For many years I have used a family tree of eight animal totems as an advisory council for living. Their powers and multiple meanings have grown into a prolific study to understand a varied and contradictory array of personality and choice. The first four represent Immediate Family and the second four a spiritually Higher Order. They have become a way of finding my way through eight divergent paths, easier to integrate when understood separately in all aspects, both negative and positive.
Mouse - my mouse is a worried female child warrior, craving sugar, addicted to movies, a deep sleeper, represents water and the emotional world, tuned for happiness and long life - a bit of a capitalist devil, funny and adorable -
but also can be a bit lazy, messy, and naïve.
Frog - my frog is bi-sexual, also a child, out for fun, once smoked pot, plays games, the social animal, represents earth and the physical world, immersed in fecundity, creation, resurrection, and transformation - quite witty and enjoyable -
but also can be indulgent and addictive.
Lioness - mother
shops and cooks great balanced food,
disciplines others to take care of health issues, in charge of exercise, cleans up and keeps house in order, represents earth and the physical world
filled with philosophical fire, nurturer, healer -
but also can be self-satisfied and vain.
Crocodile - father drinks coffee and alcohol,
represents air and the intellectual world, a writer who uses a computer, takes care of business, handles money, funding, contracts, bookings, publicity, banking, pays bills, full of fury as well as power - monitors and puts into affect the larger plan - but also can be vicious, selfish and demanding.
Owl - philosopher
represents air and the intellectual world,
counselor who listens and advises,
purveyor of intelligence and organization,
responsible for communication,
wisdom, community,
meditation, contacts -
deep spirit of commitment, androgynous -
but also can be prone to preaching.
Bat - elder
represents water and the emotional world, sexuality, craves chocolate,
a demanding one, gets the world to do what is needed, reads and processes information, represents happiness, long life, expressive, mysterious -
but also can be negative and confused.
Horse - humanist
represents fire and the spiritual world,
bearer of burdens, mobile,
tea drinker, does yoga,
personable, friendly, generous, practical,
compassionate, calls others and expects nothing,
exhibits intense desires and instincts -
natural, unconscious, clairvoyant, cosmic -
but also can have a tendency towards the judgmental.
Dragon - artist
represents fire and the spiritual world, powerful primordial creature for whom combat is the supreme test, strong and vigilant with exceptionally keen eyesight (the dragon biting its tail is a symbol of all cyclic processes and of time in particular) related to chaos and dissolution, a will which desires and yet has nothing capable of satisfying it except its own self, a mask through which the others see, hear and talk -
magical and universal - but also can be prideful and isolationist.
