Spirit Animal Grey Wolf (Canis Lupus)

Animal Facts:

The grey wolf is a social animal that lives in a pack, which is led by an alpha pair and can have between 3 and up to 40 members, including the offspring from previous years.
The pack members live in a hierarchy and each wolf fulfils a specific role inside the group for which they are perfectly suited.
The social structure inside the pack can change when a wolf that’s lower down in the hierarchy challenges the alpha wolf or another wolf standing above them and wins. But aside from these fights for dominance, wolves settle any existing conflicts between the pack members in a gentle way. A subtle signal like a glance, a different posture or a light growl is usually all that’s needed to assert dominance and restore harmony.
Being such social animals, wolves communicate in a number of ways – by leaving scent marks, by making a variety of sounds such as growling, whimpering, barking or sighing, and by using complex body language, such as posturing or positioning their tails and ears in specific ways. They also communicate by touch, using their snouts, teeth or paws. Combining all these communication tools, wolves can understand hundreds of different messages.
One of the wolf’s most distinguishing characteristics is, of course, its howl. Wolves howl to contact separated members of their group, to stake out their territory and to connect and bond with each other.
But even better than their hearing is the wolves’ sense of smell as they have 280 million olfactory receptors with which they can perceive odours that are hundreds to millions of times fainter than what humans can detect.
This ability also helps them to find suitable prey.
Wolves hunt co-operatively inside the pack. This enables them to kill much larger animals – like deer or moose – than they’d be able to bring down on their own. But hunting such large prey can be dangerous, as the wolves could be speared by sharp antlers or kicked by hooves. Because of this, they have to assess the herds carefully to choose which individual to go after. They look for any signs of weaknesses and factor in conditions like the terrain or the weather, which could affect the hunt.
Sometimes wolves also strike up symbiotic relationships with ravens. Ravens scavenge on the wolf’s carcasses and feed on the leftovers after the wolves gorged themselves. Meanwhile, wolves follow ravens that lead them to nearby prey or carcasses that are so frozen that the ravens’ beaks cannot penetrate them.
Wolves have great endurance and stamina, which they need to patrol their territory, to defend it against rivals and to hunt for food. But wolves also take rest seriously. And raising their young.
Only the alpha couple is allowed to reproduce inside a pack, but all members are involved in the upbringing of the pups: they play with them and teach them how to hunt; they regurgitate pre-digested meat for them and they babysit them while the other wolves of the pack go hunting.
Wolf pups are born deaf and blind. They stay in the den with their mother for the first weeks, then they start to explore the world outside. But they only make longer journeys with their pack-mates once they are about six to seven months old.
When they are between one and two years old, the young wolves have to make an important decision: to either stay with the pack and accept their social role in it or fight for a higher position. Or to leave the pack and find, or form, another one with the chance to reproduce. It’s also possible that they might end up as a ‘lone wolf’ without having a pack to rely on.
Leaving an existing pack holds many dangers, and a lot of wolves die during this time. They might cross territories of other wolf packs and be injured or killed by those, or they might be killed by humans.

Some spiritual meanings:

Wolves are very social animals and create close emotional connections with their pack-mates.
When the wolf is your spirit animal, ask yourself the following questions: Have you found a community in which you belong? Are your relationships harmonious?
Do you wish to create a closer connection with someone?
Or is loyalty missing in your life? Do you need to be more social? Are you feeling lonely?

As wolves use complex communication skills, which consist mainly of subtle hints, you can allow yourself to be gentle with others.
Are you communicating clearly? Do you recognise what’s been left unsaid? Are you not voicing things that need to be expressed? Are you maybe too aggressive in your reactions?
Or do others react aggressively towards you?
Also, do you need to assert your dominance in a certain situation or with a certain person?
Create healthy boundaries with others.

The wolves’ sense of smell is exceptional.
Can you sniff out anything wrong in your environment?
Trust your intuition when something feels off.

Wolves are great hunters who assess the situation and their abilities correctly.
Be observant and embrace opportunities when they arise.
But also learn to let go when something proves to be unprofitable.

The wolf has great stamina.
Are you persistent when you go after your goals? And do you feel energised enough to see things through to the end?
Or do you give up too soon?
Take enough breaks and include time for rest in your day-to-day life.

Wolves are well organised: they teach us about the distribution of roles and how you can trust both yourself and others.
Have you found a role that suits your abilities? What is your field of expertise? Which tasks fill you with joy? What tasks could you delegate to others?
Also, how can you benefit from each other’s talents and work as a team towards a shared goal?
Learn to ask for help when needed, while trusting in your own strengths.




If you want to read up on more spirit animals or want to learn more about spiritual topics in general, pick up a copy of my book “Willow and Strix – A spiritual journey” ©, available as a paperback or ebook (free for kindle unlimited users) US – UK – DE and in other countries