Published in 1986, "Meditations with Animals" was the first bestiary ever compiled from Native Americans showing the guiding roles animals have played in their spiritual history. These stories and poems contain the rites and rituals of a variety of tribes, depicting a world unified by the belief that the animal spirit dwells within each of us. With the power given him by the animals, man can transcend his earthly world and enter into a unique oneness with things seen and not seen by the senses. "In this collection of verse and story," says Thomas Berry in his introduction, "we are brought into the primordial community of the universe, the Earth, and all living things."