#they named the crab jimmy btw

[insufferableroach]

im back from the dead yeehaw

and i drew chaz

theyre on a date in the void :)

theyre trying to figure out whether they should get a plant or a pet crab

its a very hard decision to make ok

[littlemessyjessi]

Welcome to the Wild Side:  Finding Your Power Animal and Working with Animal Totems!

Hello, smoochies! Welcome to my witchy weirdness! Now, disclaimer here:  I do not claim to know everything or anything.  I don’t claim that my way is the right way or the wrong.  This is just my way that works for me and I thought I’d share it with you.  Feel free to tweak it to your own needs but lord, here we go. If you’d like to read more of the Witchy Weirdness series, you can find the masterlist HERE  :)

Today's post will be featuring the topic of totems!

Whilte they do exist for both plant and animal, today we're focusing primarily on the animals.   Sometimes referred to as power animals, spirit guides or spirit animals - the totem is an Ojibwe term that means brother/sister/kin as well as animal.

In later installments of my Witchy Weirdness Series, I plan to do more categorized posts about animals.  I hope to break it up into sections and types with spotlights on specific animals from time to time.  For now, I'll try to stay on topic, lol.

Ya'll know how I am.

Working with the animal kingdom can provide you with a guide to help you overcome obstacles and navigate through your journey.  Sometimes they can be something that closely relates to you and other times it can possess qualities that you may need to work towards.  

Pay attention.

Self reflect.

Study the animal that comes to you to reveal it's message.

How do you discover your totem?

Well, to be honest- it really varies.

It could be an animal that you really like.

Perhaps, it's one that you see constantly popping up everywhere.

It could even be an animal that scares you.

If you're still not sure, try summoning your spirit animal.   The best way I've found is to ask it to reveal itself through the dream world.

A few ways you can do this is by:

- dream pillows/ satchets - crystals under pillows - dreaming tea - before sleep meditation - animal altars - asking an Earth/ Animal Deity for help (Artemis, Gaia, Demeter, ect.)

If you have trouble narrowing it down to one specific animal, try breaking it up into smaller categories.  While some people only have one spirit animal- some have many that they work with.  

Try breaking it down into categories such as:

Main Animal, Species, Day Time, Nocturnal, Water, Earth, Fire, Air.

As an example, here's a rough sketch of what I work with on the regular.

Main Animal:  Mountain Lion Species I work with a lot:  Reptiles Daytime Animal:  Squirrel, Various Birds because I do have a healthy bird population near my home Night: Bat, Owl (Specifically Barn Owl because I have one who lives in a near by tree and he sometimes gifts me feathers) Water: Frog, Crab, Octopus, Eel Earth:  Horse, Deer, Bobcat (Personal reasons), Bear, Bunnies Fire: Fox, Snakes, Coyote (Again healthy population around here and they do sometimes leave things) Air:  Dragonfly, butterfly,  raven (personal), Crow, hummingbird (This one is very symbolic of my father because he LOVES hummingbirds)

Like I said, my main is the Mountain Lion but I do work with a lot of different animal spirits on a regular basis.

Now, I realize that that seems like an awful lot of animal correspondences, lol.  However, it's important to know that I am an eclectic witch.  That explains a lot right there, lol.   I happened to feel particularly connected to element of Earth.

While Thor is my main masculine deity- Artemis is my main feminine.  

(While I do have others that I work with.)

The point is that my Earth altar is actually a space that is shared.  Primarily a space for the Animal Realm, it is also a space for Artemis and Gaia.

Now in regards to maybe dealing with an animal that frightens you...well it's ok, honeybee, lol.

I promise, it's alright.

My power animal used to (and still does sometimes) scare the holy hell out of me.

They always kind of freakead me out when I was a child and I avoided them like the plague.  However, when my Granny took me to a tribe meeting and I was told that I had the spirit of the cougar.  

Note:  Cougar, Mountain Lion and Puma are all the same thing.  It just has different names depending on the area.  

Perhaps, I'll do a spotlight on this animal later (I'm sure I will, lol).  

Anyway, I was devastated.  I hated it and rejected it.

However, if you take nothing away from this - remember this.  

Do not run from mountain lions.  If you run, they will chase you.  Real talk.  They will catch you and it will not end end.

Now back to it, the second I rejected it....they kept popping up EVERYWHERE.

I mean...it. was. ridiculous.

My great aunt brought me back a souvenir from Gatlinburg when she and uncle Bill went for their anniversary - an air brushed t- shirt with a mountain lion on it.

During the job fair at school a Park Ranger actually brought a mountain lion cub who they'd rescued from a forest fire.

I donated to a wildlife protection association and the randomly picked animal I got was a fucking mountain lion.  

I literally screamed when I got that little card in the mail.  I think I still have it around here somewhere, lol.

Her name is Cedar, btw, and I still sponsor her to this day.   I actually got the chance to meet her last year.  That's a whole other story though, lol.

Though, I have to say - the tipping point for me was when I actually saw one a year or so ago.

Fact:  Tennessee mountain lions are primarily located in East Tennessee and while I've spent plent of time there - I'm a West Tennessee girl, lol.  Anyway, due to the plentiful deer population here and some of the recent fires- there has been a spike in North American Tennesee migration patterns to the west Tennessee area.

Anyway, one weeking in particular I went camping.   This was was right after my temporary breakup from a relationshp of over a decade.  A much bigger fight was coming though.  

I just needed to be by myself.  Long story short, my stupid ass ended up coming face to face with a mountain lion.  

At first, I froze because...holy shit, lol.

And I actually started to cry because I was so stressed and so freaked out that I was PISSED that I was having to deal with this, lol.

I just started cussing it six ways from Sunday and screaming at the top of my lungs, throwing all my stuff around.

Poor thing looked at me like I had three heads and ran away, lol.

After I got in the truck and slept through the night before going home.

PSA:  Do not do half the stupid shit I do.  I'm impulsive, a bit of a hot head and I'm sure mentally unstable, lol.   I'm not the leader.  Do not follow, lol.  You'll likely get eaten if you do.  And not in the fun way, lol.  

That was dirty.  #sorrynotsorry

Anyway, my point is - just listen.  

A lot of time...they'll tell YOU.

So anyway, I hope ya'll liked this little venture into working with the animal realm and finding your power animal.

If you have one please leave them in the comment section!

If not, that's ok too!  I love hearing from you guys so if you liked this please let me know!

If you have requests for the WW series please be sure to let me know!

Snuggles and Huggles )0( Kennysaurus )0(

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