1/12/2023 0 Comments More than one spirit animal![]() ![]() ![]() Like a hedgehog hiding from danger among the rocks, we find shelter for our souls by contemplating the cross. Cassian quotes Proverbs 30:26: “A feeble race are the hedgehogs, who have made their homes in the rocks.” Christians are those who recognize that they are feeble, but seek “the constant shelter of that gospel rock which is the recollection of the Lord’s passion” ( Conferences, X.XI.3). But most of us are prickly little hedgehogs scurrying for cover. We’d like to think of ourselves as majestic stags cresting mountain tops with epic sunrises behind us. Reflecting on the struggle to grow in prayer, to keep the wandering mind fixed on God, he quotes Psalm 104:18: “The mountains are for stags, the rocks are a refuge for hedgehogs.” He proposes the hedgehog and the stag as models-as it were, “spirit animals”-for us. One of my favorite examples, however, comes from the Conferences of the early monastic writer John Cassian. Basil’s “ On the creation of terrestrial animals ” ( Hexaemeron, Homily IX ) has many fun examples of animal virtues. Some of the giants of the early Church wrote entertaining works on animals-St. Are you not of more value than they?” ( Matt 6:26 ). ![]() Jesus soothes the anxiety of the crowds by pointing to feathered models of trust in God: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Either as a (mostly) harmless conversation starter about your meerkat-like personality or as a potentially pagan spirituality about guardian ghost animals, “spirit animals” aren’t a Christian thing.īut, as it turns out, Christianity has a long tradition of describing the metaphorical virtues of animals and of using them as examples for our lives. “What’s your spirit animal?” The question sounds like a middle school-esque ice-breaker or some new-age quasi-spiritual appropriation of indigeneous religions. ![]()
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