Animal Totem

There's a monthly Witches Meetup in Reno on the third Tuesday of every month. I rarely get to go, as I take classes every other Tuesday, so quite often my class night conflicts with the Meetup.

Last night was one of those rare occurences when I was able to go.

The two organizers are wonderful. They always have some sort of plan for every meeting, which makes it fun (and is why I hate missing them when I can't go). Last night, they handed out an Animal Totem worksheet, so we could figure out what our Animal Totem is (at least, those of us who haven't figured it out already...).

One of the guys in the group and I have very similar views about cats. We both have three cats, and can't imagine life without cats. When we were discussing totems, it turns out we have the same thoughts: that cats almost seem like too convenient a totem for us, yet we can't help but think cats are our totem animal.

We answered as many questions on the worksheet as we could (the first part was easy, but when it came to figuring out our Journey Totem, Shadow Totem and Message Totem, it was much more difficult). Since we were sitting next to each other, I found myself periodically casting a glance at his worksheet, and caught him looking at mine a few times.

I think we found each other's worksheets fascinating because, at least on the first page, we had pretty much the same answer for each question.

So, it turns out that even though I've been doubting that a cat could be my totem (for many, discovering their totem animal is a huge revelation; for me, I've just always felt it would be a cat), I discovered that yes, according to the worksheet, cats are my totem animal.

The others, though, I just couldn't figure out. Like the guy beside me, I couldn't fill out those questions and I didn't have answers. Questions like "What animal are you dreaming about lately," and "What new animal are you attracted to," and "What animal surprised or startled you today" just simply don't have answers.

I don't dream about animals normally, although there have been times Glindy or one of the cats has popped into my dream life. But it's a rare occasion when they do. I tend to dream of places...not things or people or animals.

And, I suppose because I live in the suburbs, I don't come across "new" animals, nor do animals surprise me (although I understand the term "animals" is to be used loosely, as we're also supposed to think of insects as well).

So for now, I'll just have to take comfort with the fact that I do, in fact, have a totem animal and that if it's important for me to find out that I also have a Journey, Shadow and Message Totem, I will...someday.