Animal Totems
The
spiritual, energetic connection between a person and their power animal
totem serves as an ally, guide, teacher, protector, and a source of
power for one's life. The animal Totem offers power, teaching,
medicine, protection, wisdom and gifts unique to its own being.
    
"Animals
are wiser than human beings because they do not forget to behave in the
proper way; they remember their original instructions from the
Creator". Jake Swamp, Mohawk subchief.
For many, if not all, indigenous
people, there is the understanding that each person comes into this
life with at least one animal helper from the spirit world. Many of the
creation stories speak of how our human ancestors shape shifted out of
their original animal form to become the people that we know ourselves
to be today. Long ago the animals and humans all spoke the same
language and because we humans are the weakest physically of the
animals, they took pity on us and offered to help us in our lives. But
this offer of help came with an attendant responsibility to remember
and honor their gifts to us.
The power animal,
the totem animal and animal spirit guide are different terms referring
to our partnership with a helping animal spirit that is connected to us
for life – if we honor the relationship! Traditionally the totem power
animal spirit would first come to the individual through a dream, on a
vision quest or pilgrimage to a sacred place of power, or through an
encounter with it in the physical world in which it communicated its
presence and its availability for relationship.
The totem power
animal offers its power, teaching, medicine, protection, wisdom and
gifts unique to its being, to help the person learn and grow in
understanding in how to be with it in a good way. For like any other
relationship, it can grow or wither based on the quality of attention
and energy it is given. To help the relationship prosper and to open
the doorway for the animal spirit to feel welcome and share fully of
its gifts, it is vitally important that the person acknowledge its
presence and make a sacred home for it in their consciousness and in
their lives.
It is important to
"feed" the power animal spirit on a regular basis with prayers, song,
tobacco, corn meal, music or whatever the person can share with it that
truly honors its being. Also important is to invite the totem spirit in
to your body, mind and spirit so it can teach you what it has to offer.
Thus it might show you a power song or a power dance through which the
person learns about its ability to help them in their lives.
The totem spirit
animal has the ability to enrich a person's life empowering them with
its power. It serves as an intermediary between the spirit world and
the physical world and thus helps one to realize and potentiate the
full spectrum of their multi-dimensional being.
Start each day by
giving thanks to the power animal allies that have come to you in
dreams and visions. Pray for their lives, their families. Offer them
gifts to feed their spirits, sing and drum the songs and chants
they teach you. That way when you need their help for a challenge you
might be facing, you can call on them with confidence that
they will respond in a positive way, helping you access the wisdom
guidance and power that is best suited for the task at hand.
Each of us has this
kind of helper available to us if we but open the door to it, invite it
in and then pay attention to what comes.
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