Day 45 – Dreams and Animal Totems

I have been trying this summer to remember my dreams and write them down. When I was in my thirties and forties, I recorded my dreams daily. Rarely did a night go by without remembering them. Since moving up to the woods, this practice has been abandoned to the point where remembering and recording dreams has become only sporadic.

Recently I was reminded in one of the books I was reading, that dreams do carry messages for us, and that if one records one’s dreams for 21 days, one will begin to see a pattern. I read through some of the dreams that I had recorded, and was astounded to discover that just before the ice storm of 2008, I had had two prophetic dreams about the storm. The first, about 6 weeks before the storm, I dreamed that I awoke one morning to find that a snowstorm had taken all the trees down. The town was already busy clearing the damage, and I was upset because it was so beautiful and I wanted to take photographs before they cleared it all away. The second dream I had about a week before the storm. In that dream I again dreamed that I awoke to find that a storm had taken the trees down, and that the maple at the front of the house had come down on the house. [Which is exactly what happened.] When the storm actually arrived I had no recollection of either of these dreams, and it was not until this summer that I realized I had had a couple of warnings.

Anyway, it became my intention this summer to begin again, recording my dreams, and I have been doing so. Only just lately, my dreams have been lost upon awakening – until this morning when I was happy to find I had clear memory of three. So I recorded them. 

This is the first dream.

Taken in 2009 - I didn't know what it was then.

Dream 1 – I’m sitting on my bed and there’s an animal on the bed as well – a bit like a woodchuck. I’m not sure whether to be worried or not. Then I notice a plant nearby that has brown buds on it. I pick one of the buds and toss it to the woodchuck. He eats it. I decide to test to see if he’s friendly, so I offer him one in the palm of my hand. He takes it. I decide he’s friendly. Then he wants more and starts looking for them. I’m trying to get my camera ready to take a picture of feeding him for my blog. I end up on laying my back with him crawling up my stomach desperate for the buds. I have a bit of a struggle to pick the buds and feed him and take the photo at the same time, but I manage.

I finished recording my dreams, and then picked up my e-mail and started thinking about the blog.

Yesterday’s adventures outside involved trying to get my lawnmower to start, finally succeeding, only to hit a rock which shut it down, after which I could not start it up again. The blades were not bent, but the attempts to start it up again caused a weird shaking of the motor, so I suspect something internal has been thrown off center in some way. My intention to mow the leaves up is obviously not going to happen, so I resorted to good old fashioned leaf raking. But this is hardly something one can write a whole blog entry about.

Woodchuck just emerging from under the playhouse - spring 2010.

So I pondered a bit, and then it hit me that I should look up the meaning of woodchuck. I have had an interest in shamanism for many years, and I have fully embraced the idea of animal totems, though many of those years my animal totem was ignored. (I’m sorry!)

Taking a look around!

So I looked up woodchuck in my copy of Animal Speak by Ted Andrews, and as I began to read, I got chills. [Note: Every single time I have typed woodchuck today, it has come out as woodchick – this I take to mean that my woodchuck is female. OMG – I just read this sentence, and even now when I was trying to be so careful to spell correctly, woodchuck still came out woodchick!]

Before I quote Andrews, I need to tell you that I have just within the last three or four days, been practicing the Mer-Ka-Ba breathing. I’ve know about the Mer-Ka-Ba and the breathing for several months, but it has been only after reading The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life books by Drunvalo Melchizidek that I have a greater understanding of how to do the breathing. Plus, the books give you such excitement and incentive to do this. But…it is not easy breathing to do, and will obviously take time.

The Mer-Ka-Ba is activated from the star tetrahedron which we all have surrounding our bodies. This is our light ship or flying machine to the other dimensions and to our higher selves. Once activated, it looks like a flying saucer. Who wouldn’t want to activate this?

Okay – here’s some of what Ted Andrews says about the woodchuck animal totem. Animal totems are animal Spirit guides from another dimension who help us the same way our other non animal guides help us.

Still getting his bearings.

“The groundhog or woodchuck is a burrowing rodent…It is known for its digging and tunneling ability. Symbolically this reflects the ability to get deep within an area of interest.”

“It is not unusual to have a groundhog [woodchuck] appear at a time when a new area of study is about to open up. Since a groundhog does not fully mature for about two years, its appearance as a totem can reflect an endeavor that may take two years to come to full fruition…”

“Hibernation…symbolized death without dying…opening fully to the dreamtime…”

“When groundhog shows up as a totem, there will be opportunity to explore deeper altered states of consciousness…going into the great unconscious to touch the mystery of death without dying.”

He's off - looking a bit mangy. Do woodchucks molt?

This is ALL about the Mer-Ka-Ba and ascension – just exactly what I am currently interested in, am reading about, and trying to practice at the moment.

This dream is filled with symbolism for me. The bed is the place of dreaming, and the fact that I am offering food from my palm I associate with my being a palmist – this connects the woodchuck with who I am, my path. I’m not sure what the brown bud is, or the plant, but I’m feeding the woodchuck energy – symbolizing fueling my interest with study and tunneling deep inside.

[Here’s an interesting coincidence. The morning after I attempted my first Mer-Ka-Ba breathing, my daughter e-mailed me saying that she had dreamed that I gave birth to a healthy baby boy.]

It does not escape me that two years from now we will just be approaching December 21, 2012 – the end of the Mayan calendar, and a time when perhaps, we and all of Earth will be ascending into the 4^th dimension.

When I attended a workshop on Shamanism with Michael Harner many years ago, it was suggested that one might want to keep one’s animal totem private. However, since I dreamed that I was trying to photograph the woodchick (OMG woodchuck!) for the blog, I see this as an indication that I should share this. So I do.

Perhaps you will be encouraged to record your dreams, and to look up the spiritual meaning for the animals that come to you in your dreams. Always look within yourself for the true meaning, and if an interpretation by another does not ring true, then continue your search for your own truth. My goose bumps tell me that Ted Andrew’s interpretation is ‘right on’ for me.

The photos here are of the woodchuck that lived under the playhouse this summer. They are taken through a window at a long distance, so are not the best photos. He (she?) looks like a pretty beaten up, mangy, old woodchuck, but I now embrace his/her energy.

Thank you Woodchick!