Comments on: On Totems and Categorizing

By: therioshamanism

therioshamanism — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:16:57 +0000

Ravenari–I think the problem I perceive is the tendency to over-rely on dictionaries on the part of a lot of totemists. I can see where other people’s experiences can add depth to one’s understanding, but unfortunately mostly I just see people blindly following whatever the dictionaries say.

And I’d liek to be at the point where you are with simply thinkking of the totems as themselves; unfortunately, the whole neopagan tendency towards categorization and labeling has rubbed off on me entirely too much! Working on it, though

By: Riverwolf

Riverwolf — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:13:46 +0000

I’m inspired and encouraged by your ability to continually work with various totems and deepen your relationships to them. I’m struggling with this and often seem to hit a wall–so I head to the dictionaries, but I’ve never liked the idea that totems are limited to a few “functions.” It’s nice and tidy for our human brains, but I just don’t see nature working that way.

So I will keep working, working with wolf, vulture, bear, groundhog and turtle. I have lots to learn!

By: Shadowandstar

Shadowandstar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:10:25 +0000

I think this is an excellent observation, and good for approaches to deities as well. I know that as I connect with more people who work with Ereshkigal, I’m seeing that She has a variety of aspects, far more than a dictionary would give.

By: Kelley

Kelley — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:39:59 +0000

Brave and brilliant!

By: Emma-Jayne Saanen

Emma-Jayne Saanen — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:00:51 +0000

This.

It’s a difficult habit to get out of. I’m really new to the pagan scene, so the animal magic resources out there are full of pigeonholes. When that is your intorduction to the subject, it’s hard to break out of it.

But it’s something we need to break.

By: Pitch313

Pitch313 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:54:24 +0000

Oddly enough, my own sense of which creatures operate as totems for me comes entirely from personal encounters with living animals and plants. Many of these experiences took place when I was quite young and unaware that they were, as later events revealed, magically important over the course of a lifetime.

Because of this personal foundation for my totemic creatures, I’ve felt little temptation to categorize the functions or responsibilities of these creatures. I’ve taken the lessons and guidance they’ve offered as complete in themselves, conversations with other living presences. Not as tokens of psychological functions or symbols of magical interests. So I haven’t paid much mind to lists of functions, archetypal energies, or divinatory clues. I just take them as teachers and pals.

By: Ravenari / Moonvoice

Ravenari / Moonvoice — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:02:34 +0000

When I do my totem animal files, I generally ask the animal in question what it wants to transmit to many – as opposed to personal messages. For that reason, the file on Australian raven – my personal totem – is somewhat radically different to what I feel Australian raven means to me in my life. And it’s also why I add a caveat.

I’ve never really experienced the problem of over-categorising in these areas though. If elk came into my life to teach me about emotional regulation, it wouldn’t occur to me to label it as a certain kind of ‘totem’ or ‘guide’; nor would it bother me if its lessons were very different from the mainstream. I suppose that is one of the overt benefits of only really believing in one totem; everything else after that becomes a varying degree of ‘animal energy’ that is defined by the animal it is and less by dictionaries, labels and terminologies.

I don’t have a ‘heart totem’, an ‘art totem’ and so on. I have an evolving number of animal energies, and my relationship with them is ever evolving. The only label I tend to need for myself is ‘snail,’ or ‘olm.’

That said – maybe because I don’t really find categorisation or stereotyping totems a problem – I also think totem animal files are a great gift; and that’s why I continue to write them. Just as a book on the value and meaning of human archetypes might provide wisdom and illumination where solo jouneys may not be able to reach.