Dreams and Animals Spirits

**c0sm0nautt** · 30th March 2011, 04:27 AM

Just curious if anyone buys into the idea of spirit or totem animals. I had a lucid dream where I asked to see my spirit guide, and a bunch of white butterflies flew around me and landed on my finger. It was a exhilarating dream - I woke up feeling charged with energy.

In a bunch of my non-lucid dreams I have dogs and bears appear. Dogs seem to act as guides or companions, and a lot of the dog-dreams deal with puppies interacting with my two waking reality dogs.

The bear dreams are very interesting. The bear is usually being mischievous in some way and I am trying to stop it or get away from it. Sometimes the bear jumps on top of me and just when I think I'm dead I notice that it has no desire to kill me. I can feel it's claws and breathing - it's very vivid.
The first dream involving the bear I feel had some significance. I was a Polar bear being chased by about 20 black bears. I climbed on a rock where all the other bears circled below me. They were all growling and circling me. I tried to growl to warn them off but only my human voice came out - a human growl! When I woke up to go downstairs my parents were watching a documentary on Polar bears!

What do you all think about animals in dreams? I think maybe dogs are attached to us as developing consciousness as we experience many lives (and develop our own consciousness) . The Fool Tarot ♥♥♥♥♥ comes to mind. Bears may be the collective consciousness of all bears - like a collective soul. Just some theories, I really have no idea

I'd like to hear other people's animal spirit stories. I'd also like to know if anyone has any idea of how to connect with this bear symbol. I want to make it my ally.

**Neil Templar** · 30th March 2011, 09:50 AM

i dream about animals all the time. really frequently.
if you want, look at my dream journal, you'll find countless animal dreams in there, plus some helpful responses

i most often dream of cats, big cats, Tigers and Lions. but also dogs and other animals. in the past week i've dreamed of birds twice, which is new for me... perhaps something to do with flight/air/upward movement...

i won't try to say what i think certain animals 'mean', cos i think we each have our own relationship with each animal, so the symbolism is different for everyone...tho of course there's cultural relationships with animals to take into consideration too...

the best way i know to connect with anything during dream-time, is to ask for it, while falling asleep.
just ask yourself, or the bear itself. hold it's image in your mind while you fall asleep...
and when it comes, face it, talk to it, let us know how you get on

**Neil Templar** · 30th March 2011, 11:30 AM

just saw this, might be interesting to you -
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/can-a ... mal-selves

**Tutor** · 30th March 2011, 01:43 PM

recanted...

**ButterflyWoman** · 30th March 2011, 02:54 PM

I've had a totem spirit animal since I was a small child. When I was a little girl, I said it was "imaginary", but there was and is much more to it (and the totem is still with me, and always has been, even when I was not paying attention). My totem animal is a horse. Specifically, it's a chestnut Mustang and it still answers to the name I gave it when I was four or five.

I have often dreamed of horses, but not for a long time. I think that the dreams where I'm riding a horse were about being carried by Spirit in ways I couldn't go for myself (at least at that time). I wouldn't mind having my friend the Mustang come and visit me in my dreams again, though.

Lately, I seem to have an affinity for dragonflies, as well, which is interesting. Dragonflies have very specific symbolic meaning which definitely applies to me now (but didn't in the past).

Oh, my now nine-year-old daughter has a magpie totem. She told me when she was about five or six that she had a "magpie friend" who "came and talked to her". She assured me she was not dreaming, and I believe her (she has other interesting apparent psychic abilities, too, and appears to be clairvoyant). Magpies are highly intelligent, personable, and territorial, and it's a good match for her, personality-wise. I did ask her recently if the magpie still comes around and she said that sometimes it does and they still talk, but what they talk about is private (which is fair enough; what you say to your totem is personal

).

There are quite a few threads around here about animal totem spirits, if I recall correctly. Here are a few:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9310

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=10286

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=10286

**Tutor** · 30th March 2011, 03:38 PM

CPW,

http://www.autumnskyemorrison.com/paint ... loved.html

tim

**c0sm0nautt** · 30th March 2011, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by Neil Templar

just saw this, might be interesting to you -
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/can-a ... mal-selves

I liked that article. It reminded me of a scene in Ultimate Journey where Monroe visited a world where people saw animals as their children, and lived peacefully side by side them.

Originally Posted by Neil Templar

the best way i know to connect with anything during dream-time, is to ask for it, while falling asleep.
just ask yourself, or the bear itself. hold it's image in your mind while you fall asleep...
and when it comes, face it, talk to it, let us know how you get on

Will do.

Originally Posted by Tutor

how does a bear get in a dream? or more importantly, how did a bear get from the dream (even your dream) and into seeming outlying nature. turn these questions around, from there backwards ideations that falsely believe outlying as first sight.

Hey I really liked that post - I think I get the idea of what your saying. I hope I didn't offend anyone by saying "buy into", I was just using it as a figure of speech, no real meaning implied otherwise .

Originally Posted by CaterpillarWoman

There are quite a few threads around here about animal totem spirits, if I recall correctly. Here are a few:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9310

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=10286

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=10286

Interesting. Sounds like your daughter is the next generation. =D Thanks for the links.

**ButterflyWoman** · 30th March 2011, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by c0sm0nautt

Sounds like your daughter is the next generation.

Well, she's MY next generation, anyway.

**Tutor** · 30th March 2011, 05:07 PM

Cosmo,

nah, no offense taken, or none that i can see in your words, at all to be taken offensively. we all use catch phrases and such. lord knows i do. but, 'buy into it' was the only part of your post that i saw to reply to, is all. so i went with it.

it isnt a personal reply, it is the view on "buying into" or 'selling out' the idea, as opposed to being that human which from ideas are consciously seen as potentially being.

tim