If you’re at all familiar with shamanic meditation or divination, then learning about one’s “inner beast” or animal spirit is probably not new to you. On the other hand, if you’ve never explored or considered meditation, then the concept of spirit animals may sound absurd.
If you’re in the former group, then What the Walrus Knows: A Guide to Beastie Energies is an app you’ll understand and maybe even want to explore. If you’re part of the latter group, you’ll have to set aside skepticism to even look at it. Either way, if you’re interested in an app that provides guided meditation as well as basic examples and explanations of what inner beasts (or beasties) are, then What Walrus Knows can serve as an introduction.
What the Walrus Knows: A Guide to Beastie Energies is first and foremost a guide. Developed by a former physician turned Shamanic healer and life coach, What the Walrus Knows takes an alternative approach to relaxation, stress management and self-improvement by serving as a guide to self-discovery through nature. For centuries some cultures and religions have believed deeply in spirit animals that serve as a guide – What the Walrus Knows takes that approach to promote self-awareness.
What the Walrus Knows features four primary interactive functions – Divine, Field guide, Discover and Journal.
Divine is a feature that allows the user to seek answers by offering guidance in animal form. For those who don’t grasp the animal spirit concept, it is simply life tips, strategies and inspirational messages meant to provide encouragement. Field Guide is a guide to different “beasties” and what messages they might be able to convey. Discover consists of a brief questionnaire to help users identify with a certain animal and the Journal feature provides a place to record thoughts, questions and emotions.
Also included in What the Walrus Knows is a guided meditation session. The meditation session is several minutes long and is conducted by the developer. Though conducted in a completely professional manner, one can’t help but feel that professional recordings aren’t our shaman’s strong suit, but if you are able to get past the voice intonations with occasional pauses and breaks, it still serves its purpose. The sound quality throughout the app’s different functions is good, but if using or referring to it in an open, public area be sure your volume is turned down as you’ll be greeted with animal sounds that could be disturbing to others.
What the Walrus Knows: A Guide to Beastie Energies is definitely a niche app, meant for users who practice meditation or divination or at the very least, have an interest in pursuing these practices. The app will cost you $5, so there’s no informal, free preview stage, but it is loaded with resources that could be useful to an interested individual. In addition to resources, there are links to suggested podcasts, but they don’t appear to be active so be prepared to do some digging on your own. That said, if you’ve been looking for a meditation guide that focuses on nature and the animal spirit, then go ahead and see what the walrus knows.
