Animal Totems, how to find yours!

What are animal totems?
Animal totems are spirit guides but in the form of an animal. We all have an animal guide that has been with us since our birth like spirit guides and angels. Our animal guide teaches us, guides us and protects us throughout our lifetime. We will have one or two main animal totems and there may be many others that will come and go in our lives depending on the lessons we are learning at a given time.

Below is the different types of animal totems:

Lifelong animal totem
This animal totem will have been with you since your birth, we all have one main lifelong animal totem but some can have more than one. Lifelong animal totems will stay with us for our entire lifetime never leaving our side for a second and will be with us whenever we need its strengths and powers. Our lifelong animal totem will protect us, guide us and offer us wisdom whenever we need it and if there is ever a time you feel you need your animal totems help just ask them and they will help you as much as they can.

Journey animal totem
A journey animal totem will appear at a certain time in your life when you need its power, guidance or wisdom and will remain with you for a period of time be it days, weeks, months or years coming and going over that period of time. Journey animal totems often appear when you are going through important lessons, spiritual experiences or situations in your life.

Message animal totemA message animal totem will appear suddenly in your life completely out of the blue and will go just as suddenly as it came when you no longer need its help where as a journey animal totem will stay with you for a set period of time before it leaves, even if it comes and goes over that period of time.
A message animal totem will show up when you need its help urgently in a situation or you need to learn a certain lesson and this animal totem will be able to assist and help you with this importing you wisdom and spiritual assistance. Message animals will also turn up suddenly to give you a warning about something or an important spiritual message.
Their message will stand out and be unique and may be communicated with you subtly through telepathy and in forms in intuition and hunches and through feelings and emotions.
Message animal totem usually don't stay for long periods of time and their presence is often a very short one till they have got their message across and once they have done this they will then leave.

Shadow animal totem
These animal totems appear to test us and they have the power to put tests and lessons before us to learn from. Their tests may not always be easy and will often be difficult and challenging but the wisdom and knowledge you can gain from these tests is invaluable.
Shadow animal totems will try to help us work through fears and phobias, painful memories and emotions and they may find ways in getting us to face up to these issues so we can work through and overcome them once and for all.

Medicine animal totemThese animal totems are healers and will appear when we need any healing in any shape or form be it physically, mentally or spiritually. These animal totems also work with people who are healers helping them with their healing work and they can also help teach those who are learning how to heal people or animals giving them wisdom and guidance in their studies.

Our animal totems will often relate to ourselves in characteristics and you may find yourself being drawn to a particular animal and being quite fond or attracted to the animal. Being drawn to a certain animal is one of the signs that the animal may be your animal totem but our animal totem may find other ways of showing us that they are our animal totem and one way they can do this is through our dreams, if you keep dreaming of a certain animal that you have no personal connection with during your waking hours than this animal may be your animal totem. Another way is through synchronicity, if a certain animal keeps appearing in your daily life such as in books, on the computer or TV, or if people start talking about that animal whenever you are around or you start seeing that animal all of a sudden in person than these can also be signs that it is your animal totem trying to find a way of showing you who they are, of course they can show you in many other ways other than the above too. If you want to know who your animal totem is you can ask them to give you signs or if they can visit you in a dream.

We can learn a lot from our animal totems and improve our own qualities by getting in touch with specific qualities that is found in our animal totems and work on these areas to improve our behaviour and to use the strengths of our animal totems qualities to help us in difficult situations in our lives. The weaknesses of our animal totems qualities is also another area that we can work on to improve our own weaknesses.

If you are drawn to a particular animal look below to see if your animal/insect is in the list and find out what their meaning and characteristics are. You should find that you and the animal totem has very similar characteristics, however if you don't and yet still find yourself drawn to the animal totem it may be because the animal totem is encouraging you to develop or work on the characteristics that is associated with it.

Animal totems and their meanings/characteristics
Crocodile/Alligator

Fearless, quick, maternal and protective of young, adaptability, strength, keepers of ancient wisdom, patience. connection to mother earth, aggressive, revengeful, deceitful. Crocodile/alligator totems advise those to make sure your needs are being met and that your primal urges are kept under control.

Bat

Perceptive, good hearing, able to pick up the unheard and read between the lines, Clairaudient, good listener, long life, rebirth, misunderstood, secrecy, death and rebirth, ability to observe the unseen, sociable, bat encourages those to release fears and to let go off old ways and make new starts.

Bear

Power, watcher, courage, strength, willpower, leadership, natural healer abilities, lunar magic, connection to the moon, fiercely protective of those who they love, wisdom, fearlessness, devotion, strong family values, over-confident, fiery anger, can lack caution.

Beaver

Emotional, intuitive, subconscious, dreams, teamwork, happy working with others, loyal, good companion, do not neglect dental care, put dreams/ideas in to reality, good builders, strong-willed and persistent, patient, beaver totems warn those against being highly strung, inflexible and possessive.

Bee

Fertility, sexuality, alertness and awareness, productive, hard-worker, defensive, need to decide on what sacrifices are to be made to better life, organised and efficient, may over-work, clean, likes things nice and tidy, bee can be compulsive and obsessive so needs to keep this under control, bee is productive and wise.

Beetle

Defensive, fearful, keeps emotions hidden behind a protective shell but easily hurt, can be aggressive when protecting themselves, protective and loyal over their children, friends and family, mothering and nuturing, Beetle teaches those to make transformations in their lives and to start new beginnings and to not be so distrustful of others and over-sensitive.

Bull/Cow

Fertility, strength, assertive, strong, courage, fearless, passionate, stamina, pride, noble, patient, Bull/cow totem warns those against being rigid and rushing in to things without proper care and to not be stubborn and bull-headed.

Butterfly

Joy, the symbol of the soul, celebration, messengers, transition and change, balance, grace, ability to accept change, Butterfly's come when change and transformation is needed in life, creativity, butterfly people are often optimistic and positive and has a cheery attitude.

Cat

Guardians of the spirit and good fortune, mystery, independent, sensuality, protective, wisdom, aloofness, self-assured, may see spirits and can connect to the spirit world, searcher for hidden information, psychic power, creativity, natural healers, intuitive and teaches us to tap in to this, perceptive, secretive, supernatural abilities, watchful and observant, encourages those to come up with new ideas, to be watchful and to use psychic abilities.

Cheetah

Flexible, speed, responds quickly to dangers and opportunities, healing abilties due to empathy with other people's feelings, solitary and selective with who they trust, insight and focus, abiltity to act quick and make things move forward, patience, self-esteem, cheetah teaches those that rest and relaxation is important.

Coyote

Trickster, cunning, adapts to situations easily and likes to have close knit family, very instinctive, intelligent, playful, enthusiastic, coyote encourages those to laugh and not get upset over mistakes made and not be too serious in life or foolish, coyote people are quite fun and likes to play tricks and pranks on people but they also hide their own sadness with humour, coyote teaches the balance of wisdom and foolishness.

Crow/Ravens

The keeper of spiritual law, keen insight, mischievous, good teacher, intelligence, creative, knowledgeable, skill, swiftness, sociable, trickery, clever, cunning, cocky, warning of danger. omen of change, magick, psychic protection, healing abilities. Crow/raven people need to work on their pyschic abilities and must be cautious of those they are unsure off.

Crab

Protection, good luck, shy, sensitive, defensive, can feel isolated and withdrawn from others, deep emotions, finds it hard trust others, homely and nuturing, connection to the moon, crab encourages those to come out of their shells and to shine, can be overly cautious and crabby.

Deer / Stag

When you have the deer as spirit animal, you are highly sensitive and have a strong intuition. By affinity with this animal, you have the power to deal with challenges with grace. You master the art of being both determined and gentle in your approach. The deer totem wisdom imparts those with a special connection with this animal with the ability to be vigilant, move quickly, and trust their instincts to get out the trickiest situations. The meanings associated with the deer combine both soft, gentle qualities with strength and determination. Gentleness Ability to move through life and obstacles with grace Being in touch with inner child, innocence Being sensitive and intuitive Vigilance, ability to change directions quickly Magical ability to regenerate, being in touch with life’s mysteries

Dog

Faithful, loyal, protective of those they love, good teachers, good at listening, intelligent, guarding, devotion, trust, dog teaches their charges to be aware of subtle changes, not to be afraid to go forward and to not be overly cautious, companionship and sociable, assisting and helpful, sensory perception, obedient.

Dolphin

Kindness, wisdom, happiness, playful, deep emotions, harmony, good communication skills, sensitive to others emotions, empathetic, trustful, connection to nature, awareness, intelligence, healing abilities, generous, intuitive, curiosity, needs to learn to balance work and play and to use natural skills in helping others.

Dragon

Carefree, strong imagination, enjoys freedom, truth, flighty, able to understand dreams, may have vivid dreams, awareness, an active mind, dragon's encourages those to connect with nature and to enjoy the outdoors, dragons urge those to see the real truth in situations and to see past illusions, dragons can signify change and transformation in a person's life if they find themselves drawn to dragons, or dragonfly is encouraging them to make changes in their lives.

Dove

Spirit messenger, peace, love, harmony, strong family bonds-very family orientated, gentle and likes to keep the peace, soothing, would be ideal in careers where they can help others, healing abilities, needs to make sure they do not have their kind nature taken advantage off, communication abilities with spirit, sensitive to emotions.

Eagle

Sacrifice, divine spirit, intelligence, good eye for seeing between the lines and for what things really are, observant and watchful, risk-taker, courage, likes adventure, visionaries and likes personal freedom, very focussed and skilful, eagle encourages you to go to new levels and push for your goals/dreams and to explore, ability to see hidden spiritual truths, connection to the spirit world, intelligent, eagle encourages those to put things in to action.

Falcon

Signifies new beginnings, falcon people likes adventure and they are passionate, leadership skills, likes to initiate and lead, very focussed, likes freedom and has high aspirations, determined, quick, falcon encourages those to take chances and to strike at opportunities, patient with others but needs to learn to be tolerant too.

Fox

Quick-witted, like's solitude, adaptable, cunning, sly, encourages those to be independent and self-reliant. encourages those to use their intuition and to be mindful of others, clever and observant, wildness, swift and quick, wisdom, intelligence, ability to observe the unseen, encourages those to not isolate themselves too much from society, also encourages those not to brag, very good hearing and sight.

Horse

The goddess of the land, stamina, likes freedom and travel, strength, grace and dignity, loyal to friends, may have OBEs, horse encourages those to speak the truth and to follow dreams and to not be controlling and manipulative, horse also encourages those to be adventurous and use their power and strength to overcome obstacles, horse people are able to see the good and bad in people, they are sensitive to others emotions and are cooperative.

Ladybird/ladybug
Love, good fortune, gives protection, cheerful and creative, ladybug people may have good luck, encourages those to go at a slow pace and not rush in to things, has strong family ties and keen instincts, ladybird teaches those to improve their communication and social skills.

Lion

Strength, courage, protector, Strong family ties, high energy levels, authoritive, dominant, dignity, leadership skills, gentle and patient, the lion reminds those to not over do things in their lives and to avoid confrontations, if feeling threatened though don't be afraid to stand up for yourself, very protective of those they love.

Mouse

Quiet, shy, wise, good attention to details, sociable, adaptable, determined, cautious, modest, can be fearful and distrustful, mouse teaches those to speak up about their feelings and opinions, to face up to their fears and to be alert in their surroundings.

Owl

Bird of magic, psychic gifts and darkness, clairvoyance ability, insight, messenger of secrets and omens, freedom, silent wisdom, healing powers, truth, connection to the moon and night, observant and watchful, knowledge, good night vision, the owl encourages those to get in touch with their psychic abilities and to use their intuition, owl people have the ability to see and know the truth, intelligent, mysterious, perceptive, quiet, great listeners and wise counsels.

Rabbit/Hare
Curiosity, territorial over their homes, fertility, rabbit/hare people are very cautious and can be quite fearful and tend to be worriers, they are quick thinkers and act fast in situations, rabbit teaches those to face their fears and to not run away from their problems but to face up to them, rabbit/hare also teaches those to be self-confident, rabbit/hare can appear when a new life is about to begin either that be a birth of a baby or a situation.

Snake

Impulsive, wisdom, initiative, snakes represent rebirth and transformation, they can also represents a spiritual awakening, healing powers, wisdom, intelligence, psychic energy, the snake encourages change and transformation in a person's life, awareness, intuitive, protection, fertility, patient, snakes come along when change is needed and new life cycles are to begin.

Spider

Protective, territorial, enjoys own company, always busy and likes to be on the go, keen homemakers, avoids confrontations but will fight to protect themself fiercely, fragile and easily hurt, sensitive but which is hidden with a protective layer, creative, clever, cunning and sly, intelligent, patient, spiders teaches those to use their creative side, to be more perceptive and to not use cunning ways to get what they want from people and to not be manipulative.

Tiger
Strength, high energy levels, power, very sensual and outgoing, can work in teams but prefers to be solitary, willpower, passionate, devoted to those they love and what they feel passionate about, ambitious, adventurous, tiger people may prefer the night time rather than the day time, enjoys freedom, maybe flamboyant, bold and daring, tiger people can have intense high/low mood swings and needs to learn to balance this out.

Wolf

Loyal, intuitive, connection with the spirit world, perseverance, teacher of spirit, intelligent, sociable, strong family ties, can work good in a team, very protective of family and of self, psychic energy, cunning, quick, observant, wise and has a lot of wisdom, the wolf encourages those to honour the need for solitary times, generous, compassionate, friendly, good communication skills, faithful to those they love, wolf reminds those to listen to their intuition and gut instincts and to avoid confrontations and to achieve balance in their lives.