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Mammals: Animal Medicine
Armadillo
Armadillos are a particularly ancient animal that makes its home beneath the earth and regions South America and the
southern parts of North America. It is also a natural carrier of leporsy and is most closely related to the sloth and ant
eater. They are practically blind with specialized claws for digging and have plates of armour made out of bone that
serve as its defense against its natural predators. In defense the three banded armadillo curls itself up so that a bear or
cougar can paw it around but hopefully be unable to penetrate the vulnerable under belly. Is Armadillo in your dreams using
his plates as a shield of protection or as a shell to hide in? Is your armadillo digging in the dirt? Something in your underworld?
Bat
Bats are nocturnal mamals who eat tons of insects or in the case of the fruit bat, lotsa fruit. They are also a natural
carrier of rabies and like to make their homes in dark, dry places. When they hang upside down they do so by their toes and
cling better the more they relax them. The insect eating bats use sonic echoes to detect their prey and are
very fast and adjile for flying so pecariously on their membrane wings. Despite their fear and superstitious associations
bats symbolize your own ability to hear, pay attention, mental activity or warnings of danger. Clairaudience and clairvoyance.
Are there any bats in your belfry? Are you feeling flighty, fleeting? Something unseen perhaps trying to gain your attention
or caught your eye?
Guano or bat droppings are highly toxic with amonia when it is a massive collection particularly in caves but it is also
a very rich mulch that is high in nitrogen and a virtual smorgeshborg for waste removing insects. Guano can also be a dream
jumble of Gauna, (Gawa, Gawama) a Botswana mythological character representing death, who was the leader of the spirits
of the dead and would travel to the upper world to try to catch mortals and bring them back down to the underworld.
Bear
Bears make themselves dens or make use of caves and crevases and range abroad the earth. Bears are ominvorous, eating
other animals as well as using its powerful claws to dig for insects or catch fish along a river. It also eats a wide variety
of berries and some fruits and plants. They are most reputed for having a love of honey. Bears are also often opportunistic and are
very territorial, marking their areas by scratching up trees as much as the use of scenting. Bear is a fierce warrior
guardian, a keeper of the dream world and the carriers of all the medicines of the earth.
Bear was the only one who came to me when my crazy time with voices and all wouldn't even let me dream without them.
After Bear came to protect me I slowly began to dream again like I wanted to and my guides and other totems began to return.
Wake up to your dreams. The power of introspection.
Are you bearing it? Teddy Bear, Bare.
Beaver
Resides in upper North America. Beaver builds dams along streams and rivers to create wetland for its home which is
a large mounding den it makes out of small timbers it chews down with its super teeth.
Cooperation. Teamwork. Buisness, industry and engineering. Constructive. Making the home. Resourcefulness.
Are you daming things up or finding some backlog?
Bull
Taurus
Represents stubbornness, strong will, strength and tenacity. Bull also represents possibly supressed sexual energy, virility
and fertility. Tough competition, taking descisive actions.
Bull by the horns. Bull corn. Bull in a china shop. Bull's eye. Matador.
Buffalo/Bison
In the ancient times great herds roamed the earth, creating the great plains that they graze upon, traveling by seasons
to prosperity. Ancestors such as the Native Americans of the northen plains would follow them in these seasons. In the days
before the arrival of white men, buffalo herds were said to range as far as a sea. They were a vital importance to the plains
nations. No part of a buffalo was wasted, every part of a buffalo had significant meaning and purposes. Buffalo represents
the north of the Medicine Wheel, more specifically the white buffalo, White Buffalo Calf Woman. You should refer to the teachings
of Black Elk.
The buffalo teaches abundance, sharing, generosity, selflessness, wisdom and represents great hope and
reconnecting with Father Sky and Mother Earth.
Boar, Hog, Pig
In the Chinese Zodiac those born under the year of the boar are chivalrious, pure of heart, generous, trustworthy, sincere and
kind. They are also full of inner strength, courage, can take on any task and are driven by their passion for life.
The domesticated pig is a very intelligent animal with an even keener sense of smell than a dog, they are also capable
of learning more commands than the dog and more quickly. Pigs and hogs are most often associated with dirtiness, greed
and overindulgence or gluttony. In dreams they may also pertain to family affairs, buisness or official matters. Are you satisfied?
In the wild, pigs, boars and wart hogs are unrivaled defenders against predators. If such as a jaguar has not been
clever enough in the hunt they could easily end up at the buisness end of the tusks. Most make wallows of mud to keep
themselves cool and ward off insects. Are you wallowing in something? Have you found yourself in some sticky situation?
The Jewish among others believe the pig to be ritualy unclean and inedible because it is an animal with split hooves
but does not chew the cud (basicly only animals that are strict herbivores are edible). Which may have also been an awareness
of pigs being a carrier of trichinosis. Pigs are also actually rather omniverous and will eat just about anything. Some
also associate a repulsion of the animal due to a bibical account where Christ drives the daemons inflicting a man
into a herd of pigs who then throw themselves into the water to drown. The meat and skin of the pig is also very simular
to human flesh, so much so that researchers are still in prossesses of adapting the pig as a substitute for organ transplants.
Hogging it all. Ate like a pig. Bore
Canidae
Dogs, Jackals, wolves, foxes and a number of wild dogs belong to the family-Canidae, order-Canivora, class-Mammalia.
Other carnivore include the Usidae (bear), Mustelidae (stoat, weasle, otter, wolverene, badger), the Viverridae (genet, civet)
and the Felidae (cats).
The order Carnivora origionated some 12 million years ago in a mamal known as Amphictis which then descended an Ursid
known as Cynodictis (resembeling the most primitive of viverridae). It is believed bears and wolves are direct descendants
of the Cynodictis, the further off-shoot of Cynodictis being the Mustelidae who then off-shoot seals, sealions and walruses.
From wolf (virtually sister to only the bear) descends all other forms of dog. Jackals, foxes and wild dogs being the
closest related.
The Canines
Coyote
Coyote is a clever trickster and represents a dual nature. They are very versatile, opportunistic and quick to adapt.
Coyote is willing to teach with positives or negatives and teaches how to be able to laugh at ones self or understand something
from a completely unexpected perspective. They also teach such as understanding that all things are sacred, yet nothing is
sacred. They also teach balance between risk and safety.
Intelligence. Trust in truth. Shape-shifting. Illumination. Stealth
Are you being honest with yourself? Can you laugh at your mistakes? Are your dangers real or imagined?
Dingo
Some simularities to Coyote and to Dog. Duality. Deception and shadow self.
Dog
Loyalty, faith, companionship, guardian, helper, worker and secrets. For humans descending from primates, it would seem
we have adopted the dog. Instead of "Planet of the Apes" maybe they should make a series of movies like that called "Planet
of the Dogs". The dog is rather vast and versatile abroad the world. They are mostly seen as a masculine symbol and can bring
many different meanings to your dreams. They are the closest descendant of Wolf, particularly the sled dogs, so you can look
for meaning there as well. The word dog itself has a very wide range of meanings across cultures and slang.
Work/play like a dog. Men are dogs. Dogging it. Dirty dog. Dog gone it. Puppy dog eyes. Double dog dare. Dog meaning
feet. Dog Soldier. God.
Fox
The fox mates for life and is found abroad the world from tundra and forest to deserts and plains.
They are ingeniously clever with a particular alertness and hearing. Perhaps their most distinct physical characteristic being
their ears. The fox is most associated to being crafty, clever and cunning. They also teach discretion and to look before
leaping. Like the crow and raven they are able to make uncanny aliances with other animals such as wolf, whom they also fear
as one of their natural predators. They've also been known to 'help the hunt' and get a few bites out of the prize as reward.
The fox is a shapeshifter and mostly seen as the feminine principle with a relation to silver.
Foxy. Vixen. Fox hunt. Fox in the chicken coup. Can't out fox a fox. The fox smells his own fart first.
Wolf
Wolves live in packs with an alpha lead who is the only one to have a mate in the pack, to which the two mate for life.
Wolves have been known to adopt orphaned cubs and have long been the mediators between the delicate balance of earth and herds,
taking care of population control among such as the elk. Wolves used to have a very large range which has greatly decreased
over a very short span of eras. In Europe the Dire Wolf that rooted in so many superstitions, lycanthropy, folk tales and
ancient wisdom there is now completely extinct. The Red Wolf which used to have a broad range across the southern parts of
North America are in danger of becoming extinct and lost into cross-breeding with coyotes.
Wolf is largely feminine principle and associated to the moon. They have held dual roles among mankind from being associated
from cowardice to bravery and from competition to companion.
Wolf is also the most recognizable tie to the connection with the wilderness and den and the mysticism of shapeshift.
Shapeshifting itself has come to be most popularly known today as lycanthropy, a term derived from the case of were-wolves.
Despite superstitious fears of wolf attacks wolf is also the most commonly associated to the stories of children being raised
by wolves or a child being left to wolves for a short time to learn wolf's teachings. It is more likely, as wolves are mystic,
adoptive and have never attacked human's even when they have invaded their dens. Very few other animals are so closely related
to mankind in such a manner.
The family unit. The balance between patriarch and matriarch, life and death. Councilor. Ranger. Pathfinder. Team work,
intuition, understanding, profoundness, reasoning, patience, devotion.
Crying wolf. Wolfing it down. Call of the wild. Lone wolf. Are you holding on to misconceptions?
Carabou/Reindeer
Connection to home over long distances. Power of wandering. Protection while traveling. Social skills. Retention. Ability
to travel long distances at night.
Princess Carabou. Rudolph.
Cow
The cow is most sacred in India and represents the Mother Earth goddess.
The domestic cow provides man with every part of itself just as the buffalo had done among the plains Native American's.
In some cases it is also a labor animal just as the ox. The cow is maternal and nurturing, best represented in her milk which
also provides for a vast majority of mankind as much as her calf. Domestic cows are also very placid, peaceful and docile.
In dreams Cow can mean your maternal, mothering side, nourishment, prosperity or fertility. The obedience to authority
and the sense of belonging to the 'herd'. Cow can also represent how their unconditional giving to mankind needs to be respected.
That their lives have more meaning and more to give as respected and well cared for providers than if they are just treated
like a pack of so much meat. You are what you eat afterall, and you will treat yourself and others the way you treat your
animals.
When the cows come home. Cud. Bull. Calf. Udder. Rudder. Utterly. Moo.
Deer
Deer are connected to the spiritual realms particularly due to the antlers which represent attunement. Deer is also
connected to wilderness, the subtle and the femunine aspect and the love of Creator. They represent swiftness,
alertness, gentleness, grace, caring, sensitivity, sacrifice and gratitude. The natural predators and plants of the deer
should also be looked into for their meanings.
Clairvoyance and Clairaudience. Dear. Dare. Stag. Doe. Dough. Fawn.
Dolphin/Porpus
Dolphins live in large schools of family units and use their complicated language to communicate as well as stun the
fish they eat such as tuna. Dolphins are most well known for guiding sailors at sea towards land and following their ships.
This may also have something to do with a relationship with whales and their attempts to keep a whale from beaching itself.
This may be integral to an understanding of death and in the case of the leads of the pods, this can mean the death of the
entire pod. They seem to hold the same society system as the elephants. Some alternative therapies use dolphins to work with
the depressed and autistic with very positive results. Some tribal islanders associate the dolphin to the ancestors who have
been enchanted into joining the sea which isn't such a far cry from their evolution. Dolphins, like whales were once land
mammals who returned to the sea.
In these senses dolphin can be regarded as a guide towards healing self, to awaken from the depths of the deeper waters
and find solid ground. In some sense, like the seal, they can be as a light house to guide the self towards healing, enlightenment,
self awareness and serenity. Dolphins are most proficient and elite at swimming in the ocean and along the correct path one
can find themselves within the wisdom of the dolphin, which is unconditional love and everlasting joy.
Change, freedom, trust, wisdom, harmony, balance, serenity, guidance. Empathy
Elephant
If intelligence has been determined by the sciences according to brain size, why isn't the elephant then considered a
super intelligence? Because the size of an elephants brain is indeed huge, the most important aspect of it being memory. Memory,
especially within the matriarchs, is vital to the elephant herd. Elephants, like lion prides, live in matriarchal family units
where the males are excluded out at a young age. The term of rouge elephants comes from a young bull that has not tempered
itself enough to be more than anti-social. Not even the females will accept this one for mating. During the mating season
this drives the rogue male into a frenzy of musk rage.
Elephants keep very closely knit family and social bonds. They hold reverence and respect for each other and seem to
have an awareness of death. Elephants also demand respect. In some Asian cultures the elephant is believed to be the grandfather
of god. In Hindu belief, Ganesha is an elephant god who is the lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. The elephant
is treated with reverence and respect among handlers who use them as beasts of burden. It is well accounted for that a handler
who treats his elephant with abuse may be found one morning dead. Within an elephants ability to never forget, can also hold
building resentment of constant ill treatment. This can serve a warning to most circuses and petting zoos. Before you put
your child on the back of that elephant ride, consider how that elephant was broken of its will into submission or the use
of those hooks and cattle prods to make them obey.
In the ancient times of the northern hemisphere the ancestral memory is of the wooly mammoth, who was hunted by the Neanderthals
and later the Cromagnons and all parts of it used. There is still evidence of how bones of the mammoth were used to make dome
shaped homes where the hide was stretched over it. It is very likely these clans regarded the mammoth as others do the buffalo
and the cow. The cloning sciences are looking for ways to return the wooly mammoth, which if successful, will be part of Hopi
prophecy.
Elephant can best represent ancient wisdom and ancestral memory, the matriarchal society and family bond. Temperance
and judgement. Respect, reverence, dignity, honor and passion. The deeper tones of the earth and communication. Elephant can
also represent virility.
An elephant never forgets. Trunk. Tusk. Musk. Ivory. Elephant burial ground. Mouse.
Do you honor your ancestors? Have you been following the ediquettes? Are you dragging around a trunk full of resentments?
Are you aware of your own strengths and courage?
Elk
Persistance, health, endurance, agility, stamina
The Felines
Almost all of the cats will represent the illusive, the ability to weave in and out of appearance and see things others
cannot. Their wisdoms include finding balance and order amid chaos and existence between 'here' and unknowns. It is a stronger
trait in some more than others. The feline mostly represents the feminine and energies of the moon or in some cases the sun.
Because many cats can hunt man, they are feared and revered.
Cat (domestic)
The feminine. Independence. Self discovery and transformation. Curiosity, cunning.
Balance, cleansing and healing. Seeing in the dark. Meditation, affection. Natural guardians of the home.
Cat usually tells of the immediate and your self in dreams rather than of others. They are territorial and protective
of their homes. Cats are rather sensitive to the moons energy and the astral realm such as in the case of "chasing phantoms"
and the element of air. They use their whiskers in coincidance with their specialized vision for the night time, which is
most proficient for catching the quiet mouse. If one could only speak cat they are just about as super bionic as Lassie and
most communicative.
Grace, always landing on one's feet. "I meant to do that". Wise placement, timing and patience.
Cougar/Pumas
Balancing power, intention and strength. Using leadership ability wisely and without ego. Self confidence.
Jaguar
Wisdoms of the jungles. Royalty. Goddess. Judgements, order. Speed and access.
Lion and Tiger
In dreams lions and tigers are a powerful strength from a golden aspect like the sun but can represent masculine or femunine. They
can represent the guarded path of the spirit into the "heavens", the struggle between life and death.
Lynx
Gatekeeper, mysticism, keeping secrets. The hidden. Intuition, clairvoyance.
Black Panther
Snow Leopard
The mist in mystery. Beauty, peacefulness, gentleness.
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