Graceful, leaping high, great agility. Gaining the advantage with great leaps.
Journey, travel, movement. Virility, power, freedom, talent, healing.
Protection of the young and guardianship. Avoiding danger.
Natural predator of the cobra.
O'possum
The 'Possum is the only marsupial in North America and is nocturnal. They're practically blind with a prehensile tail
that gives them an extra advantage in climbing trees with their thumb endowed, stubby claws. They mostly live in underground
holes and eat insects. They're omnivorous and will also occasionally take advantage of the household garage and left out bowl
of pet food. I've caught 'possums eating with my cats out of the same bowl before.
'Possums are an ancient animal with a gray and white coloration that blends well with the night time. Like armadillo's
they don't have any particularly vicious nature. You can easily pick a 'possum up by his tail to handle them. They make a
show of allot of tiny teeth in unusually long mouths and try to make a big impression of a sort of hiss growling and then
when nothing else has worked for them, they'll play dead. Don't let any appearance of being tame fool you though. Things can
be more than what they seem on all sorts of levels.
Otter
By land and sea. Playfulness, the inner child.
Primate
Primates in majority are very socially organized animals with puzzle solving skills. Some make use of tools such as sticks
to poke into ant and termite mounds to eat the insects that cling to it. They are naturally very curious and some are the
only known animals who can recognize themselves in a mirror. The use play, grooming and sex for socializing and social tensions.
Most primates are very family oriented with deeply knit social bonds and pecking orders. Some such as gorillas and chimpanzees
are known to adopt orphans into their clans. In dreams they can denote playfulness, mischief, gentleness, social cares or
primitive emotion and evolution.
They can also express to be more cautious, use more discretion. In many Eastern cultures the monkey is seen as a hero,
such as Hanuman, the Monkey God in India, Chinese folk tales and the name for monkey "Hou" also meaning "high official, while
the Chinese year of the monkey is associated with disasters and bad harvests. Many tribal tales are of how monkey is 'the
man of the forest'. Monkey can also represent materialness, the selfish, greed, over consumption and nasty, destructive behavior.
In the Chinese Zodiac those born under the year of the monkey are clever, quick-witted, inquisitive and successful in
every endeavor. They constantly seek new opportunities and adventure. Their intellect and versatility allow them to adapt
to any situation and their mischievous spirit is entertaining.
Monkey can also be associated to happiness, laughter, trixter, the ability to laugh at one's self, silliness, exitement
and something being more trivial than the importance it was given.
Monkeying around. Monkey business. Monkey on your shoulders. Monkey see, monkey do. Make a monkey out of you. See, hear,
speak no evil.
Racoon
The raccoon has a habit of washing his food, largely because they'll also eat muscles (a clam) along the creeks and this
washing habit helps get them open. Though, they wash everything. Raccoons adapt easily and are clever, naturally curious opportunists.
With their little thumbed hands they can get into closed garbage cans and open latched doors. However, the black band mask
across their eyes is what perhaps makes them the most notorious as bandits. Raccoon as a mother is very astute of her children.
If need be she'll teach them harshly, but the survival of that one, such as if they are too timid of getting their feet wet
would call for it. Raccoon will stand as the bear in defense of itself, to appear larger and threatening to a predator. They
are just as homely on the ground as they are high up in the trees and eat as wide a variety of foods as the bear does.
Rat
Survival. Rats are very versatile and can get anywhere into anything large enough to fit their head through despite the
rest of their body size. They habit scent trails, sticking close to walls but mostly always following the same paths. If you
find some rat poop there's a good chance, if it's not too old, that they'll be back that way again. They are clever, stealthy
animals and if they think they can slip by you right under your nose they'll go for it. Rats are incapable of vomiting which
is an attribute studying sciences favor about them. The rat is believed to be lucky in business but it may be more due to
some good forecasting and skillful planning.
The cause of the black plague in Europe had been due to an over population surge of the rat. Interestingly enough, the
rat became a pestilence because their natural predator, the cat, was in serious decline due to superstitious persecution that
they were evil omens, dark servants and unnatural beasts or, among the creatures that were considered as not created by the
Heavenly Father, and there fore should be destroyed.
Rat race. Dirty rat. Lab rat. Ratty. Street rat. Plague.
Seal
Protection during change or from danger. Movement through emotions and creativity. Dream world
and waking world. The Seal is efficient for hunting at sea but they come ashore to the beaches to mate and rear their young
in community prides. Their most common predators are the shark and orca whale. The seal can represent the wading through the
tides as a guide of swimming with ease and understanding between waters and shore.
Sloth
The sloth is very slow moving, so slow that it has its own echo system such as mold grows on
its back and its metabolism is very slow. They live in the trees, ranging upside down for most of the time and coming down
only very rarely when they need to "use the bathroom".
The only time I ever dreamed about Sloth was I was walking through this forest with another woman and I came across a
dune of white sand that a sloth was embedded into. I could only see his great claws and there was something that wasn't good
about this as the woman was telling me. So I tried to catch the sloth and pull him out of the sand but he slipped further
in and I couldn't find him. This was the dream I had just before learning my mother had cancer, it had been hiding behind
a cyst on her kidney. They took the kidney out but she developed a shadow that came to her neck, they had not caught it in
enough time. The cancer was malignant and ranging through her body like a sloth. After neck surgery and getting rid of it
there, another shadow appeared in her chest.
Squirrel
Chatter, neusances, fussing. Squirrels range in trees spending allot of time gathering nuts
which they bury and hide for winter storage. Those they don't find during the winter will become the new trees that spring.
Squirrel teaches about keeping your reserves and the importance of ecological balance particularly of the forests they home.
If we don't save things like our resources now, they won't be there in the future and that would make the harsh times of winters
ahead much worse on ourselves and our grandchildren.
Whale
Peace, serenity. Whale song. Deep ocean. The value of inner silence.
