Within the Shining Sky

As our family grieved the loss of Oscar, our beloved old hound dog who went home to Spirit in September, many comforts and truths were illuminated for us in nature. I’ve been drawn to seek the wisdom of the wolves, those canid elders of the dogs who share our modern lives. Wolves, and through them domesticated dogs, provide humans a necessary and profound link to our ancient lineage – both as earthlings and as cosmic children of the stars.

As I prepared my dog-child to embrace the wheel’s turn to death, I sought to provide him with images and references he would understand. I told him that he would go to sleep in my arms and awaken in the stars, totally free in the sacredly imaged body of his soul.

When Oscar died, I felt and envisioned his soul leaving his body, an instantaneous sensation of a white-gold flame whooshing upwards from his precious body. Later that night, returning from a walk taken in honor of him, we saw a brilliant feathery streak upon the moon – the only cloud in the sky, lying against the moon like an Angel’s wing. I watched in the darkness as it became linear and rose above our house, climbing softly up the bowl of the sky. Our beloved had indeed awoken in the stars, and the Divine powers delivered the sign of reassurance I requested.

The Wolf Totem drew me to the significance of the constellations: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the great and lesser bears), Lupus (the wolf), Cygnus (the swan), Canis Major and Canis Minor, (the great and lesser dogs) – so many called after animals and immortalized in the stars. And then there are the human representations such as Aquarius the Water Bearer, Orion the Hunter, and Queen Cassiopeia. Were humans encapsulating a fundamental truth of our nature as spirits – extracorporeal or extraterrestrial – when they chose to see the night sky peopled with transcended likenesses of earthly beings?

As we look up, the spirit of canis lupus reinforces one of the deep and mysterious truisms of nature. The bodies we wear in incarnated life are a costume, a disguise masking our true spiritual identities. Our real power comes when we recognize this duality and its illusory qualities and come to embrace the full wheel of life, seen in the light of our spiritual reality.

Humans sometimes glimpse this inner reality when in the presence of an animal’s majesty – the depth in a horse’s eyes as the wind combs his mane and he seems to see into a distance we cannot reach, the sudden uprushing flight of a swan who rises on wings like creations from a dream. The spirit of the wolf, the inner illumination behind his gaze, calls us to recognize this same magic of ensoulment in ourselves.

In particular among the animal kingdom, wolves live in societies quite similar to our own. They comprise strong family units, jockey for political alliances, harness the strength of their numbers, and still recognize and value the unique qualities of every individual. Their voices travel through the night to resonate deeply in our hearts, as though we share a common language that rises on the wordless vocal notes.

Is it any wonder that our dogs, of all our earthly companions, teach us that each non-human animal is as singular and marvelous as each human being? There is no generic wolf, giraffe, elephant, or person. Each is an uncommonly faceted spirit. The Oscar-shaped place in my heart is his alone.

And so the stars – with their constellations of wolf, lion, lynx, and queen – are a glimmering glimpse into the vast variety of the beloved souls who have passed before us out of bodily incarnation. What are the cosmic secrets in the soft gleam of an old dog’s eyes, the howling of a timber wolf, or the song of a humpback whale? The answers will be found as each of us follows the calling of the heart along our own unique walk into stardust.


Elizabeth S. Eiler, Ph.D. is the author of two well-received books about animals and spirituality. She is a Reiki Master, spiritual teacher, and parent of dogs.