Laughter is the best medicine. And if you are going to laugh, you might as well laugh at yourself. Thank you Grandmother Spider!
I guess mine may be The lion I love the lion how it demands respect and you know that it is king (queen in my case)
I guess mine may be The lion I love the lion how it demands respect and you know that it is king (queen in my case) and I have a thing for guys with hair LOL
your alies are those who come to you in time of need, who look after you, not which you like or dislike or think they should be. a totem is something dead, carved on a tree. your alies, and we all have them, and or they us, its an omnilateral relationship, not any one way only at all, are living arctypal spiritnessess of kinds of living organzims, maybe the collective species conscousness of that species of living organism, or perhapse some other kind of spiritness that represents and guides it. whatever they are, it is a relationship we and they have with each other. like many things, this is one of those we don't have to pretend to know more then we do to feel and experience. who they are, sometimes they announce themselves to us, that's pretty much it. its not really something to go arround talking about. not a fassion statement or a choosen afinity, like a favorite color or something. sometimes they visit you in your dreams. sometimes in their animal form, sometimes as shape chaingers too maybe. it may be possible to meet them sometimes in real life, but probably not such a good idea to insist upon doing so. their patience is no more infinite then yours or mine, except in the sense of their sticking with you, inspite of each of our sometimes screw ups. but i really wouldn't push it. the'll let you know, even if and when you're too blind to see that its them doing so. =^^= .../\...
Is a totem a personal thing or can a totem belong to a family. You know, going down thru the generations.
no a totem is something, one culture suposedly had that name for species symbol spirits, one family of cultures, in the pacific northwest. what indiginous cultures all over the planet recognized is the personal thing, i mean, like i've already described. i mean if you want to learn something you might want to find out what tribal elders have had to say. an alie, is like a personal friend, but friend, well, i mean, their not like pets or anything, or lovers or something, their powerful, but its like their going their way and your going yours and sometimes well theres like this spirit of a whole species and, but its like in one person, one being, one awairness, and you help each other out, look out for each other. that's how it works. it's got to be mutual, and you don't get to pick some creature you like because they look cuddly or you're impressed by their claws or strength. it could be a very small, very, not physically strong species at all, but very wise as it has to be to survive in the big universe of nature. but you see, whatever it is, its like your brother, sister, and you just kind of look out for each other. that's what it is. that's how it works. and usually, it's when you're in a difficult situation, in a hard way, that's when you find each other, you and this guardian spirit of yours. and it isn't against god or some other belief or anything like that at all. it's like invisible friends, only you don't make them up or pretend to hold your bedroom door open for them or anything. the walk through walls and doors and everything just fine. but if you want to of course, and this in another different kind of thing entirely, but you can make a symbolic place in your home, where all kinds of spirits are welcome. you know, set out a glass of water for them on a kind of little alter like or something. but that's not something anyone has to do either. i mean its all, all of it, between that spirit and yourself. you have to work it out with each other togather. its not something anyone else can give you that. not something your gonna find reading about it or that you can get from me or anybody telling you about it either. =^^= .../\... i think i see what your getting at about the family thing. there's cultures that have that too, but usually its about like an extended family or a whole moity being associated with a species where, in that culture that species symbolizes some particular specialization, area of effort or spirit endowment. that's something, that aspect, that sort of thing, it's something that somewhere in my ancestors there might be, and i know of some other places that have that, but my own personal experience, is just about entirely as far as i know, of the individual thing. =^^= .../\...
Thanks themnax. Owls seem to come into my life alot. I've been warned of impending asthma attacks while sleeping by dreaming of owls flying at my third eye or dropping feathers on me. I have also dreamed of owls leaving behind claws and feathers for me. All of this started about 7 yrs ago after a "close encounter" with an owl that scared the bejeezus out of me. LOL Is this my totem?
that's the sort of thing that might well suggest that, but i do wish people would quite using this word "totem" that way. an alie is just that, just like as if it were a human, like a partner in bussiness or something like that, not a toy or a symbol of who you are, or even a lover in bed with. it is a personal and spiritual RELATIONSHIP. possibly the closest and most important spiritual relationship in many, if not most, people's lives. even people who have no idea it exists. =^^= .../\...
Yes! themnax, you are right. An allie. I've never thought that way about it before. Thanks. mammak, ya!! had one fly low over my head, took my breath away.
In the northern traditions, it would be called a feccebeast...its the animal shape your fecce takes in the early stages of communication.
...don't know what a feccebeast is could you explain please. Also, about 7 yrs ago immediately after an encounter with an owl, a most curious thing happened. My vision and hearing aren't good but all of a sudden I could see and hear EVERYTHING to an extraordinary degree. I was outside at night. I can't explain the feeling that came over me during this. Heightened senses, euphoria a feeling of freedom....it was like our spirits touched for a moment......
i was curious about this reference as well, as my own experiences took place outside of any tradition. i grew up in maidu country and my father's mother's mother was onondagwa from upstate new york, but my only contact with any of these traditions has been through my reading and hearing about from a few maidu friends i've met over the years. but my experiences, well i was walking along a road with my dad one day when i was very young, in a place where wolves had supposedly been extinct for many years, and i had, i was lagging behind him to be in a sort of state of meditation with my surroundings and when my dad looked back to see where i had gotten to, there was this old she wolf walking beside me. and we were just walking beside each other and then we decided, i don't know which or how, but we walked parallel to the road through a screen of brush and trees where we couldn't be seen from it for a ways, except going back to look at this place, that would not have been physically possible, so i cannot say what took place physically in that instance, it wasn't like it was a big thing, nor seemed like one at the time. and then after that, we were going down to the bear river where there are all of these mine tailings, i mean like there's this big wide area of gravel all up and down along that river, and the river itself constantly recuts its path through them, and anyway, the wind was toward me and everything and i walked accross the gravel to where the river was and there was a little bit of a gravel bank and the river was below me and when i got there and looked down there was this mountain lion getting a drink of water out of it, right there, not more the ten, fifteen feet from me. well that was what happened that day, but since that time, there have been dreams that were signifigant to chainges in things that happened in my life that involved them. so that is all i know, other then what i've felt at times since. =^^= .../\...
hi themnax, ya, I'm not connected to any tradition either and also have a Native connection in my family. Algonkin ( or Algonkian ). Back when I was a kid, people didn't talk of these things. I always had a feeling about this but didn't find out for sure till a few years ago. I wish I had been raised with this knowledge because I think my father had a positive experience with it as they lived out in the bush. Loved your story of the wolf and the mountain lion. Literally gave me goosebumps......
The Fecce, Fetch, is the manifestation of the strand of fate that you are part of. You are an event on the thread, the Fetch is the greater self of the thread as a whole..you are part of it, and it you, but the two are not one and the same...except after contact and communion with your fetch...which appears at first as the fetchbeast, then later as the human shaped manifestation of the fetchbride/groom. Upon the union of your self and your fetch, you have accomplished what all mystics have sought, and will be ever aware as the fetch line continues after "your" death. In a nutshell.
Hey heron...so is the Fetch your "higher self"? This is pretty cool...what do you mean by "will be ever aware as the fetch line continues after your death." Can I read about this in depth anywhere on the internet? ....thanks...
