Watering Hole – July 26, 2010 – Animal Totems

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Did you ever wonder why you are fascinated by or drawn to certain animals?  The answer may be that these animals are your Animal Totem.  Shamanic traditions, particularly Native American and Celtic, teach that we are guided by animal essence throughout our lives.   Here is information for the Zebra totem.  It certainly does sound like one of the guiding principles of The Zoo.  There is more information about Zebra and other Animal Totems here and here.

You can believe this or not.  Now it is your turn to Speak Up!

101 thoughts on “Watering Hole – July 26, 2010 – Animal Totems”

  2. Totems seem to change for me, depending on environmental and life style factors. I seem to gain a particular creature as a totem as I evolve through life.
    Definitely a member of the Bird Tribe.
    Sun Bears Earth Astrology is an old favorite, I’m the Flicker.

    Heading out to the woods again, see what turns up this time…
    🙂
    Heh, lass, first song on the radio this morning was “Daydream Believer” – The Monkees…

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  3. I used “I’m A Believer” in one of my song parodies about Michelle Bachmann.

    I am staying home sick from work today, and I was watching Morning Joe (told you, I’m sick), and Mika just said something surprising.

    They’re discussing the latest Wikileaks story about the 90,000 classified field reports from Afghanistan that seem to undermine what Obama says is going on in Pakistan. And she said that she never heard of Wikileaks before and had to look them up and what they did.

    Really, Mika? You don’t remember the leaked video of the US Army helicopter gunning down the Reuters reporters and then lying about it, claiming they were under attack when the video showed no such thing happening? I’m sure your network covered it, since I saw it and I get my news from your network.

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  5. Good morning everyone.

    I believe the Afghanistan war became a lost cause the moment Bush invaded Iraq. It allowed the enemy there valuable time to reposition and regroup. Now it’s too late to make any appreciable difference there I’m afraid.

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  6. zxbe,

    I have come to believe that Afghanistan was chosen for invasion precisely because of its proximity to Iraq. I believe that Iraq was the primary target of the Bush Administration all along. I believe that if you asked Bush (and he answered truthfully), he would tell you that removing Saddam was the best thing he ever did for the world.

    I also believe that the invasion of Iraq was agreed to by Bush the day he agreed to accept Dick Cheney’s recommendation of himself as Bush’s running mate.

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  7. Wayne,

    Firstly, I hope you feel better.

    Secondly, I absolutely agree with you. It seemed to me to be a foregone conclusion that we were going to invade Iraq. 9/11 simply provided the excuse. So the son could redeem the family name?

    I recently reposted something I wrote back in 2004 prior to Bush’s unfortunate reelection. It’s a rambling piece, that I actually wrote while on vacation in Toronto (I actually wrote it at an internet cafe on Yonge Street). It covers a lot of ground, but the gist of it, is we wouldn’t have invaded a country that we truly believed had WMD’s and was headed by someone we believed was truly mad. Because one of the time’s a madman would actually use WMD’s is when a foreign force is amassing troops on his border.

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  8. zxbe – yes, I agree. We don’t invade countries that have WMD’s and where the leader is a madman ready to push the button.

    Iraq was all about oil. Afghanistan is now about gas. We lost Afghanistan the moment we invade Iraq. There was no reason to reduce the troop level in Afghanistan only to increase the troop level in Iraq.

    Animal totems… last week, I was visited by a snake in my driveway. I thought it was dead and I wanted to move it off the driveway so I took a soft stick and tried to move it and it acted dead. So I went to find a hard stick and when I came back, the snake was gone and then I saw it in the grass so I shooshed it into a brush pile. My guess is the snake had a message for me.

    Monkeys? What happened to the dolphins and the crows?

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  9. I believe Bush could have prevented the 9-11 attacks, but needed a “new Pearl Harbor”, for the excuse to invade Iraq. Bush also wanted to be considered “commander In Chief”, and needed to be a war president in order to increase the power of the presidency. While I don’t believe the Bush Administration planned and executed 9-11, they must have had an idea as to when the attacks would occur, because that explains why Bush hid out in Crawford so much despite being in the first year of his presidency. He wanted to make sure he was out of Washington when the attacks happened.

    On the morning of the attacks, Bush froze for the famous seven minutes, not because he didn’t know what to do, but because he wasn’t sure what to do ‘to make it look good’.

    As far as the Afghan war at the beginning, I believe Bush could have killed or captured Bin Laden, but deliberately allowed his escape, because of Bush’s relationship with the Bin Laden family. This also allowed Bin Laden to continue to be a threat, and allowed Bush to build him up to be a larger-than-life ‘super villain’.

    As far as unusual animal appearances, I saw a strange colored squirrel on my fence yesterday. All squirrels here are regular grey, but this one had a brown body with a tail that was sun-bleached almost white, but it was definitely not an albino.

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  10. I can’t reach wikileaks, I’m sure they are overwhelmed right now. So I put up a post which gives your highlights from the three newspapers which worked this out together with wikileaks.

    zxbe, I happen to exactly share your sentiment on the failure of the Afghan mission, great minds, eh? 😉

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  11. My personal totem is the wolf. It’s an honorable critter that runs free, wastes nothing, lives a simple life, and in the process has a favorable impact on the natural world. What could be better?

    Speaking of wolves, an Arizona cowboy I once knew strongly objected to the reintroduction, in AZ and New Mexico, of the highly endangered Mexican wolf. I asked him why. He explained that ‘wolves is killers, and they eat cattle.’ I said, “I know they eat cattle. My only question is, do they eat ENOUGH of the damn things?” I finished with my standard tirade about the farce of allowing cattle grazing on public lands and got the standard blank look in return.

    If I should come back in my next life as a wolf, I promise to do my best to reduce the cattle population in whichever National Forest I might find myself a part of!

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  12. frugal, “He explained that ‘wolves is killers, and they eat cattle.”

    Sounds like humans too. Does this mean we should put a bounty on all cattle ranchers?

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  13. A wolf is a good animal totem. It is very strange the way these ranchers let cattle roam on public land and then bitch about the wolves. If the wolves are a problem, then the rancher should fence in his steers.

    EV – the blog that you link is from Pittsburgh which is the western part of Pennsylvania. I live on the eastern side of Pennsylvania, not to very far from Philadelphia.

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    • Hoodathunk, I still believe this war isn’t about winning it. It never was. I mean, what is “winning” anyway? I believe it is about the natural resources we want to secure. It is about securing that pipeline for gas and oil that runs through Afghanistan – the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, that pipeline we threatened Afghanis with bombing their country if they didn’t agree to let us build it BEFORE 9/11. I believe wars usually come down to the country’s resources.
      Then there is the poppy trade. It is seriously a big business. I read some report on it somewhere a while back (I don’t have the link now). There is a LOT of money there. It gets laundered through the big banks on Wall Street. It is what funds our black ops with the CIA so they don’t have to report to anyone what they are doing. It generates a LOT of money – something like the 4th biggest money making business on the planet (or something like that). Anyway, that is from what I remember reading. I don’t believe anyone ever intended to shut that down or mess with it at all. There are too many people who benefit.

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  16. My oldest sister is a doctor and went through a period where she tried to establish a holistic practice. (Sadly, she couldn’t make enough money so she has since gone back to consulting though she still works the holistic side for friends and family). At one point she had a booth at a big convention thing in Madison at what I dubbed WooWoo Fest.

    I went down with her to help with her booth and spent time checking out the other booths. Everything from vitamins & herbs to Tarot readings. One was run by a shaman who was a friend of my sister. She did a totem read for me. It took her about 15 seconds to come up with Badger.

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  17. My recurring flying dreams lead me to believe my Totem is a raven or hawk…

    On land my totem would be elk, deer or moose…
    perhaps because my ears remind people of antlers?

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  18. very true, nwmuse. And an even better reason to get out right away. At least for rational people. A huge reason why the neocons want to stay so badly. It’s why they keep selling the whole ‘stop terrorists & bring democracy’ lie. It sometimes fools people into buying in.

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  19. Way to end the Afghan war…

    Buy all the opium they can produce, and use it to make morphine. Establish farmer’s coops and buy directly from them. Cut out the warlord middlemen.

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  20. Firstly, a shout out to Max-1 for yesterday’s HOME video . . . I appreciate your post very much, and am going back to review certain parts over and over 🙂

    Animals have played a huge role in my life, having grown up on a farm w/stock, not far from the Appalachian Trail. I seem to relate more comfortably to animals than people, at times.

    Which brings me to the totems . . .

    I share an office with a shaman(a), and have personally found that some of the most “right on”/spiritual experiences I have had involve animals in some way. My totems have also changed over my lifespan (even day to day!), and the more I learn about these, the more comfort I find being a “spirit in the material world”.

    Two resources that I find particularly useful are Ted Andrews’ “Animal Speak” and Jamie Sams “Medicine Cards”(sorry, I don’t have the “underline” function on this computer – can you believe it?); each give a Native American storytelling perspective, as well as a behavioral understanding of the animal, that is both simple and profound – dare I say, “life-changing”.

    And today, I’m feeling less vicuna/more dolphin (with a little “monkey business” thrown in 😉

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  23. Unemployment office swamped this AM. couldn’t get in even to use the computers. Basically denied access all day ( well thus far).
    I am at library now, (1pM my time) but only have half an hour here.
    Food pantries/soup kitchens very spotty and widely distributed, information about them ridiculously hard to find.
    There are some good people who work in social services but plenty of brwon starfish too and the ‘system’ is shambolic.

    My bro has a job offer but Welfare is actively preventing him from getting it, due to the asinine system.
    I have a job interview on Friday… who knows how that will work.

    laters, all and keep up the good work!

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  27. Luck on the job interview, matey. Keep in touch. The place gets sorta quiet without you. Well, comparatively speaking. 😉

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  28. There are too many people who benefit.

    I agree muse, except that the “too many people” are probably just a handful of very wealthy, very influential people.

    lass, I live in Pawling, NY, only a mile or so from where the Appalachian Trail passes through.

    That isn’t a link to anything, I was testing a theory.

    lass, try HTML code “u” and “/u” inside brackets to make something underlined, like I did in this comment.

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  30. thanks all… I have stories to tell but need PC for a while to tell them…..so you all just have to wait a while for them.

    be good andbe most excellent to each other 😀

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  33. Wayne, do you and Jane get out on the AT much? I used to live near the trailhead at DWGNRA; I am now back on my family’s farm near Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in PA . . . The Trail is really pretty in your part of the world 🙂

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  34. Looking forward to it, 5th and hoping it comes soon. Polish up on your best Lovecraft style because I suspect ‘Tales from the Unemployed’ qualifies as horror.

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  35. lass,

    Jane and I are not what you would call “active”. But I do pass by the trail whenever I head north out of Pawling to take my brother up to get his mail. I would like to see “Bobcat Rock”, where bobcats hang out and sun themselves. I hear that’s near here. 🙂

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  36. Wayne, I wonder if Bobcat’s Rock is also known as “Cat’s Rock”, which isn’t far from Nuclear Lake . . . If you have the chance, get to “Cat’s” – the hike is most moderate and the viewshed “purrty” 🙂

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  37. Maybe that’s the same one, lass. I know Nuclear Lake is near here. I’m a little fuzzy on the history of Nuclear Lake, but I believe there was once some nuclear facility there that had something go wrong, so they encased it in concrete and formed a lake around it. Something like that. I need to do some research. 🙂

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  42. This was filmed in the local laundry mat where I do my laundry (and will be doing tomorrow morning.) I present here just so people can see a small part of my life in Pawling, not because the video itself is good (or funny); I don’t even know the people in the video.

    But you can see where I wash our clothes. 🙂

    (It was “related” to the Nuclear Lake video because they are both in Pawling.)

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  45. Thanks for sharing a slice of your world, Wayne – Excellent 8)

    I will try to watch all of the videos and follow links in a more timely fashion . . . still using the antique machine, for now – the buffer takes what feels like “forever” to load anything longer than the standard email it seems . . .

    I’m off to harvest some tomatoes – Peace to you all!

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  46. New York has some really cute towns.

    Yes, we do, Cats. And some historic ones, too. Pawling has some history to it. It was one (off many) place where Gen Washington had his headquarters. I believe they used the John Kane house for part of that purpose.

    Pawling, NY, has as its official motto “Positively Pawling”, because this was the home town of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, famous for his book “The Power of Positive thinking.”

    Pawling was also the home of Edward R. Murrow, for whom our local Murrow Park is named.

    And former NY Governor Thomas Dewey made his home in Pawling, NY. I’m sure you all remember the headlines that he made when he ran for president against some guy named Harry Truman. Yes, that Dewey.

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    • I was just looking at the Gingrich post on TP. Is it really possible that Newtie could so terribly mis-read Camus and Orwell? That is just astonishing.

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      • Good god, the nematodes are just pulling shit from every orifice and sticking it on TP. What a disaster.

        I think they may actually be in worse shape now than they were in 2007, which is quite a feat.

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  52. Regrettably, I have been sniping at TP on the Rand thread. I’m doing it because I’m an antisocial curmudgeon who is tired of their baiting games and I just have to fight back.

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  53. I’m an antisocial curmudgeon who is tired of their baiting games and I just have to fight back.

    “The sated appetite spurns honey, but to a ravenous appetite even the bitter is sweet.” Proverbs 27: 17-27

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  55. Hooda, It was in reference to your appetite for parasitic nematodes (nematoads).

    The bitter taste of the chase – brings you sweet satisfaction.

    Go get ’em Badger Boy!

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  57. Hooda’s version is much more appropriate for the parasitic nematodes at TP.

    I’m surprised that the fake ‘dr’ didn’t pick up on it – after all he’s so learned. One would think he’d glom onto it – after all parasitic nematodes are destructive and cause pain – and the fake ‘dr’ thinks ‘he is all that’.

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  58. ebb, the good doctor manifestation of the TP troll generally avoids me. And all the other rational posters.

    In fact, its kind of funny, most of the trolls do that. They post an occasional response and then run for cover. Just more evidence they are TP employees.

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  59. I do not like associating trolls with amphibians. Amphibians are good people, even the newts. I love me some frogs and toads and salamanders. So you take that back, hooda.

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  60. I’m still laughing at his attempt to bust my triage post. He so wanted to be correct in assuming Tony would not be seen for hours and hours.

    GSW would immediately be taken in – of course, but critical patients are not left to wait.

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  61. Sorry, gummitch. I didn’t realize I was slandering amphibians. Only meant to smack nematoads which are a new and distinct branch of phylology.

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  63. And Hayward’s predecessor had ‘to get out of the country quickly’, so to speak.

    I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but it might actually be a personally dangerous assignment for him. Which would tend to support a belief in Karma. 🙂

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  64. How is your side business of selling clothes working out for you, TP? It’s the only thing that explains why you keep letting them post here, when I have told you how it can easily be stopped.

    I posted that on a couple of threads at TP. Let them ban me if they want.

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  66. WAS,
    I was thinking that TP should present those yokels selling tee shirts with an advert bill. The groups in the side bar are paying good money, why should this organization get a free ride?

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  67. Why is the Rachel Maddow show (with Chris Hayes subbing), airing a segment called ‘Long Division’, with a square root sign on it?

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  68. Geez HoR,
    I have no ides, I stopped watching when I realized that the sub had all of the viscosity of a marshmallow dropped into a roaring campfire.

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  69. Hi all. Been a busy couple of days, so I haven’t had a chance to check in. I actually got busy at work today, so I didn’t have a chance to read any of the threads here or at TP. Hope everyone is well!

    Off to get caught up now. 😉

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  71. Nwmuse, it’s not the topic, or continuation of the topic, I was mentioning, but the title ‘Long Division’ along with a square root sign on the graphic behind Hayes.

    Oh my, Jon Stewart grew a beard!

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  73. “over-repented”

    “He also insists he’s not gay — and that his affair
    was just a massage gone wrong.”

    Ted – reality calling: be proud of being gay.

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