Spirit animal

Clans, crests and helpers in Native traditions today

The ideas the English phrase lumps together are separate things in the nations that hold them. The National Museum of the American Indian notes that clan and kinship systems in many tribal communities reflect relationships to animals, that “Each animal carries history and meaning”, and that the systems “may vary widely from one another”. Renee Gokey of the museum told Discover magazine in 2021 that many tribes still keep their clan systems: in her Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, an elder who speaks the language names a baby for its animal clan. The Ojibwe clans, including the bear and wolf clans, are described on the Bear symbolism and Wolf symbolism pages. On the Northwest Coast, families of the Heiltsuk Nation carry animal crests.

Tristan Picotte, who grew up on the Cheyenne River Reservation and was raised in the Lakota tribe, described a spirit animal to Yahoo Life in 2020 as “A spirit helper, animal guide or even guardian angel”, and added that it is not chosen: “one does not 'receive' a spirit animal”, and to claim one “is arguably extremely arrogant”.

Why many Native people object to the modern use

The National Museum of the American Indian asks teachers not to use the idea of a spirit animal when teaching Native cultures, because it “trivializes Native relationships to the animal world”, and not to copy clan imagery from totem poles or adopt clans in the classroom. Pinny Lavalier, a Sicangu Lakota volunteer at Native Languages of the Americas, told Discover that spirit-animal memes and quizzes come with stereotyped images, such as bears in feathered headdresses: “In theory, it's quite harmless if white teenagers want to say their spirit animal is a wolf, but in practice it goes along with dehumanizing us.” Laura Redish of the same organisation said the phrase might never have been seen as appropriation if New Age spirituality had not marketed it as “learned from Native American wisdom”; Native people who have had bad experiences with New Age practitioners may feel strongly, she said, while others do not care. Merriam-Webster's usage note says the joking sense “is often considered an offensive appropriation and trivialization of Indigenous American cultural traditions.”

What the searched term means today

In everyday English the phrase now mostly means “something or someone (such as an animal or celebrity) that one enjoys and identifies with”, Merriam-Webster's second sense. Yahoo Life reported that The Atlantic traced this use online to 2006, when a message-board user named the actor Samuel L. Jackson as a spirit animal. Discover's reporter found it hard to say how old the phrase is, and Lavalier thought it may have come from New Age spirituality. Merriam-Webster also records a New Age sense, a guardian spirit in animal form “as attested by New Age spirituality”.

Spirit animals by birthday or star sign

Lists that give a spirit animal for each birthday or zodiac sign are modern inventions. The best-known birthday system comes from The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology (1980) by Sun Bear and Wabun, in which “The moon, or month, during which you were born determines your starting place on the Medicine Wheel and your beginning totem”. Sun Bear, born Vincent LaDuke on the White Earth Reservation, founded the Bear Tribe Medicine Society; some Native groups called him a “plastic medicine man” who commercialized Native spiritual practices, and he himself said he was not teaching “truly Indian spirituality” but drew on the practices of various tribes and added ideas of his own. We found no source of any age for pairings of spirit animals with the signs of the Western zodiac.

Animal pages

The animal pages give what each animal means in the traditions that hold it: the Wolf symbolism, Bear symbolism, Deer symbolism, Fox symbolism, Rabbit symbolism, Snake symbolism, Frog symbolism, Cat symbolism and Dog symbolism.