life totems and power animals – not all animal totems are equal

KEYWORDS: The term medicine used in a non-medical sense refers to the special essence Great Spirit gives to all of His creations. Each form in our world, both animate and inanimate contains its own medicine which can be shared by other parts of creation to bring us healing, strength and knowledge. life totems, power animals,Totem Animals, Spirit animal, totem animal, spirit guardian, familiar, spirit guide, animal helper, guardian spirit, power animal, animal medicine, Journey Totems, Message Totems,messenger totem,Shadow Totems, Great Spirit

If you have done everything in the preceding article, and your totem animals still aren’t apparent to you, you might ask Great Spirit to send you a visible sign that you cannot miss. Don’t be overly specific, or disrespectful though, by asking for something like, “Make my totem appear on my door step at exactly 9:00 Tuesday morning”. Even the Great Spirit is busy and cannot always accomodate your schedule. Sometimes He runs on Indin time, too.

It would be more respectful to ask for a sign by the end of the day or week, or during the beginning of a journey, rather than at an exact time. However, if you ask in a respectful way, more often than not, He will provide such a sign not long after you make this request. When the sign arrives, you will not wonder if this is it. You will know it’s what you were looking for and waiting for. In your search for your totem animal, you need to be aware that most likely you have more than one at any given time, and there are different kinds of animal totems. You have one or more totems at birth. Others will appear during specific times of your life when you need their power or their lessons. Some may cross your path for only a day or a week or months. Others may stay for years, or even all your life.

Most people have at least one totem animal present in their lives from birth, and more often two, that accompany them throughout life or at least for a major part of their journey. Sometimes there are more than two present but this number will usually be nine or less. These are called Life Totems or Power Animals. These are the totems you should seek out first.

For the majority of people, there is one totem animal who walks on the left and guards the feminine or inner side of your nature and another who walks on the right and helps the male or projected side of your spirit.

For a very few the male-female sides are reversed. Often these are very spiritual people who touch many lives in their spirit walk on Earth. Some people only have a totem animal on one side or the other. These are people who have a rough time in this life and some hard lessons to learn.

There are seven directions on the medicine wheel, and some believe there is a totem animal that looks over the areas of your life represented by each of these directions. The directions are East, South, West, North, Above, Below, and WithIn. In addition, there are the walks-beside right and left directions that protect the feminine and masculine sides of your makeup.

Some people have totem animals in these nine positions from birth. These are old souls who are well balanced. More often only one or two are present all the time and others become life totems at later stages of life as life experiences and needs require their help.

Life Totems reflect your inner spiritual nature and your core strengths and weaknesses. They lend their powers in weaker moments and remind you to keep balanced. They are called Power Animals because they help you to develop the power that is inherent in your particular make up.

These Power Animals are the ones who remain with you all or most of your life, once they have shown themselves to you. These are the animals people are generally referring to when they talk about “my totem.”

Journey Totems, as the name implies, guide you on journeys. This does not mean a trip like a vacation to a far away place (although a journey totem may accompany you on one) but rather a journey to new growth or change, or to overcome an obstacle that has presented itself in your life.

Often Journey Totems will appear in batches of two or three different animals who all share similar traits in one area which coincide with what is happening in your life. They will pop in and out of your life over a period of time that will vary from a week to several months, or even rarely years if you are slow in learning a lesson.

They appear intermittently until the problem they came to assist you with is resolved. Once the obstacle has been removed from your path, or the lesson learned, these totems will tend to fade from your life.

Message Totems are similar to Journey Totems but usually the time they spend with you can be measured in hours or days. A messenger totem may only cross your path to help you deal with a specific problem that is resolved quickly, or to bring you a sign you have asked for, and may never cross your path again.

Then again, the same messenger may return at a later time to help with a similar problem or to bring new signs. This type of totem usually grabs your attention immediately, either because the circumstances are unusual, extreme, or profound, or because you have recently asked for a sign and are expecting them.

The last kind of totem are the Shadow Totems. These totems are usually scary to us to begin with. They will test you, sometimes many times, to see if you are ready to receive their message, or if you are worthy to receive it.

Initially, you will fear this totem, while possibly being attracted to it at the same time. As long as the fear remains, this totem will continue to test, and will produce negative results in your life.

Once you find the courage (which often comes with understanding) to accept this animal and lose your fear, it will become one of your strongest allies. These totems often become Power Animals eventually and lend us our greatest strength.

In the next section we will discuss some of the reasons a totem animal may be drawn to you, and methods of consciously calling them to you when you want them to appear.

Introduction | Respect and Honor | New Age-Spirituality | Finding Your Totems | The Conscious Mind | Kinds of Totems | The Unconscious Mind | Directional Totems | Tantra Totem
The Animals Index

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