Totem Animals

And spirit guides, look for the signs.

Hello Dear Friend,

Hello, hello, hello,

Welcome to another Sunday Letter, words written from my heart to yours, usually on the Sunday. No major edits, just my mind’s rambles, and a quick run through a nifty programme called Grammarly, which hopefully, ensures I don’t make too many bloopers.
Welcome also, if you are new to me. You can find out more about me here or just have a peek at my past letters, all of which can be found here.

In last week’s letter, I promised to have a chat about Totem animals, so here goes…

A Wise Old Raven

A wise old raven sat in an oak,
the more he heard
the less he spoke,
the less he spoke,
the more he heard,
let's imitate that wise old bird!

Edward Hersey Richards

I came across that quote by Edward Hersey Richards during the week, and it really spoke to me.

It tells of listening to others, of really hearing them, truly listening to another human being is a gift. A gift of your time, and a gift of your focus, and in this mad world of ours which is so full of distractions, it truly is a gift to just be with another human being and talk.

Another reason it spoke to me is, because, yes, you guessed it, my Totem animal is a crow (or a rook, or a raven, basically a big black bird) I am still trying to work out the differences. If you know please pop it in the comments box below. But, I digress, and I am also jumping ahead.

Some of you are now nodding your head wisely to all this talk of Totem animals. Others will be scratching their heads and wondering what on earth I am going on about now…

Totem Animals

A Guide to Understanding Animal Totems and their Significance

In most cultures, and traditions, there is a belief that every human has at least two Spirit Guides, who protect, and guide him, since the day he is born. Spirit Guides can be your ancestors, but they can also be animals.

Therefore, a spirit guide in the form of an animal, it is called Animal Totem. It executes the energy of that specific animal. Some spiritual people, who work with energy, may call them ‘familiars’, or simply ‘spirit animal’.

Source: Wind Wolf Studio Etsy Shop

It is believed that a Spirit Animal chooses you from the day you were born, until the day you die, becoming your Animal Totem. An Animal Totem chooses you, and not the way around.

From AnimalTotem.com Website

They described it so much better than I could’ve.

There are lots of ways to find out what your Totem animal is, meditation is the most regularly recommended. When you meditate to discover your animal guide, go into the meditation with the curiosity to discover your animal, thank them for being with you on this journey, and ask them to reveal themselves.

You may not receive an answer straight away, be patient, keep trying, and while you are waiting for the connection to strengthen don’t forget to pay attention to all that is going on around you. It could be that you start seeing the same animal or bird around you regularly, either in real life, in magazines, on tv programmes, or even in conversations.
If you already know, are you willing to share? I would love to know what your animal guide is and how you feel about them.

My own links with Crows

My links to crows started around 5 years ago, with this painting by Vincent Van Gogh, it is titled Wheatfield with Crows, and I used it as inspiration to create a shawl for an MKAL (Mystery Knit Along). The images below are the painting itself and the shawl I knitted.

Until that painting popped into my life I had never considered crows, I rarely saw them where we lived, and unless I drove to Rookley, a village on the Isle of Wight so named because of the rookeries in the area, I didn’t see any.

But then, in the spring of 2021, after we had been given notice from our landlord and were looking for a new place to live, I began to find crow feathers in the garden. What is odd about that? I hear you ask, well, we had lived there for eight years, and there had never, ever, been a crow feather in the garden. Occasionally we had pheasants in the garden and the cats would get a bit ambitious and try to catch them, but they never left feathers behind.

Yet still the feathers appeared.

By the grace of friends, we found somewhere to live. Anyone who has tried to rent a property in the last eighteen months or so will know what a difficult task that is nowadays, add in five cats, and well, it was pretty hopeless. Thanks go to Colin and Kate who said we could rent their house. We were saved. We duly moved in, and I began to set up my workspace in the new house.

This is the view from my new workspace/office window.

The view from my window as I write this letter.

It immediately reminded me of the Van Gogh painting, I knew what the birds had been trying to tell me. We were home. I still find feathers, I keep them in a bowl behind me, underneath my angel paintings.

Things catching my eye this week:

The Nearness - This is an exploration of spirituality, over eight weeks, in weekly small group gatherings. The deadline to sign up is tonight 25 September, so take a peek here to see if it speaks to you.

Secret News - I have been asked to take part in a very special event which I am really looking forward to, more about this next week.

That is it I think, for this week, just remember, really listen to all those you meet, you never know what you may learn. Approach the world with love and curiosity, and listen to those gut feelings, those are the connections between you and your spirit guides, angels and Totem animals.

Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

Tracy

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Until next time, bye for now.

Links:

AnimalTotems.com website

Spirit Animals -Totems website

Animal Totem Generator - a bit of fun

Full List of Animal Totems if you already know what your animal totem is.

The Nearness - An exploration of spirituality, for more details and to sign up click here - The deadline for this round is 25 September.

Anything in bold and underlined is a link to the relevant article or web page. None are affiliate links, just things I hope to benefit you, or people whom I admire and have worked with in the past.

Note: If there is a * these are affiliate links and will earn me a few pennies without adding to your cost.