Animal totems

jld · Post by **jld** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:08 pm

Some animals in our physical world we feel a certain kinship to. I had a cat that passed I felt that way about. He was a great companion. And the cat I have now found me years back. He looks just like a cat I had that passed a year before he showed up. It was amazing how he just showed up in the hall outside my apartment. He looked so much like my other cat and eased the loss...possibly sent or came to be with me. Maybe they are not guides but it's nice to have animals in our physical life too.
I'd rather have the snakes showing up in my dreams than in my physical world...  :smt016  I did find an intact skin shedding of a snake in my back yard last fall. That was pretty cool.
Maybe similar species show up in our physical world that are similar to our totems but not necessarily our guides.

singingnymph · Post by **singingnymph** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:56 pm

Ok, sorry about the length. This is copied from my journal from '04.  Believe it or not, I've actually left some of it out.  Anyway, it's about turtle being one of my totem animals & the journey I took/am still taking in understanding it.
***
When I was growing up, my grandparents & parents were well acquainted w/ a medicine man (I think he was Hopi). I didn't know him very well, but through my grandfather's influence, I was able to get him to come talk to my youth group. I think I was a sophomore in high school. He told us that he could see our totem animals & though they varied from time to time, he would tell us all what animals he saw w/ us at the moment. He left the interpretation up to us.

My animal, he said, was Turtle. I was a little confused by this. I thought it might have something to do w/ taking my time or snapping at people & it still might. But I've been thinking lately about how I handle being hurt emotionally, & my instinct is to shut down, to retreat inside myself...even burn bridges if necessary.

I think about how sometimes I wish I cared only for myself & my dreams...how if I were only more closed off or tougher skinned maybe I wouldn't get hurt so bad. The problem is, I care about things outside myself more than people realize & when I do get hurt, that's when it occurs to me to retreat. So inside my shell I go, but I can never truly shut down. Sometimes I wish I could.

My other association w/ Turtle has to do w/ Home. I feel like I'm constantly searching for a Home. Not a place, necessarily, but a feeling. Well, yes, a place too. I long for somewhere where I feel permanent, where I feel truly at Home. Until then, I have little homes. Wherever I am, I find places where I am comfortable & can be myself, or people who I can be myself with, but it never feels permanent & I feel a twinge of sadness when I think about that. So, like turtle, I'm always at home, but never Home.

I decided to look up Turtle as a totem animal. I was pleased to see a more positive side to Turtle.
***
I then copy/pasted some information I'd found about Turtle being a symbol of grounding & to my delight, Turtle is Earth Mother. Turtle Mother really resonated with me, because my protective/mother nature is something I've had since I was small.

jld · Post by **jld** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:31 am

singingnymph, That was a moving post and I really related. For me, I am learning to come out of my shell. Past experiences have caused me to put up many walls and boundaries to protect myself. I'd shut down...I really did need this in the past but I don't need it anymore. I am learning ‘Home’ is who we are, where we are, at this moment in time. My home life growing up was problematic but am realizing a different defination of home life now for myself and my daughter. I want to feel at home in my own skin mostly. But I also know I will be challenged to grow in my level of comfort and the snake hopefully comes in to help with that.

tourbi · Post by **tourbi** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:36 am

Turtle is a neat animal.  I always think of it positively.  I love that it means earth mother.
I always thought it cool that it could pull it self in when bullied so the bully would get bored and leave it alone.
It's home is always with it.  

Draco32 · Post by **Draco32** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:07 pm

I have a question about totem animals:
Recently, my totem animal made itself known to me while I was in a meditative state. My question is, is this animal a lifetime totem?
In other words, is it possible that later on in my life, my totem animal will be another animal?

biyu · Post by **biyu** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:28 pm

ive  allways  understood  totems  too  be  creatures  you  feel  this  deep  connection  to  live  ALLWAYS  loved  wolves  so  fer  me  a  wolf  would  be  a  logical  choice  lately  ive  been  likin  various  cats  too  so  if  thats  a  totem  or  not  has  yet  ta  show  itself  or  that

sweetykat · Post by **sweetykat** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:13 pm

I am  not  yet  sure  what  my   totem or  totems  are,   Cats  seem  to  adopt me,  in fact  one  of  the  cats i have  now  is pure  black  except  for  one   smal l  white  patch  on  his  chest that isn't  noticable right  away, his  name is  "panther"  and  miss  kitty  who is  a gray  tabby,  there  are  so many  cats  in the  neighborhood and  eventually  they  end  up  here  at  one  time  or  another,  and  My name  is Katherine and  my  nic  name is  Kat, my  grandmother  who i was  named after  was  called Kitty  by  most. so i guess  cats   would  be one of  mine  and  another  is  the  owl,  when i was  small  i  had  two  owls  that  would  sit  in  the  pine  tree  next to my  window  most  nights  an d  hoot  down  at me, and  recently  there  was  something i was  supposed to do  for  my  brother, i was  sitting  outside  the  night  before  and  had a feeling  that  i shouldn't do this   on this  particular  day,  my  niece  came  outside and  said  "aunt Kat, i  think maybe  we  should  postpone  tomorrow,  i have a bad  feeling  about it, i  said   yes  me too i was  just  thinking  abou t that,  well  at that  time  we  hear  an  owl in  the  woods  behind  our house  and  it  was  very  close, it  was  hotting in  intervals,  and  then  wait  a  min  or  two  an d did  it again,  it  did  this  five  times,  we  changed  our  plans  for the  next  day  and  sure  enough  it  was  a  wise  choice. so i  woul d suppose  that   the  owl  is  also  one of  my  totems, just  because  of  that  and  the  history i have  with  them, I was  reading not  long  ago  about  animal  spirits  and   according  to my  horoscope my  animal  totem  is  the butterfly,  just  yesterday i was  sitting  outside and  one lit  right  next to me, i out  my  finger down  and  it  climbed on my  finger  and sat  there for a short  while  then  sut   fluttered off,  so i have  three lol. at least three that i know  of  of  course  maybe  snakes or  rats  would  be  my  shadow sprirt  i  think  rats  i despise  most used to be  snakes   but i now  have a  better  understanding  of  them  and  am  not  as  afraid  of  them.

jld · Post by **jld** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 1:37 am

Draco32 wrote:I have a question about totem animals:
Recently, my totem animal made itself known to me while I was in a meditative state. My question is, is this animal a lifetime totem?
In other words, is it possible that later on in my life, my totem animal will be another animal?

From what I understand we have some that are with us for life and we can always call upon them and others come and go with the lessons we are learning at the time.

Destinatus · Post by **Destinatus** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 6:59 am

Well my life animal totem is a Snow Owl and her name is Selena.  She's really white with specks of black on her wings, etc.

right now I just discovered my transitioning animal totem if I can call it that, which I will:  a moth.  First I saw it stuck on a window at my gym and it was directly in front of me when I was on a treadmill.  Then I saw many of them like following me to my campus, etc.  Then I had a dream about a moth flying into this door that was lit enormously and each day I dream of getting closer to the door.  

Funny thing is that I'm about to graduate in 2 weeks, and I just took it as that school for me was the "cocoon" phase and now I'm about to come out of the shell, from growing, and experience the light.

Gem · Post by **Gem** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:38 am

Destinatus if you know the animals specific name and she is an individual animal then she is more likely to be your animal guide not a totem, a totem usually embodies the whole species and isn't a singular animal

Our totems do change throughout our life, all except the two that stand by our sides, male and female, left and right

Menerwa · Post by **Menerwa** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 6:39 pm

From what I feel I think that two of my totem animals are the wolf and blackbird. I have always been drawn to wolves somehow and the blackbird use to shown itself to me over and over again in different places and dreams.                        

Why do our totems change throughout life, except two? And how do you know which two are the ones that always stand by your side?

Wolfshadow · Post by **Wolfshadow** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:47 am

I have been attracted to wolves, thus my name here at mystic board is Wolfshadow. I have wolf figurines, a wolf Mandela, and just last year, a friend gave me 2 geodes, I sliced one of them in half, hoping to see a hollow crystal interior, what I found was a silhouette of a wolf.[/img]

biyu · Post by **biyu** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:31 pm

oh  the  rest  of  this  sn  well  the  whole  version  is  biyu_wolf_77  so  yea  i  LOVE  my  wolves  when  i  was  in  alaske  i  wanted  like  EVERY  wolf  shirt  i  saw  one  reminded  me  so  much  of  my  uncles  pup  i  just  HAD  ta  get  it  

--actually  im  thinkin  some  of  my  enhanced  sences  have  ta  do  with  me  allways  beein  around  dogs/cats  an  allways  havin  some  wolf  astrial  or  not  around  me  (tho  its  likely  some  is  from  my  bracelet  too)

jld · Post by **jld** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:47 am

Menerwa wrote:From what I feel I think that two of my totem animals are the wolf and blackbird. I have always been drawn to wolves somehow and the blackbird use to shown itself to me over and over again in different places and dreams.

Why do our totems change throughout life, except two? And how do you know which two are the ones that always stand by your side?

Some totems come and go with the lessons we are learning. Turtle is a lesson totem for me. The animal you most feel kinship with is probably one of them. You could check out some sites and read about the wolf and blackbird. From what I have been thinking about the left and right totems, maybe one we come in with those traits (like south node in astology) and the other may tell qualities we should adopt to be able to grow and evolve (north node). Just a thought. I think I came in with the jaguar as my power totem and am working toward having more qualitites of the horse. But owls have always stood out to me as well.

mtthwoh · Post by **mtthwoh** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 2:34 pm

Wolfshadow, The picture that you have in your post is interesting, for the past two weeks I have been seeing stars before going to sleep. I wonder if it has any meaning?

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