Hello!

Welcome to my first ever blog about ‘animal totems’. If you do not know what this means, that is understandable as we city dwellers tend to live in a world that is highly disconnected from nature. Urban sprawls and nature shrinks more everyday. It is my goal to bring nature back into our hearts and our every day lives.

Following your animal totems means paying attention to what animals are showing up in your daily life and following their ‘medicines’. Each animal carries with it it’s own special words of wisdom or advise based on how it exists on our earth.

For example, squirrels can teach us about activity and preparing for the future. Ravens are all about magic and are symbols of both creation and spiritual strength. They can teach us how to be playful and amorous. Eagle is all about creativity and a willingness to seek out our true emotional aspects. Eagle can teach us how to soar in our own lives. Personal sightings or even feelings of affiliation towards different animals can be clues from the universe as to what you may need to either take on or get rid of in your own life in order to feel good.

Spring often brings with it a cleaning and purging of what is no longer needed. The animals we see most often during spring reflect this accordingly.

• Are you wearing too many masks in your life? Juggling too many roles? Feeling the need for disguise or secrecy? Perhaps Raccoon will be paying you a visit. When we wear masks we are no longer who we once were a moment before. When do you put your masks on? With whom? Is it beneficial for you or not? Raccoon, that curious little rascal, can assist us in changing our various faces.

• Are you seeing our 8 legged friends? Perhaps you are being asked to think about your links to your past and future. Spider ties these all together into a web of now. It reminds us that we create our own web in which we live. Are you not weaving your dreams into reality? Why not? Spider can help you if you feel as if you are stuck in your own web.

• Are you feeling emotionally disconnected or displaced? Perhaps a pair of ducks and their cute fluffy little ducklings will be able to show you how to find sustenance in your emotions. To be able to operate so that we do not close off our emotions, but rather, to be able handle our emotions with more grace and comfort. Duck medicine can guide us back to those parts of ourselves in which we feel safe and comfortable.

It’s now late spring and it is a great time to be outside! Living in Vancouver is a huge bonus as we have multiple avenues for exploring nature. I urge you to take a walk around the seawall, to go into the forest, or to take a stroll around Lost Lagoon. You will not regret it. Nature is highly restorative for our human bodies and minds and nervous systems.

Nature rules. It is gentle and resilient and magical and pure. Let it guide you.

Amber Williams – AKA – natures #1 advocate