--- title: How do I know whether an Animal I meet is really Power Animal? description: "A genuine Power Animal is a Lower-World**Lower-World.** The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is…" url: "https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/wiki/how-do-i-know-whether-an-animal-i-meet-is-really-power-animal/" updated: "2026-11-10" category: Power Animals tags: - commitment - discernment - "lower-world" - "middle-world bleed-through" - power animal - safety - tricksters - words in journeys --- # How do I know whether an Animal I meet is really Power Animal? A genuine Power Animal is a Lower-World**Lower-World.** The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-lower-world/) being: the Lower-World always feels safe, its Animals are loving rather than cruel, they heal and teach by doing rather than talking, and a true Power Animal never asks to be left behind. Anything that makes you uneasy, talks at length, or tries to separate you from your Power Animal is a sign that the middle-world**Middle-world.** Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. "If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world." [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-middle-world/) is bleeding in. And in the end, an Animal becomes your Power Animal through the relationship and your commitment to it. ## How can I tell, once I have been working with it, that it really is my Power Animal? By the relationship as much as by any sign. The first signs are described in [How do I find and choose my Power Animal?](/wiki/how-do-i-find-my-power-animal/) Over time, what makes an Animal your Power Animal is your commitment to it. Paul Francis could have chosen to commit to any one of the Animals in his life before Panther as being his Power Animal, but with Panther he chose to commit instead.^[1](#note-1) A genuine Power Animal also behaves in recognisable ways. It loves you unconditionally, and "Your Power Animal will never fall out with you. It will never abandon you."^[2](#note-2) It is not always gentle: "At times your Power Animal may chide you. It may tease you, or be stern with you. That is as any good mother should be." It leads your journeys and keeps you safe. See [What is the role of Power Animal in shamanic journeying?](/wiki/what-is-the-role-of-power-animal-in-shamanic-journeying/) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Five, "A Power Animal Is Not Just for Christmas". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Five, "A Sacred Marriage". ## What are the signs that something is not genuinely Lower-World? Feeling unsafe is the clearest. "Remember that the Lower-World is a place of absolute safety and healing. It always feels deeply safe, safer then here ever feels. If you do not feel safe, or even just feel uneasy, that is a sure sign of middle-world energy." Things moving too fast, or feeling disjointed, is another sign; the Lower-World and Upper-World**Upper-World.** The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-upper-world/) "generally feel slow and steady."^[3](#note-3) The remedy is simple: go deeper. If you feel unsafe, "you need to simply head deeper down, until you come to the purely Lower-World again."^[4](#note-4) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Three, "How a Plant Grows (And What This Teaches Us)". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Four, "Preparing to Do an Actual Journey". ## Can a being pretend to be a Guide? Yes, but such beings belong to the middle-world. Some middle-world guides "act in ways that are selfish, cunning, manipulative, deluded, spiteful, seductive, and deceitful", and "The trick though, is knowing whether a guide is indeed truly a Lower-World or Upper-World being, or a middle-world being masquerading as one."^[5](#note-5) A friendly face proves nothing: "The fact that she looks kindly and is friendly does not mean a thing. All over the world there are tales of trickster middle-world beings."^[6](#note-6) Your Power Animal is your best check. When meeting someone new in the Lower-World, "If your Power Animal shows any ambiguity or unease whatsoever, then do not work with that person. Trust your Power Animal!"^[7](#note-7) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Three, "Choosing Our Guides Wisely and Carefully". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Five, "Example One". 3. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Exercise 6: Meeting Your Lower-World Human Guide". ## What if something in a journey tells me to leave my Power Animal behind? Do not trust it. In one journey a kindly old woman in a hut asked the journeyer to leave their Power Animal outside, and the meaning is plain: "Do not go anywhere without your Power Animal... anyone or anything that tries to separate you from your Power Animal does not have good intent and is categorically not to be trusted."^[8](#note-8) The journey is no longer in the Lower-World, and for anyone who is not highly experienced, "the thing to do is leave and head back to the Lower-World." Even with experience, Paul would still never leave his Power Animal behind. 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Five, "Example One". ## What if an Animal speaks to me in words? Rarely, and only briefly. Words belong to the middle-world: in Paul's experience it is quite rare for his Power Animal or his other guides to actually speak to him in words, because "Words are middle-world things", with little place or use in the Upper-World and Lower-World, particularly not in the Lower-World.^[9](#note-9) His Lower-World Guides**Guides.** The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman's power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. [More about this](/wiki/who-are-the-guides/) rarely speak to him in journeys, and if they do, it is usually only single words or simple sentences.^[10](#note-10) Long explanations are something else. If Guides described a crystal's healing properties in detail, "using words to do so, then that is channelling, not Lower-World journeying."^[11](#note-11) Lower-World journeys work through imagery, sensation and what the Animals actually do. 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Eight, "What Shamanic Healing Is, and What It Is Not". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter One, "Journey, Then Research". 3. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter One, "Journey, Then Research". ## What if my Power Animal seems distant or absent? It will always welcome you back. "If you abandon it, or drift away from it, or get distracted, whenever you do come back to it then it will always welcome you when you return."^[12](#note-12) Students often bring their human relationship patterns to their Guides too, keeping them at arm's length, or finding it hard to let love in, "Even though the reality is that their Guides would never hurt them or let them down".^[13](#note-13) See [What does it mean to commit to a Power Animal?](/wiki/what-does-it-mean-to-commit-to-a-power-animal/) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Five, "A Sacred Marriage". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Five, "3. Leaving Your Middle-World History Behind". - [How do I find and choose my Power Animal?](/wiki/how-do-i-find-my-power-animal/) - [What is the role of Power Animal in shamanic journeying?](/wiki/what-is-the-role-of-power-animal-in-shamanic-journeying/) - [What is a Power Animal?](/wiki/what-is-a-power-animal/) - [How do I distinguish guidance from projection and middle-world bleed-through?](/wiki/how-do-i-distinguish-guidance-from-projection-and-middle-world-bleed-through/) - [What is the Lower-World?](/wiki/what-is-the-lower-world/) - [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/) (Chapters Three to Five, telling the realms apart and your Power Animal) - [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/) (Chapter Five, what genuine Lower-World journeys are like) - [First-Steps](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/learn-shamanism-online/) - [all courses](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/shamanic-courses/)