What is an Animal Totem?

Nowadays when I see a wild animal, I do not simply see an animal; I try to understand the spiritual significance of that animal.  To me, this is what Animal Totem means.  According to my favorite website on animal totems,

"The animals express the spirit nature of that species and exemplify qualities we can learn from. They are psychological and spiritual symbols that convey to us qualities we are needing or lacking in our daily lives. They are a mirror of us reflecting our own innate qualities to help ourselves better understand our connection to all things."

If you pay attention to nature or simply look around, there are animals everywhere.  When you see the same animal over and over again, you need to pay attention this.  There is a message for you.  If you have an unusual sighting of an animal, pay attention to that too.  I look up that animal or insect at this site http://www.starstuffs.com/animal_totems/index.html. 

Last week I found a large centipede hiding under a paper cup in my basement bathroom.  To be honest, I am not over fond of bugs especially if they end up inside my home.  So I ran the water over it but it was too big to go down the drain.  So I continued to run the water and captured it in a cup and tossed it outside.  Hey, at least I didn’t kill it!  I quickly looked up what a centipede meant here it said,

“Movement into new psychic connections and relationships. Protection against psychic deceptions. Balance, coordination, ability to survive stress, the beauty of coordinated movement.”

So what do I do with this piece of information?  I try to understand how this animal sighting is significant in my life now.  Sometimes it doesn't make sense right away, so I file it away and take a look at it later.  That’s the way Spirit works, you have to pay attention, make note of it and eventually it will make sense.  Like putting puzzles pieces together. 

Today I had the privilege of meeting my animal totem, a black bear.  I was doing a guided meditation as part of an online course called Find Your Calling in the Akashics (you can find this course on the www.dailyom.com).  My animal totem was supposed to appear out of the forest and there it was, a black bear.  I asked the bear its name and it said Mario.  He told me that he is my animal totem because he is a combination of ferociousness and nurturing.  Do I know exactly what this means?  Not really.  Could it be referring to me?  Possibly.  According to my animal totem website, a bear represents:

“Sub/Unconscious mind, strength, grounding, inner energy of soul to find answers, judgments, are you too critical or not critical enough, inner power to taste the honey of life. Bear teaches caution, quiet of the mind and silence within. There is great power in introspection which awakens insights and opportunities. Bears teach leadership, natural healing abilities and defending when necessary. Are you eating a balanced diet? Utilizing your intuition? Being cautious? Brown, black or white, what does the color say to you? Bear will show how to balance and express oneself.”

Isn't it amazing how one animal can represent so many things and deliver such a detailed message?  So pay attention to the animals that appear in your life, look up their significance and learn from the messages they are giving you!

My Guardian Angel

Six months ago I decided to purchase some guided meditations on Amazon.  For years I wanted to meditate but I was always intimidated by the idea.  How could I quiet my mind when my mind was always constantly racing?  Plus I would probably sit there chastising myself for not being able to clear my mind!  So I decided to start with guided meditations.  One of the meditations I downloaded was one to meet your guardian angel.

I have always fantasized about my guardian angel.  Who could it be?  A relative who passed?  Or my dad?  I imagined my guardian angel with me in times of distress but I never consistently thought of him/her.   I imagined that they would show up in life or death situations but I couldn't imagine them being around the mundane happenings in my life.  I always liked the idea of angels but I was never sure they existed.  I really wanted them to be real! Well, little did I know, I was about to find out!

When I began my guardian angel meditation, I laid down in what yogis like to call the corpse pose.

I was never fond of sitting with  my legs crossed.  My feet always fell asleep or my back would start to hurt.  So I started the meditation in the corpse pose and tried to focus on the narrator's words.  She guided me through a garden and eventually to a person.  I could imagine all this well up until this point. As I focused with my mind's eye a.k.a.  my third chakra (centered in the middle of your forehead), a form started to appear before me.  I had no expectations on who it could be.  I even imagined it would be someone I didn't even know.  I couldn't really see the person at first, like he/she was in fog.  This is often called "the veil".  When a medium tries to connect with a spiritual being it's like trying to see through a veil.

When I asked the being who it was, he answered Archangel Gabriel.  Ummm what?!  I laid there in shock.  But the meditation continued so I just followed it.  Then he started to appear more clearly to me. He had long dark brown hair and a blue gown with a roped belt and humongous wings.  I mean huge, a lot of artwork out there does not do it justice!  Later I searched the internet for a picture that resembled him.  This was the closest I could find...

But again his wings were much bigger.  They were probably twice as high as the picture above.  He also had a twinkle in his eye and of course, was very handsome.

I was immediately comfortable with him.  I hugged him and I could see his enormous wings around me. I asked him if he had a message for me.  He said, "Keep doing what you're doing.  You're doing a good job and so many people (in the spirit world) are watching you and they are proud of you."  We didn't talk much after that.  We just enjoyed being together.  We danced and he twirled me around.  He flew into the air and flapped his ginormous wings.  He was simply awesome.

I was actually crying during the meditation and I felt my heart chaka opening.  He felt like a fatherly figure and I felt safe with him.  After the meditation I still couldn't believe it.  I didn't even know that someone's guardian angel could be an Archangel.  For those of you who don't know, Gabriel is in the Bible.  He is the angel who told Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus!  According to Doreen Virtue's book Angels and Ascended Masters, Gabriel is the angel of parents, art and communication. Since I am a parent, an art teacher and a blogger, well that's just about perfect!

Since then I have connected with Gabriel many times.  It's quite easy for me to communicate with him, I simply have to take a few deep breaths and then feel out with my mind if he's there.  He always is.

Why We Should Play With Magic

Have you ever heard of the song by Katy Perry called the Dark Horse?  The lyrics go like this:

I knew you were
You were gonna come to me
And here you are
But you better choose carefully
‘Cause I, I’m capable of anything
Of anything and everything

Make me your Aphrodite
Make me your one and only
But don’t make me your enemy, your enemy, your enemy

So you wanna play with magic
Boy, you should know what you're falling for
Baby do you dare to do this?
Cause I’m coming at you like a dark horse
Are you ready for, ready for
A perfect storm, perfect storm
Cause once you’re mine, once you’re mine
There’s no going back

Mark my words
This love will make you levitate
Like a bird
Like a bird without a cage
But down to earth
If you choose to walk away, don’t walk away

It’s in the palm of your hand now baby
It’s a yes or no, no maybe
So just be sure before you give it all to me
All to me, give it all to me

So you wanna play with magic
Boy, you should know what you're falling for
Baby do you dare to do this?
Cause I’m coming at you like a dark horse
Are you ready for, ready for
A perfect storm, perfect storm
Cause once you’re mine, once you’re mine (love trippin')
There’s no going back

This song plays with a lot of stereotypes about magic: that it's forbidden, that it means putting a sexual spell on men and that it's all powerful.  There is a reason why magic has a bad name and it has to do with female power.

In BC,  people worshiped both both gods and goddesses.  Then 2,000 years ago goddess worship dropped out of sight as Christianity began to grow.  Coincidence?  I think not.  

Part of my spiritual journey is to understand feminine power and one way to do this is to learn about ancient goddesses.  A second way is to embrace my menstrual cycle.  I recently read a book called Moon Time: a Guide to Celebrating Your Menstrual Cycle by Lucy H. Pearce.  I've decided instead of ignoring my cycle and pretending it doesn't exist (i.e. the woman's curse), I would instead try to understand it. Everything contains cycles, the four seasons is a well-known example.  The definition of cycle is a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order.  And inherent in that definition is that each week varies.  So during any woman's menstrual cycle, each week varies.

Do you remember the commercials that advertised you can do anything during your period, even wear a white bikini?

Like who decided this was a good idea?  In fact, Pearce says that during the "bleeding time" we should be taking it easy.  This is not the week to be doing high energy work or making big decisions.  The week of our periods is the time to regroup. And what does society tell us?  You can do anything during your period.  Don't let it stop you.  But this is not necessarily what is best for women.  And there certainly is no understanding of how cycles work and affect women.  

Did you know that a woman's cycle used to be tied to the moon?  Pearce says that "the most common menstrual pattern is to bleed on the dark moon and to ovulate on the full moon...the 28 day menstrual cycle correlates with the moon's cycle."  How many women out there have a cycle like this?  With the advent of birth control and artificial light (which changes our natural hormonal response to the moonlight) our cycles are all out of wack!

Why is this important and what does this have to do with magic?  The source of feminine power is within the womb.  This is the ultimate source of our creativity, where we grow our babies.  Does this sound like magic to you?  Well it is!  

Other ways that feminine power manifests is in our ability to nurture and use our right-brown power i.e. yes, psychic abilities such as intuition, feeling, thoughts that convey messages for ourselves and others.    

So Katy Perry sings "So you wanna play with magic?  Boy you should know who you're falling for". Go ahead play with magic.  It's not a bad thing and for women, it only comes natural.  No one is going to burn us at the stake for this.  It's safe now.  Embrace your magical female power.