Animal Totems

Around the beginning of this year, I was lying in bed one night and experienced a very unsettled feeling. It was hard for me at first to put words to it. Then all of a sudden, I got an image of myself as a snake about to shed its skin.

That image was no accident. Several months later, after shedding a number of things in my life-including jobs and relationships- I learned from my Spirit Guides that the snake is my animal totem right now. For those of you who may not know, an animal totem is an essence that walks through life with us, teaching, guiding, and sometimes protecting us. We all have them. They can change throughout our lives, depending on what is going on with us.

How would someone know what their animal totem is? Well, it could come to you in a number of ways. Perhaps you have been having dreams of a particular animal recently. Or, you could be experiencing it through an image that comes to you, as I did. Or, maybe you have had one or more unusual encounters with a particular animal. For example, once I had a boyfriend who was standing at my sliding screen door in my kitchen, and a hummingbird literally came up to his nose on the other side of the screen and hovered there for a moment. That’s what I’d call an unusual encounter with an animal.

These could all be clues as to what your animal totem is at any given time. Or, if you’d like to know what yours is, you could just meditate and then ask the question ‘what is my animal totem?’ and see what comes to you.

The snake, in my case, is a powerful totem of wisdom, healing, and initiation. It can indicate that ones creative forces are awakening. It is the totem or essence of wholeness, new opportunities and changes. And I certainly have had plenty of all of the above so far this year.

Interestingly, the snake is also a symbol of female sexuality. Remember the serpent in the Garden of Eden? Have you ever seen a pair of snakes mating? Maybe you have seen it in person, or you can look up footage of it online. Their bodies intertwine in a slow dance of sensuality. Makes me think of Synergistic Energy Exchange, actually, which is two or more people (snakes?) working together cooperatively to create an exchange of energy.

It all makes sense that 2011 would be the year of my having a snake as my animal totem, the year that I launch my new website here, SynEXlove.com. I wonder what my next animal totem will be?

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