totemic selves
nellorat asked a question about totems: "FOR MY LJ FRIENDS: What are your totems, what do they reveal about your nature, and what insights can they offer about your current life?" (It's worth reading the whole post).
I replied there, but thought I'd repost her question and my (edited) comment here, since our flists aren't identical, and I'm curious about my LJ friends' thoughts as well.This is -- for me -- a wonderful and timely question. I haven't thought about this in a long time, and it's a helpful series of metaphors for me. And I've been thinking recent;y I need to do some introspection, rebalance, refocus.
-- Raccoon: as the North Eastern American variation on the Chinese Monkey. Curious, capable, can bite off more than it can handle. Not as drawn to Ooh Shiny as a Raven, but similar. Can be intelligent and foolish, sometimes concurrently.
-- Skunk: private, tends toward mellowness, extremely annoying when annoyed, yet never desiring outright harm.
Had some others, but I'll have to consider these a little more. Beaver? Toad? I wear a bear paw as part of my tattoo, but that might be better interpreted as a reflection of and connection to one of my sisters and my brother, rather than a symbol of myself. I will someday have also a very gnarled tree as part of another tattoo, which will represent my spirit, I think (or perhaps more accurately my hopes for it): Old, surprising, weathered, durable, grounded, fruitful. Heh. No wonder I'm not wearing it yet. *chuckle*
I the past I used a dragon as an iconic representation of me/my presence/my signature. I also used a cougar similarly (and generally subsequently). I might have desired the cougar as a totem, but I am sure somehow that it isn't. I was given the nickname of "rodent woman" when I lived in Montana, which referred to my small quick busy-ness. In that light, this was and is probably accurate, and a chipmunk or red squirrel might be the most fitting there.
I don't feel "connected" to these animals per se. I don't decorate my space with any of these, the way a friend's life is filled with frogs. I don't identify with them (I'm not a furry, not even a little bit). It's more a matter of given the symbolism and behaviors I know of these, which one(s) metaphorically represent myself as I see myself? As I am seen? As I am? In turn, what do I want and perhaps need to learn from these? ?
What about you, for yourself?
Would you want others to share their totemic ideas/animalistic representations of you with you? I'm curious whether my self-conceptions jive at all with your conceptions, and vice versa as well of course. (This is of course a fun and silly conversation to have about other people, as well as to/with them. *grinchuckle*)
I replied there, but thought I'd repost her question and my (edited) comment here, since our flists aren't identical, and I'm curious about my LJ friends' thoughts as well.This is -- for me -- a wonderful and timely question. I haven't thought about this in a long time, and it's a helpful series of metaphors for me. And I've been thinking recent;y I need to do some introspection, rebalance, refocus.
-- Raccoon: as the North Eastern American variation on the Chinese Monkey. Curious, capable, can bite off more than it can handle. Not as drawn to Ooh Shiny as a Raven, but similar. Can be intelligent and foolish, sometimes concurrently.
-- Skunk: private, tends toward mellowness, extremely annoying when annoyed, yet never desiring outright harm.
Had some others, but I'll have to consider these a little more. Beaver? Toad? I wear a bear paw as part of my tattoo, but that might be better interpreted as a reflection of and connection to one of my sisters and my brother, rather than a symbol of myself. I will someday have also a very gnarled tree as part of another tattoo, which will represent my spirit, I think (or perhaps more accurately my hopes for it): Old, surprising, weathered, durable, grounded, fruitful. Heh. No wonder I'm not wearing it yet. *chuckle*
I the past I used a dragon as an iconic representation of me/my presence/my signature. I also used a cougar similarly (and generally subsequently). I might have desired the cougar as a totem, but I am sure somehow that it isn't. I was given the nickname of "rodent woman" when I lived in Montana, which referred to my small quick busy-ness. In that light, this was and is probably accurate, and a chipmunk or red squirrel might be the most fitting there.
I don't feel "connected" to these animals per se. I don't decorate my space with any of these, the way a friend's life is filled with frogs. I don't identify with them (I'm not a furry, not even a little bit). It's more a matter of given the symbolism and behaviors I know of these, which one(s) metaphorically represent myself as I see myself? As I am seen? As I am? In turn, what do I want and perhaps need to learn from these? ?
What about you, for yourself?
Would you want others to share their totemic ideas/animalistic representations of you with you? I'm curious whether my self-conceptions jive at all with your conceptions, and vice versa as well of course. (This is of course a fun and silly conversation to have about other people, as well as to/with them. *grinchuckle*)