What does that animal “mean?”
Animal Spirit Totem Blog
When we meet an animal in our life’s journey, we are meeting a teacher who is asking us to consider some new aspect of our current situation. This Animal Spirit Totem blog is here to help you discover on your own what an animal visitor might be saying to you. To begin, make simple observations about the animal’s design and unique skills. Write a list of obvious statements- really obvious- things like- “It has wings.” or “It weaves a web.” Then ask yourself how those descriptions apply to some aspect of your life. How is the quality of these attributes relevant to the issue at hand? Is it time to take flight and lift up to higher ground? Or maybe it’s time to land… Is it time to weave a web of social connections? Or have you woven yourself into a sticky situation?
This Animal Spirit Totem Blog is inspired by the work by Jamie Sams and David Carson. Their Animal Medicine Cards have been a profound source of life guidance for me since I first discovered them in the early 1990’s.
For inspiration and suggestions on what any animal visitors may be saying to you, here is an Animal Spirit Totem blog for your reference. I hope the ideas presented here help to generate your own ideas about what your animal encounters may mean. Every message brought by an animal is unique and ever-changing. There is no way to discover once and for all what an animal “means” in the same way we can never discover what our sister or our best friend “means.”
Working with Animal Spirit Totems is the art of conversation and creative connection. What energy is needed in your life at this time? Has the Hawk come with its talons? Or is the mouse hiding in the walls? I hope you enjoy!
Bat Spirit Animal Totem
What is the meaning of the Bat Spirit Animal Totem? I recently got food poisoning and found myself stuck in debilitating nausea that lasted for hours. During those hours I wrestled with a reluctance to vomit until finally that fate inevitably came. Relief soon followed and after a day of exhaustion, health was restored. A […]
Opossum Spirit Animal Totem
When is it useful to address a situation directly, and when would a direct approach cause more problems? To discover the best strategy for every unique situation you may encounter, the Opposum Spirit Animal Totem suggests you take note of how much fear is involved in your decision-making process. When we are afraid we will most […]
Deer Spirit Animal | Deer Totem Meaning
Deer Spirit Animal | Deer Totem Meaning Deer Spirit Animal | Deer Totem Meaning | Animal Spirit Guides- Deer lives in the forest with lions, an ever-looming menace to her well-being. Instead of worrying about pending threats, Deer focus on her personal interests, only taking note of the lion if it encroaches too close. When […]
Swan Spirit Animal Totem- Grace
Swan journeys from awkward adolescence into captivating adulthood through a process of surrender. Many people feel that surrender signifies defeat. If we stop protesting and yield to the conflict at hand, are we compromising noble truths? Are we turning away from our core values?
Eagle Spirit Animal Totem- Inspiration
Eagle says, “Don’t wait for God to inspire you. Start somewhere and find the spirit in the seemingly mundane.”
Raccoon Spirit Animal Totem- Masks
This little robber-barron of the woods is comfortable in disguises and teaches us how to relate to ourselves and others with an air of mystery rather than certainty.
Mouse Spirit Animal Totem: Proportion
Behind the big and obvious, there is always something small and underestimated. How close do you need to get in order to know something? How far away can you get before you lose sight of the situation?
Bat Spirit Animal Totem: Adulthood Rites
Could there be a more monster-like creature? Bats are the very symbol of monster in all of our story-telling traditions. But what is a monster? A monster is an unexamined power within our selves that chases us and riddles us with fear until we face whatever it is about reality we do not want to face.
Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem- Ceremony
Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem – A deeper connection to the spiritual reasons for your actions is being asked for at this time. What is the difference between religion and spirituality? How do you spend the majority of your time each day? Do you watch the clock and wait to be released from a job you […]
Ant Spirit Animal Totem: The Collective
Ant Spirit Animal Totem – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” -African Proverb We are all individuals within a multitude of individuals. Ant medicine asks how do you set yourself apart to express the uniqueness of your soul? Does your uniqueness bring you a greater sense of […]
Porcupine Spirit Animal Totem- Approach
Is it time for ‘deflector shields up!’ or have your defense mechanisms lodged you into a corner?
Butterfly Spirit Animal Totem- Cycles
Butterfly is a visual teacher of how life energy flows in stages. Are you the caterpillar, the cocoon, or the butterfly at this time?
Badger Spirit Animal Totem- Anger
How do we express the noise within without blowing out the sound system of our friends and family?
Moose Spirit Animal Totem- Self Expression
It is time to stop looking around for examples of how to be and stand in your own eccentric goofiness.
Lizard Spirit Animal Totem- Potential
It is time to do less… Sit and soak up all the energy all around you. Let things play out effortlessly.
Otter Spirit Animal Totem: Play
Play time is the best medicine to heal a wounded soul. Where is your fun? Find it now!
Turtle Spirit Animal Totem: Home
We are always exactly where we are supposed to be. By the laws of nature, it can not be otherwise.
Crow Spirit Animal Totem: Contrast
There is no problem on Earth. Only contrast. The totem of the Crow is a gateway between light and dark and the freedom to go in either direction.
Wolf Spirit Animal Totem: Pathfinder
This fierce apex hunter teaches how to learn for yourself what is best for you and how to teach others what you have learned without controlling them.
Hummingbird Spirit Animal Totem: Vibration
She is small but her vibration of beauty is as large as the day is bright.
Frog Spirit Animal Totem: Weeping
This little warty creature thrives in the wetlands of life. With his hypnotic ribbit, Frog cleans the pond that beaver built and calls the rain to wash away the stagnant energy of frustration and disappointment that accumulates in our daily struggles. Weeping is the rainy weather of the soul that frees our body and mind […]
Horse Spirit Animal Totem: Power
Ever poised between yielding and taking action, Horse is the living symbol of power and how to access it.
Snake Spirit Animal Totem: Transmutation
If animals are living symbols of the cosmic design, snake, with it’s exclamation point body is the very image of a symbol. She is a gliding hieroglyph speaking volumes to the psyche about our most primal abilities to heal and renew.
Owl Spirit Animal Totem: Deception
The owl is a living radio telescope with sonic disks surrounding the eyes made of feathers which funnel the slightest of sounds directly into her high range ears.
Lynx Spirit Animal Totem: Silence
The winter energy of the Lynx Spirit Animal Totem teaches the medicine of the hidden. Lynx knows that no secret is ever kept forever. All that is hidden will one day be revealed.
Squirrel Spirit Animal Totem: Preparation
This little gardner does not concern herself with how large the world is. She measures the span of her realm nut by nut.
Spider Spirit Animal Totem: Connections
Everything we do today weaves a path of intricate connection to what will be possible for us tomorrow and beyond. This moment now is connected to infinite opportunities. Spider speaks of finding options from within and creating paths that will pull our desires to us. She lives simultaneously in the horizontal dimension of time and […]
Hawk Spirit Animal Totem: Vision
The hawk sees the mountains and the mouse at once with unnerving vision and a singular clarity. This predator medicine teaches how to clear away all distractions and hone in on the root of a matter. It is a lesson in the exquisite tension of conflict which teaches how to engage a challenge without causing […]
Beaver Spirit Animal Totem: Industry
This master architect builds with precision, repairs with vigilance, and creates with an inextricable connection to the surrounding forest. Her seemingly selfish home-making endeavors produce unforeseen resources for countless neighbors who gather at the new waters to drink and grow. Beaver medicine sets aside grand delusions of importance and settles down to gnaw away at […]
Rabbit Spirit Animal Totem- Caution
“Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!”, if exclaimed on the first of every month is said to bring good luck. But a Chinese proverb warns not to depend on a lucky rabbits foot for fortune, as ‘it didn’t turn out so well for the rabbit, did it?’ The collective archetype found in the symbol of the Rabbit around […]
Elephant Spirit Animal Totem – Tribe
The ambition of evolution shows a most noble grace in the grandeur and subtlety of Elephant. The oldest surviving matriarch on Earth is a walking library of personal Earth records. She teaches us how to heal past trauma and use our experiences as tool to expand into more freedom. Weighing over 16,000 lbs and reaching […]
Coyote Spirit Animal Totem- Mischief
“Sometimes we’re sacred, sometimes we’re not. But we’re always Indians.” –Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn The wisdom of the Sacred Fool is a tricky, uncanny medicine that can neither be sought nor avoided. It trips you when you think your steady and deserts you as you wobble for support. As we expound and […]
Dragonfly Spirit Animal Totem- Illusions
The romance between Wind and Water catches fire in the beauty of Dragonfly, quickening our sense of the ever shifting nature of reality. All is seeming and all is change. The journey of Dragonfly teaches how to navigate the the dream stuff we call life. Her medicine is inherent in her name. Is she a […]
Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem- Prayer & Abundance
Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem signals a time of rugged endurance. The modern-day Buffalo evolved into its current form around 7,000 years ago and is a smaller descendant of the Woolly Mammoth. So abundant and successful were these giant herds that there roaming’s darkened the Western horizon line for miles and miles as far as the […]
Bear Spirit Animal Totem- Hibernation
Life is a cycle round and round. There are times of productivity and there are times of rest. Bear Medicine is the vital practice of deep rest and rejuvenation. This medicine involves minimizing action, conserving energy, and retreating into the cave. It is a time to pad around the house in socks and grubbies and […]
Whale Spirit Animal Totem- Akashic Records
The whale is the world’s largest mammal and teaches lessons in vibration and sound, hearing what is really being said, hearing the faint soft voices, the low-frequency messages and remote bonds that are real and strong, though far away. Whales are able to communicate across vast oceanic distances via low-frequency sound vibrations from the […]