Richard Webster’s Spirit and Dream Animals is a multidisciplinary view of modern, mythical, and shamanic practices regarding animal spirit guides (totems), power animals, and shape-shifting. For those who have studied shamanism and mysticism for awhile, this reading may be a tad on the light side, but it does discuss interesting topics such as using the numerology of your name and birth date to find your own personal power animal.
The book begins with a discussion of the importance of dreams according to various philosophies and mythologies, exploring each idea briefly and noting any interconnectedness. After this, it goes on to discuss the frequency and importance placed on animals and animal symbolism through various cultures and mythologies. Then the author discusses power animals, many techniques about finding your own, and how to explore your own healing through animal energy. The second half of the book is a dream dictionary.
The first thing that struck me about the first half of the book is it’s strong Asian influence. In fact, the author shares that his inspiration for learning about Spirit Animals came from a discussion about dream animals in Asian cultures. So in the first, instructional half of the book, you’ll see a very heavy Eastern influence in a lot of the interpretations. This isn’t necessarily bad, it is simply different from the more common Native cultures perspective used by most authors. The second thing is that the material is very beginner friendly. There is plenty of room to go much deeper into the topics discussed, but the author keeps it light and practical, which is perfect for beginners.
The second half, the dream dictionary, approaches animal symbolism in a very dream-symbol perspective instead of a totem animal perspective. What I mean by this is that interpretations draw from cultural associations, idioms, and popular stories and myths. One really fantastic aspect of this dream dictionary is that it includes many mythological animals as well, including the hydra and kelpies. A vast majority of Spirit Animal material strictly addresses the modern catalog of animals and do not touch on mythological or extinct animals (including dinosaurs). One thing to note is that some of the entries for animals in the dream dictionary are very short, barely a paragraph long while others may be pages. So depending on which animal you are researching, your mileage may vary.
All in all, I find this a fascinating book for an introduction to Spirit Animals and an excellent place for a beginning student to start, but people who have already studied the subject may find it lacking in new ideas and techniques.
