They are both connectors to our own inner dynamics and reflectors of the 'substances' of which the personality of our temporal Human Self is composed. In other words, totems can help us to understand why we are as we are and point us to the strengths and weaknesses of our own characters, revealing to us what we lack as well as what we inherently have. They show us our potential strengths and pitfalls, so that we can be aware and awake during our walk through Life. Although a power animal has the appearance of a physical or mythical animal, it has no existence in the physical world. It exists in non-ordinary reality though its effects can be experienced in everyday life.
Dictionaries define an animal as a creature that has intelligence, sensation, and movement.
So a power animal might be described as a source of energizing power in animal form, with intelligent motion. A power animal, then, is an expression in animal form of an intangible spiritual energy-force. It is an energy-pattern at subconscious and unconscious levels that has been given life by the human spirit. In other words, the animal form characterizes the nature, attributes, and behaviour of an essentially spiritual force, which has the ability to perform certain work and give it expression in material existence. There are many types of shifters.