To start with not all tribes go with Animal Totems, but to put it simple as human beings, we do watch and learn from early childhood to adulthood what animal can and do teach us.
This on-going dictionary is to help in understanding what some animals can represent as "Guides/Totems" in our everyday lives.
Acknowledgement for 98% of the information given does come from Gary Buffalo Horn Man and Sherry Firedancer along with the other 2% from ShaunaSay WhiteFeather
Akita: A dog known and bred in the country of Japan. It looks a lot like the Eskimo Husky in size and markings. It is a dog that is highly revered physically and spiritually in Japan and is considered of Royal linage. It was a war dog used in many battles, and respected for its intelligence and loyalty to its master and for his immediate response to commands. The Akita is a deadly silent dog and barks very little. When shown its boundaries and perimeters of what to guard, this dog will fight to the death if need be to protect what those boundaries are to it. Akita's can be very playful around his human family and treats young children of the immediate family as gentle as they are treated. And if a child comes into danger, or any member of the family, they will destroy whatever the danger is without hesitation, even if that danger could cost the life of the dog.
The Japanese Akita teaches us: Loyalty, determination. And give life all we have inside of each of us if it be required of one to do so.
ALLIGATOR: Alligator has walked on the Earth Mother for millions of years. They hide in water and mud waiting for an unsuspecting creature to happen by, and then snap! the powerful jaws close and all hope is lost. They will eat any animal or prey they can swallow and, if they cannot swallow it, they will tear it into bite size pieces. The young is born fully formed alligators which start to eat anything they can.
Alligators dig deep burrows when water is high so that during the dry seasons, they can have a wet alcove to retreat to. They also serve as reservoirs from which other animals can get water.
The power of the Alligator is to survive. Except for humans, they have no enemies.
If Alligator comes to you physically or in a dream or vision, it may be trying to tell you to take care of yourself and secure your basic survival needs. Are you eating food that nourishes you or hurts you? Do you live some where conducive to your inner needs? Is your home a haven from the "dry" seasons of your life?
An out of balance Alligator will stray too close to human habitation and take a liking to eating refuse or pets, in which case they do get caught and destroyed. Are you perhaps moving in circles or working at a job contrary to your nature? The message from Alligator may be to turn around before it is too late.
ANT: Ants have an organization of society that is unparalleled. In different species there are warriors, breeders, farmers, livestock herders, parents, workers, builders, slave drivers, raiders and much more. Each knows its role in society and performs its duties with total loyalty to the whole.
The power of Ant medicine is teamwork. Each ant will do its part to insure the survival and health of the whole of the colony, regardless of the role it has been assigned. If ant has to fight, it will; if ant has to dig tunnels, it will; if ant has to carry leaves for miles, it will--all for the good of the community.
If Ant has made its way into your life, a message it might have for you is to look around at how you are being asked to fit into the big picture. Creator may want you to play a specific role for your family, community, or the Earth Mother.
Ant could also be warning you that you are being too true to what others expect of you. Are you following the herd mindlessly and ignoring a promising new direction? Even societally bound ant knows when the time is right to break away from the colony and start a new hill.
ANTELOPE: (Pronghorn) -- Before the Europeans came, there were an estimated 30 to 40 million antelope in North America. As with the Buffalo, they were hunted until few remained. Conservation efforts have raised their numbers to about 500,00 today. They are one of the fastest land animals in North America, able to attain speeds of 50 mph. When a newborn is 4 days old it can outrun an adult horse.
The powers of an antelope are motion and sight. When they move, it is with grace and speed. They can see things coming from miles away. You might seek the gifts of antelope if you see clearly what it is you need in order to move forward, and wish to do so at a more rapid pace. Its medicine can be useful if you see something that you want and run away from quickly.
Antelope will not help you run to or from something that you cannot see. While antelope can see a moving predator for miles, it might stumble into one a few feet away that is hidden and still.
If you are seeing antelope in vision/dreaming or it comes to you physically, you are being told to do the obvious, and do it quickly!
ARMADILLO: An armadillo can measure up to 32 inches in length and weigh up to 15 pounds. They have hard bony plates arranged in bands and attached to flexible skin. Armadillos have many different burrows that they share with many others. They hunt at night, and sleep during the day. They have an acute sense of smell, but poor eyesight and hearing. When threatened, they lie flat on the ground, tucking their legs under the shields on their shoulders and hips.
Armadillo medicine conveys the ability to live life and conduct business in a protected and safe way. An armadillo cannot be harmed as long as it remains aware and remembers its natural ways.
If an armadillo has come to you, it may be saying that you need to protect yourself from people and events that seek to throw you off balance and make you vulnerable.
An out of balance armadillo can stray too far from its den and fall asleep on its back, leaving its unprotected underside exposed to predators.
They do show us that when we are in balance and following the path the Creator designed for us, we are safe and secure, but when we leave that sacred walk, we become vulnerable through our own carelessness and lack of awareness.
BADGER: Badgers are 3-4 feet long and are about 12 inches high. Family members mark each other with scent for recognition since their sight is poor. Their senses of smell and hearing, however, are excellent. Their diet includes a wide variety of roots, herbs, plants, and many small animals. They dig with remarkable speed to catch burrowing prey and when they need to get underground quickly. Badgers live in simple but extremely clean, well kept dens. They do pay close attention to details within their home environments. They change their bedding often, backing carefully into their dens with straw, so as not to make a mess in the process.
Badgers bring us gifts of tidiness and organization. They are fastidious about their surroundings and will correct any disorder quickly.
If Badger has come to you in any way, he may be telling you several things. One being saying you may need to concentrate on maintaining an orderly environment to better facilitate your day to day living.
Badger can also be helpful to call upon aid in managing your time. This can be useful for those who are trying to satisfy our need to devote time to ceremonies and the spirit realm and still work a job.
Badger will fight to the death if cornered be it his death or his enemy.
Are you stuck in a pattern that served you well once, but is now damaging? Badger could be waring you that a change of behavior is in order if you do not want to be cornered or used.
BEAR: There are several types of Bears including Grizzly, Brown, Black, Kodiak, and Polar. They have omnivorous characteristics, eating both plants and animals. The Grizzly is the most aggressive, but not the largest. Adult males weigh up to 650 pounds. Polar Bears can weigh 1600 pounds and able to knock a 500 pound seal out of the water with one blow of his paw. All Bears hibernate, but the length of time varies greatly.
Bear has played a prominent role in many Native cultures and ceremonies. Many nations of Native people saw the Bear as a powerful medicine who is highly desirable as an ally and and spirit helper. Some tribes who follow the older ways of vision quest, seek the help of Bear Spirit to guide them to the medicine path.
One tribe such as Cree, sought Bear dreams as a way of locating them and receiving permission to hunt them in a sacred way. Other nations such as Navajo, felt that Bear was too powerful and fearsome a being to have any contact with, and would only hunt them if they were starving. To the Cherokee and some other nations, believed that Bear was so closely related to human beings. eating the same foods, have the same strong maternal instincts, and Bear often walks on two legs. In some traditions, Bear is the spirit keeper of the West, the place of adulthood, the autumn, the sunset, and a good harvest. Bears gifts to people are strength, introspection, and self-knowledge.
Bear can be too quick to anger and too sure of its own power. While they have little to fear, they forget caution, a necessary trait when dealing with many two-leggeds today. Do you sometimes throw your sence of caution to the winds? If so, heed Bears message that being unaware of your limits in certain settings can be disastrous indeed!
BEAVER: Adult male Beavers can weigh up to 60 pounds. Their fur is waterproof, and a hard yellow enamel coats their teeth and protects them from damage. Beavers are master engineers and their dams of wood, held together with mud and leaves, have been as big as 500 yards long and 12 feet high. Beavers turn streams into lakes with their dams. When they leave an area, the dam eventually decays, and a fertile meadow is left where the lake was. They make dens in the lakes behind their dams, with an underwater entrance and a chamber above the waterline so they are protected and dry. They eat bark and leaves, and stores edible trees underwater near their lodges so they do not have to travel about in the winter. They are powerful swimmers, but slow on land.
The medicine of Beaver is power to build and shape and re-direct. If you are trying to create something concrete in your life, Beaver medicine would be good to call upon. If Beaver comes to you in some way, it might be saying that it is time for you to build something new and secure for yourself, or repair the leaks in something you have already built. Keep in mind, though, Beaver is a creature of the water, the element associated with emotions, and that it is their nature to be gentle with themselves, as well as very hard working.
An out of balance Beaver will stray too far from its waters in search of trees, can and does become an easy meal. Are you venturing too far into unfamiliar territory?
If Beaver has come to you, it may be telling you to stick with the familiar for now. The only time Beaver leaves its home waters and home dam, is if a place has become over crowded, or runs out of food for survival of him and his family. A fresh start sometimes is the answer to achieving your life goals and dreams.
BEE: The common Honey Bee is an amazing creature. The Queen is hatched from the same type of egg as the worker, but is fed a different diet and raised in a different chamber by the nurse Bees. This changes her development into that of much larger queen Bee. Bees store honey, which they make from pollen, in a hive of hexagonal chambers. Like the square and the triangle, the hexagonal can be fit together with no wasted space, but the six-sided hexagon is the more efficient way of containing space using less wax. Honey is sought after by many animals as a delicious treat; therefore Bees developed their infamous sting. When they sting, they also inject toxins which can easily kill small birds and people with severe allergies. Bees are not aggressive unless provoked. A Bee that stings will die because part of his abdomen tears away with the stinger.
The power of Bee is service. They serve the many flowers that they gather nectar from by cross-pollinating them. They serve the hive through their building and gathering and nurturing. And their honey provides a sweet treat for both humans and animals alike.
If a Bee has come to you in vision/dream or physically, it could be a reminder that, as part of all life, you need to give back as well as receive. If a Bee stings you, it is defiantly saying "You are not listening"
Out of balance Bees, such as the African/Honey Bees cross, attack things that are not really a threat to them. In so doing, they kill themselves and needlessly hurt or kill other creatures. They do this primarily because they have too large a defensive range and claim too much territory as theirs.
Are you too defensive and hurting others and yourself in the process? If so, you might need to learn the lesson of the balanced Honey Bee and "Stick to Business"....
BOBCAT: Also known as the Bay Lynx, the adults are about 3 feet long. They eat mostly rodents and rabbits, though they will take a young deer if they can. They will also eat bats in caves. Unlike almost all other felines, Bobcats do not have a strong non-liking to water. They have been known to jump into water and swim after prey.
They are related to Lynx, but tend to live in the Southern part of the U.S. They do not have ear tufts, as does the lynx, and are much smaller in size.
The power of Bobcat is independence. They are rarely seen, as they hunt at night. They feed on a wide variety as mentioned. Most cats are very independent by nature, but this holds even more so of Bobcat.
If Bobcat comes to you in dream/vision, he may be telling you to break some bonds both earthly and spiritually, that are limiting you, so that you can roam and play and not be so serious about everything. Loosen up and enjoy life as it should be enjoyed. Not reckless and endangering yourself and others, but to enjoy life as a joy everyday to be living no matter what it throws at you!
BullDog: Whether it is an English breed or American or whatever one of this type of dog, the bulldog is known for his jaw-locking never let go determination and ability!
They are so unique for how they can moving inch by inch once locked on to their enemy, their entire body weight right up to the jugular vein for the kill!
These dogs specially the little compact "English" was put into dog arenas to fight other breeds of dogs, and would win every time because of the "Death-Grip" that would choke all opponents no matter how much bigger they were than it.
The Bulldog, teaches us we can defeat out enemy/opponents by not giving in or giving up.
If Bulldog comes to you in dreamtime or vision: It means you are not a quitter, and you do hang on with a tenacity as a warrior and fighter to win the battle at hand be it Physically or Spiritually!
BUFFALO: Male Buffalo's can weigh up to 1200 pounds or better, in times past they had been known to go up to 2000! Both the bulls and cows have horns. When defending against danger, the cows will form a defensive circle around the calves, and the bulls will form a circle around the cows. While this worked well against wolves, it was poor defence against humans who shot them for their hides and tongues, or just for what they called sport. There were once three different species of Buffalo in the U.S. numbering an estimated 50 million.
By 1906 there were only about 800 of the plains Buffalo left; now there are over 50,000. But the wood and Eastern Buffalo were eliminated.
Buffalo is the bringer of healing medicines, and of peace to ones soul and people around them.
White Buffalo Calf Woman came to the Plains people and gave them the gift of the Channupa (the pipe) for healing and communication with Spirit.
Buffalo horns are also powerful tools for healing, and is what most of the Native peoples will make their necklaces from and breast plates to protect them with good spirit medicine.
Every part of Buffalo was used for housing, clothing, tools, fur for blankets against the harsh winter cold, even the bladders were cleaned and used for gathering water and storing it. No part as said was ever wasted, as the giveaway of its life was considered a sacred act.
If Buffalo comes to you in vision/dreaming, it brings the gift of strength of body physical and spiritual, and abundance and healing.
Note: What contributed to the near extinction of the Buffalo, apart from human greed and arrogance, was its highly visible and defensively unmovable nature, While this was NOT an imbalance with their natural environment, it did make them vulnerable to the European onslaught.
Are you being too stubborn and visible in something? Are you an easy target? If so, maybe Buffalo is warning you to become more circumspect.
BUTTERFLY: There are many species of Butterfly. All begin as caterpillars which feed off plants, usually a specific variety, until they gain enough mass to form a cocoon and transform. The emergent Butterfly feeds on flower nectar. Some Butterflies, such as Swallowtail, live for only one month, enough time to find a mate. Others can live much longer. Some such as the Monarch, migrate up to 3,000 miles.
Butterfly represents balance. These air-dancers are themselves beautifully coloured and patterned. They feed on flowers, which they help pollinate, thereby further spreading beauty. They represent the element of Air, quickly changing and ever moving, so gracefully.
If Butterfly has come to you in the dreaming/vision or even physically, it may be bringing a message that whatever you were thinking or doing when it appeared is balanced and harmonious for you. They are messengers of the moment.
Whenever something in the ecosystem is damaged, Butterfly is usually the first to leave. They are especially sensitive to the harmony of Earth Mother's ways.
If Butterfly comes to you in a hurt, trapped or ill way, you are being told to stop disturbing the natural design of life and to flow with events in a more gentle , natural way.
