Animal Totems/Familiars

[Xilef]

An animal totem, or familiar, is supposed to be your protector, friend, adviser and many other kindly things.
Your personal totem appears to you in reality and in your dreams, you can see it in the corner of your eye sometimes when you least expect it.
Apparently my animal totem is a Fox, which is interesting as it shares the same first and last letters of it's name with mine and foxes have always interested me.
So what up with this animal totem stuff? Does anyone actually believe in it or take it seriously? I quite like the idea of having a creature follow me around everywhere, it could replace my imaginary friends pretty quickly.
I'm not really requesting answers, I just want to discuss it with others.

 

[madmax_vii]

ok, firstly do you know the first thing about native american culture?

 

[Xilef]

Nope.
I think they had totem poles though.

 

[Cruelty]

I have no idea what this thread is about.

 

[kaze950]

How do you know yours is a fox? How do you even find that out?

 

[holloway]

He saw the episode of The Simpsons, which was on today in the UK, and decided he'd make a half arsed abomination of centuries of native American culture, in a shallow attempt to appear somehow cool.

 

[madmax_vii]

He saw the episode of The Simpsons, which was on today in the UK, and decided he'd make a half arsed abomination of centuries of native American culture, in a shallow attempt to appear somehow cool.

'nuff said.

 

[Xilef]

I don't watch simpsons. It's getting pretty crappy nowadays.
Some religious guy told me mine would be a fox, so I took a few online quizzes and the majority of them answered as fox.

 

[holloway]

1) Online quizzes, real reliable.
2) Religious guy? Since when has native american religious figures been wandering around the UK?
3) The episode is like 12 years old.

 

[Xilef]

well, I don't revise simpsons episodes, not part of my gcse's.
The religious guy was my RE teacher, who said he had to be a native american? Apparently RE teachers in the UK should know about these things :-/
Silent Alarm, you were just born to be a- Continuing would get me a warning.
The fox thing is irrelevant to the topic, you've successfully turned yet another of my general discussion topics into spam by encouraging the negative thoughts against me for no apparent reason apart from being a- I'll probably get an infraction for continuing, as I tend to get those when Silent Alarm is being a- Continuing would most likely get me banned.

 

[Mega Flare]

you Disgrace my people! be gone! (well im part native amercian) and you LIE!

 

[Raziel]

This thread got pretty much offtopic. Please keep it on topic or I have to close it.

 

[Xilef]

(Thanks Raz)
I've looked into it a bit more, you shouldn't really associate totemism with the Native Americans as they weren't the first to believe in totem animals, they're just the most recognized totem believers. The Ancient Greeks associated their elements (fire, air, water and earth) with familiars and with humans, the fox (For example) is commonly fire, with a human that would be rage.
Totems go back to ancient china and Zimbabwe.
So in a short reply to you, Madmax, you don't need to know anything about the native Americans to learn about totemism.

 

[kaze950]

So, um...

How do you know yours is a fox? How do you even find that out?

 

[Erichermit]

Yeah, while I don't believe in it, I'm curious about what animal it'd be.

 

[Bogus]

On the subject of Native American shamans, and animal familiars (they call them spirit animals, or guardians, by the way), one generally takes a spirit journey to discover their animal. In modern times though, it seems they can come to someone in moments of extreme distress or one can find them through meditation. I do believe in familiars, but not that you can see them. I discovered mine through various odd dreams that involved me seeing through the eyes of a Polar Bear. I felt what she felt, and thought what she thought. Sadly, in the dream, this merely resulted in my eating a penguin...I like penguins, and killing and eating it was incredibly vicious and since I felt all of it, I woke up crying.

Turns out a friend of mine had a similar dream, but from the perspective of the penguin.

Interesting topic this is though, as not a lot of people discuss this sort of thing. It seems a taboo subject for most. It's open to a lot of interpretation, especially if it's associated with dreams.

I too would like to know how you discovered that yours is a fox. Was it an intentional thing, such as through meditation, or was it unintentional, as through a dream or it just came to you?

One's spirit animal is meant to represent their inner feelings and desires. It's also been practiced that those who find theirs follow in a path similar to what their animal would do, focusing on the strengths of that animal's personality.
It's rather popular it seems to associate oneself with an animal, most people like to associate themselves with wolves, but a spirit animal is something that is shown to you. You do not choose this animal, it's given to you by whatever governs the spirits of nature, or the animal's spirit (whichever belief you hold more accurate).

I'll stop rambling now. Interesting topic.

 

[Xilef]

Well, my RE teacher made me colour in a Mandala circle, and he deducted that I am fire element, spiritual but I keep myself to myself, he said fox, which happened to be my favorite animal, I always used tails in original sonic the hedgehog trilogy. I was interested in the ideas of totems, did a few of those crappy, always come up with the answer you hate most, online quizzes and fox general came out as the answer. I knwo that sounds stupid, going by online quizzes, favourite animal and the word of a nutter, but in most of my nightmares a fox is usually involved in the background. I think I mentioned something like this on rmxp.net, but that's kinda lacking existance right now.

 

[Erichermit]

I often pretend I am a squid while in the water.. and have an innate fascination and obsession with them, so much that ALL of my friends and aquantences know it, but I dont see that as being a Familiar Animal so w/e =P

 

[Dopples]

I sometimes think I'm a tapeworm. I like to live in uncooked meat until I get eaten by a human, then I become parasitic and suck the person dry....



DAMNIT YEYINDE! GET OFF VACATION AND BACK TO WORK!