 Hello, this is Christy with Art of Awakening. Thank you so much for watching. I work a lot with spirit animals, and so I field a lot of questions about spirit animals. And today there's a question that a viewer posed to me a while back, and I apologize, it's taken me a while to address this, but her question was that she said she had several spirit animals coming forward for her, and some of them were very, very different, like almost opposite. And she was wondering like, what does this mean? What if I've got these completely different animals and I can't see anything that they have in common, and how do I work with this? And I thought that was a really good question. And there's no one simple answer to this. And that's true of a lot of things with spirit animals. We really need to use our intuition when working with them. So that's always kind of my first piece of advice in working with spirit animals is to use your intuition because each of them has multiple ways that you can interpret it. They are archetypes and they are fairly complex archetypes. So one of the things that they help us do is to tune into that intuition if you have a critter coming forward for you and you may be reading about it. And it may have like multiple things that it does mean pay attention to what your body or your emotions say if you get that little hit, like, oh, that's the one, right? You just kind of know it. And so that's definitely the first thing I'd advise. But beyond that, let's take a look at some of these, you know, when different spirit animals come forward for us. So one thing I'd have you look at is, are these two animals, is there a predator-prey relationship between them? Because if there is, then there's definitely those two are working together with you probably on the same thing. And that predator-prey relationship is going to, you know, be significant. For example, if it's say wolf and deer or wolf and rabbit, okay, say let's just take wolf and deer. Say, you know, cause wolf and deer are very, very different. They are almost opposite, right? The wolf is more, the cunning, the predator has a lot to do with, you know, the leadership and strategy and hierarchy. And the deer has a lot of kind of heart energy to it and gentleness, right? The wolf is more fierce. So there's a lot of opposite. But when we have them both showing up and they might, that could indicate something within you that needs balancing, you know, or some aspect of your life in which you're feeling pulled in opposite directions. And these animals could be just calling attention, calling your attention to that and showing you, you know, maybe ways that like depending on how they interact or what's happening with these spirit animals, they can start giving you clues as to how to begin to balance that aspect of yourself. Let me give you an example. Perhaps you identify very strongly with deer. Maybe it's a core totem for you, but you keep dreaming about wolf, right? And maybe in the dream, the wolf is starving. And I'm just making this up, but, you know, it, so like if this has happened to you, this may not be a great interpretation for you because I'm not using my tradition for you specifically, but, you know, this could indicate something like, you know, maybe feed a little bit more into your intellectual or your mental body. Maybe your mental body is starving. Maybe you're letting your heart lead too much and you need to bring it back into balance by, you know, sacrificing a little bit of, you know, the emotion to like pure logic, right? So just an example and just sort of a fictitious example, but just illustrates what I'm meaning by that. So, okay, so what if there is no predator or prey relationship? What if you can't see any way that these two animals are related? It could be, say, sloth and rhinoceros. I mean, really hard to find anything uncommon there. Really hard to say if they are even speaking to you about the same thing. Well, in this case, first of all, there is a chance that maybe they're not speaking to the same thing, you know, maybe because we are very, very complex. I mean, if an animal is a complex thing, we are actually a lot more complex as humans. So, like, there could be two things that are not hugely related that's going on in your life that they're each speaking to something else. Although, you know, honestly, everything is related, but it could just be each one speaking to something different within you. But then there's also the possibility that these two animals could be actually teaming up to help you see something. So, in that case, what I would do would be really research each animal, research its behavior, research its characteristics, you know, see what each of these things is bringing forward and see if there's any overlap. And again, I just kind of pulled these two animals out of my head, but there is an overlap in that each of them has a way that they interact with other organisms in a way that's mutually beneficial. It's a symbiosis. So, the sloth actually has algae that grow in its fur and it helps both of them because the algae has some place to grow and it helps to kind of flush the sloth. And the rhinoceros has a relationship with this little bird, a rhinoceros bird that kind of hangs out around the rhinoceros and helps to get the insects. It eats insects off, you know, from the folds between its skin and it receives protection and food from the rhinoceros and the rhinoceros gets its ticks eaten and sometimes I think the bird actually may warn it, you know, of things that are going on. So, it's this really partnership. So, in this case, these two very, very different animals are both talking about partnerships and that might be some area of your life that you might want to look into or maybe just calling your attention to that, maybe the possibility of partnerships or if it's coming forward in ways that aren't so pleasant, maybe there's some partnerships in your life that need some attention. So, I hope this has helped. This is a pretty complex topic in and of itself and again, it's really, there's a lot of just intuitive using your intuition and looking into the particular situation of what you're dealing with and feeling into that, that it really has to be done on a case-by-case basis. But if this is coming up for you, definitely look into it, feel into it. If you are really having trouble and you're feeling like it's really, really important, I do offer sessions that I can help you get to the bottom of whatever it is that's coming forward and the link to that is below as well as the link to My Spirit Animal Oracle Deck and these illustrations are from that deck. All right, so thank you so much for watching. If you've enjoyed this, then do consider subscribing, liking, sharing and all that fun stuff. And other than that, have a lovely day and I will catch you again later.