Lions, Tiger & Bears...Oh My!

​Lately me and those around me have been getting lots of messages and insights from animals during waking and dream states.  This and the fact that I find animal totems and their important messages fascinating inspired this week’s blog on animal totems.  Animals serve many purposes in nature and one of them is to 

​provide us with messages along our path to help us.  Animals regularly communicate messages and when we’re present and available we open up our channels and allow ourselves to receive them.  They are truly gifts from the universe and are deeply wise and connected to everything.

Each of us also has one or a few animals who we connect with as our animal totem and they stay with us during the course of our lifetime acting as guides to teach us on many levels.  Think of this as having a spirit guide in the form of an animal.  Each animal totem offers unique medicine and they find us in order to illuminate and inspire specific things within us so we can grow.  They help us embody our greatest potential and highest level of expression and overcome our greatest challenges and confront our biggest fears.  Their medicine is designed to help bring greater awareness to areas that require growth and help us step into our personal power.  Many animal totems come in for short visits to help bring greater awareness to areas and help us as we shift through specific experiences.

When I discovered that tiger is one of my dominant animal totems, I had to laugh!  For starters, I love animal print and for a while all I did was buy animal print clothing.  It got noticeably out of control when some friends began pointing out that my wardrobe seemed to only include an exclusive line of animal print designs.   As I took a closer look I realized I’ve always had a fascination with tigers, how they carry themselves, their plush and silky fur, captivating eyes, and their seemingly endless supply of stamina.  When I visit the zoo, I always love to stop and watch the tigers and see what they’re up to.  I even have a photo of a tiger that I keep in my practitioner rooms for client sessions.  Definitely no coincidence here!

It became very noticeable that Tiger was here to share important messages when I began having incredibly rich and profound dreams about tigers.  During this time I was experiencing a lot of personal change.  The messages from tiger were I needed to step into my personal power and embrace my feminine energy on a deeper level.  Tigers are strong, have incredible will power, personal strength & courage and it was important for me to draw on these same energies within myself.  Tigers also are associated with water and have all the characteristics of this element including healing and power through feminine energies.  Tiger showed up to challenge me to connect more deeply in these areas and express more of this part of me. 

Messages from animal totems are clear, powerful and intended to benefit you.  They can come to us in all sorts of ways such as dreams, hearing a song with the name of your animal totem repeat over and over such as “Eye of the Tiger” or in physical form such as a bird slowing down and looking at you as it flies by. 

Do you have an idea on what your primary animal totem is?  Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you create a stronger connection and discover what your animal totem is.

• Do you share behavioral characteristics with a particular animal?  Independent?  Strong willed? 
• Do you share physical characteristics with a particular animal?  Coloring?  Facial features?  Unique eye shape or color?
• What animals do you enjoy visiting most when you go to the zoo? 
• What animals are you fascinated by? 
• Do you collect animal paraphernalia for a particular animal? 
• Think back to you childhood and what you were drawn to.  This is a strong clue as we tend to be more open as children. 
• What animals frighten you? 
• Do you have dreams with animals in them?  If so, what are they doing?  What are they trying to show you?

What’s amazing is our animal totems have both light and dark expressions and both are incredibly important in our growth.  Once you determine your key animal totem, you can then study their attributes and gifts and see how you are expressing them in present time.  Whether you discover that you are making positive use of your animal totems medicine or are in need of shifting and changing in some ways, you’ll no doubt gain guidance and wisdom by these gifts from the universe on your journey.
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Enjoy the process!  Feel free to share comments on your experience with animal totems and pose any questions you may have.