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moonvoiceCan Plants and Stones be Totems and Guides?
I think they can. It's very rare for a plant or a stone to be a totem, and was not considered even a remote possibility in some traditional cultures (I believe some North American cultures do not include plants or stones as totems), and Claude Levi-Strauss himself stated that; 'inanimate objects…come into the picture only as a secondary formation…which has nothing to do with the substance of totemism,' (1962, p. 57). Yet in some Australian Aboriginal cultures plants and stones are included (Commonwealth of Australia, 1994.), these totems were kin and had their own sacred stories and lore much in the same way that animals could.
It depends on what you believe, it's certainly less common for plants and stones to be guides or totems. I know of one person who feels a more profound connection to a granite outcrop in Western Australia, than they have to any animal, and they feel that granite outcrop teaches them and talks to them in meditation. Likewise, I know of a few people who consider certain trees to be their totems, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I tend to talk specifically about animals, but if you want to stretch the boundary, do so, especially if you feel you will benefit from looking at other forms of life for guidance, teaching and communion.
Everyone can benefit from connecting with trees and stones, we do it frequently by using divination methods like runes and ogam, but also when we use herbs to heal, or crystals to help with energy flow. Take it a step further and see if you can connect with the actual spirit that aids that energy flow, or the herbs in the tea you drink and the food you cook. You can adapt the basic animal guide meditation to suit you in these endeavours, and instead of going to meet your animal guide, you can instead take a path to enter a cave of crystals or a forest of tress that you connect with.
References:
Levi-Strauss, Claude. (1962). Totemism. The Merlin Press. London.
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation; Commonwealth of Australia. (1994). Understanding Country: The importance of land and sea in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies. Key Issue Paper No. 1. Canberra.
I think they can. It's very rare for a plant or a stone to be a totem, and was not considered even a remote possibility in some traditional cultures (I believe some North American cultures do not include plants or stones as totems), and Claude Levi-Strauss himself stated that; 'inanimate objects…come into the picture only as a secondary formation…which has nothing to do with the substance of totemism,' (1962, p. 57). Yet in some Australian Aboriginal cultures plants and stones are included (Commonwealth of Australia, 1994.), these totems were kin and had their own sacred stories and lore much in the same way that animals could.
It depends on what you believe, it's certainly less common for plants and stones to be guides or totems. I know of one person who feels a more profound connection to a granite outcrop in Western Australia, than they have to any animal, and they feel that granite outcrop teaches them and talks to them in meditation. Likewise, I know of a few people who consider certain trees to be their totems, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I tend to talk specifically about animals, but if you want to stretch the boundary, do so, especially if you feel you will benefit from looking at other forms of life for guidance, teaching and communion.
Everyone can benefit from connecting with trees and stones, we do it frequently by using divination methods like runes and ogam, but also when we use herbs to heal, or crystals to help with energy flow. Take it a step further and see if you can connect with the actual spirit that aids that energy flow, or the herbs in the tea you drink and the food you cook. You can adapt the basic animal guide meditation to suit you in these endeavours, and instead of going to meet your animal guide, you can instead take a path to enter a cave of crystals or a forest of tress that you connect with.
References:
Levi-Strauss, Claude. (1962). Totemism. The Merlin Press. London.
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation; Commonwealth of Australia. (1994). Understanding Country: The importance of land and sea in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies. Key Issue Paper No. 1. Canberra.
