Totems – a chosen spirit animal

Part 1. The Bestowed Spirit Animal

Someone said to me once that we choose our spirit animal and she chose the spirit of the kookaburra. Sometimes though our spirit animal choses us. It follows us, connects to us, or is even inherited.

My mother said that the Bird of Paradise is what we take care of because it is the totem we have been given by our village. Yet I think of the vain male Bird of Paradise and nothing speaks to my spirit. When I think of the plainer females who are watching the display of these male birds I reflect on cultures where the women serve in the background and their men do not appear to give them freedom. I don’t want this bird to be my spirit animal.

But then I think of the glorious feathers, the way another species of it is on the flag a yellow emblem placed on black and red, and how they are hunted down for their beauty and need to be protected I am sure there is a connection I have a responsibility to remember. More I think of women who say that even though on the surface it looks like the men have all the power it is not actually the case. They are changing the future. They are running their villages more and more.

I am sure that we can choose the animals we love regardless of what we have been given to take care of, but we need to remember those that choose us. Perhaps this is how some great conservationists feel drawn to lions or to gorillas. For my part I have never seen the Bird of Paradise that is my inherited totem. Yet I acknowledge it as a part of my identity- something that chooses me.

Part 2. The Embraced Spirit Animal- coming later.

(Totems are often given in traditional cultures. The animals are the responsibility of that village or tribe and are incorporated into art. A totem as well as being something you are a custodian of is something to tell stories about, and in some cultures you may not be allowed to eat it. Many creative writers chose to give a character the qualities of an animal – to make them mouselike, cat like, etc for the purpose of creativity.

Today the modern conservation movement asks people to adopt koalas, whales, dolphins, tigers and in fact any endangered species and to care for them. Is this a revival of the tradition of totems being applied to modern needs.

I think about the idea of the totem and what it means to people and am reminded that some once thought of people who had this belief as pagan and unspiritual and as little more than animals. Rather I think it is more that many Indigenous people had not forgotten their connection to caring for the earth, its animals and environment. to be continued…. a Bahai perspective on all of this- I think I will need to do some research and continue that discussion in another post.)