Shamen Animal Spirits

• I had been researching for a while and done no visual responses, I still felt pretty uncertain where my research was going I thought it would be beneficial to do some quick sketches.
• I liked ideas about animal wisdom and animal gods, I liked ideas of communicating our relationship with animals.
• A sacred animal that appealed to me was the goat, i'm not sure why. I had a go at trying to draw a sacred goat - I applied pattern and decoration to it to try and suggest ideas of higher power and wisdom.
• I enjoyed doing these, it gave me confidence in my starting point and gave me the idea to research into spirit animals...

Shamans working with spirit animals...

Shamans work there spirit animals as alies and believe that they can achieve great power through them, each animals have individual powers and wisdoms.

"In the shamanic belief every thing is alive and carries with it power and wisdom. Power animals are an essential component of shamanic practice. They are the helping spirit which add to the power of the shaman and are essential for success in any venture undertaken by the shaman."

"Shamans believe that everyone has power animals – animal spirits which reside with each individual adding to their power and protecting them from illness, acting similarly to a guardian angel. Each power animal that you have increases your power so that illnesses or negative energy cannot enter your body. The spirit also lends you the wisdom of its kind. A hawk spirit will give you hawk wisdom, and lend you some of the attributes of hawk."

"Animals can be one of the most powerful symbols in our spiritual tool box."

• I looked into some of the specific powers of individual animals believed by shamans.
• I thought this could be an interesting thing to continue researching and look into how I could illustrate the animals with their believed powers. 
• Would I be able to translate the powers and wisdoms of the spirit animals into caricatures of them?