The title we gave this series might be a bit misleading. Night guides actually refers to animals guides, and as with everything in the subject of dark metaphysics, we will be discussing the darker side of that phenomenon.

A bit of clarification, as we have had some misunderstanding here before, I don’t teach or glorify evil in any sense. I try to look at the unseen and perhaps uncomfortable side of magickal, mystical, and spiritual practice. Nature doesn’t behave in a one sided manner. It’s not all fluffy bunnies, and rainbows, and happy cows. It has those things, and it has a darker side to it.

Bunnies can be very scary. They can be really scary. They can cannibalize their own young for no discernible reason, but there are a lot of little secrets of nature like that.

So I will ask, what is your experience with animal guides or shamanism?

I don’t think I have been contacted by a guide other than my dead cat.

I’ve taken some journeys. I have met a few of my guides. Excellent.

Well, one thing you learn early in any sort of shamanic practice is this. As ultimately unique as we may be as individuals, there are only so many paths in this world, so many ways of being, going through the world, and adapting. Some humans function naturally like pack wolves, others function more like cats, social but independent, and others function differently than either of these.

In the shamanic creation stories, the process occurred in stages. This is true in every tradition, and had no single definitive creator. Sometimes there is mention of one great spirit that starts the process, but ultimately it’s collaborative.

Now I won’t be speaking to one specific shamanic tradition. The Lapps had one, the Norse tradition was one, the African tribes had them. They represent perhaps the eldest tradition of spiritual understanding on the planet, though that does not necessarily mean they have the best ultimate insight on reality or living in it. To my view, they offer good roots, and where you go from there is up to you. How do you feel about it?

Are you saying you have to consider the advice they offer with question? Offer with question yes, not without. The manifestation of spirits as trickster influences is also a long standing tradition in shamanism.

Earlier, I made mention of nature having two sides, let’s call them day and night as this will make the metaphor easier. In the day side, you have nature as it presents itself most regularly, patient, nurturing, peaceful. Not without conflict, but everything more or less easy to understand, everyone playing with their cards on the table so to speak.

Well, nature has what could be called a night side as well, and I don’t just mean that some things are nocturnal (most aren’t), but I mean that nature has a set of exceptions that complement its rules.

Normally when one discovers an animal guide, its expression is natural and straight forward. The contact is usually peaceful, but when the right currents are running through the environment, predators start hunting new prey, insects behave in unusually aggressive ways, disease spreads in ways it never has before. Plague, pestilence and famine as human history often groups them together, and in all cases animals are involved. The night side is that part of nature we don’t commonly see because it is normally at rest. If nature took on a destructive aspect as a rule, would anything survive?

In time the famine would extinguish all life, but yes, nature could find a balance point for itself that mirrors our own as long as some measure of the life affirmative pattern is preserved. We may even force it to do so, what with the short but rapacious period of contemporary history and the impact it has had, but I don’t mean to discuss ecological issues primarily. We are discussing the night guides.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~