Photo by Manish Tulaskar on Unsplash
Totems and Transformation
In college we often would play a game while sitting around in someone’s dorm room after the 9:00 p.m. curfew. Someone would ask, “What kind of … are you?” and we would go around the room and hear what each person had to say. It was fun and led to some interesting conversations.
What kind of flower are you?
Rose: red rose, long stemmed (from a tall natural redhead)
Daisy: (Strong, sexy, “love me, love me not”)
Chrysanthemum: (From a cheer leader who shook her hands as if holding pom-poms. Everybody laughed because it was both funny and true.)
Daffodil: (sunny, but an unkindness would fall like wet snow breaking her stem)
Fireweed: A woman who would graduate in nursing.
Tulip: (My choice; bright color, straight stem, resilient: petals close up if it gets cold)
What kind of drink are you? Jasmine tea, white wine, beer, cold water, Johnny Walker Black Label Scot Whiskey (me, who might then and now have one shot now and then).
What kind of reptile are you? Snake, dragon, whiptail lizard, chameleon. I named turtle but had trouble selling it because I am not slow (neither are turtles in water).
If one of us didn’t have an answer, others could offer suggestions. It was fun to explore our own and others’ perceptions.
If asked we might have said an archetype was a term an architect would use. The word “totem” had the word “pole” attached to it.
A Totem Animal
Over a decade later—a dramatic and life changing time in the world of Civil Rights and Viet Nam protest and actions—a totem animal chose me. I was camping in Bandelier National Monument where my family spent the day climbing ladders around its ancient cliff dwellings. We were in our turquoise-colored dome tent which had room for our double sleeping bag and the children’s and all the camping kitchen gear.
Here’s the story:
I wake in the earliest light of morning at the raucous call of a bird in the tree directly behind our tent. It calls again and again. Finally I extract myself from the sleeping bag, unzip the screen door and crawl out of the tent. I want to know what bird it is and why it keeps making that very loud sound right above my head.
I look up and on the lowest branch, directly above the tent, is a big, black bird with a black hooked beak, and black eyes pinned on me. I think I hear the word “Finally” in my head, but it is more like a feeling. It rises on both black legs, opens both wings, folds them back, opens them up again, repeating this three times. Then it launches and flies over my head straight into the rising sun. Its feathers in that light shine silver, a suggestion of turning white. The second night it rains a little and in the morning when we pack up to leave I find Raven tracks all around the tent.
By now I knew a totem pole was a series of carved totems, living creatures whose spirits are sacred. A totem is a symbol of a group of people. My clan, the Stewarts, has a mother pelican. An individual might have a personal totem, and experience them as a protector, companion, or spirit guide. Evidently Raven was mine.
My work as a “Raven”
I became an Organizational Development consultant inside two corporations and a municipal. My work involved helping people clean away what’s dead in both strategy and conflict management situations. We often redesigned the way work flowed or the organizational structure to create work that was alive and allowed the individuals and the corporation to evolve, transforming into new ways of being. I didn’t go around consciously thinking “This is Raven at work”; but Raven is interested in getting rid of old baggage and I loved doing this work. I’ve posted several blogs that explore how to do this work, its results, and how you might also do it within your family and volunteer organization. They are linked for you at the end.
I did know it was Raven work when I became a Lay Eucharistic Minister for my church. For a decade I took communion to people who could not come to church because they were very ill and/or dying. They were thrilled to talk to a person unafraid of death, who didn’t say “I need you” to make them stay, or “you’ll get better” when they knew they were dying. I think every family needs a feather or two of Raven in these situations.
Choosing White Raven – the time when the earth heals
I learned the mythology around Raven, the old stories. Raven is black because he steals fire from the gods to warm the people of earth. I particularly liked the idea that when the world heals Raven will turn white again. I chose that image for my website. We are at that moment of opportunity.
Raven calls for the cleaning away of all that is rotting and already dead. Transformation is required to heal ourselves, and the elementals Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. We start with ourselves.
Susan Andra Lyon
Turtle as Totem #2
Then, while working as an Organizational Development consultant in corporations, Turtle as a second totem animal came to me in dreams over several years. I didn’t remember until writing this blog that I’d called myself a turtle in the college game and had to defend my choice. When I shared my first dream with a friend and co-worker, he responded by bringing me a carved turtle to put on my desk. Friends brought stone, wood, plastic toy turtles to me from all over the world. The story Turtle Dreams on my website fictionalizes my experience.
The presence of the totem of Turtle teaches me to take the time to slow down in my practical, external life and let myself swim freely in the inner seas of the archetypal, mythological worlds.
I asked Google AI about Turtle as a symbol across world cultures. Turtles “appear in myths as world-bearers and embody concepts from fertility to good fortune in traditions like Hinduism, Chinese culture, and Celtic lore.”
Google AI’s Specific Associations for Turtles:
- Longevity & Wisdom: Their long lives link them to wisdom, experience, and enduring health.
- Protection & Perseverance: The shell symbolizes a safe home, resilience, and steadfastness, offering protection.
- Earth & Creation: Many myths, especially Native American, feature turtles bringing up mud to form the Earth, symbolizing creation and connection to
- Grandmother Earth (Mother Earth).
My land-going turtle association:
- Patience & Steadfastness: Their slow, deliberate movement represents the value of patience, persistence, and taking things step-by-step.
My ocean-going turtle association:
- Spirituality & Transformation: They connect to ancient wisdom, the moon (in some tribal calendars), and spiritual journeys.
In my life and work today, I allow the external, practical world to move at its pace. I am learning Patience as a core virtue. Given my permission to swim freely, my ocean-going inner self decides to get up at 4 AM every day and write. (Going to bed at 8:00 – 8:30.) My practical slow-moving land-going turtle suggested a baby monitor in the house so I will hear if I am needed. No one is awake but me as I swim through these precious hours.
So I am writing this to you from my southwest facing porch, watching the stars and crescent moon fade slowly as the dawn pinks the puff clouds on the west horizon. Now birds are beginning to twitter, to fly and hop around looking for breakfast. I have another hour before I begin my practical, slow-moving day. Creative endeavor flows.
I give thanks to the totem creatures of the world
Offering their beingness to guide us to being whole.
Praise to Raven and Turtle.
For coming to me as totems of transformation.
“What if I Don’t Know My Totem?!”
Over half the world lives in cement and asphalt. Both these things are made from Earth but surround us in a form very unlike open plains or forests. In any environment but especially this one how can your totem find you? Get you to notice it? From my experience they seem to be quite versatile about messaging. Please frame any exploration you might make as a journey, not an opportunity for failure.
I believe archetypes live within you ready to be activated by a Call in the outer or inner worlds of your life. It may not be an animal. Our college game asked good questions. “What kind of tree am I” might bring an answer; an oak tree is the totem for a woman I know, and she has a lovely one growing in her garden. The totem for one man I know well is a brown bear. One woman’s is clearly Rose.
I have an affinity for giraffes—I love their body shape, the way they move, their small group process—but they are not my totem animal. Liking or not liking doesn’t appear to be part of the process. A friend of mine laughed when he realized Dog was his totem while his new puppy snuggled beside him on the couch. It was more than liking dogs—each of his dogs had taught him something important and he’d volunteered Saturdays for years at a local dog pound, connecting people and dogs.
Photo by Bastien Jaillot on Unsplash
We can be grateful to the photographers who photoed and recorded hundreds of hours of how the earth is/was before these last decades of destruction leading to our heating planet. If you watch video programs note when you are attracted to something and want to replay it. I went to the zoo and sat on the bench in front of the turtle viewing window for hours, watching how they moved in the water. Turtle’s first lesson came when I realized that the protective shell of a turtle is not removable. Turtle can’t crawl out of it. A wound that created a need for protection may heal, and then the shell protects us from the triggering of our heartstrings.
Creating a ritual search, perhaps going on a vision quest, seems to be one way for a totem to come to you. Play the college game with friends you trust, and once they are warmed up, relaxed and having fun, ask the question, “If I were a totem, what would I be?” When it’s your turn observe what comes out of your mouth and how other people respond. Be open to the journey so your totem doesn’t have to sit over your head raucously calling for an hour. Remember it may not be an animal.
Of course I hope you will comment on this blog. Other readers might enjoy knowing about your totem or what this topic fosters in you. You can email (give me permission to quote or not—anonymous or not). It’s also good for to share by clicking on Comment!
References
My browser is Google and I included Google AI search information.
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