Your seat of consciousness is moved to the fetch rather than in your soul/spirit complex...which splits upon your death, and "you" go through the waters of forgetting, and into the underworld...or well of potential....to merge with the fetch means you escape such a hard fate. It is more than a higher self...but close...the fetch is the manifestation of the entire strand of fate that you are only a happening on..."your" self is one of many "selves" that the fetch "self" has had....that opens a whole new can of worms...as to there being no true "self" anyway. not sure about on the net...but Robin Artisson talks about it in his traditional witchcraft books in good detail..especially Witching Way of the Hollow Hill...and maybe at www.robinartisson.com or http://www.robinartisson.com/scarespite/hallpage.htm.
Heron...loved the Robin Artisson site. Especially "the Old Ways" Thinking of buying Witching Way of the Hollow Hill Thanks.....
I am very certain that mine is a fox. I've had a few encounters... a dream about one who has helped me get through a huge obstacle before. When I asked my nan if she might be able to interprit the dream she told me that her Father used to call her "Fox". I have a fox skull in my bedroom. And the moment it sort of confirmed it for me was when I went for a walk a few weeks back about 7:30-8 at night and as I was crossing a highway, about 100 meters away there was this large fox crossing it opposite from me, I was watching it as it walked and once I crossed the road, I turned and stood there for a moment and we just sorta looked at eachother for a moment before I turned to walk again. I glanced back and the fox was gone again.
Let a man decide upon his favorite animal and make a study of it, learning its innocent ways. Let him learn to understand its sounds and motions. The animals want to communicate with man, but Wakantanka does not intend they shall do so directly-man must do the greater part in securing an understanding.
My totem is a she wolf with a Raven , or a crow , sitting on her right shoulder....its a big black bird , and my granma would always get the two mixed up. The animals were picked out for me before i was born. We are Cherokee
Nowdays, they are an Eagle, and, a rabbit... I have seen these animals, and I know this from the look of these creatures... Also I got, my own spirits, who are more like teachers...
Alright, I have a rant on the totem thing. I am a believer in totem animals, that many of us have an animal spirit/ally. So far, I have seen many cats, canines, horses, and buffalo. I have seen a plethora of various birds, and 90% of these totems/animal spirit guides/whatever have been well respected throughout certain cultures. Where are the not-so-loved animals? I don't remember seeing any reptile totems, though I know that gators, crocs, turtles, and snakes are popular. I saw no fish. From what I have been given through neopagan lore (priestesses, books, and internet), the animal chooses you in a mediation or certain life events. Some (from the posts here: I know little of American Indian beliefs) are gifted by tribal elders. From the abundance of animal species, however, why have the only invertebrates I've seen been four dragonflies, a grasshpper, and three other spiders? And why did some get certain species and others get a whole Genus? Did only the animals closely allied with humanity choose people? Where are the cockroach and snail totems? Slugs? Ants? There should be millions of ants. For myself, all spiders link to me in ways, but the main totem animal is the black and yellow argiope spider (Garden spider. Google my screen name for images). I have been arachnophobic my whole life, but fascinated by everything with eight legs until it showed up in my bed or clothing. A spider has been present at every major life event I can remember, even if it was just a little brown house spider scaring me into not being so traumatized by the event itself. This means that I am small and relatively harmless but still attention grabbing and unexplainably disturbing. I am talented in knitting and crochet and have developed a marvelous green thumb since realization. I am violently devoted to the children I am not even pregnant with yet, and yes, I occasionally eat my mate. The argiope is one of the few species that actually do that (No widow does in the wild.), but he hasn't complained yet. I'm convinced that my husband is a rat totem. He's the stereotypical pack rat, loves rodents (It's funny to see a scrawny six foot tall nerd/punk/goth cooing like a little girl over the hamsters in the pet store.), is a master of MacGuyverist engineering, and while he cares for his loved ones fiercely he is absolutely vicious to his enemies. He's not so convinced.
The snake is a very important spiritual animal. The snake or serpent, or some other reptilian relative including the dragon, are all connected to the axis mundi, the celestial axis. THey are also connected to our own internal axis mundi---the spine (for example the snakes of Kundalini). My spirit animal is the wolf, and he is always around me---he is a guide when I need him, protects me, and is a friend. But one time in a low point of my life, I went on a spirit journey for help (with my wolf at my side), and one of the visions I had was of a giant green snake with long fangs, that wrapped around my house, which became quickly enclosed in its coils. It reared its head up and hissed menacingly while showing its fangs----I knew that no harm would come to my house----that it would protect it. I believe it is still there, for I look for it/invite it/make sure it is there while on spirit journeys, or when I am away from home ,etc. The turtle maiden and her turtle also came to me at that same time, and she helped me achieve some things that would not have been possible without her help. So I am always indebted to the turtle and give it thanx when ever I have a chance.
mine are all white : Eagle , Buffalo , Wolf and Dove , then i have a hawk that is big , and a bear that is my father
Do any of you know the animal you call your totem as your pukrell instead? The Pukrell, or fetch beast, is the animal face of your Fetch. It is usually the first way that contact is made with your Fetch-self. The serious and successful mystic will move on to know a deeper level of the Fetch, as the bride or groom, knowing that the beast was a simple initiation. More often times, "totems" are power animals or spirit guides, not the fetch beast, for it takes a serious and prolonged effort for the Pukrell to be shown, more so for the bride.
That is interesting. Do you know what language the word 'pukrell' comes from? I know that there are certain indigenous cultures where the spirit guide becomes a spirit spouse. For example, there are Ural-Altaic shamans in Central Asia who have a human spouse and female guide spirits that become their spirit spouses. They hve children in the spirit world with the spirit spouses, who cook for them and perform all the duties of a spouse, only in the spirit world. They can even get jealous of the human wife. The human wife is understanding because that is part of her husband's calling.
Ive always been very drawn to tigers, crows and cows... I'm drawn to tigers when I'm energetic, trying to turn new ideas into action and so on,when I feel deeply depressed or anxious I always become aware of crows around me (I can hear them outside when I take exams and it calms me down)...and when I lack confidence or feel low or my life's unbalanced, I feel a connection with the cow...(and I started following Hinduism about a year ago which is interesting seeing as how the cow is so revered in that religion.) I'm not really sure what that means tho...Ive never really heard of animals totems before reading this post.lol Slan.x
Ocean Star, did you know that those are all ancestral animals? The cow is (or was) the Great Mother clear accross the Eurasian continent, and down into North America and the Middle East. This is why she is so important to the Hindus who have retained this ancient tradition. The cow originated in Europe with the Aurochs. (The Aurochs is now extrinct). It was exported down into the Middle East and North Africa as early as the late paleolithic, or early neolithic (and here we think of these people as a bunch of cavemen, barely able to make stone arrowheads). One of the oldest forms of the Egyptian Goddess was that of the cow----inheritted from the earliest North African cow, and Middle Eastern herders. The pre-christian Europeans carried this same tradition, in some places, well into the last millenium. The crow was the mother of some shamans and appears in numerous traditions accross Northern Eurasia, though I believe the eagle is more common. The tiger is the great ancestress all through South East Asia, particularly from Malaysia down through Indonesia. It is a common totemic spirit among the shamans there. It would have been the ancestress of the Koreans, but the Bear was able to produce human offspring, and so the tiger became the helping spirit of the Great Father, or ancestor instead. Accross to Japan, and the Ainu people share the bear as their great ancestress. Of course, I guess any spirit animal has an ancestral connection as I pointed out in a previous post.
My totem is the wolf. I was meditating one night, and I saw myself in wolf form with another wolf by my side, They played together and were very good friends. Then the wolf representing me left. So I was sitting alone with the other wolf, (it's confusing, i know two me's) but the human me was sitting with the wolf and we watched a sunset together. then the me wolf came back. hurt and bleeding. The other wolf rushed to the me wolf's side, forgiving the mewolf for leaving him. I've seen this same wolf in many dreams, sometimes i feel his presence with me.
That's a cool story talk2thetrees! I too have experienced myself as a wolf. Other times I am just with my wolf. Numerous traditions teach of multiple aspects of our soul, so the experience of you as you, and at the same time, you as wolf fits that concept. Though that is not the only interpretation. But that is really cool!
