the ego, that is really not different from saying that the spider, in its evolution, laid the groundwork that made it possible for the ego as we know it to be born. It is part of what we inherit from the spider.

It is also important to remember that although the new section, "Journeys for Liberation," completes this book, the entire collection of Power Animal Meditations