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THE MYSTERY AND MAGIC OF PREDATOR AND PREY

The average person rarely understands his/her connection to and impact upon the environment. Most people live in the cloistered environments of the city, away from the wild or the truly natural world. Our trees and lawns are manicured. Our food is bought already prepared and packaged. Many see animal life as being either cute little Teddy Bear figures, or as “wascally wabbit” types as found on television and in cartoons. The only contact many have with truly wild animals are those which have adapted to living within city environments-the squirrels, raccoons, robins, and such.

Because of this, it is not surprising that most people do not feel a part of the natural world. There is little connection to it, and thus even less concern for it. For some it may hold a small fascination, but for many more there is a lack of reverence, respect, and understanding for it. The world is merely a distant, abstract object full of different creatures and plants, with no life or purpose of its own other than to take care of us.

Seven of my years of teaching were spent in a special, alternative education program in the inner city. Our goal was to take students who had behavioral, social, financial, and academic problems and train them for entry-level positions in the work field. Most of the students were unable to function within the regular high schools and probably would never finish their formal education. Illiteracy was widespread, and criminal records were not uncommon. And most had traveled no further than to where the city buses could carry them.

During my last year with this program, I arranged a number of field trips. One of these trips was to the Cincinnati Zoo, about fifty miles away. Only a handful had ever been to a zoo, and they had not been there since they were very little children. The response was amazing.

I have never seen such pure wonder, awe, and excitement. Every time I turned around, students were running up to me, breathlessly describing some “weird” animal they had seen. I was being tugged in every direction to “Come see this!” Eyes that often seemed cold and vacant became wide and alive. Students who rarely smiled bubbled over. Those who were usually fighting were open and friendly. And all of them, who were so used to proving they were tough and adult, got to experience part of the wonder of childhood discovery that they had lost or never had.

It spoke to each of them intimately. On the bus back conversations were fresh and lively, even when some lighthearted arguing ensued over each of their favorite animals. Soon the conversations diminished and the students settled into a quiet contemplation. As we got closer to the school, postures changed. Some of the changes were subtle. Quiet contemplation shifted to masks of stoicism, and eyes became vacant and unreadable once more. Other changes were not so subtle. Some students began to fidget. Conversations began once more, but no longer were they lighthearted and focused on the fun of the zoo. Some suddenly seemed to be embarrassed by their own behavior at the zoo and their childlike excitement over the animals. They began to posture to the others on the bus and play it off. Some were quietly nervous with eyes darting, searching the faces of others to discover if the day’s childlike release would come back to haunt them. Smiles disappeared, and there were even a few eyes that were moist. It was a moment of sweet sadness.

The trip had created a memory that they would be able to draw upon the rest of their lives, but it also reminded them of how different the world was than they had ever perceived it. It reminded them that there was so much to be discovered outside of the neighborhood. It was then that I realized they had truly experienced a kind of culture shock.

They were not prepared for the immersion into the strange animal world. Yes, they knew what zoos were, and they had seen animal and zoo depictions on television, but it was not the same. Their experience stirred wonder, bewilderment, and even disorientation, but it also triggered a new reading of their present reality. The world was no longer the same. It no longer was confined to the concrete and sidewalks of the city’s neighborhoods. It was much greater and more complex than they had ever imagined, and this scared them.

Although this is a somewhat extreme situation-albeit not uncommon-it did reveal that most people have distorted perceptions of the natural world. Animals are alien life forms to most people. Their behaviors and activities appear strange, mysterious, and entirely disconnected to human life. The wrong assumptions about animals and the natural world abound in today’s society.

Probably the most mysterious, and thus the most misunderstood, aspect of the natural world is the mystery of predator and prey. Most assume when you mention predator and prey that the reference is to those who kill and those who are killed. The truth is that, in the animal world, most fall in between these two extremes. Sometimes the predator is also the prey. A snake will swallow a frog, but then it is plucked up and eaten by a red-tailed hawk.

When we study the process of predator and prey and learn of its natural and spiritual significance, our misconceptions begin to crumble. We begin to understand that there is a power and magic in the animal world, especially in its relationship to us. We begin to realize that every species is linked to every other animal and human-in the ecosystem in staggering ways.

Predators and prey are found everywhere. A predator can be defined as one who has the ability to take live prey. Humans have often exalted in the beauty, power, and majesty of predator animals. We have exalted in their wild freedom. Birds of prey have been commanding symbols of authority and awesome omens of battle.

There has always been a contest between predator and prey in the natural world, and life is always the prize. Owls search for mice. Warblers search for insects, and hawks search for warblers. The predation process takes time, patience and skill. It sharpens the senses. The strongest, most alert and knowledgeable will survive. Animals grow stronger and wiser trying to avoid being caught.

When you work with spirit totems from the natural world, the mystery and power of predation will be awakened within your own life. Understanding it to its fullest extent will be necessary to work its magic within your own life circumstances and environment. Predation in the natural world holds four primary lessons for humans. Each of these lessons has its own corresponding form of magic.

On a mystical level, each can also be related to one of the four directions and to one of the four elements. These correspondences are, of course, general. They are not locked in stone. They simply provide a jumping-off point for understanding and working with predation from a practical, magical perspective. It also reflects the universality and balance found within the mysteries of predation in the natural world that can be yours if you learn to work them. Understanding these lessons, their correspondences, and their magic is the key to making your life more creative, healing, and spiritual through the use of spirit totems.

THE LESSON OF LIFE, DEATH, AND REBIRTH
MAGIC:	DIRECTION
ELEMENT:	FIRE
DIRECTION:	SOUTH

Life and death are the two most creative processes we experience. And yet both are filled with mystery and superstition. Life is difficult for most to understand and death is difficult for most humans to accept. We have built a tremendous fear around it. The processes involved in both life and death are complex. Birth and death are the greatest changes we can encounter, but they are not the only ones.

When we examine birth and death, we want to view them as changes or transitions, not as final states. Change occurs on many levels and at many different times within our lives. Changes are blessings. They are signal flares of new growth. Loss and gain are relative terms, but it is always our fear of death or change that prevents us from exploring new ways. The changes we go through on a daily basis are miniature mirrors of the entire life, death and rebirth process. Many ancient traditions involved rites of passage, symbolic rituals of birth, death, and rebirth. A person would die to one stage of life to be reborn to a new. Every day we are challenged in some way to let go of the old and create the new. Each of us is challenged by our life circumstances.

When you work with spirit animals and totems, this mystery will become more defined. You will begin to see the little deaths and rebirths in your life on a daily basis. You will begin to see them in the same rhythms and patterns of your totem. You will begin to see how you can use the life and death process to end aspects of your life and to create new ones.

Predation in the natural world can teach us how to develop no fear of death while maintaining a high regard for life. Those in the natural world do not worry about death. Their focus is on living. If death approaches, they fight fervently, not giving in and living to the fullest. Each day and moment is taken for what it is. Every day’s activities is lived with the same fervor and intensity as the next. There is a sense of living in a perpetual present. There is no past, and the future takes care of itself. Every day is a new creation in which the natural energies of the animal are applied with fresh vigor.

Many have difficulty reconciling predation with anything other than cruelty. We must remember, though, that predation links predator and prey, killer and victim, together. In the ancient Qabalistic tradition there is a term that can be loosely applied to this. It is “tsimtsum” which refers to God’s self-limitation. Judgment is separated from mercy, and creation necessitates judgment, untouched by any softening influence.

“As a free act of love in which God gives of his essence for the purpose of creation .. . untouched by the softening influence of the power of mercy. If God had created the world through the combined powers of judgment and mercy, it would not have been the world as we know it. The lion would not hunt the deer out of compassion, and in so doing would die of starvation and condemn to extinction all of the predators who depend on his hunting skills for survival. We would not eat other forms of life and would probably deny ourselves the eating of an apple out of compassion for the tree. As it is, the interaction of life forms upon the planet creates a perfect balance in nature. The lion only kills when he’s hungry. Only man kills for pleasure. The lion, in accordance with the immutable cosmic laws, is exercising perfect judgment. Man is not.” 4

Predation teaches us that there is no life without death, and there is no death without rebirth. Death always has a loss and a gain balance. It is the working with the old and the new, the process of giving and taking. Predation teaches us that all life is sacred and essential to all other life.

As we work with our individual totems, we will begin to see how the predation process in its life within the wild reflects our own life within our environment. There will be parallels. There will be times best to feed and times best to rest. Times best to play and times best to hunt. These parallels will help you to take advantage of changes and opportunities that present themselves. Examining the prey of your individual totem, be it another animal or something of the plant kingdom, will help you in seeing how to create rebirth in your life.

Shamans often work with balanced medicines. For example, one who works with owl medicine would do well to study skunk medicine as well. Skunk is the favorite food of the great horned owl. A peregrine will capture a duck. A robin yanks a worm. A wolf pack brings down a moose. Predation links predator and prey, knitting them together in a complex intimacy.

By examining the combined qualities (the medicine) of both predator and prey, the powers of death and rebirth become more accessible. The balance of totems (predator and prey) enables you to recognize the natural rhythms of the death and rebirth process and use it more effectively. By working with the energies of both the predator totem and its prey as a totem will make life transitions less chaotic and disruptive. As a result your life becomes more creative and productive.

The magic of creation involves learning to use the deaths within your life as opportunities for rebirth. It involves learning to use the cycles of life-the ups and downs, the highs and lows to your advantage. As you will see, every animal has a natural cycle. Some are more definable, but there are times in which the animal is more or less active. If the animal is your totem, applying its rhythms and natural cycles to your own life will make you more productive.

This is the primary reason that fire, and its direction of South, is associated with this lesson. Fire is destructive as well as creative. It purifies, and it burns away the dross so that the gold can shine forth. It is the mystery of the phoenix who rises from the ashes. Fire is the element of the heart, the center of passions and love that can help us to recreate our lives. It is the element of regeneration and resurrection, and it is this lesson which enables us to use the fires of our experience to create positive changes in our life.

Creation is a process, not a final goal. Change within your life reflects that the creative process is active. Most people ask for changes in their life, but fail to recognize them for what they are. They find them difficult and oftentimes chaotic. Transitional periods involve movement. This movement, and any of its ensuing difficulties and chaos, forces us to be our most creative, while reminding us that life is always in a perpetual process of creation. We can either choose to participate in it or ignore it. If we participate, especially through work with spirit totems, the lessons of death and rebirth are learned and our lives are filled with the magic of creation.

Magical Exercises

1. This simple meditation/visualization is powerfully effective. For it, you must have knowledge of some predator and its most common prey. If you already have a totem that is a predator use it, otherwise choose a predator from the world of animals that has always fascinated you.

Visualize a bad habit, an uncomfortable situation, or something negative in your life as the prey animal. Then visualize yourself as the predator. See yourself swallowing the habit, eliminating it, and becoming stronger as a result.

Use the predator’s natural hunt cycle in this visualization. If it hunts primarily at night, perform the exercise at night. If it hunts during the day, perform it then.

Only spend about 5-10 minutes a day on this exercise, but put a lot of feeling and passion into it. Within a week, you will begin to notice a difference. Make sure you see yourself, stronger, healthier and more empowered as a result.

2. A variation of this exercise can be used to effect changes in your life as well. Again use the predator and prey images. In this case though, the prey will represent a change you wish to make in your life or the things you wish to acquire but which have eluded you to this point. The change should be visualized in the form of a prey animal which is smart and has eluded you up til the present.

Visualize—imagine—yourself hunting, stalking, and giving chase to the prey. Visualize the feel of the chase and the capturing of the prize. Visualize and imagine yourself stronger, happier and more fulfilled as a result. Sometimes the changes we wish to make are intricate and have several steps. Each step can be seen as a prey animal, with the following step a larger prize. For example, if your predator is a red-tailed hawk, you might visualize the first step as a mouse, the second as a snake, and the third as a jack rabbit.

Decide on a realistic time frame when you would like to see the complete change accomplished, along with the time frame for each step of the change. Visualize this predator and prey activity for about five minutes each day until each step is accomplished, and then move on to the next. You will be surprised at how much more quickly and easily your goals are accomplished.

Lesson of Life, Death, and Rebirth

The turkey vulture epitomizes this lesson. It may be a scavenger, but by cleaning up after death, it prevents disease from infecting other animals and the environment. It thus sustains life and enables rebirth.

THE LESSON OF ADAPTATION

MAGIC:

SHAPESHIFTING

ELEMENT:

WATER

DIRECTION:

WEST

Adaptation is the natural ability of an animal to live in a particular place in a particular manner. There are physical adaptations and behavioral ones as well. A fox will use its long ears to dissipate heat in the summer and its bushy tail to cloak its face and nose from the cold in the winter. This is a physical adaptation. A mule deer will always vary the path and the trails it follows to a food source, rarely using the same one twice. This helps keep it safe from predators by making its movements less predictable. This is a behavioral adaptation.

The result of both forms of adaptation is life. If a predator becomes too specialized, it can become endangered. The snail kite of southern Florida is a good example. It feeds only on large marsh snails. With the loss of good marshlands, the kite’s primary food supply has dwindled, and it is now an endangered species.

On the other extreme is the coyote which will eat just about anything. The coyote is found throughout the country. It can be found in cities, plains, mountains, and deserts. It will kill its own prey or scavenge off the kills of others. It is also known to root through garbage cans to find food. Its ability to adapt to the environment and find food and shelter wherever it can has enabled it to survive and thrive.

Most predators fall between these two extremes. Most rely on a few species. Most are able to adapt and change their appetites if conditions demand it. The manner in which your totem adapts and survives within its environment provides clues as to how best you can adapt and survive within your own environment.

Different animals adapt in different ways-even those of the same environment. For example, in hotter climates, the totems may become more nocturnal. If you have one of these animal totems, it may tell you that you would work more effectively at night.

Some animals in hotter climates have large ears to help dissipate excess body heat, such as in the case of a desert fox or hare. Individuals who have fox totems and who are having difficulty with the heat during the summer would do well to wear their hair behind their ears. Since a fox dissipates heat through its ears, those who are connected to fox medicine will find that this also works for them.

Other animals in hotter climates may use panting to dissipate heat. Those with such a totem should learn new breathing methods and rhythms to assist them in their own hot environments. Those breathing methods and patterns will help them dissipate heat not only from the climate, but also from any particular heated situation that may arise, helping them to keep cool.

A study of the survival technique of your totems will provide clues to activities (behaviors) or physical attributes you could focus upon to survive more effectively in your own life. If a kestrel is your totem, for example, you may need to pay more attention to the subtle movements around you. Most birds of prey respond strongly to movement. A kestrel can spot a beetle move from 100 feet up in the sky. Paying close attention to subtle movements will enable you to recognize and take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Once you have discovered your totem, learn how it adapts to its environment. Then practice applying that same kind of adaptation to your environment. That totem provides clues as to the best way for you to successfully adapt and be productive in your life environment.

Water, and its direction of West, is most appropriate to this particular lesson. Water will take the form of its container, and it will follow the path of least resistance. It is the element that reflects the shifting of emotions through the use of imagination. Water can absorb and concentrate life in varying degrees.

Adaptation is the ability to shift to meet the needs of the waters within our life. We must be able to shift like the waters around us. We must be able to ride them and flow with them, without becoming engulfed by them.

Water is often associated with intuition, dreams and inner vision, and journeys. It is one of the most ancient forms of transportation. Water that does not flow becomes stagnant. This is a reminder to always use our natural abilities to flow and change according to need. Water will adapt itself to its environment.

Imitation of your totem’s adaptation abilities is a step leading to the magic of shapeshifting. Shapeshifting is natural, instinctual to all humans. In the story I related of the students on the field trip, the behavior change on the bus trip back was a natural example of adaptation. They began to shift out of the fun and safety of the trip to postures and attitudes that they would need to survive once back within their own life environment.

Every day, you shift your energies to meet daily trials, responsibilities, and obligations. You learn early in life when and how to smile. You know when to be serious or when to be studious. You have learned what activities and postures make you more or less vulnerable. Shapeshifting is not just transforming yourself into some beast as is often related in ancient myths and tales. It is a matter of controlling and utilizing your energy to the fullest to meet whatever the life situation requires. Learning to assume the posture and attitude of your totem will facilitate this, and that is part of what this book will teach you.

A shapeshifter is one who can relate to and adjust behaviors to work and live as conditions warrant. The shapeshifter is one who manipulates his/her aura and energies for growth. The shapeshifter is gentle according to need, and still capable of great strength. The shapeshifter can adapt to change-pleasant or otherwise. The shapeshifter can find the creative possibilities within limitation, and by the shapeshifting overcome the limitation.

Learning to shift your consciousness, to align with and adapt your energies to that of your totem-imitating its manner and behaviors-will help you to survive. Remember that your totem would not come to you if there were not something it could teach you. Imitating the adaptive behaviors of your animal totems and applying them to your own life circumstances is the first step to being able to shapeshift your life.

Magical Exercises

For this exercise, you will not need to know your individual totem. It is primarily an exercise in proving to you that you can adjust your energy field-your aura-for particular effects.

An old axiom teaches that all energy follows thought. Where you put your thoughts-that is where energy goes. We can change the shape, colors, and intensity of our auric field by our thought patterns. The following exercises can assist you in developing this ability. This is a preliminary work for the ultimate ability of shapeshifting.

• Stand against a wall and see yourself as becoming its color. Imagine yourself blending into it and becoming a part of it. Try this with a couch and against backgrounds of different patterns and colors.

• Practice seeing yourself as invisible. One way to assist this process is by seeing your aura as a haze or fog around you, hiding you.

• When you are comfortable with the above, use them in a group situation (meeting, party, etc.). Before you arrive, make yourself invisible, or take a seat somewhere and imagine yourself as part of the furniture.

The results of the above are always interesting. You will be surprised at the comments you receive. Such things as, “Oh, I didn’t know you were here,” or “When did you arrive? I didn’t see you come in” are not uncommon. You will also be surprised at how many people bump into you, apologizing for not seeing you, as you imagine yourself as part of the furniture or walls. With practice you can learn to be as noticed or unnoticed as you desire.

THE LESSON OF USING YOUR POTENTIAL
MAGIC:	MANIFESTATION
ELEMENT:	EARTH
DIRECTION:	NORTH

Every animal is unique unto itself. Each species has its own characteristics, its own strengths and its own weaknesses. These natural abilities are often reflective of your own innate abilities. The totems that come to you are often symbolic of potentials within you that can be developed and used to your benefit. Keep in mind the principle of correspondence discussed earlier.

The animals which are our totems are mirrors to us. They reflect lessons we need to learn and abilities we can most easily develop. We can use them to understand ourselves and our life circumstances. The animal becomes a symbol of a specific force that is able to be manifested by you. It is a medicine for healing your self and your life, and it is a power that can be accessed to help manifest your dreams.

The Lesson of Adaptation

The red fox is a wonderful example of this lesson and its corresponding magic. The fox’s ability for camouflage and focused attention has enabled it to survive, in spite of extensive hunting and human encroachment upon its territory throughout its history.

Once you discover your totem, which this book will help you to do, study it. Learn its individual characteristics and behaviors. These same characteristics and behaviors can be developed by you to make your life more productive. In this way the animal becomes your teacher. Just as predator and prey become stronger and wiser in developing their skills, you will do likewise.

For those of you who learn to work with animals and the spiritual and archetypal energies symbolized by them, members of the predator and prey community will come into your life at some point as an individual totem. When this occurs, give it the significance it truly deserves. A study of your totem’s individual predation process will provide insight into your own ability to learn, to survive, and to develop to your fullest potential. It will provide the clues to the most effective ways for you to work the magic of manifestation within your life.

Predators waste little. A mountain lion or bear will eat its fill and then bury the hide and remains for later. Another, such as the wolf, will gorge itself, knowing that food is not always readily available. All of us can learn from the predator’s penchant for little or no waste. It reminds us to use our abilities to the fullest and not to waste what we do have.

Most predators hunt alone. If your animal totem is one of these, it may reflect that you too will best develop or utilize your abilities alone. Others develop cooperative hunting techniques. Wolves will hunt in packs, and even Harris hawks hunt in groups.

A friend in Colorado, Kin Quitigua, runs an educational program called Hawkquest. He uses his Harris hawks to teach the predator and prey lessons, and he is often asked by the U.S. Wildlife Department to rehabilitate other birds of prey.

The first time I met Kin he was working with a golden eagle whose parents had been killed and so it had never learned to hunt. He was using his Harris hawks to imprint it with hunting techniques so that it could eventually be released into the wild. I was astounded at the cooperative hunting technique employed by his two hawks the first time I saw one of his demonstrations. One would fly low, flushing the jackrabbits into the open, and the other would come from on high to add power to the kill. It was a remarkable demonstration of their cooperative abilities.

Individuals with totems that develop cooperative behaviors should learn to utilize the same behaviors within their own life. Prairie dogs live in a community and are master architects, each adding to their rooms and each watching and sounding alarms for others within their community. A prairie dog may not seem like a glamorous totem, but it has abilities that are unique.

Those who find the prairie dog as their totem will have the ability to develop and manifest those same kind of abilities within their own life circumstances. This will be most easily accomplished within a community setting of some sort, rather than as a loner. (Refer to chapter eleven for more specific information on the individual abilities of the prairie dog and other animals.)

The life skills of your totem will help you in more skillfully handling your own life. In the predation process, successful attack is accomplished with specific skills such as speed, ambush, or teamwork. The technique your totem uses is a technique you can learn to apply more successfully within your own life. Those animals preyed upon also have a number of defenses. Some use safety in numbers, such as prairie dogs and musk ox. Some develop an armor, as in the case of an armadillo or porcupine. Some use camouflage and invisibility. Some use just a vicious attack or great vigilance. Remember that you must look at the predator and its most common prey. Both have qualities that will be beneficial for you to develop. Both can teach you things that you can apply to your life circumstances.

The more you understand about your totem’s individual characteristics and behaviors, the more you will understand about your own natural and often hidden abilities. When you begin to recognize these abilities and then use them in your everyday life, you honor yourself and the spirit of your totem animal. It is at this point that you begin to realize that manifesting what you need is not as difficult as you once believed.

Once you “be” who you are (reflected in part by your totem), then you must do what is necessary to be you. As long as you persist, you will succeed in manifesting what you need or desire. A hawk is a hawk. It behaves like a hawk and not like a duck. Because of what it is, it is able to recognize opportunities essential for, and unique to, its life. If it fails to catch its prey, it does not worry about being unable to eat. It persists. It does not change. It works to become a more effective predator, for that is where its success lies.

What blocks most people from manifesting their dreams in life is their fear of being who they are. Sometimes this is a fear of non-acceptance from others. Sometimes it is a fear of failing. Sometimes it is simply because their whole life has conditioned them to live in a manner entirely alien to who they really are. When we are afraid, we are more likely to miss or neglect opportunities when they appear. When you are true to yourself and your instincts and your potentials, there will be no fear.

Recently, at Brukner Nature Center in Troy, Ohio, where I do volunteer work, an immature red-tailed hawk was brought in for rehabilitation. It had a broken wing. Part of my job is to clean the cages and feed the animals. In order to clean the cages, many of the animals have to be removed, especially if they are in rehabilitation.

This young hawk never shows fear. Upon moving it to a clean cage, it ruffles its feathers impressively and it stares intensely as if to show you that even when caged and hurt it is no less magnificent and powerful than before. It strikes fast and strong with its talons when you reach for it. Even with the heavy gloves on, its talons will occasionally penetrate and cling. This hawk is always true to itself.

In spite of a broken wing, in spite of being confined indoors in an alien environment, it is true to its natural behavior and instincts. It doesn’t put on airs; it doesn’t try to pass itself off as something it is not. These qualities are what will enable it to survive in the wild. And that is what makes it a magnificent creature!

When you begin to behave in the manner most natural to you and use-if only in simple ways-your innate abilities, your life begins to work. Animals never get hung up on fruitless repetition of behaviors and patterns that are doomed to fail. They don’t put on airs. When you begin to be true to your higher self, your own magnificence begins to manifest, and people begin to notice a “newness” about you. They may not be able to define it, but it is a nobility manifesting from the true essence within you.

Earth is the element, with its direction of North, associated with this lesson. This element is symbolic of wisdom, patience, and prosperity. Part of the lesson is that we can receive from Mother earth all that we need. By being true to yourselves, we will have what we need. Mother Earth is where we have come to learn and to grow. It is where we learn to free ourself from our limitations. It is here that we begin our quest for the Grail of Life, which is the quest for our true essence and how best to manifest that essence within our life.

The ancient mystery schools taught the axiom “Know thyself and thou shalt know the world!” It is this precept that is inherent within the third lesson of predation. That which we know, we share in. When we know ourselves and the treasures within us, we become open to the treasures of the Earth.

Every animals’ abilities are unique. Every human’s potential is unique as well. There are many philosophies, systems, and teachers to help us come to greater awareness of our innate abilities. We do not have to limit ourselves to just one. We can gain something from them all.

This lesson and its magic involves learning from whatever source you can find. It involves extracting it, reshaping it and synthesizing it into what works for you as an individual. It involves using what you learn in the manner that is best for you. It is then that your ability to manifest becomes truly empowered. Most people fail at magical practices because they try and manipulate people and situations around them. Magic works best when applied upon oneself. Instead of working from the outside in, work from the inside out. Be and do what is most natural for you, and then the world does not need to be manipulated. You find more joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment in yourself, and thus the world reinforces it.

A hawk who misses catching a rabbit does not try to become a weasel or raccoon. It learns to use its natural abilities-its eyes, its speed, its strong talons-more effectively. Each time it hunts, it grows stronger and wiser. Even if it does not succeed, it still has no fear. It just hunts more intensely at the next opportunity. It knows instinctively that there are always other opportunities. When we come to understand and learn to use our own talents, we instinctively know there will be opportunities to apply them-even to adapt them. If the hawk doesn’t catch the rabbit, it may catch the snake or the mouse. It takes advantage of its opportunities.

Our totems help us to recognize our opportunities in life. They help define who we are and how to succeed. Their individual abilities reflect our own innate ones. When we learn to live to the highest of our innate abilities, we realize that the world has within it everything we need for fulfillment. Wondrous opportunities begin to manifest so frequently that we can not ascribe them to mere coincidence. You will find you will be able to manifest more than what you need to live a joyful existence.

The Lesson of Using Your Potential

A groundhog has the unique ability to form elaborate dens with many exits and entrances. It can also slow its entire metabolism in response to seasonal changes (hibernation). This “death without dying” can be learned and used by those with this totem.

The same skills your totems use to survive and to capture prey can help you to become more aware and sensitive in your relationship to the earth. By letting your totems teach you and help awaken that which is within you, you will be more attuned to the world and more able to partake of the blessings within it.

Magical Exercises

1. This first exercise is more of a self-awareness and self-examination exercise than anything else. Familiarize yourself with your totem’s unique abilities. The dictionaries in this book and your own research should help you to pinpoint two or three specific qualities.

Take a few moments to relax and think back over your life, starting from now, in five-year increments. Try and determine times in your life when you exhibited those same qualities successfully. Also try to see those times in your life in which you could have, or should have, demonstrated those same characteristics beneficially. This will help develop rapport with your totem, and it will help you to be more aware the next time such an opportunity presents itself.

2. Part of learning to work with this lesson and its magic of manifestation, requires that you learn to receive from the Earth. Everything we have is available to us, and it is often offered. Everyday gifts and opportunities are offered to us, but we either refuse them or do not recognize them. We have forgotten to receive from the Earth, and that is what predation can teach us.

Unfortunately, in our present society, we hold strong to an unbalanced view of martyrdom. We are taught that if we do not suffer we cannot grow. We are programmed not to be selfish. We are drilled in our religions and our society to give and give. We are never taught that there are times to receive as well as times to give.

Because of this most people have forgotten to receive. We refuse to receive both big and small. We don’t realize that for manifestation of our dreams to occur, we must be able to receive. People are paid a compliment, and they say such things as, “What, this old thing?” or “Oh, no, I am really such a mess today.” People offer to help and we say, “No, thank you, I can handle it myself.”

If we don’t receive the little things—the compliments, the assistance, etc., the universe does not send us the big things. It is the receiving of the little things that starts the magnetic pull which brings the bigger things into your life. Take time over the next few weeks to receive what is offered to you. Observe how often it occurs, and how often you would have turned it down. Try not to feel guilty, and don’t try and figure out how you can pay it back. Just receive the gifts, joyfully and freely. You will have more than enough times to give back in more appropriate and opportune ways later.

A predator knows how to receive. When the Earth presents a prey opportunity, it goes after it. If it doesn’t, it will not eat. As you learn to recognize and acknowledge your potential, even greater opportunities to manifest it will present themselves to you.

THE LESSON OF RESPONSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS
MAGIC:	HIGHER VISION & PROPHECY
ELEMENT:	AIR
DIRECTION:	EAST

The intricate web of connections of all life-whether predator or prey-is reflected most strongly through trophism or the feeding process. Solar energy is transformed by plants into food which then goes through the food chain. Plants manufacture food from the soil and the sun. Grasshoppers eat the plants. Frogs eat the grasshoppers, and so on.

This is a predatory transaction, the energy being passed from the eaten to the eater. This is why many societies believed that when you ate what you killed, its energy and essence became part of your own. Everything feeds upon and is fed upon by other life forms. The connections are real and significant.

If At each step along the way, energy is lost, through respiration, body heat, and other natural functions of living creatures. Thus as the food chain advances through ever higher trophic levels, the number of individuals at each level decreases, like the diminishing point of a pyramid. There can never be as many wolves as there are caribou, or as many swallows as insects. The predators are forever outnumbered.”5

Humans are at the top of the food chain, and this should give us pause for thought. With the destruction of land and the killing of many species of animals, through pollution of the land and the air, by the time the energy of the food reaches us, what condition is it in? Over hunting, destruction of habitat, pollution, pesticides, etc. all interfere with the natural predation balance. Interference with the balance of natural predation tends to weaken the species through overpopulation and undernourishment.

This is reflected in the human world, just as it is in the natural. Just as in predators and prey within the natural world, every human action is followed by a reaction from all other worlds-whether positive or negative. The predator and prey process should teach humans that all action entails responsibility. There are relationships beyond what we may initially perceive.

Most ancient societies recognized this interaction. All life was honored, and human life was no more sacred than any other life. Rituals and ceremonies were performed before, during and after hunting. These rituals grew out of a recognition of the intimate relationship between an individual and the spirit of the animal.

In some rituals, participants would ask permission to hunt. Others were designed to reverence and show appreciation for the lives of the animals and to express thanksgiving for the food. Bones were often placed in trees or on the earth, near where the animal was killed, in thanksgiving and to ask pardon for taking its life. If an animal spirit assisted them, it was honored.

“’Little Sister,’ he cried out. ‘Thank you for guiding us here. Thank you for taking care of us all this way. Wherever we go we will remember your kindness. We shall wear your feathers when you give them to us. We will hold your people in regard and tell our people always to treat you well. I hope you have many children. Wah-hey!’

“The Flicker flew up in the air, flashing the gold beneath her wings one last time, and then flew back into the forest.”6

People are beginning to recognize the interconnectedness of all life. There are many ways that other life forms-animal, plant, and mineral-enrich our own. They reflect the environmental health of the planet. There is the utilitarian value i.e. food, clothing, and such. There is an educational value and aesthetic and spiritual value. Contact with a diversity of life expands our vision of life.

As we begin to see the expansiveness of life, a greater, more spiritual vision opens up. This vision can even become prophetic. At some point in our growth we must come to see beyond the immediate circumstances of our life. We must see the larger repercussions of our life upon all other lives. We are not separate. We are related to all things.

This higher vision is the magic of this lesson of predation. It is also why the element of air and its direction of East is associated with it. Air and the East are associated with creativity, inspiration, and higher awareness. The element of air is often representative of the powers of the mind, of new wisdom and higher intuition. It is the power of self-mastery through appropriate use of strength of will.

Air links the Earth and the heavens. It is a symbol of the unity of all things. It is what ties all life on this planet together. Nothing can live without air. It is the subtle influence of relationships. The links are not always visible, but they are always present.

The element of air is the expansion of the mind. It is learning to control the workings of the mind and to see the links between the Earth and the heavens, the animals and humans and all life. As we will see in part two, all birds are associated with the element of air to some degree. Birds of prey, especially, teach the lesson of relationships. They help us to understand that there is more than just an earthy aspect to predation. They teach the intricacies of all life, and how to fly to those heights that bring new perspectives on our life and our relationships.

Before a major decision were made in many Native American societies, the long range relationships and effects had to be considered. The repercussions upon all life for as distant as seven generations were often considered. This kind of vision goes beyond mere foresight. As you learn to recognize connections and repercussions in your own life, you can learn to follow the ripples of actions and events to the past or future. This awakens prophecy.

The Lesson of Responsible Relationships

The eagle is a powerful example of this lesson. Long a symbol of higher spiritual vision, it is at the top of its food chain. It is dependent upon the balance of prey animals beneath it. The prey that eagles eat are often poisoned with pesticides that do not always kill eagles, but often result in their laying eggs too fragile to survive. Humans are at the top of the food chain as well, and we need to look more closely at this relationship.

Most psychic activity can be tied to this lesson of predation. Divination is the ability to gain knowledge of future or otherwise unknown events. Most psychics who make accurate predictions are able to do so because of their ability to see relationships. They are able-through whatever means they use-to see the pattern that has brought an individual to the point he or she is currently at. If the person continues that same pattern of action, there are likely to be specific, discernible repercussions. Since few people change their patterns, the percentage of correct forecasts can be high for someone capable of divining the patterns. Determining that line of relationships is part of higher divination. Among the Lakota Sioux of the Great Plains, reverence is given to an ancient holy woman by the name of White Buffalo Calf Woman. Legend tells how she appeared at a time when the Indians did not truly know how to live. When she appeared, she spoke to the people in a special medicine lodge built specifically for her.

She presented the people with the sacred pipe and taught them how it would lead them always in the right direction. The bowl represented the buffalo and all humans, and its stem represented all things that grow upon the Earth. She taught them how to use the pipe and of the sacred mysteries of relationships it symbolized. She taught them how the pipe would help them to walk like a living prayer, and with it all could become one-the earth, the sky, the two-legged, the fourlegged, the winged ones, the trees, the grasses, and all living things.

This lesson of predation teaches us-like White Buffalo Calf Woman-that all things, all people, all events, and all times are connected. When we can see those relationships, and follow them to the past and to the future, we are manifesting the magic of higher vision and prophecy.

Magical Exercises

1. For any relationship to work there must be three elements: silence, respect, and sharing. Relationships teach us silence. Silence enables us to listen and to experience the relationship as it truly is. It enables us to know when to speak and act for the greatest benefit. Relationships also teach us respect for other lives, and to only take that which is truly needed. Relationships also teach us sharing. They teach us how we can best live in the world with one another.

This exercise will give you an opportunity to examine your predatory role in relationships. Allow your totem to lead you along a road to your past. You will stop at each of your most important relationships. Observe yourself in these relationships objectively, and allow your totem to show you whether you were in the role of predator or prey or if there was a sharing of the roles.

After examining several of these, you should begin to see a pattern that you usually fall into. When you can see that pattern, allow your totem to lead you back to the present. Then allow your totem to show you the one quality above all else that it can teach you in order to have balance in relationships. Allow your totem to melt into you, to heal and balance, and open your eyes to a new awareness.

2. Choose an incident from your present, positive or negative. This can be an event, an outburst, anything that seems to stand out for you in the past three months. As you focus upon it, close your eyes, and envision your totem approaching you.

Allow your totem to lead you back to the day of that event. Observe it, replay it in your mind. Then allow your totem to lead you further back, to show you something that helped lead to that event. Do this at least four times.

Some people find that there are large jumps in time in this exercise. They go back five, sometimes even ten years, and find themselves replaying a situation from the past that does not seem connected at all. There is almost always a connection though. The emotion or behavior in the past event may be part of a pattern that led to what you experienced recently.

Simply observe. When you return you will have time to contemplate and make the connections. Again allow your totem to lead you back to the present, past those events. You may wish to have it speak to you, but do have it melt into you to heal and strengthen, to bring clarification, in the days that follow, on the relationships of events.

It is a good idea to write down the events you encounter in this visualization. Writing them down will help to draw their essence out of that ethereal mental realm and help you to clarify them in your own mind.

Do not be discouraged if you do not achieve results at first. Persist. As you develop your relationship with your totem through such exercises as these, the ability to use them for both past and future exploration will develop. Eventually, you can use this same process to explore the impact present events will have upon the future. This is a little more difficult, because it is sometimes difficult to be objective. There can be a tendency to project what we want to have occur upon the mind, rather than see the effects that are actually being set in motion.

Work with the past first. When you begin to have more and more success with it, you can begin to use the process to follow the ripple effects to the future. You will learn to do this for yourself and also for others. This can be used to trace past-life connections to the present, and present-life connections to future lives.

Persist and practice. Remember that relationships demand patience and time to develop. Each time you practice, it will become easier. The more you honor and work with your totem, the more you will find opening to you.

[contents]

4. Gonzalez-Wippler. A Kabbalah for the Modern World (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1987), p. 134–135.

5. Weidensaul, Scott. American Wildlife (New York: Gallery Books, 1988), p. 163.

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THE LESSON OF ADAPTATION
MAGIC:	SHAPESHIFTING
ELEMENT:	WATER
DIRECTION:	WEST