Totem Animals ~ Tigers!
(Part II ~ Continuation of August 30th post)

Mary Preston is an artist who has always had a very unique and passionate relationship with animals. When I first met her in 1990, she was well known for her wearable arts - coats and jackets stenciled and embellished with animal forms (as shown below).

After getting an idea for a jacket, perhaps from a commission or inspired by a certain fabric, Mary always consulted the library for information about the animals - their behaviour, appearance, habitat and habbits. She then drew each animal and, from the drawings, cut stencils. Her coats and jackets had a magical quality and a great deal of "animal energy."

As her interest in animals, animal symbology and animal mythology grew, Mary began to study under a local Huichol shaman. She wanted to learn the methods used by these native peoples for contacting and speaking with animal spirits. After being tutored for several years, Mary is able to journey into a different world (called the lower world by the Huichols), where she can meet and converse with animals.

She is able to journey for another person and to speak with their totem animal. Let's just suppose that she is doing a journey for the purpose of meeting your totem animal. (This could actually happen... contact me for referral information.)

The journey requires that she fast for at least 8 hours and prepare herself emotionally, thus beginning the shift in her cognitive process. After several brief rituals, Mary starts each journey by imagining herself in a safe, pure and natural place, generally walking on a beach. After a while an opening occurs and she enters the lower world, where she asks politely to meet with your totem animal. Then she waits, observes, asks questions and avails herself to whatever appears.

She may see many different animals while in this trance-like state. When she has seen a specific animal several times, she will ask if it is your totem animal. She must see this animal at least four times and get confirmation from it that it belongs to you before returning to the real (or in Huichol terms, middle) world. Immediately she makes a written log of the entire journey, so as to keep track of all the nuances and details, which she then passes on to you.

Although it is not a business, Mary offers this service to those interested. If requested, she will also construct a likness of your animal, and costume it as suggested by her vision, including any companion animals that appeared to be associated with it. The doll image at the beginning of this post is the likeness she made of the animal she met while doing a journey for me ~ a Siberian tiger with rabbit, bear, otter, mouse and fish as companions. Here are two more pictures of him.

According to Mary, this is my totem animal - not necessarily my birth animal, but a very strong presence in my life at the time of thejourney she did for me. I find this quite amazing, because tigers have always held a great fascination for me. Always at the zoo, I've headed right for the tigers. At age 11, with my very first camera, a little Brownie, I took pictures of the tigers when we visited the Zoo in San Francisco on our summer vacation. I still have these pictures, sad as they are (because at that time the tigers were housed in bare cages, unlike habitat areas many zoos have nowadays).

Here are a few more recent ways tigers have shown up in my life.

A decade or so ago I was in Rathdrum, Idaho, and happened to hear about an animal rescue program that was open to public visit - Noah's Exotic Wildlife Shelter (no website). Somehow I found the place, which turned out to be a private home with government-approved animal enclosures at the rear of the 5-acre property. Glenda York and her husband, over the years had assumed the care for animals that were no longer wanted or needed by their owners (tigers and lions) or wild animals that had been injured or abandoned (bob cats and cougers).

Glenda took me out to see their brood, and there was Olivia, the most beautiful tiger I'd ever seen! Glenda showed me how I could put my hip against the heavy chain link enclosure so Olivia could strop or rub against me. I also put the top of my head against the enclosure, and felt/heard her gentle snuffle snuffle as she investigated my hair. Later I wrote the following poem about this experience.

EYE CONTACT
making eye contact
with a 300 pound tigress
nose to nose
deep yellow eyes
hers
and mine brown
held together longer
than comfort prefers
brain wanting to disengage
from experience
wanting to analyze my reactions
what reactions
there are no reactions
only the experience of it
of eyes meeting eyes
blinking
and meeting again
blinking
and meeting again
brain still working on it
still trying
to make sense of it
or maybe
looking for magic
on another level
wanting
a spiritual handle
a deep meaning
to be revealed
from this eye contact
where
in this time
we are inside
each others heads
I in her cage
she in mine
or are we
I don’t know

A few years later, I returned with a camera, and took this picture of Olivia.



I keep in touch with Glenda, and send her donations whenever I can to help with food for Olivia and the other big cats. They operate on the edge, with donations from people like me, their own personal work income, local restaurants which collect and give table scraps, road kill from the country, volunteer veterinarian services, etc. Yet, for twenty years they've kept their big cats well fed, healthy and contented, while at the same time providing valuable education and opportunities to visitors.

This is one of Olivia's whiskers, as compared to one from our cat...

Do you remember the needle-felted rabbit from the previous post, the one I made in a class? Well, the next day or so I made this needle-felted tiger mask.



Long before Mary journeyed for me, while on a bead buying trip in China, I learned about tiger shoes, lovingly made for Chinese boys and thought to bring strength and courage into their lives. As soon as I heard about them, I was determined to find a pair. Here's what I finally found in a small antique shop in Shandong Province (along with a couple of other tiger things from my studio).



Here are two special tiger buttons in my collection. Both are hand done using scrimshaw techniques. The fist is Japanese, done on bone. The second is by an American artist, Diane Schefferly, done on mother-of-pearl.





Have you enjoyed being with tiger energy during this post? Even if you take the concept of totem animals with a grain (or even many grains) of salt, I believe that observing, learning about, and finding a way to assist an animal that seems special to you is something that circles back to you in a very positive way. Thank you for taking this little safari with rabbit, tiger and me!

Totem Animals

I've been interested in the concept of totem animals ever since I was a kid and learned about totem poles in school. The teacher told us about a belief common to many Native American tribes that when each individual is born an animal spirit comes forward as a life-time helper and guide. Of course I was very curious as to which animal might have come forward for me.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I feel that having a totem animal guide is not in conflict with Christian beliefs, unless it becomes a form of worship. I have friends who consider their totem animal a "higher power." There must also be some who don't accept the idea of an animal guide. What are your thoughts and feelings about it?

Whenever I mention "totem animal" to anyone, they always ask how they can know which animal is their guide. One way suggested by Ted Andrews (who wrote Animal Speak), is to look at your past, especially your childhood.

What animal were you most drawn to in books?
What animal was first on your list to see at the zoo?
What animal story appealed to you most?
Did you ever have an imaginary animal friend?
Have you saved any childhood animal doll, picture, charm, etc.?
What animal have you collected?
What animal has shown up consistently in your life?

My favorite book as a child was Marshmallow, written and illustrated by Clare Turlay Newberry. Meet Marshmallow below. I still have my original childhood copy of this delightful book (which has totally fallen apart from constant reading), as well as a copy I bought on eBay (which is less worn).

And here is Marshmallow with Oliver, who wasn't so sure about the advisability of adding a bunny to the family, but who by the end of the book was completely won over.

Here is a poem from the book, which I could recite as a child from memory.

A bunny nibbles all day long.
A bunny doesn't think it's wrong.
He nibbles mittens, mufflers, mops,
He only pauses when he hops.
He nibbles curtains, lamp-cords, shoes,
He only stops to take a snooze.

Sofa pillows, ribbons, rugs -
He takes a mouthful, then he tugs.
Galoshes, boxes, books, and string -
A bunny nibbles everything.

Here are a few of the rabbit buttons I've collected in recent years.

And here are some of my more special rabbit buttons - scrimshaw on bone - made in Japan.

Here's just a few of the many rabbit things I have in my studio.

When I took a needle felting class about 6 years ago, here's what I made.

Here's a beautiful little quilted rabbit wall hanging made for me by a dear quilting/beading friend. It hangs in my studio above a picture of myself at about 3 years old.

I've always been drawn to rabbits. I am upset to tears (and financial contributions to PETA) by industry's use of rabbits for testing cosmetic and household products. Until recent years, I collected rabbit things without even realizing I was doing it. Could these things be an indication that rabbit is my totem animal? According to Ted Andrews, the answer is yes.

If there is an animal that has shown up consistently in your life, you might want to look it up on this site and check out what Animal Speak has to say about it. Also watch for frequent signs in the next couple of weeks. Did you open a magazine and there was a picture of this animal? Did you look at birthday cards for a friend, and the first one you picked up was of this animal? Were you suddenly aware of this animal in an ad during your favorite TV show? If you get signs such as this, it's further confirmation that this may be your totem animal.

At this point in my life, I'm fairly certain that I have two totem animals - one is my life guide, the other showed up in my late 40's. I will share some more about that in my next post.

PS. Click on any picture to see it enlarged. Look in the comments to this post for my reply to your comments.