Understanding what a totem really is
The concept of spirit animals is well-known in the mainstream world; usually the extent of our venturing into the idea is taking the occasional "What is your spirit guide?" personality quiz that pops up on the internet. Now, answering five to ten multiple choice questions about whether you'd rather hike or hang out indoors, be a leader or follower, or eat a steak or salad may not give you results you might be looking for, or that describe you very well. Though they are a decent start to introducing yourself to the idea of animal-personality identification, they do not quite grasp the concept of animal guidance.
Many people mistake "spirit guides," "spirit animals," "power animals," and "totems" to be completely synonymous, while in fact they are not exactly. Spirit Guides don't represent personality traits, but more present advice and impart wisdom according to the animal's traits. Spirit Guides may also appear to you as a Power Animal, in which the animal comes to you in a dream to give its guidance. For example, if a beaver appears in a dream of yours, it may be telling you to be resourceful and not waste your time and energy on unimportant things. These guides are more of a message; a totem is a very different entity.
While a spirit guide leaves once its advice is taken and acted upon, a totem stays with you for most or all of your life. It may be an animal that you have unusual attraction to, and may pop up in pictures or in person all the time. Totems have certain teachings based on the natural traits that make them unique from one another, and while this totem remains with you, it will constantly remind you of what you have to learn or bring out in yourself. A person may normally have anywhere between one to five, even seven totems in their lifetime, depending on how their variant their life journey may be. Essentially, a totem represents a part of your journey, or a part of yourself, and links strongly to your personaliy.
If you find that you strongly value closeness in community and family, are a natural teacher, and are very expressive, the wolf may be your totem (a very highly-respected one, at that!). You may find that you have a great fondness of wolves, and they may appear in your life when making decisions related to the wolf's teachings. You may call upon the wolf totem when you feel lost or alone, and need to reconnect with those closest and dearest to you. The wolf may represent a part of your life when you found that family was the first priority to you, or when you found value in mentoring others.
Totems may not necessarily be so easy to identify for everybody, nor do they have to be restricted in number. There are different methods to meeting totems, including meditation practices and vision quest simulations. There will be plenty to learn while following this blog, such as detailed ways to meet totems, interpretations of dozens of animal totems, and all the different types of totems that have different purposes. The fundamentals are most important to achieve a great understanding of Totemspeak, and learning about totems is the first step!
