To Find Your Totem Animal

Everyone has an animal, bird or fish which holds a special meaning for them. This is not necessarily a pet or even a domestic animal; it could be wild, foreign or even mythical.
Mine is the Raven. I was born and raised in the area of Ravensbourne and wherever I have lived or worked Ravens have always been around. I've even hand-reared one. Whenever I see one, whether in life, in art, or in a dream, it always indicates something important is about to happen in my life.

To find your own Totem animal, take a walk in the woods just before dusk. Take time to look at the trees and plants, to inhale the scent of the woods and to listen to the sounds around you. Find an old tree and sit down beneath it. Close your eyes and lay your hands flat on the soil to each side of you and take several slow deep breaths. Ask the Goddess to send your Totem Animal to you. Open your eyes and pick up the first thing you see lying on the ground near you. Take this home and place it under your pillow for three nights and your Totem Animal will come to you in your dreams., When you know what your Totem Animal is, remember to look out for i in the world around you, and to acknowledge this gift of the Goddess each time you see it.

"Remember, manners maketh man, woman and Witch."

~from the Real Witches Year by Kate West

Lady Elaine,

From my own study, I have discovered a couple other things of interest regarding Totem Animals.

You can have several different totem animals.  New animals will present themselves to you when your spirit has particular need of their teachings.  By way of example, my most consistent totem animal is that of a fox; but during a period of extended workaholism, I was visited by squirrel.  Squirrels are naturally hard workers and they also enjoy extended periods of play.  Squirrel came to remind me that I needed to play.

If you are open to the forces of the natural worlds, all of the animals that show themselves to you are trying to tell you something.  Even the ones you do not recognize as totem animals are trying to help you.

Unfortunately, I am in the middle of unpacking otherwise I would suggest the book I have found most useful in understanding the various animals of my home.  Among various methods of discovering your totem animal(s) it lists a variety of birds and animals with extended descriptions of the animal and their meanings.

There is also something to be learned from the number of your totem animal you see as well as what direction they are coming from or heading towards.  As most here already know, the cardinal directions have their own meanings.  Number myth goes back to the time of earliest man and have their own meaning as well.  In the end, discerning the message of many animals in motion is much like reading tarot; the more often you look to the animals for meaning, the more reliable the interpretation becomes.

The Solitary Druid
a.k.a. COpagan

I've found this to be true, CO.  I have encountered various animals along my way according to what was necessary in a given situation, and have also found that many animals have "followed" me throughout my life, only to disappear when I was no longer in need of the message they were bringing for that time period.  However, I do have one animal that has not left me and has expressed itself as my "life" guardian, in its own way.  It is interesting, also, how animals will change according to the region you are living in as well.  For instance, I have found the guidance of the dragonfly and lizard especially helpful here in Houston, where, in the NW part of the country I was led by a rather lovely mountain lion.  In Egypt, I was literally bombarded with white Ibis.  Every now and again, here, I am reminded of the Ibis' message when one gets "lost" and flies over my complex, low enough to pass my window.  When I look out after them, they are always gone, and it seems that no one else has seen them.

For me it has often been the wolf, raven or crow, and moth.  For many years I lived with my father in central Florida, on an acre of land, with a bunch of pine and oak trees. Sometimes crows would appear, and other times ravens. And they would drop down to the middle of the yard, 7 or 8 of them in a circle. Vultures have also come to me from time to time, in dream. The whole time that my father was dying, he passed in January, my husband and I went back to Florida to tie up loose ends. I stayed in the house, and my nephew heard the birds squawking and started yelling at them. I told him he shouldn't get mad at them for doing what they do. Another day, a bunch of us were at a couple of houses down the street, and I looked up in the sky to watch a couple of buzzards circling my father's home. And I said to my husband, 'see that? Its not food they're after.'

Recently we did a lot of work in our backyard for the Spring and Summer, and the lush plantlife attracted many insects - some I've only ever seen before in museums. Lots of butterflies and bumble bees, and the occasional honey bee. I keep an eye out for these things, and do tend to take them seriously.

My husband is very fond of eagles. He sees them everywhere.We once pulled up to an auditorium in a small town to get some information on their 'eagle days', opportunity to view some eagles, and when we returned to the car, we found a fish that had claw marks in it, lying next to the driverside door. It is enough to make one wonder.

There is a red tailed hawk that I have been spotting around town for the past month or so.  Three times in one month when I had never really seen it around before.  I should look up the hawk totem.