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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
I like Clydesdale, I'll take that as a compliment. BUT, from the time I was about 14, all though school and even to this day, to a lesser extent, my close friends call me Bear.
I'm pretty sure Wolf's totem, despite her name, is the moose.  |
Bruce is indeed about the beariest bear out there ... anyone who has met him can certainly confirm that.
Moose is one of my totems ... you can have more than one, you know, especially if you're a magick-worker or shaman. You end up with a whole peanut gallery of helpers, some of which are more closely associated with you than others. I have also learned from crow and fox and coyote. (Moose is about patience and balance, the kind of balance necessary to understand and appreciate your enemies).
Sometimes you stay with a single primary totem throughout your life, other times, they can switch on you ... which has happened to me. I spent a very long time with wolf as my primary guardian (thus my handle). A few years or so ago, somebody else stepped up to the front, and I am now a member of the hawk family, in a manner of speaking ... Black Storm Hawk is what I am now called.
Any creature can be a totem animal or guardian, they don't have to just be the large, cool popular ones. Each particular animal has it's own teachings and lessons to impart to us. One of my friend's totem animal is the cricket ... they aren't all celestial tigers and jaguars. You also, incidentally end up with both the good and the bad qualities of the creature that walks with you ... so folks with rabbit, for example, can be fertile (of body or imagination), very strong sense of community and home, but also can be timid to the point of immobility. Eagles fly highest and closest to Great Spirit, carry the messages of the Gods to Earth, see clearly and far, however, have such a huge damn ego that sometimes it's difficult for them to get over themselves and off the ground.
How the animal presents itself in vision also can tell you about your guardian ... walking, flying, swimming, smiling, hunting? What color variations/phase is your guardian ... White Bear, Ice Bear, Brown Bear, Smoking Bear, etc.
For a while the native circle I pray with was a little heavy on wolves ... Shadow, Silver, White, Flying, and Snow ... while it's more customary to refer to someone by the "animal" part of their name, in this case, we went with their "first" names, for obvious reasons.