Totems
Finding Your Totem Animal
Totem animals are commonly found through meditations of various sorts, with or without the influence of psychadelic substances. One such meditation follows.
Relax, close your eyes, and breath slowly from the stomach, first clearing your mind of thoughts. Then imagine that you are going down, through a hole in the ground with a light at the far end. Go into the light and slowly look around. Look for animals. Any animal you see three times try talking to. This creature is is probably your totem animal.
Some people find their totem animal by pulling a card from a deck of cards portaying totemic animals (such as the shamanic Medicine Cards or a deck of celtic animal cards).
If you frequently dream about a certain animal, it might well be your totem.
Some people find their totem to be an animal they frequntly encounter. For example if you have a friendly spider who is always about your home, you might find Spider to be your totem.
You might have a particular affinity with a certain animal. For example, my totem is a Snake, and animal I have had a likeing of since childhood. I have successfully handled snakes with a reputation for being vicious and for biting which have been completely calm with me, and I basically utterly love the creatures. The creature you feel most drawn to and love and admire the most can often be your totem.
If your totem is not huge, powerful or generally assumed to be impressive, this is nothing to be dissappoited by. All totems have much to teach, and they all have equal and different qualitites, knowledge and wisdom to impart and share.
Any animal, mythical or real, living or long extinct, can be a totem animal.
The Place of Totem Animals In Celtic Lore
Celts and Druids held the belief that each person and family had a special relationship with animals and animal Spirit Beings that were sacred to ech clan. This belief is what Patricia Kennealy is referring to in her book "Strange Days, My Life With Jim Morrison." MS. Kennealy is a member of an ancient clan of Irish "Wolf Shamans" whose tradition states that they are the Magickal leaders of their people. This association of Spirit Animals or "Totems" is based upon the ancient Celtic belief that all life is related, the Land, the waters, the spirits of a place, the trees, the flora and the animals that they lived with side by side. Many ancient stories tell how the Druids could "shapeshift" into animal form to escape or work Magick. To know your Inner Celtic Spirit, you must know your clan and your personal Spirit Animal.
The importance of totem animals in Celtic lore and magick is in their use as Spirit Guides in the Otherworld and their aid as a familiar in working Magick. To find your totemic animal will require you to experience a shamanistic trance. This is usually accomplished by "drumming" and meditation. Many sources only state that you need someone to drum or a "drumming tape" to allow yourself a chance to really meditate, but the action of drumming yourself, at least for part of the working plays a significant part in achieving a suitable state of conciousness. Drumming along with a tape or another drummer for the intial part of the working is a possible way around this. Whhile drumming, you should let the rhythm fill you completely, and take you into another state. At this point you can either stop to performs the suitable meditation, or continue to drum, dependant upon what suite you.
An example of a typical totem meditation follows.
Open youself up to the God of the Hunt as you meditate upon the Tree of Life. He will come to you while you are in trance (usually after 10 to 40 minutes of drumming). Your totem animal will apear running from the Great Forest. When the animal appears, let its essence fill you. Become your totem. Dance its dance and sing its song until you are one in the Spirit. You should repeat this ritual as often as necessary to have a close rapport with your Spirit Animal guide. Much of what you are told and given will be from the perspective of the Animal and will be difficult to understand unless you are truly One with it.
It is possible to have more than one animal as a spirit guide and totem. One might have a clan totem as well as a personal totem animal.
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