Totems — An Embodied Akashic Connection

Like many words, “totem” has developed layers of meaning over time which proves it’s still relevant and part of a living spirituality, but which makes using it problematic. We’ve all experienced this at one time or another, having a conversation about something and realizing somewhere in the middle that you’re meaning one thing and the other person means something else entirely so you’ve been misunderstanding each other completely.

Totems to some people are simply a cool thing to have. They have about the same relevance as knowing a birth sign in Astrology. You can go your whole life and do nothing more with a totem than mention it in casual conversation or use it as part of flirting. Or a totem can be a handy excuse why you do something or don’t, do something a certain way or don’t, or get along with this type of person or don’t.

Other people see totems as a part of their spirituality. They incorporate their totem(s) into their spiritual knowledge of self to varying degrees of interest and comfort. Working with a totem this way is the spiritual version of “you get out of it what you put in.” People can start with learning they have a specific totem, then choose if they want to learn about this totem, how much, and beyond that look at how much of the accumulated wisdom they want to incorporate into their lives. Along the way they will come to realize…