Noin the ancient shamanic traditions, the guide animal is an invisible ally that accompanies us on the journey. It is not a fantasy, but an archetypal force that takes shape to guide us towards balance. Every woman can encounter this inner animal: a wolf that teaches courage, a deer that whispers grace, a bird that opens to the flight of freedomto. Imaginal psychology invites us to think of the guide animal not as a fixed “totem”, but as a living image that arises from the unconscious and moves with the seasons of life. It is a part of us that is revealed when we learn to listen.
Listen to your body
But how do you listen? Through the body. The body is our natural oracle. Every tension is a message, every shiver a signal, every heat a response. In Buddhism, this sensitivity is called kāyānupassanā: contemplation of the body. Not as a material object, but as a portal to the entire world. I describe the extraordinary contemplation of the body in my book Diary of a shaman, the secret path of a warrior nun (PIemme) starting from my personal experience. If we learn to pause in the sensations without judgement, then the images emerge spontaneously: close your eyes and feel your breathing, and perhaps you will discover that a pawing horse lives inside your chest; or that the slow breathing of a turtle moves in your belly.
The body is not an obstacle
Selene Calloni Williams explains how to listen to your body
Finding the guide animal means returning to the unity between mind and body, between symbol and sensation. It means recognizing that the body is not an obstacle, but a living temple that preserves the language of the soul. By listening to him, we can receive answers to profound questions: What is my strength right now? Where am I going? Which part of me asks to be welcomed?
The secret is simple: stop looking outside and start listening inside. The oracle is not far away, it is in the skin that breathes, in the heart that beats, in the animal that awaits us at the crossing of our internal thresholds. In the video attached to this article you will find a guided meditation on contemplation of the body, the first of the four foundations of awareness in the great Buddhist psychology.
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