Spirit animal: where the idea comes from

A word from Ojibwe

“Totem” comes from the Ojibwe doodem: the clan, the kinship that an animal designates. Originally, it is a collective bond, linking the members of one family to a shared animal, not a personal guide that one would choose for oneself. The word passed into French and English while losing this clan dimension, which partly explains today’s misunderstandings.

The “Native American zodiac”: a 1980 creation

The twelve-animal “Native American zodiac” is a modern construction, with no tradition of any specific Indigenous people behind it. Sun Bear (Vincent LaDuke, of Ojibwe descent) and Wabun present it themselves as “a brand-new system of earth astrology” in The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology (1980). The researcher Lisa Aldred counts Sun Bear among the entrepreneurs of New Age spirituality, and the American Indian Movement demonstrated against his gatherings.

The power animal of neo-shamanism

The “power animal” was popularized by the anthropologist Michael Harner in The Way of the Shaman (1980). This idea belongs to Western neo-shamanism, which draws freely from several traditions. It is not that of the peoples from whom the word “totem” is borrowed, and each culture deserves to be named for what it actually says.

What you can do with it

Nothing makes it possible to find “your” animal by a date or a test: Versana offers no calculation of this kind. An animal can, however, speak to you because it keeps coming back in your days or your dreams. Note when it appears and what was on your mind then: it is that moment, more than the species, that gives meaning.

Facts and sources

• “Totem” comes from the Ojibwe doodem: the clan, the kinship that an animal designates; a collective bond, not a personal guide. Wikipedia, “Totem” (checked for the plan on October 12, 2026)
• The 12-animal “Native American zodiac” is a modern construction, with no tradition from any specific Indigenous people: Sun Bear (Vincent LaDuke, of Ojibwe descent) and Wabun present it themselves as “a whole new system of earth astrology” (The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology, 1980). The researcher Lisa Aldred counts Sun Bear among the entrepreneurs of New Age spirituality; the American Indian Movement protested against his gatherings. Sun Bear and Wabun, The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology, Prentice-Hall, 1980 (Open Library; publisher’s description); Lisa Aldred, “Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances,” American Indian Quarterly, 24 (3), 2000, pp. 329–352; Graham Harvey (ed.), Shamanism: A Reader, Routledge, 2003, pp. 328–330
• The “power animal” of neo-shamanism was popularized by the anthropologist Michael Harner, The Way of the Shaman (1980). Michael Harner, The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing, Harper & Row, 1980; Wikipedia (en), “Michael Harner”