The Power/Totem Animal
A)How did you discover / connect with it?
B) And how do you connect with /channel it in your divinatory practice?
** Haven't read through everyones posts.
A) - How discovered: 
I have 5 "spirit guides" in total (different ones hang about for different things in my life), none of them were deliberately searched for - they all just "came up" whilst I was doing one kind of spiritual/occult practice or other...(one of them, a Shamanic lady drew for me once... no idea where that picture has gone now...)
- and 2 of them are animals:-
1) An Arctic Fox/Arctic Wolf (yes he fluctuates between both states depending on the theme - but mostly a fox.)
2) African Black Panther (a black leopard)
The Arctic Fox - I "saw" whilst having my Reiki 2 initiation years ago. I was lying on the couch with my eyes closed listening to my Reiki teacher walk around the couch, doing whatever is done for an initiation - and I had a "vision" if you like... of me sitting at a
a bar/lying on the couch, with a large white dog sitting beside me to my right (later realised it was a Fox, and sometimes appears as a Wolf - when I did some research).
The Panther - One summer whilst doing some general meditation I just began having a "feeling" of a new energy hanging around my consciousness... I'd wake up with it, go about my daily tasks and suddenly become "aware" of it, I'd go to sleep and have an image of it.
Like there was something lurking in the peripheral field of my vision.
With some focus (and this one was elusive for quite a few months), I could eventually "see" a Panther.
She's sometimes a human warrioress
.
[Now - My father's tradition has tribal totems (An East African Tribe, The MLuhya) - so theoretically my "family Totem" (speaking Patriarchally
) would be an African Fish Eagle.
I don't feel much connection to this bird however.
And when I think about totems myself and muse about what animal would best "suit" me - I come up with the Madagascan Fossa (Madagascar is an Island off the east coast of Africa).
A large mongoose that has cat-like adaptations and size, so it's like a cross between a cat and a mongoose.
I saw a live one once in a zoo - fascinating animal! It made a huge visceral impact on me and I just couldn't stop looking at it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_(animal) ]
And lastly - once long ago - I did a 7 directions Animal Totem card draw with my Medicine Cards deck:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/medicine-cards/
(That's north, south, east, west, above, below and within).
The ones that most stick with me are the Below Card (the "grounded" card, how to walk upon the earth...) - a fox again, but this time a red/brown fox...
And the Within Card - a lizard. Perfect for me dreaming away my manifestation whilst I collect myself (and my energy) in the sun (metaphorical these days - since I can't actually lie in the sun anymore).
So - these are my Totem animals: Arctic fox/wolf, African panther, European red fox, Lizard, and Madagascan Fossa. (Hmm - a cat and dog theme - which may match my dual - and sometimes opposing, racial backgrounds of East African and Swiss...?)
B) - Divinitory Practice:
Well - I just think of them and "tune in". During meditation... or sometimes If I'm ritually drawing Tarot cards for a "message from the guides". (My present deck for this is Golden Tarot:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/golden/ ).
But mostly - they sort of come-to-mind depending on my situation and emotional state, and then I'll wonder about thinking "Well hello... what have you to tell me then?..."
If I'm feeling unsafe/vulnerable I may invoke my 5 spirit guides in a protection ritual (so that's 2 animals, 2 people and a floaty Angel-like thing).
yeah, in case we combust!!! 
