Animal Totems and Messages - how do you know?

Animal Totems and Messages

by Katherine Ari                                                                                    July 16, 2009 

I was in two of the big bookstores this week, Barnes and Noble and Borders.  I also surf the books online at Amazon.com and other book sites. I have several different Animal Card decks and books on animal symbolism and the messages they bring us.  As I look at what is out there, I see whole books on how to find your totem.  I want to sell my stories like the next person and would love to have them published and on the lists and shelves, but when that happens, I hope I have enough really informative and entertaining information that I don’t have to take five hundred pages to say what can be said in one page. 

By knowing the secret messages of animal behavior, they can help us in our lives.  A single animal or a group of animals may come to us to give us certain messages.  When you are paying attention, it may happen more often. 

I love animals and love nature.  I have many pets and I have a beautiful garden in my yard where I recognize the wild life inhabitants that live in harmony with me and my family.  I have other encounters hiking, traveling, and even unexpected ones at the grocery store or the mall.  I believe that the animals I dream about are real encounters just like the ones I have when I walk out the door. 

There are lots of ideas and theories and beliefs about what constitutes a totem or special message.  I know what is significant to me, and that is the key to answer the question of how to find your animal totems.  What does the animal mean to you? 

Let’s take dreams.  If you dream about a snake and you are petrified of them, the dream animal means one thing.  I’m not upset by snakes and so if I dream of one, I pay attention to the kind and the circumstances around the dream.  I use books by Ted Andrews and Jamie Sams as well, and several others.  Sometimes, certain animals, especially particular birds, are not in the spirituality books like those by Andrews or Sams.  So I take the general information about birds or mammals and then go to a National Geographic book or internet site to find out more.  I take all of the information and write it down, study it and then combine the meanings with what is going on in my life. There are certain questions to ask yourself.  You must always be discerning when applying meanings to your own life.

This is VERY important.  No meaning is set in stone, and no animal encounter necessarily means the same for you as it does for me.  The following are some questions to ask yourself.  Are there animals, birds, insects, sea life, etc that you are particularly fond of and always have been drawn to?  My favorite pets as a child were cats and I always loved black panthers, played with frogs, dogs, and encountered snakes.  I am definitely a black panther person.  Today, I have regular contact with spiders, dragonflies, cardinals and robins, crows, frogs, cats, dogs, deer, butterflies and hummingbirds, and hawks and buzzards. I love parying mantises.  When I encounter an animal or bird that is not a usual encounter or just plain unexpected like in dreams, I look them up because they usually appear to tell me something about what is going on at the time.  And that is one page with an answer about animal totems and messengers. The way I can help you is if you write me about your animals or wildlife contact I can help you find the meaning that is for YOU. (Okay, that was an advertisement and invitation or request for you to write me; I admit it!)

Katherine Ari’s Wildlife Encounters July 15 - 17, 2009

by Katherine Ari

 

            It is a regular thing for me to have encounters with crows.  They do all sorts of things to get my attention.  We do not have ravens in Georgia, which are bigger crows, so if the crow is a really big crow, I get out my books and study ravens as well.  The other morning, I was awakened by a bunch of average sized crows in my trees over my bedroom raising a ruckus.  Sometimes such a commotion means there is a hawk, or owl, invading the neighborhood, or that that greedy Great Blue Heron is about to land in my yard to eat my pet fish.  They know I do not welcome that intruder and they do their best to chase him away or at least tell me his has landed on the roof of the house or garage.

I got out of the bed, slipped on some sandals and went ahead and let the dog out.  She would chase the heron away if it was in the yard.  I saw no hawk or heron but they were hopping around from tree to tree until they were sure I saw them.  Ted Andrews says in Animal Spirit Pocket Guide to expect unexpected magical help with obstacles or problems at hand.  My own magic is calling and I will answer the call AND with several crows, I interpret that to mean in several ways or a big way – lots of motion.  I do have some obstacles in my life right now that need some magic or unexpected help.

I was out in the yard yesterday walking the dog and two of my cats when I had this beautiful magical encounter with a black and yellow swallowtail butterfly.  It wasn’t just that there was a butterfly in my garden.  He flittered around everywhere I walked.  “New love and joy are coming.” (Andrews) I should get ready to dance the Dance of Joy as I easily go through a new transformation.

The last dream I had last night included three animals, though one was not exactly identifiable.  There was a dog or really a fat puppy that was also a baby that was dependent and needy but growing healthily very fast in the dream.  I was caring for it and it grew strong and wanted to get out of the box to play.  It could talk as dream animals often do, and it was more like a growing baby.  Babies for someone my age usually mean new ideas or projects that will flourish if I nurture and care for them correctly. 

A dog is about being faithful and protecting the new ventures.  I can have success by choosing the right companions or relationships for these ideas.

So then I was carrying the puppy to another space and found us riding on an elephant.  It was going around some body of water and we had to walk over some water that had a fish that was about 12 feet long surrounded by various sizes of smaller fish of the same variety. And of course water is about emotions and the life force itself.

The encounter with the fish was very brief but still significant. I cannot identify the exact kind of fish but I remember the shape and sizes.  In Andrews’ book, Animal-Wise he has a drawing of a Barracuda.  The mouth of my dream fish was not the same and I can interpret that to mean it was not as threatening as a Barracuda would be.  Its body shape was a lot like a Florida tarpon fish – but tarpons are not in that book.

The main meaning of the barracuda is to go my own way and not follow the group. The younger ones may school as they grow and then they break away when they are ready to hunt alone.  Then they put themselves in the position to take advantage of whatever presents itself – in my case, opportunities expected or unexpected.

I was looking at books at Barnes and Noble about starting businesses.  The book I was looking at was about blogging and the author had somewhat of an authoritative and judgmental attitude.  It was written two years ago.  I suppose that the whole blogging experience has many avenues and ideas.  What works for one kind of business or blog does not necessarily apply to another entry.  Across the board blanket instructions and proclamations apply to the writer’s own experience with his/her field of interests. I think the barracuda that was too big to be in the school of younger fish and needing to break away was a good image for me as I start these new ventures.  I just need to do what I think I need to do and follow my own way.  We could even say I need to break out of the box or the race consciousness of the “crowd”.

Then there was the elephant.  An elephant is not native to this continent nor is it something that most of us see on a regular basis.  When I was a child, I lived next door to two or three winter quarters for some circuses.  Two of them had elephants.  I DID hear and see them daily.  I remember always being impressed by their strength and gentle power. 

They may not live all over the world these days, but they have myth and stories about them in many societies.  In India, there are several of the Hindu gods that are connected to elephants.  They originate in India and Africa today.  My dream animal, as well as the ones at my neighboring circuses as a child, was an African elephant, large with ears different from those from India.

They have great sexual power.  They have a great sense of smell that tells us, “Do things smell right?”  My sense of smell can help me open other energies and otherwise inaccessible worlds. They use their ivory tusks to dig that symbolically means knowledge of plants and roots.  Part of our business is working with plants and rooting new cuttings but I also work with others to find the “root” of the challenges.

Elephants have lots of fantasy tales about them like they never forget.  Well, that isn’t true, but if someone harms them, they might not forget the offender and even seek revenge.  But one thing is true is that the elephant societies are usually females unless it is the mating season.  They travel with three ages of females, young, adult and wise old ones that are their leaders.  They take care of each other and do grieve when one dies. 

The final message for me is to own the Wise Woman status of my maturity and to be strong in my own unique self.  I can draw ancient wisdoms, strength, and power by reclaiming my primordial royalty (Andrews).

I am beginning this new venture blogging and striking out in new directions.  I have my faithful protectors riding with me (the dog).  I am ready to go my own way without staying with the younger “school” of fish (the big fish).  I remember thinking the big fish was 12 feet long which could mean             12 days, 12 weeks or 12 months.  It could also mean 12 something else.  I need to go my way and use my Wise woman knowledge.  I can expect transmuting joy (the butterfly) and magical energies from unexpected ways to help with the obstacles (my loyal crow friends).  I need to trust “what smells right” or doesn’t.  I am strong in my own self, my wisdom, my power and my primordial royalty, past life experiences and respecting traditions and others and doing what is best for everyone involved.  I put life coach on my new business cards, but I think Wise Woman Guide fits me better.  No, it is not a familiar in the world of advertising, but then, neither am I.  I am quite comfortable with who I am.  I DO feel a lot of joy being me.

AFTER THOUGHT - Do I need these messages to be successful or to know what to do next on my Life's journey?  No.  Do they tell me something I don't know?  No.  They reassure me and the confirm what I do know.  They encourage me to continue on in the direction I am going.  They tell me I am doing what is right for ME.  And I am aware that they are working with me on these experiences and challenges.  Sometimes, when I get so caught up in the process, I miss things.  They will usually tell me to remember the whole picture and maybe even show me some new or better ideas.  I am grateful for their signs and messages and glad to know "they have my back" because they do, they really do.