Photographer Unknown, (Druid Magic)
Through contact with animals, humans find the ability to be in the present moment. In the world of animals, we feel who we are. Animals are at one with the needs and the drives of their bodies. When an animal is tired, it sleeps; when it is hungry, it eats. Going after what it needs, an animal is what it feels – unlike humans, whose feelings are often controlled by conditioning. Animals also teach us how to use our inherent power to transform our situation. An animal can move in its entirety from one state of being to another. From this we learn to let go and move away from outmoded mental states and beliefs.
Because they are at one with their life force, animals provide humans with reality. Their way of being is made up of actual, tangible things and somatic experiences. Animals provide us with a means of knowing that certain experiences really do exist and are not merely ideas. There is no separation between the animal and the world, just as there is, in fact, no separation between us and the world.
-Nicholas R. Mann, Druid Magic: The Practice of Celtic Wisdom