Sounds like an Egret...the Great White Egret is my sons totem...mine is the Great Blue Heron....They dont have webbed feet...like a pelican would... Water birds are magical in many ways...and are great totems....the represent mastery of the three realms...water, earth and air...
As to the subject of how to find your totem animal spirit.....you don't find it..it finds you or is presented to you by the elders of the tribe....and a person may have many...they are not exclusively endowed by one necessarily...it has a lot to do with the path a person has chosen to walk through life....and the level of enlightenment they have achieved on this journey
I'm really not too sure what my totem is. I want to say a cat, because I've always been able to connect with them, but I don't know if that would be it or not. Feral dogs absolutely hate me, but I can get any street cat to come up to me, even if they're afraid of other people...I dont know, I just love cats haha.
So far I feel it's a raven...my entire life I've just been sort of drawn to them, and found them beautiful (despite what everyone around me always said about how gross and dirty and horrid they are). When I see them I usually just stop and smile, without even meaning too.
my totem.. cats have alway played a huge part in my life horses....i dream of them all the time. And if I have trouble falling asleep, I conjure up an image of a horse, and it calms me...every time. I have been seeing this red-tailed hawk around my house alot lately, and a Great Horned owl and I sat in each others company for a long time one night..... I have heard that you can aquire many animals in your totem throughout your lifetime....
sunburst, i feel the same way about the raven. ive always felt drawn to them and i really admire them. im not very spiritual so i dont think im very receptive to the idea of a totem animal in everyday life if you know what i mean. lately though, things have been happening to me that cannot be coincidence. im now more interested in getting in touch with the spirituality that i know i have.
Sorry Heron. But I have to say that Devin's way of thinking helped me. I have found that my animal totem is the horse. I got there by going into a different meditation than I normally do, partially by doing it Devin's way. Also- not to be rude- but truth has no age requirement.
on the contrary!! deer is great and powerful medicine, held in high regard. that is a great totem to have
Has anyone else here worked on an inner totem pole? I have my personal totem, which is Crow - Crow has been with me all my life and follows me everywhere, and speaks to me when I most need guidance. If I'm having a bad day, Crow will appear as if out of nowhere and that always cheers me up. I have also been building a totem pole, which consists of a totem for each chakra. Like the personal totem, these animals appear when I need a reminder of what is important in my life, and occasionally I will see all of them in succession. My root chakra totem is Red Tailed Hawk, my eye chakra totem is Turkey Vulture, my foot chakra totem is Great Blue Heron. I have yet to meet the totems for my other chakras, but I suspect Cat may be one and also Mockingbird. I am deeply connected with birds and with the sky, which is why all of my totems thus far have been birds.
Deer is a wonderful totem. When I first began my journey into discovering totems and finding my personal totem, Deer helped guide me in the right direction. I have a very soft spot for Deer as a result, and I wish I'd had the insight to study its medicine more thoroughly.
how do you determine which totem goes with which chakra? this is facinating, and i would love to build one myself......
In much the same way that you determine your personal totem, your chakra totems will present themselves to you if you ask them. Focus on each chakra individually and ask the animal to show itself to you. Also, sometimes the characteristics of the totems help determine where it is most useful on your inner totem pole. For example, Turkey Vulture can see thermals, and have excellent eyesight, scavenging by sight rather than smell, as was once thought. Because of this ability, it is my Eye Totem. It helps me see through my problems clearly and also assists my Third Eye's vision.
Hi there: All are right ways. All paths lead to enlightenment. A totem spirit can come in many forms. At different times in your life and many people have many totem spirits or animal helpers. One can also have vegetable or mineral totems. As everything that exists animate and inanimate has the spirit of life. Hold a rock and you can feel its vibrations if you quiet your self and tune in to its frequency. My first totem was a polar bear. He was real. He lived at the zoo in OKC. The white bear, the white bison, the white wolf and the red wolf, the red tailed hawk and the bald eagle. All members of the crow family have been messengers in my life though not a totem animal. My tree totems are the live oak and the elm. My plant totems are the nettle and the spanish needle and greenbriars. Mineral totems are jade, agate, and quartz. They can be found by meditation exercises, going on a vision quest, assigned to you by a medicine man/woman, or they may present themselves in time of need with guidance in physical form or in your dreams or visions. Or you just may have a particular affinity for certain animals or plants or minerals. You just may have a sense of knowingness. All ways are valid. If it is a true totem spirit then in time of need when you call on one or more of them for help they will appear to you and the guidance received will be validated by the results of following or not following the advice. Same with a "spirit guide" that is in human form or not so human form. So though, our brother quoted what he was taught and that was in a certain book. If it worked for him then it is valid. And if it works for others it is valid even more. But there are no wrong answers here. You are all RIGHT. And whether one follows teachings in a book from Barnes and Noble (I got mine off the Library for sale shelf) it is a valid path. Though the book had little to offer me. I found my path was a different one. I searched for a totem and couldn't find mine because I already had them. I just did not recognize them as what they were. I was searching and searching and just would not stop long enough and be still for them to catch up and present themselves. They had been helping me all my life and I just called them my Friends who happened not to be human. I had many dreams and visions and day to day encounters. So that is my advice to any who desire to find out who and what are their personal totems. Be still and quiet and when you most need them or least expect it they will appear. They may be a totem for the moment or for a lifetime. Totem just means spirit helper. Peace and love to all, Cricket Shadowolf
