New Paths to Animal Totems by Lupa can be a life changing book. Lupa's ideas have given me a completely new, and more complete, understanding of animal totems and how they work. She writes in a very concise way, using language anyone can understand. The book begins with a description of what an animal totem is, and how totems differentiate from animal spirit guides/helpers. This is very helpful so you're not going into the book blind.
After that introduction Lupa goes into the three models of what she calls Neopagan Totemism that she's putting forth; the Correspondences Model, Bioregional Model, and Archetypal Model. In each chapter she discusses how the models work, how to integrate them into your life and so forth. She also includes a chapter on how you can mesh the models together into something designed for your own personal practices and beliefs. I really enjoyed Lupa's book because she made her examples and such seem really everyday, normal person. Nothing seemed like you have to attain a certain spiritual level. Nothing seemed like you need certain amounts of experience in order to understand.
No matter your experience level if you have any interest in animal totems and/or animal spirit guides I highly recommend this book. It's one that I feel will forever be on my bookshelf, something I can reference in my spiritual path as I work with my own spirit guides and totem animals.
Highly, highly recommended.
~review by: Jessica Elizabeth
Author: Lupa
282ppg; $16.99
Llewellyn Publications; 2012
