Shamanic Pathways 09 - Cheetah vs. Snail

[moonvoice]

I've often talked about how snail is a part of my life, a trusted guide, a wonderful helper, and so on. So much so, that some of my friends call me 'snaily P.' I have always loved snails, of all kinds; but especially your bog-standard european garden snail, which is a bit of a pest here in Australia. Snail reminds me that for the sake of my health, my wellbeing, my sanity, my ability to execute skilled artwork, I have to slow down and appreciate the small things in life.

I have a cheetah energy in my life, I'm not sure if it is cheetah, but that's what I call her. Cheetah is fast and powerful. When she's resting she's impatient and hungry for success and triumph. She wants to be running and catching the things she desires. She tells me to do it ALL. That if I do it all fast enough, I can attain everything I want. She walks off in a huff when I remind her that cheetahs burn a lot of energy when they sprint, which is why they need clear focus. Ultimately she tells me to be an opportunist, to sprint when I need to sprint. But her energy in the back of my head gets me feeling agitated, stressed, and not appreciating the journey. Going too fast, and working too hard, for my own comfort.

The cheetah and the snail have opposing energies, at least right now. I have gotten sick, more times than I can remember, by listening to cheetah's agitation and impatience. By trying to do it all. I have worked consecutive 10 hour days. I have forgotten to sleep. I have told myself that if I just bury my energy into this one goal (no matter what it is), I'll triumph and then I can rest. The problem is, no one goal is good enough, and I never end up resting.

On the other hand, listening to snail has had me quitting the jobs that helped to make me sick. Has me sitting and looking at the small things in life. And sometimes taking things so slowly that I miss out on opportunities to learn and grow. By looking at the details, I sometimes miss the big picture. Snail can see the leaf in front of it, but it may not see the gardener behind it waiting to throw him over the fence. Cheetah sees the big plains, has to in order to survive. But Cheetah doesn't see any wisdom in knowing the leaves on a tree. The individual flowers on a flowering branch.

One area of my life that I seek to balance, almost constantly, is cheetah's 'let's do it quickly and with high energy,' with snail's 'let's do it slowly and with little energy.' It's 'big picture' vs. 'small picture.' I've been skewed more towards the cheetah almost all my life, and suffered dire consequences. And now the pendulum is swinging back towards snail and eventually, the pendulum will settle and I will know a thing that I bemusedly call 'intermittent balance.' Because the pendulum is never truly still, and because sometimes it's good to shake things up a bit to reveal further wisdoms that lie hidden like pebbles beneath the still lake.

I do need to go through a 'snail phase.' It is always with snail that I do the most of my internal healing. And it is always with cheetah that I achieve the most of my external triumphs and successes; even if I do struggle to recognise them for what they are. Finding balance, so far, has not been an easy thing for me. But it is something I know I'll get from applying a diligent, opportunistic work ethic; with a stable and solid grounding in knowing when to rest.

And see? In my last sentence of that last paragraph, right there is my paradox. For when I apply the principles of attaining balance in this area of my life - through knowing when to seize the achievements and then being able to slow down enough to appreciate them for what they are - I will have already attained it.

Do you have opposing energies in your life? What are they? What directions do they pull you and what sort of 'middle ground' are you looking for? Have you ever experienced totem animals that just didn't get along with each other, or seem to have energies that were in any way compatible? How did you deal with it?

Comments

[liondaughter.livejournal.com]

"Slow is fast." :-)

[anrui-ichido.livejournal.com]

In my astrological chart, I'm all water and fire, so you could say most of my energies are opposing, in a way, but it's wonderful when I can manage to get them to work together because there ARE things they have in common too: creativity, emotions, movement.

The fire is all extroverted, wants to drive forward, wants to react in the moment, wants to be with people all the time. Water is all introverted, wants to look inward, wants to take time to think and feel first, wants time to be alone. I get a lot of opposing tensions, so I need the little air I have in me to determine which is best for each individual situation.

Have you ever considered finding a totem/energy that could mediate the two? The pendulum may always swing to one extreme or the other once in a while, but what is a balance/scale made of but two extremes?

Deliberately Insane

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

Having Bear and Coyote with me is sometimes trying. Bear is deliberate - everything she does is carefully calculated and measured. It's the part of me that weighs every single possible outcome of any decision before acting on it. Even when I know, in my gut, something HAS to change, it can take me a long time to reach a place where I feel safe enough to make that change. My job at the Excalibur was a good one - I knew 2 years into it that I hated it with every fiber in my being, but another 5 to finally quit. Bear likes the security and comfortable things, convenient things... but she is also very wary of things that look too convenient and comfortable.

Coyote is impulsive and spontaneous. Coyote speaks first and then thinks it over - if he even bothers to think about it at all. Coyote is also a lover of the good things in life, and not as wary as Bear, and he's gotten me into situations that Bear has to get me out of, even if it takes her awhile. Bear is moderate, Coyote does things in excess, takes every joke a little too far. I can only act like Bear for so long - it's kind of like Coyote is my Evil Twin. Sometimes I just say & do things that no decent person, and definitely not Bear, would ever think to say or do - and that's when you can see the brushy desert-colored tail peeking out under my hem.

[darakat-ewr.livejournal.com]

I do tend to have bouts of creativity and they can be quite effective. I tend to relate my creativeness to relate my creativeness as a particular energy that comes and goes but what spirit its related to I am not sure and something I will give thought to.

[bewylderbeast.livejournal.com]

Cheetah reminds me a lot of my Mania aspect. Something that pushes forward, but doesn't see where faorward leads. Of course, when I'm trapped in Mania, I can't access a counter-energy to balance it out.

[aleia-kali.livejournal.com]

That was interesting to read. I don't know much about animal energies.

[dragonsrmd.livejournal.com]

The two most prominent energies in my life are *do* and *don't*

Do is my confidence, she's very strong willed, she reminds me that I've got years of experience at what I do and that my opinion is valid. She's also the intellectual, enjoying study and the accumulation of new knowledge. However she has the attention span of a two year old and the patience to match. If I'm stuck in traffic or late for whatever reason she practically hyperventilates, and if I get my foot caught in my mouth then you can guarantee that it's because of her!

Don't is all "don't rush","don't bother" and on really negative days "you can't" Don't tells me to slow down and think about things tells me to analyze things more. He's an excellent diplomat and often in my job it's a very important asset, however he can be too submissive at times and backs down when he should maybe stand his ground.

For a lot of my life don't has been more prominent then do, until the last couple of years when do has become more dominant, and fortunately I'm starting to find balance (fingers crossed at least!) I've always wondered what animal energies suit them best but could never quite discover which ones they were!

[mirrorred-star.livejournal.com]

I always tend back towards what's safe, what I already know, and I need to learn to push myself, to challenge myself, to learn that failure is not the end of the world and that it's often a better teacher than success.

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

for me, the opposing energies are impulse, and health. I have a tendency to act without thinking, but also knowing that I'm doing so and that it isn't good for me, even as I'm doing it.

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

Also, haven't had any totems address this just yet, though I do have someone hekping me with related stuff.