moonvoice (ravenari)

Lilac Breasted Roller - Showing Off

Keywords/Totem Meanings:

Getting things done 'on the fly,' multi-tasking, the element of fire, and fire magic, mental and physical acrobatics, protecting what's yours at all costs, showing off, performing and performance, sky deities, air and wind magic and wisdom, taking advantage of crises.

General Description:

The lilac-breasted roller of sub-Saharan Africa and Southwest Asia, is a prettily coloured bird known for its breeding displays of aerobatic prowess. The lilac-breasted roller feeds on insects, small amphibians and reptiles. Their nests are unlined and made in tree hollows, and occasionally in empty termite mounds. The males engage in spectacular courtship flight; flying quite high before quickly diving, rocking their wings while calling loudly and abrasively. They are territorial, monogamous birds by nature. The lilac-breasted roller will take advantage of bushfires by hunting for whatever flees the fire.

Lilac Breasted Roller as Totem by `Ravenari on deviantART


( FULL ESSAY UNDER THE CUT - including lessons and challenges, shadow totem meanings and recommendations when approaching this bird as an animal guide. )

I've been patching the new totem write-ups (description / keywords) on Facebook and Wordpress, but I decided I'd do a round up here at the very end too, and here it is.

This puts the Wildspeak Totem Dictionary up to 258 animals.


New Totems added to the Dictionary

NORTH AMERICAN PORCUPINE - BACK UP
BLACKCAP - POSSESSING A SWEET VOICE
BLUE EARED PHEASANT - ENJOYING WILD WEATHER
BROWN HONEYEATER - BALANCING YOUR ENERGY
EUROPEAN PINE MARTEN - WIT and CUNNING
HORNED (SHORE) LARK - GROUNDED and DREAMING
LEOPARD SHARK - TIDAL CYCLES
LLAMA - UNSTABLE SOCIAL CIRCLES
MARBLED POLECAT - STAND UP FOR YOURSELF
MIKADO PHEASANT - CONCEALMENT
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD - GROUP DYNAMICS

Among other things, I’m an animist with very strong totemist leanings. I suppose a lot of you could say a great big ‘duh’ to that, I run the internet’s most comprehensive totem animal dictionary (certainly in terms of word count). It may – actually – frighteningly be the most comprehensive dictionary even when compared with published works. Not only that, but I illustrate totems. And I aspect with totems. And I invoke totems and...well...you get the idea.

I used to hate basic 101 totem dictionaries. I've written articles and long essay-like responses on pagan forums about the shittiness of totem dictionaries. I own quite a few, but I was always like ‘man, these things don’t teach people the skills they need to engage with totems or to make their own dictionaries,’ and ‘they’re recycling a lot of the same information,’ and ‘cultural appropriation FTL,’ and ‘wait a minute, that’s actually completely inaccurate biological information about that animal. WTF?’

Two of these things really piss me off still; the first regarding cultural appropriation. The second regarding teaching people inaccurate information about animals. That’s poor form on behalf of the writer, but it’s also poor form on behalf of the editor, whose job it is to help qualify research in non-fiction material. It’s just poor form all around. The pagan industry can suffer from a bit of poor form at times, it’s not just totemism that cops it, as many of you know.

( Explanations and explorations. )

Quokka – Missing Parts of the Puzzle

( keywords and description inside. )

Red-Tailed Hawk – Getting Perspective

( keywords and description inside. )

Arctic Hare – Arctic wisdom.

( keywords and description inside. )

Siberian Weasel – Patron of the Arts

( keywords and description inside. )

These aren't yet coded up onto the rest of the Wildspeak dictionary, but they will be in the next couple of days. Next in the batch is the bornean clouded leopard, harbor seal, siberian tiger and golden pheasant. I haven't been posting these up for a while since I figured that people wouldn't be interesting. But; meh. Tough!

Well, it's like I'm punishing myself with HTML at the moment,
or something.

Anyway!

Keywords and brief descriptions are now available for the following 29 totems:


African Elephant
Amazon Milk Frog
American Bison
Asiatic Lion
Barn Owl
Binturong
Blue Jay
Blue Marron
Blue Mockingbird
Dhole
Emerald Moth
Giant Squid
Giraffe
Green Emerald Boa
Ground Parrot
Jackal
Ladybug
marmoset
Meerkat
Mini Lop Rabbit
Muntjac
Nautilus
Sea Otter
Sifaka
Snow Leopard
Spotted Hyena
Unicorn
Winter Wren
Wolverine


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go crawl off and hibernate in a closet for a while.

(originally posted in the Axis Mundi e-zine.)

Totems for the New Year

So often, totems are treated like accessories, animals that we show off to our like-minded friends, and that’s where the connection tends to end. But totems (of any kind) can have meaningful benefits outside of basic research into an animal’s meanings and behaviour.

Consider aligning yourself to animal totems or guides for the year ahead. What are you wanting to achieve? The messages of our animals friends are more than able to support us on our goals, and suggest new ones to boot.

( rest of the article )

Two White Ravens

My 'take a break' artwork! I heart this piece, it was spontaneous, though it was a theme I'd been wanting to express for some time. And I've been obsessed with white ravens for a long long time. Both for shamanic reasons, and because well - white can be shiny and iridescent too!





( Larger pictures behind the cut. )

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?

American Black Bear as Totem

The American black bear is a common bear species (with many subspecies) found throughout North America and well-adapted to the landscapes found throughout. They are powerful animals, able to stand on two legs, and run at fast speeds when necessary. American black bears - like most bears - are omnivores, changing their diet depending on seasonal availability. They are known to compete with wolverines, cougars and brown bears for kills / food.





American black bear as totem represents: (not exhaustive)

Sniffing out the truth, containing great power, being a mover and shaker, needing long breaks from people and projects, taking time-out, sabbaticals, climbing to the top, being misunderstood, having your true nature underestimated or overlooked, meditation, highs and lows.

Original AVAILABLE - $70 USD
18.5 x 20.5cm (or 7.4 x 8 in)
illo's board, fineliner, aquarelle, pencil, metallic and iridescent paint