Post by Alena on Dec 27, 2006 1:21:42 GMT -5
Totems, what are they? Totems is how nature communicates with you. The Force will sometimes send an animal to you in order to get your attention. One can not feel the Force every minute as much as we wish we could. So the Force can have a specific animal, which has certain meanings attached to that animal, come to you. For example crow caws in that AwAw,Awaw fashion it usually is a warning of some kind. A prerie dog grabs your attention. you may need to learn to be more coopertive with others. these are short examples to give you an idea of what a totem is.
To the practicioning shaman,there is no boundries between man and animals. We all commune together. Animals honored in the Shaman world. If one is a proper Shaman, you do not hurt the animals. This does not mean you have to be a vegitarian because part of shamanism is the exceptance of the dark side or the law of predation. Preditor animals eat prey animals as part of the natural cycle. So yes, you can eat meat like all the other preditor animals.But a true shaman does not hurt an animal for ritual purposes. I have been very sucessfull by just asking the animals for help. Animals, unlike people are quick and friendly to help you.
Totems are part of the American Indian religion. It is how they honor The Great Spirit ( the Force ). There are short term totems that appear to guide you at certain times and junctures in your life and there are life time totems that guide you all your life. Your life totems are part of your assential nature and the nature of the emination of the Force, you commune with.
Some people have exciteing totems like the tiger or hawk. Others have rabbit or hummingbird. The wisest advice is to find your correct life totem because it is better for the rabbit person to learn the lessons from the rabbit than to pick a more strong exciteing totem that does not fit. You can be a successfull rabbit. This on the surface may sound like a downer but all the ancients would say the same thing.
You can have serveral life totems. Usually you get a balance since in shamanism like the Sith you use both light and dark side of the Force in balance. I have both tough strong totems as well as delicate weak totems, again for balance.
I found the book " Animal Speak" by Ted Andrews to be the best book to start with. This is by coincodence is also an example of how you can learn from someone that you do not get along with. I met Ted Andrews and it was nitro meets gliseren. But I still read and use his book because it is the best on totems that I have seen to this date. So if debate with you it does not mean that I havent learned from you.
Lastly if any of you out there have knowlege on totems your input is welcome. If you wish to learn than welcome aboard. Comments are welcome.
To the practicioning shaman,there is no boundries between man and animals. We all commune together. Animals honored in the Shaman world. If one is a proper Shaman, you do not hurt the animals. This does not mean you have to be a vegitarian because part of shamanism is the exceptance of the dark side or the law of predation. Preditor animals eat prey animals as part of the natural cycle. So yes, you can eat meat like all the other preditor animals.But a true shaman does not hurt an animal for ritual purposes. I have been very sucessfull by just asking the animals for help. Animals, unlike people are quick and friendly to help you.
Totems are part of the American Indian religion. It is how they honor The Great Spirit ( the Force ). There are short term totems that appear to guide you at certain times and junctures in your life and there are life time totems that guide you all your life. Your life totems are part of your assential nature and the nature of the emination of the Force, you commune with.
Some people have exciteing totems like the tiger or hawk. Others have rabbit or hummingbird. The wisest advice is to find your correct life totem because it is better for the rabbit person to learn the lessons from the rabbit than to pick a more strong exciteing totem that does not fit. You can be a successfull rabbit. This on the surface may sound like a downer but all the ancients would say the same thing.
You can have serveral life totems. Usually you get a balance since in shamanism like the Sith you use both light and dark side of the Force in balance. I have both tough strong totems as well as delicate weak totems, again for balance.
I found the book " Animal Speak" by Ted Andrews to be the best book to start with. This is by coincodence is also an example of how you can learn from someone that you do not get along with. I met Ted Andrews and it was nitro meets gliseren. But I still read and use his book because it is the best on totems that I have seen to this date. So if debate with you it does not mean that I havent learned from you.
Lastly if any of you out there have knowlege on totems your input is welcome. If you wish to learn than welcome aboard. Comments are welcome.