More on Power Animals

Your responses on the power animal post were inspiring! We had a white rhino, a cockatoo, and Japanese mothra (that's a giant bug!). I have to admit though, I'm still not clear on exactly what power animals are, and what they are supposed to mean to us or do for us.

From Wikipedia:

In the shamanic worldview, it is commonly held that everyone has power animals: animal spirits which reside with each individual adding to their power and protecting them from illness, functioning in a fashion or manner attributed within the Judeo-Christian Tradition to a guardian spirit. The power animal may also lend its ward or charge the wisdom or attributes of its kind. For example, a hawk power animal may provide its charge with attributes of the hawk such as hawk-eye.

Nicholas Noble Wolf (2006) provides a definition:
A power animal is an aspect of self that is represented by an animal. The aspects of that animal aspect can be empowered and encouraged such that it assists you in your life. A power animal is not a separate spiritual being....

Kenneth Meadows (2004) defines power animal:
A power animal is an energy-pattern--or energy-system--that appears in animal form and possesses sensation and the power of voluntary movement to carry out its inherent ability to perform the specific work it characterizes. A power animal is the very energy-pattern of an ability or abilities that the animal form characterizes!

Now I get it, and it makes perfect sense that Sister's power animal is the arctic lemming. Lemmings like to burrow and will migrate far and wide to find food (it is a myth that they commit suicide!!).