Spirit animal

The spirit animal, or power animal, is, in contemporary spirituality inspired by shamanism and Native American traditions, an animal with which a person is said to feel connected and which accompanies them as a symbolic guide. Its supposed qualities, the patience of the bear, the boldness of the wolf, shed light on a person's character or stage of life. Anthropologists' totemism, by contrast, refers to the bond between an entire clan and a species.