Ted Andrews (1952–2009) was an American New Age author whose career at Llewellyn Publications produced over thirty books on spirit animals, angel work, magical practice, and related topics. Animal Speak (1993) is his single best-known book, with approximately 500,000 copies in print by the 2010s. Andrews also founded a music-and-workshop organization called the Stag & Serpent Mystery School. He died in October 2009.

Why does every spirit-animal article sound the same?

Because most of them descend, directly or at one remove, from Ted Andrews's Animal Speak (1993). The book's animal-dictionary-plus-keyword format shaped the structure of essentially every spirit-animal website launched in the 1995–2015 period, and subsequent sites often copied without attribution. Naming Andrews as the source is the minimum honest act of attribution.

Is Animal Speak a reliable source?

As a reference-level compilation of a specific pop-spiritual synthesis, yes. As a primary source for any of the traditional material it summarizes (Plains-tribal, Celtic, Egyptian, Norse, etc.), no. Andrews did not consistently cite his sources; many of the 'traditional meanings' he attributes to animals cannot be traced to specific primary texts or named informants. Animal Speak should be cited as REFERENCE, not PRIMARY, for exactly this reason.

What is the cultural-appropriation concern around Animal Speak?

Andrews's book, like most late-20th-century commercial spirit-animal literature, draws extensively on Plains Indigenous material (Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, and others) without consistent specific-nation attribution and without the involvement of Indigenous authorities. Contemporary Indigenous scholars (Adrienne Keene, Joseph Pierce, Taiaiake Alfred, Laura Redish) have documented the pattern. The honest approach: cite Andrews as the 1993 commercial source while treating specific Indigenous traditions with nation-by-nation specificity and primary-source citation.

Tradition · United States (commercial publication)

Ted Andrews's Animal Speak: The Llewellyn 1993 Paperback That Shaped Every Modern Spirit-Animal Article

Ted Andrews's Animal Speak (Llewellyn, September 1993): the single most commercially influential spirit-animal book of the past thirty years, whose animal-dictionary format and keyword-assigned readings shaped the modern pop-spiritual-animal canon.

Published 2026-04-24

Athenian silver tetradrachm coin showing the Little Owl (Athene noctua), circa 450 BCE. — The Little Owl (Athene noctua) on an Athenian tetradrachm, c. 450 BCE. Ted Andrews's Animal-Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small (1993) popularized the concept of personal animal guides in English-speaking New Age culture; the owl is one of its most frequently cited examples, drawing on cross-cultural associations from Athena through the Plains Indian vision quest tradition. *Athenian silver tetradrachm, c. 450 BCE. British Museum. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.*

Ted Andrews's Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small was published by Llewellyn Publications of St. Paul, Minnesota, in September 1993. It is the single most commercially influential book in the modern spirit-animal genre, with approximately 500,000 copies in print by the 2010s, and its animal-dictionary-plus-assigned-keyword structure shaped the format of essentially every spirit-animal website that followed. 'The Andrews 1993 reading' refers to the pop-spiritual synthesis Andrews assembled from Plains-tribal, Celtic-revival, and pop-occultist sources. The book is a reference-level source, not a primary source, for the traditions it summarizes.

Ted Andrews’s Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small was published by Llewellyn Publications of St. Paul, Minnesota, in September 1993. It is the single most commercially influential book in the modern spirit-animal genre. Approximately 500,000 copies in print by the 2010s. Its animal-dictionary-plus-assigned-keyword structure shaped the format of essentially every spirit-animal website launched in the 1995–2015 period.

When you read the phrase “the Andrews 1993 reading” in spirit-animal writing, it refers to the pop-spiritual synthesis Andrews assembled, the keywords, the cross-cultural syntheses, the assigned meanings per animal. That synthesis is real and has genuine internal coherence. It is just not ancient.

Why the book deserves its own tradition page

Because it is the source. Most modern spirit-animal articles on the internet are, directly or at one remove, descendants of Andrews 1993. Naming the source is the minimum honest act.

What Andrews did and did not do

Did. Compile a usable alphabetical animal-dictionary with assigned symbolic keywords for roughly 170 animals. Draw on Plains Indigenous material, Celtic-revival sources, pop-occultist writing, and observable animal-biology in roughly equal measure.

Did not. Consistently cite primary sources. Consistently name specific Indigenous nations rather than using generic “Native American.” Engage Indigenous authorities. Distinguish ancient tradition from modern synthesis.

The citation standard

Marble sculpture by Canova of Cupid embracing Psyche as she awakens, wings of both figures partially visible. — Canova's Psyche, Louvre. The psyche (soul) and butterfly shared a single Greek word — the kind of cross-cultural symbolic resonance that Andrews's Animal Speak (1993) assembled across roughly 170 animals. The book's cross-cultural synthesis method produced accessible keyword meanings; the cost was the loss of the specific theological and cosmological contexts in which each tradition carried its weight. *Antonio Canova, 'Psyché ranimée par le baiser de l'Amour' (c. 1793), Musée du Louvre. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.*

Andrews deserves to be cited as REFERENCE, not PRIMARY, for the traditions he summarizes. His book is a reference-level compilation of a specific 1993 commercial synthesis. The primary sources the synthesis draws on (where they exist) should be cited separately, directly. Where Andrews’s reading differs from the primary-source tradition, naming the difference is the accurate thing to do. Where his reading is simply biology-derived and has no ancient anchor, saying so is more useful than inventing one.

Key terms

Ted Andrews (1952–2009): American New Age author and Llewellyn Publications mainstay. Animal Speak (1993) is his best-known work.
Llewellyn Publications: St. Paul, Minnesota-based publisher of metaphysical and New Age titles, founded 1901. The principal commercial publisher of the modern American spirit-animal genre.
animal dictionary: The format, popularized by Animal Speak, of alphabetically-listed animals each with assigned symbolic keywords.

Frequently asked

Who was Ted Andrews?: Ted Andrews (1952–2009) was an American New Age author whose career at Llewellyn Publications produced over thirty books on spirit animals, angel work, magical practice, and related topics. Animal Speak (1993) is his single best-known book, with approximately 500,000 copies in print by the 2010s. Andrews also founded a music-and-workshop organization called the Stag & Serpent Mystery School. He died in October 2009.
Why does every spirit-animal article sound the same?: Because most of them descend, directly or at one remove, from Ted Andrews's Animal Speak (1993). The book's animal-dictionary-plus-keyword format shaped the structure of essentially every spirit-animal website launched in the 1995–2015 period, and subsequent sites often copied without attribution. Naming Andrews as the source is the minimum honest act of attribution.
Is Animal Speak a reliable source?: As a reference-level compilation of a specific pop-spiritual synthesis, yes. As a primary source for any of the traditional material it summarizes (Plains-tribal, Celtic, Egyptian, Norse, etc.), no. Andrews did not consistently cite his sources; many of the 'traditional meanings' he attributes to animals cannot be traced to specific primary texts or named informants. Animal Speak should be cited as REFERENCE, not PRIMARY, for exactly this reason.
What is the cultural-appropriation concern around Animal Speak?: Andrews's book, like most late-20th-century commercial spirit-animal literature, draws extensively on Plains Indigenous material (Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, and others) without consistent specific-nation attribution and without the involvement of Indigenous authorities. Contemporary Indigenous scholars (Adrienne Keene, Joseph Pierce, Taiaiake Alfred, Laura Redish) have documented the pattern. The honest approach: cite Andrews as the 1993 commercial source while treating specific Indigenous traditions with nation-by-nation specificity and primary-source citation.

Sources

REFERENCETed Andrews, Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small — Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN, September 1993.
REFERENCETed Andrews, Animal-Wise: The Spirit Language and Signs of Nature — Dragonhawk Publishing, 2004 (companion volume).
REFERENCELlewellyn Publications corporate history
REFERENCEAdrienne Keene, Native Appropriations (blog archive)
ARCHIVELaura Redish, Native Languages of the Americas