The Continuing Story of Astra and Animals

Now we come to Maya. The end of July was the two year anniversary of her death. She was a black cat who came to me as a fuzzy 8-week old black kitten during the end of my time in grad school at Northern Illinois University. She showed me her name (after it had gone through various phases – Monkey, China Girl and possibly some others). She very clearly pointed out a package of incense that had the word Maya printed on the cardboard container – that was the name of the formula – and looked at me, waiting to see if I understood. “OH! Your name is MAYA??” I asked her.

‘MIAOU!!!!” She exclaimed, wondering what took me so long.

She was my familiar. Her favorite game for a long while was to sit on my back while I spun around in circles. We were two of a kind.

During the last four years of her 14-year life, she was diabetic – which ultimately killed her. In chinese medicine, pancreas issues are connected with low self-esteem – which I had for most of my life (and the low blood sugar issues that accompanied it – the low self-esteem, that is). Our animal companions are mirrors for us, and are here to teach us. She taught me to work through my self-esteem issues and let go of any baggage that might keep me from leading a long and prosperous life. I miss her dearly – she was the first animal companion of my adult life and one of my greatest teachers and friends.

While Maya was still alive and before she was sick, in came Daniel. I was terrified of getting another cat because Maya was the queen and I feared she would slay me in my sleep if she knew I loved another kitty! But he was meant to come to us – Rich and I – and after a few hard days of hissing and being kept in separate rooms, the two got used to each other and then became the best of friends indeed!

Daniel is a tiger-striped cat who lost a leg after being hit by a car. A woman rescued him from the side of the road and then he came to be with us. He is a prince with a powerful lesson – one can overcome ANYTHING – and one can be at once royal and full of love and affection. A sweeter and funnier little man would be hard to come by!

Fast forward a few years to 2005, and in comes Donovan the Boston Terrier. He and I share a past life connection and he is my heart. I love him so much that at times I want to just eat him! He teaches me love daily. Two years later, in walks Starla the Boston Terrier. She has a funny way of snooping around on her long slender legs like a cross between a deer and a baby coyote. She is a strange and wonderful creature! Before she was a puppy, she was a star for thousands of years. Funny idea she got about how to be a puppy from watching up there – she really acts more like a comet! No fear in that dog and nothing stops her. And she has a face like Helen of Troy – yes, she can actually launch a thousand ships. That Cover Girl Face!

Then, in waltzes Silverado “call me Silver” – the Egyptian Uromastyx lizard. Silver came to help me with my shamanic sessions. I once asked him how he knows so much. He looked at me with his baby face and ancient amber eyes and said: “I know everything that ever was, everything that is now, and everything that will ever be.” He is going to be huge – 29 inches he told me, from head to tail…Egyptian Uros grow to be between 2 and 3 feet…and he will have a custom enclosure that will take up almost half of my studio! He is a vegetarian – so we can eat our salads together. It’s all very quaint. And he loves Joni Mitchell as much as I do. We have a fabulous time hanging out and communicating with the Universe.

When Maya died two years ago, Rich and I waited a couple months…but Daniel the cat was looking thin and haggard. He was depressed without his best friend. We knew he wanted another cat companion, so we set to looking on craigslist – there were a bunch of lovely animals as always but none felt quite right – until I saw her. A giant, GIANT beautiful calico with clear green eyes that they were calling “Pat the Fat Cat.” (which was of course not her real name – after she was with us she let me know her name is Birdena.) Birdena is a healer. She does energy work on us all the time. She will lay her 17 pound body on the exact spot that “hurts” or the exact chakra that needs balancing, and simply Be there. Works every time. And her and Daniel get along smashingly! He was back to himself within a month or two of her arrival.

Last year a very good friend of mine from college died at 39 of complications from her juvenile diabetes. We adopted her 12 year old black and white cat “Oddball” (who later confided in me that his name is actually Oscar – but he played along with Oddball to make my friend happy! He is a gentleman, a sweetheart, and a retired healer. He worked so long at being my friend’s healer, that in my house, I am now his healer! And very happy to be! He deserves all the luxury and rest that he wants. I honor him. He is a beautiful cat, with alligator green eyes that have seen a lot.

Thus concludes the story of my own amazing animal companions…so far! Tune in next time for the story of Nessie the American Alligator!

The Beginning – About Astra and Animals

Welcome to post number one of Truths from The Animals!

The purpose of this blog is to tell you what The Animals (my largest group of spirit guides) tell me – about whatever they decide to speak about. I am a shaman, animal communicator and channel, and The Animals have called on me to be a mouthpiece for information they would like humans to understand. There is no set schedule for posts, as I will be posting according to when The Animals decide to speak. I am their stenographer – ha ha!

Before I get started with this very amazing project of channeling The Animals, I wanted to give the background of my history with animals, spirit and earthbound. Here goes!

When I was very young, I was aware that Alligator was my best friend. It was not a physical alligator – It was Alligator with a capital A. Many years later, after being reunited with Alligator in one of my first shamanic journeys, I realized he was my Power Animal! In shamanism, your Power Animal is your spirit guide who connects you with your personal power.

Moving ahead a few years, I realized (having had my shamanic practice for a while) that I had yet another power animal – Hawk. She was new! This was very exciting, having two power animals – until one day I realized with tears that Alligator was gone – or so I thought. A few days later I sensed that he was not gone but had simply integrated with me fully so that we were one. I was very relieved! In the meantime, Spider spirit had been my teacher for a while, and taught me many amazing facts about how the Universe works.

My spirit guides informed me last year that on June 3, 2010 my full Spirit/Shaman name would also arrive: Astra Spider Hawk. I had been going by Astra (my eternal name) for about a year when I found this out. Once my full name was here, my guides informed me that not only had I integrated with Alligator, but also with Spider and Hawk. Now we are all One! That is the brief history of some of my main animal guides. Now for the physical animals.

When I was very, very young, my family had two cats: Sampson and Delilah. Sampson the tiger-striped unfortunately ran away before I was old enough to really get to know him. Delilah was a beautiful black and white long-haired kitty. She unfortunately was sick – epileptic – and eventually also ran away, but I was able to enjoy her friendship for some time.

Meanwhile, we had adopted another kitty – Philly. I believe we found her as a stray. She was a black kitty – or so dark gray that she seemed black. She was sassy and talkative. She was the first animal I knew who spoke English. (She often prowled down the hall yowling: Now! Now!)
Then along came Casper. He was a slinky, gorgeous creature, a Siamese. Sadly Casper and Philly both contracted feline leukemia and passed away when I was about 9 years old.

Somewhere in there came two painted turtles, Sunny and Martha (after Paul McCartney’s famed sheepdog, of course!). Heartwrenchingly, my family and I were not all too familiar with turtle care and in that decade we could not simply Google the pet care sheets, but instead relied on what the pet store had told us. Both turtles died and we found them floating side by side in the tank (with their front and back feet in prayer position, interestingly enough)!

All of these experiences with my animal companions dying or running away seemed terribly sad and at the time my heart broke with the loss of each animal – but I learned; hoo boy, I learned! I learned that domestic animals need to be watched closely, like children, for a good percentage of the time in order to ensure their health and safety! I learned that when adopting a pet, one has to be fully prepared and hold as much knowledge as possible about the breed in order to help their new animal buddies have a long, hearty and healthy life.

And I learned that in some cases, illness is not a result of the human’s error – sometimes it is simply the karma of the animal itself – and there is no judgment. There is an initiation into the art of acceptance. And love.

This is really what I learn from all animals, all the time. Love.

Somewhere around this same time, we adopted a scrappy little tortoise shell kitten from my aunt who was moving away at the time. This spazzy, wacky and jumpy kitten, Lady, grew up to be one of the largest (heft-wise), most mellow and steadfast friends I have ever known! A friend of the family nicknamed her “Meatloaf.” She lived to be a good 17 years old, and when she did pass away due to mouth cancer, she died a very well-loved and permanent fixture of the family. I miss burying my face in her furry side and belly for comfort. She had some sass, too, as every great cat does!

Back to 1979: Enter my (and soon to become Lady the cat’s) best friend. I am 9 years old, he is a newborn puppy. When my family went to choose a puppy from the litter, we thought we were going home with a black female puppy with a white spot on her chest. She was quiet and gentle.

Then an audacious black and white spotted pup started jumping on us, untying my dad’s shoelaces with his teeth, and generally being a goofball. We got the message. It was the middle of winter and I carried him home zipped up inside my warm winter coat, with just his little black and white face sticking out. That was the beginning of a new class for me that was to last 11 amazing years – Complete Heart Connection 101. Teacher: Petie the Dog.

During my crazy adolescent years, through all my hormonal ups, downs and all-arounds - Petie was there. If I was upstairs in my bedroom with the door closed, crying into my pillow about some teenage tragedy or another, I would hear a scratching at the door. I’d open it and there was Petie, standing by himself and saying as plain as day: “What’s wrong? Can I come in? I will be with you now.”

And he would jump up next to me on the bed and let me hug him as he’d lick the salty tears off my face – causing the tears to transform to giggling – then all out laughter.

Other times I would be sitting and watching TV. Petie the 75 lb. dog would jump up next to me on the couch, sit down with his back to me, and then fall backwards, belly up, into my lap to be held like a baby!

He had a sense of humor. He always made jokes (in dog language, of course, and with a deadpan look on his face to boot). He loved to sing with the fire engine sirens, head thrown back like a wolf. He even impersonated Elvis on cue (picture the famous lip-snarl. My little brother Jeremy taught him that one!).

Petie passed away of spleen cancer in 1990. My entire family was heartbroken for a good long while.

Now he comes to me in dreams sometimes and tells me things are okay. Once he was even wearing spectacles. This didn’t surprise me one bit.

Since striking out on my own as an adult, there have been many new animal friends and teachers:

Maya the cat, Daniel the cat, Donovan the Boston Terrier, Starla the Boston Terrier, Silverado (“call me Silver”) the Egyptian Uromastyx, Birdena the Cat, Oscar the Cat – and Nessie the American Alligator (friend and teacher, but not roommate!). More about them and their amazing teachings in future posts, I am sure!
In addition to loving my amazing animal friends, I also choose not to eat them. This all started in 1982, when I watched an episode of 20/20 about factory farming. You can read more about that  on the About section of this blog – and there will be much more information about that and Spiritual Vegetarianism, as channeled by me and spoken by The Animals.

Thank you for reading the beginning of my life long history of being With The Animals!

Astra Spider Hawk

www.astrasanimalconnection.com