What if the creatures you fear most are not monsters—but sacred mirrors reflecting the lost fragments of your own soul?
In this gripping episode of The Cult of You, Adam Nox is joined by author, dream-worker, and shadow-animal mystic Dawn Baumann Brunke. Together, they unravel the mythology, psychology, and spiritual power of shadow animals—from serpents and ravens to goats, wolves, and even the Kraken itself.
This conversation dances through the realms of archetype and embodiment, myth and metaphor, mysticism and grounded practice. Dawn shares from her books Shadow Animals, Awakening the Ancient Power of Snake, and Dreaming with Polar Bears, offering a window into how animals have always been sacred allies in our transformation—if we’re brave enough to face them.
“Animals are not just companions—they are living mirrors of the soul, reflecting the shadow we’re too afraid to face.”
“The snake never lied. It offered Eve awakening. The true villain is the voice that told us knowledge would kill us.”
Shadow Teachers Test Readiness
Shadow projections often appear through the animals we fear, offering us lessons—if we are spiritually ready to receive them.
The Snake Was Never the Villain
In pre-patriarchal myths, the serpent was a symbol of wisdom, feminine power, and transformation—its demonization marked a cultural shift away from the divine feminine.
Animals Are Gateways to Shadow
Dawn’s work reveals that animals can guide us through the unconscious, helping us recover disowned parts of ourselves through dreams, triggers, and intuitive symbolism.
Projection Is a Map to Inner Work
What we fear or reject “out there” often mirrors unresolved aspects within. Shadow work means reclaiming these projections instead of exiling them.
Eat the Shadow to Awaken the Self
Shadow-eating is an alchemical metaphor for reintegrating lost soul fragments and transforming them into power, wisdom, and spiritual vitality.
Kundalini as a Serpent Force
Snake energy lies dormant within the root, waiting to awaken—yet, it tests your readiness, just like any potent force of transformation.
The Goat Is the Redeemed Scapegoat
Once a symbol of abundance and vitality, the goat became demonized to repress the primal, sexual, and untamed self—a mirror of collective shadow suppression.
Nightmares Are Initiation Portals
Dark dreams, like the nightmare horse or Kraken beneath the sea, initiate you into forgotten wisdom—if you dare to face them consciously.
True Awakening Is Re-Membering
Integration isn’t about perfection—it’s about retrieving the fragmented parts of yourself and holding them in sacred wholeness.
Magic Begins Where Literalism Ends
Myths are not rules—they’re tools. Wisdom arises when we stop taking symbols literally and start engaging them as living archetypes.
“Shadow is not evil—it’s unloved genius, exiled power, and sacred beauty we’re not yet ready to receive.”
“You cannot think your way into shadow integration. You have to feel it—jaw clenched, heart pounding, fully present.”
We begin by addressing the most ancient of metaphors: the snake. Before Genesis, the serpent was revered as a wise advisor, protector, and symbol of divine transformation across cultures. The demonization of the snake, and its alignment with Eve in the Garden of Eden, marks a turning point in Western consciousness—a shift from goddess and nature worship to patriarchy, hierarchy, and control.
Dawn unpacks the biblical myth: the snake doesn’t lie. Instead, it offers awakening, the knowledge of good and evil, and self-realization. What God forbids is what ultimately makes humans divine. This reframing is crucial for shadow work—it reminds us that the very things we fear may be our greatest teachers.
Dawn shares her personal initiation into this work through a dream-cat that haunted her childhood. This cat showed up repeatedly in dreams until she began to pay attention, realizing it wasn’t a threat but a mentor—testing her readiness. She introduces the idea that shadow animals test us. They don’t reveal themselves unless we’re ready.
We often forget: our fears of animals—snakes, spiders, wolves, even goats—aren’t random. They are projections of repressed material. When we experience a visceral reaction to an animal, it may be our soul asking us to face something deeper within.
We discuss Robert Bly’s concept of the “long bag we drag behind us”—everything we were told as children not to be, feel, or express. That bag becomes our shadow, and it shows up through emotional triggers, projections, and unconscious behavior.
The process of healing begins by sitting with the discomfort. Rather than rationalizing it, we feel it in the body: the jaw tension, the buzzing ears, the urge to lash out. These are the soul’s GPS, pointing us to what needs integration.
The result? Freedom. The triggers lose their power. You reclaim energy and memory. You stop reacting—and start responding.
We dive into the symbolism of the goat—wild, free, sexual, sacred—and how it, like the snake, was turned into a devil. Pan was too wild, too sexual, too uncontrollable for the early Church. The goat became demonized: hairy legs, horns, lust, danger.
Yet in older traditions, the goat was a provider of abundance, associated with the Horn of Plenty, with milk, and with sacred wildness. It also played a role in the scapegoat ritual—a creature burdened with the sins of a people and sent into the wilderness.
What does this say about our culture? About what we cast out? About who we sacrifice to preserve our egos?
In the dreamworld, Dawn meets animals like the polar bear who initiates her into lucid awareness. She describes one dream where the polar bear turned its head toward her—and they simultaneously realized they were both real.
From there, the conversation turns toward collective shadow, represented by myths like the Kraken or Lovecraft’s Cthulhu—massive unconscious forces from the deep. These are the archetypal beasts that rise when we’ve denied too much of ourselves for too long.
To meet these monsters is to meet our own infantile grandiosity, our overwhelming fears, and the seduction of victimhood. But if we stop running, if we face them in the depths—they become gateways to liberation.
Dawn brilliantly reframes the famous “two wolves” story. The truth? You should feed both. Not just the good wolf—but the angry, wounded, exiled wolf too. This is what it means to “eat the shadow”—to reclaim and nourish the very parts of you you’ve denied.
She describes shadow integration as a form of soul retrieval. These fragments—once feared—return bearing gifts. Once exiled, they now become sources of power, insight, and creativity.
The Ouroboros—the snake eating its tail—symbolizes this perfectly. It’s a portal, not a paradox. A sacred cycle of death and rebirth, of feeding and consuming, of destruction and reintegration.
We move into mythic terrain—speaking of Odin, Norse magic, and the rich animal companions that surround gods. Odin rides Sleipnir, the nightmare horse, a beast associated with movement through worlds. He is followed by two ravens (thought and memory) and two wolves (destruction and protection).
These animals are not just companions—they are aspects of self. When we work with them as symbols, they teach us how to become whole. They are not external—they are psychic limbs.
The path forward, according to Dawn, is not about control—but about communion. To work with animal spirits or shadow energies isn’t about mastering them—it’s about meeting them.
Close your eyes. Get quiet. Ask yourself: how would this animal want to be known? Where in my body do I feel it? What have I judged about it? What truth is it offering?
This is not linear work. It is alchemical, intuitive, and wild. But it’s the work of re-becoming whole. Of turning monsters into mentors.
And it begins when you stop running—and start listening.
“Every myth is a code—an ancient whisper reminding us that transformation starts by reclaiming what we once rejected.”
“Don’t just feed the good wolf. Feed them both. Heal the wild part of you that was starved into silence.”
“The Kraken rises not to destroy—but to awaken. If you run, it pulls you under. If you stay, it teaches you to breathe underwater.”
CVLT has over 2 decades of experience building international brands and now we have decided to focus exclusively in this space. so if you are looking to build your business then here are some of our key offerings
