What Animal is my Main Spirit Totem Guide?

SolarSiren

Well-known member
I was researching Feng Shui, then I got jumped to reading up on animal guides.

OT- I noticed a day after I put pictures of a female actress I like up,
which is big Feng Shui No-No(have to have images of pairs), my guy started acting more distant...hmm...

Today I redid my bedroom w/ paintings of the Phoenix/Dragon, chickadees, twin siamese cats, wolves, peacocks, horses, dolphins, and deer.
Printed in B/W then colored in by me...Lots of fun!, coloring books for adults. :D

The ASC & MC match my natal angles!
Spiritual matters I'd give the 9th House.

Virgo on the 9th - Natural ruler of small domestic animals.
So we have cats, dogs, birds, rat (I <3 them), etc.

Mercury is protected & strengthed by the Sun via Cazimi. :)

Mercury & Sun's antiscion is conjunct Saturn...Hmmm.....Perhaps indicating the Karmic ties, and how their influence I recently sensed shadowly.
Sat rules 2H here... Moon just sep. from Sat too.

That tells me one of the prints is in fact the main totem...Merc in 5th of artistic expression.
Taurus animals would be of course the bull, buffalo....Anything else you can
see?


main_animal_totem_.gif
 

Arian Maverick

Well-known member
I have asked a similar horary question before, but I have yet to determine which house would best describe an animal totem. Although they are not in human forum like most angels, animal totems are indeed guides and function more as such than mundane animals, which would be signified by the sixth house or the twelfth house depending upon their size.

I believe I am leaning towards using the ruler of the ninth house based upon this section of its SkyScript description:

Dreams, visions, inspired thoughts, divination, astrology, mysticism, philosophy, beliefs; the desire to unite with something greater than oneself. Religion and clergy of any kind. Affairs of the church.

Most likely, you have a natural affinity for any animal whose likeness is displayed in your bedroom, so observing your emotional reaction to each painting is a good place to start. Also, be aware of whatever animal encounters you may experience during the day; this includes physical encounters as well as overheard conversations, pictures of animals you may "accidentally" stumble upon online, animal calls that may catch your attention, etc.

For example, while I was on vacation in Hawaii last week, I had a close run in with a sea turtle that resurfaced for air mere feet from where I was snorkeling; my father later joked that I was fortunate that it did not bite off my nose! Since that memorable experience, I began seeing turtles outside of souvenir shops; thousands of miles away from the islands, right on the counter of a candy store in the Los Angelos airport where our first plane had landed, I saw half a dozen varieties of turtle-shaped cookies, and while my father was watching TV that night, I walked in to see a majestic sea turtle on the screen in a special about Hawaii. Now, I cannot be sure if this animal is one of my totem guides, but I am convinced that it was trying to give me a message.

I apologize that I could not help you more with this chart, but I have found the experience of observing my surroundings to be a lot easier than attempting to interpret a horary chart. Yet it is quite possible that I'm simply not adept at horary! :D

Arian Maverick
 

SolarSiren

Well-known member
Hey AM, Thanks for sharing!

You're lucky enough to be intuitive and receptive to unseen energies...Do you think the sea turtle is a long term guide? Different ones will show up temporarily, others stay forever.

Does any of this relate to your life right now? .... :)

"According to some cultures, the top shell of a turtle is said to represent Heaven while the bottom of the shell or underbelly is thought to represent Mother Earth. The Turtle unites Heaven and Earth.

http://www.manizone.co.uk/turtle-tortoise-animal-totems-a-31.html

"They also both represent independence, travel, and the ability to not be tied down or chained to one place as they both carry their home with them wherever they desire to be.

Turtle teaches us to be careful in new situations and to be patient in reaching our goals. Turtle also teaches us to take things slow, for it gives us time to figure out if we need to protect our self or forge ahead. Turtle shows up in our lives when we need to go into shell and wait until our thoughts & ideas are ready to be expressed. "

I realized the first pic I printed, were the Siamese Cats.
Where I hanged them allowed today's morning sunlight to shine on them.
How bizarre! Mercury association with siamese twins, and proximity to the Sun. Oh, and my old tattoo was a black & white cat with blue eyes! LOL
Not to mention, I own a sweet talkative one. ;)

"If you're a cat person, then you have magic and mystery in your life, you're independent and probably a "free thinker" even if you don't admit it, and you like the night; probably feel energized at night. You will stay with a person or situation until it bores you, and then you're gone. You have a great talent for organizing things, but probably hate the nitty-gritty paper pushing to keep it going. Non-cat people can do that. "

haha...Yep that sounds right! :p
 

archergirl

Well-known member
Hiya,

This is an interesting question, but not one I'm sure a chart can answer. Asking a chart is asking something outside of yourself, to tell you an answer that can *only* come from within. Rather like asking a chart what to have for dinner; what are you hungry for? Ask your stomach! :p

Animal totems are best (and most) easily found through a meditation. One of the most popular ones is, after sitting quietly and calming the mind, to imagine entering a cave and asking Spirit to reveal your guide to you, and then have the guide take you through the cave into the deepest parts of your psyche.

I and a number of my friends have done this at various times, and have all gotten different animals. Mine is invariably a mountain lion. However, some people do not get animals as guides, but colourful geometric shapes! The key is to put away your expectations of what your guide is 'supposed' to look like (animal? bird? shining light? coffee cup?) and let *it* show itself to *you*.

It is good to seek the guidance of your spirit helper, most definitely, but I feel that you are trying to *think* and *action* your way, methodically and by guesswork, through something that is *entirely* intuitive and therefore receptive/passive.

Best wishes,
AG:)
 

Draco

Well-known member
What an interesting question.

Might I offer my opinion as to what I think this chart is telling you?

There is no animal guide, described in this horary.

Spiritual guidance is found in the ninth, as we see the sign of Virgo, one of only three human signs on the ninth cusp, so you are being told not to be looking down the avenue of 'totems'.

Virgo on the 9th - Natural ruler of small domestic animals.
So we have cats, dogs, birds, rat (I <3 them), etc.

Perhaps you were so determined to find a quaint description of an animal, that the human sign on the ninth cusp escaped your attention? ;)

This immediately suggests to me that you ought to be looking toward human figures, and not to animals, for spiritual succour, and especially to human females, the sign being Virgo.

I have no idea as to your religious background or beliefs, but figures such as the Virgin Mary or Green Tara come to mind, thinking along the lines of holy-women.

So just looking at the cusp of the ninth tells us that you ought to be looking toward the human, feminine form for spiritual guidance, but what else can we find out about the 'spirit guide'?

Firstly, I see that this is certainly a feminine guide in the spirit and not in the flesh, because we see that Mercury is cazimi, and the Sun is the ruler of the eighth house.

The conjunction of Mercury with the ruler of the eighth, speaks of one who has embraced death, so this is one who at one time walked the earth but who is now departed, however, given that cazimi, 'to sit with the king', is the most wonderful dignity that can happen to a planet, the act of death conferred divine status upon this individual, one who is infused with the qualities of deity, but who at one time walked the earth as a human woman. Think along these lines.

The Sun is a general significator of God, and with Mercury cazimi, this is one who resides in the highest heaven.
 

SolarSiren

Well-known member
Wow! Verrry interesting Draco!

I'm pretty open minded with religion, I'll have to go research female religious icons, good time with Merc Rx in Cancer. :)

Archer - Thank you for clearing that up! The cave trip is a cool idea too, I'll have to try it as well. :)
 

Zorita

New member
I would suggest any book by Michael Harner. I went on a "quest" to the "underworld" and retrieved my totem animal. In my case there happens to be two. Its not as difficult as it seems, it simply is a guided meditation.
 

SunMoonStar

Active member
Astrology and shamanism are so different I don't see why you'd try to figure out one from the other! They provide different gateways to the cosmos or to going within, so I think you should use both, rather than trying to figure out how they work in synchronicity.

Anyway, there are sooo many possibilities of power animals its probably an impossibility to determine your power animals from astrology. For instance, its not only the species that counts. I have Bald Eagle as my main totem, and I know its specifically bald eagle because it visited me in a dream. ( Which is a cool totem because I'm Scorpio and Eagle is considered the "higher" animal symbol of that sign =) )

For me, I've always been lucky that I am visited by my power animals in dreams. Other than that, the best method I know is probably meditation. Sometimes if you really like an animal it will turn out to be your power animal (but not always! You can't choose your power animals; they choose you). I would try a meditation like the one someone described above; just ground yourself, relax, and release your expectations, and ask your power animal to herself.
 

Zorita

New member
I suggested Shamanism because a totem animal is directly from the Shamanic experience rather than the astrological experience.
 

RockFish

Well-known member
Very nice question indeed.

Once I talked to a woman online who is very connected to native american myths, and we were just chatting, but then I mentioned that I dream a lot about fish. She immediately said that it may very well be my animal totem. Before that, I never even heard of such a thing.

I've dreamt with other animals, actually I dream about animals all the time, and I can even give you a list: elephants, parrots, tucans, baboons, lions (three or four dreams with lions), bears, dogs, cats, insects (yucky dreams), dragons, fish (small fish, big fish, sharks, barracudas). All of them were pretty interesting but fish stands out because of the number of times I dreamt with them, dozens of dreams. Dead fish, living fish, mechanical fish, fish in bowls, in the ocean, sharks, people with body parts of fish!, etc. That's where my handle came from, btw.

I am a capricorn Sun with rising sign, Mars and Mercury in Capricorn as well, have tons of earth and fire in my chart and only Uranus in a water sign, scorpio, so water and fish are not a thing I'd associate with my chart. Maybe the capricornus fish tail?:D

So, maybe paying attention to your dreams might provide some clue.
 

SunMoonStar

Active member
Very cool RockFish... is that where your handle comes from? ;) Glad to hear about someone else who is connected to animals through the dreamworld. One thing though.. I have two types of animal dreams. I have normal dreams about animals, which can be extremely bizarre (one time I dreamt that I planted a seed and 5 baby turtles grew out of it), and then I have very ethereal dreams which really don't have a psychological component. They're always brief, very surreal, and the animal teaches me some lesson. The animals from the second kind of dream are the ones I feel have chosen to be my power animals (otherwise I'd have fifty power animals! :eek:)
 

RockFish

Well-known member
I guess you are right, SunMoonStar, cos in my dreams in general the animals are just walking around and minding their own business (like one I had with tucans diving in a lake, very happy, LOL) or appearing in VERY weird situations. You mentioned turtle and I remembered a dream in which a total stranger man appeared hugging a turtle which was covered in foam! Talk about bizarre sexual symbols....... In other dreams, like the ones with the lions, it is usual that I am in a house and can't get out, and there are lions around the house and I have to dodge or hide from them. Talk about obvious psychological symbolism.....

But in some of the dreams the animals actually try to make contact with me. It happened once with a fish in a bowl, which was pressing his face against the glass as if asking me to release him, or other one in which a very white eagle stretched the foot to me, looking straight at me, in the middle of nowhere. They never said anything (how weird would be that), but I felt they needed to communicate.

Once I dreamt I was looking in the mirror, smiled and turned into a creature similar to a fish, VERY WEIRD. I guess this is a strong indication of fish being my "power animal", altho I don't know if I've made use of this "power" yet, don't know how to use it. Some say fish means spirituality, the need to develop intuition, "connect with the flow of the universe", etc. It might be the case then.
 
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