Spirit guides come in many shapes and forms. Sometimes they are human, sometimes animal and sometimes something else – like an angel or an elemental. And the universe seems to have a sense of humour because as it turns out I have a Spider Spirit Guide…and I’m scared of spiders.
By 2008 I’d been having regular dreams about spiders for the last 5 years or so. I assumed this was as a result of living in a place where massive Golden Orb Weaving spiders were prolific. And the fact that I was quite scared of them.
But it was getting ridiculous – I would have spiders coming at me in my dreams all the time. Sometimes just the one, sometimes millions….all trying to get to me. At the time I would wake up terrified thinking that I had spiders in my bed.
Randomly, the spiders came up in conversation with Julie and she explained that because I dreamt of them so often, generally that meant that they were my animal totem/spirit guide. Which I almost choked on given my fear of them. Julie also made me realise that not once in my dreams had they ever bitten me. She suspected that they were chasing me in an attempt to tell me something. Julie also explained that if I ever saw a web in my dream that it symbolised where on my own life web I’m at.
So in an effort to communicate with my Spider Spirit Guide , in my dreams, I had to learn to stop running away from them. To help myself get over my fear, I:
- imagined spiders wearing little shoes or a hat like they do in cartoons before I fell asleep, reminding myself that spiders were my friends. Literally fell asleep repeating “Spiders are my friends” on many occasion.
- bought my self a big spider soft toy which I learnt to love
- consciously tried to control my reactions in my dreams.
Bit by bit it helped. Sadly I don’t recall the messages that they give to me. I still get the spider dreams every so often and I still occasionally try to kill the spiders in my dreams. But I’ve learnt to let them get closer and my fear is less now. I’m not saying I’m not scared – because they still freak me out – but I’m slowly learning to control it. And now I take notice of spiders in my dreams and thank them for being there.
A few years after my chat with Julie, I did a meditation to meet your animal spirit guide. And yes I got to meet mine – and yes it was a spider. I apologised for my bad reactions to her attempts to get messages to me and she didn’t mind. She was very nice.
Research your spirit animal
If you regularly have animals crossing your path in your dreams, meditation or waking state – look up their meaning on google. If the same animal continually appears to you over many years – chances are it’s a animal spirit guide or your animal totem. But even if you don’t have an animal totem, the universe also uses animals as a way to get messages to you in a more general sense. So if you start to see a particular animal regularly in any shape or form – look it up.
Animal messages may come in the form of:
- dreams or meditations
- social media, tv shows, books, paintings, songs and radio
- the actual animal you see in a zoo, a park or garden
Keep your eyes open and notice what animals you see as you go about your daily life. A scenario might be: a ladybeetle lands on your car, then the next day another one lands your hand , then you see a lady beetle on a tv commercial. I would look up lady beetles quick smart.
My go to sites for animal spirit guide information are:
If this resonates with you, take it a step further by researching the animals meaning in various ancient cultures like Native American, Celtic, etc. Analyse what that animal represents to you as well. And explore the inherent qualities, personality traits and behaviours of the animal. All facets offer clues. There’s a lot of info out there on animal totems/guides. It may surprise you how relevant their message is in your life.
