SPIRIT ANIMALS AND THE WHEEL OF LIFE: EARTH-CENTERED PRACTICES FOR DAILY LIVING By Hal Zina Bennett
When we decided to offer book reviews, I perused my shelves, venturing from one room to the next, compiling mental lists of books, fiction and nonfiction, anime, and art. Hal Zina Bennett's Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life: Earth-Centered Practices for Daily Life, published in February 2001 by Hampton Road Publishing stood out. In this work, Bennett explores his experience with and study of animal spirit guides and the cultures that honored our animal brethren, associating them with a direction or quadrant on medicine wheels and the wheels of life.
The impact of Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life on my journey continues in unexpected ways.
Growing up in the Midwest, where hunting is a way of life, Bennett hunted rabbits. During one hunt as a boy, he contracted tularemia, also called rabbit fever. At the hospital, he had an out-of-body experience and interacted with Rabbit, his spirit animal to his later realization. This experience started Bennett's years-long journey in which he would learn, accept, and be proud of his spirit animal. In Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life Bennett provides exercises to help readers achieve the same, and understand the difference between the power animal and the animal energies that, much like a visiting professor, are there for a measure of time to help with a finite set of lessons.
Unlike many authors, Bennett encourages readers to engage with the fear of certain animals. Fear is a great teacher, and the animals that we fear (rationally or irrationally) offer specific lessons. In a publishing world that caters toward the willfully positive and downplays the importance of our more primitive emotions, Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life inspires a conversation with those fears to achieve personal growth.
After the first read-through, I worked with the wheel Bennett describes—only very generally as neither the wheel nor the culture, the Midwest Native American tribes, were mine. The animals— badger, wolf, bear, and mountain lion—became loosely associated as the guardians of the circle watchtowers, with the addition of mole and eagle guarding Below and Above. Instead, I focused on seeking my power animal; it took years. I chased the tails of Cat, Fox, and even Hedgehog. Dragon, though, would not be denied. She roared her way past the blocks, gates, and traps, thanks in no small part to the practices and exercises Bennett provided.
On my second read-through of Spirit Animals and the Wheels of Life, I deviated from the traditional patterns, adapting the eco-spiritual wheels to better suit myself and my practice. My wheel had split in two—the directional wheel of north, south, east, and west, and the elemental wheel of earth, air, fire, water, with Dragon acting as the axel between. The animals I’d chased in my spirit animal quest started to make sense. Fox sits in my Fire on the elemental wheel. Cat is Tiger and sits in my North on the directional wheel. The animals I feared, Mountain Goat, (rational fear) and Great White Shark (irrational fear) provide guidance from my Earth and Water quadrants, respectively.
With my animal guides bolstering my confidence in myself and my abilities, I reached out to mend relationships around me that had all but fallen apart.
Now, after my third read-through, Bennett’s work reminds me of the foundations I created and evolved using the exercises provided in Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life. I do have an authentic and valuable perspective, despite my inner critic and imposter syndrome demons surfacing at the beginning of my task. I am a librarian, not just professionally, but also spiritually.
Bennett’s Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life: Earth-Centered Practices for Daily Life shares insightful experiences, an array of exercises and ceremonies, and instructions on constructing and incorporating eco-spiritual wheels and the animals into everyday life. Going a step further, I encourage readers to absorb the foundational information and transmute it into personal knowledge and practices unique to their paths with curiosity, imagination, and inspiration.
Perhaps in another ten years, I will once again peruse my shelves to pull Bennett's work down and reread it, finding new inspiration in his deep, concise, and nuanced work.
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