Totems ~

There is much on the internet these days about totems, how to acquire them, how to attune to them and how to revere them. There is so much out on the web, that it is all pretty confusing, and most of it is with an assumption that animals are worshipped as gods. Since this is not the way they were taught to me, I would like to share that understanding with you.

A totem, according to one of my most respected elders of the Anishnabee nation, is a teacher. Some are with you for life, some are with you only for a short time, for protection, for instruction, for the furtherance of your spiritual growth. Some totems will work with you because you have taken on a project that honors them, and then stay with you as a guide as long as you need them.

Totems are not gods, in the sense that a "god" is supposed to be "above" you and not your equal in Creator's eyes. There are many creation myths in the Native Traditions, so to say that there is One God may be stretching it, though all reckon with a Spirit called the Holy Spirit as translated from each language, in Lakota, it is Wakan Tanka, in Shawnee it is Gitche Manidou. There are as many traditions as there are tribes on Turtle Island. Many are similar enough that you can tell they have the same origin, and, indeed, I have yet to meet anyone from any tribe that did not honor the "Medicine Wheel", though each tribe honors it differently.

One of the things that drew me to the indiginous people's perspective, aside from my father's native blood, was that this is one group of people that allow you to truly be yourself. In fact, among the Natives as far as I can tell, you are doing the tribe a disservice if you are not being yourself. This is so different from the European side of my family that I needed to see what it was all about.

So many of European blood are attuned to the way we were reared, and therefore often want the biggest and the baddest of anything we claim. We are uaully no different with totems. You will meet many of Euorpean descent that will tell you they have Wolf or Eagle or horse or some great and powerful totem, and they are sincere, and expect you to be impressed by this. That's OK, be impressed, if they are humble in their ways and don't brag abou their totems.

The native will respect how you use your totem. I carry wren, a little bird, but cheeky, whose medicine is building upon the knowledge of others. If I use this totem's teaching to bring honor to the tribe, I have used it well, and am honored to carry such a totem. If I do not use my "medicine" to honor the tribe or family that I belong to, then I bring shame, and have not honored who I truly am.