The Basics of Interspecies Communication

We know our dogs, cats and horses are brilliant, loving and wise—they are our friends and healers. But how can we get messages through the human/Animal barrier and understand what our pets are saying? Does Rex like his food? Is he happy or in pain? Where did he bury your car keys? These perplexing questions can be answered with a little inter-species communication training.

Let’s start with the basic strata of an animal’s existence; they operate on several different levels:

1. Instinct. A particular animal’s instinct, like a cat’s urge to hunt or a bird’s urge to make a nest, dies when the animal dies.

2. Personality. An individual animal’s personality-self is an aspect that seems to be influenced by a combination of the animal’s body and the soul.

3. Soul. A soul is an aspect that reincarnates and is eternal. Many times the same animal reincarnates within the lifetime of their human. This also includes a deeply bonded human-animal connection or a “soul-mate animal,” a relationship which can recur in recurring lifetimes.

4. Guide. A teacher or guide level — in this aspect, the animal seems to choose the person to teach the traits and wisdom that they most need to learn, develop, or embody.

5. Totem. An archetypal or totem aspect, which is a universal category that crosses cultural, historical and geographic boundaries. The animal’s totem energy is also used to symbolize essential ideas, such as the United States’ eagle, a family crest or a tribal totem pole.

6. Spirit. The level of a Goddess or God, represented within an animal form or an animal form mingled with the divine, such as a cat and a Goddess combined to be the Egyptian cat-Goddess Sekhmet.