Brown Bear is my 1st chakra Animal Companion.  I hadn’t done any work with the chakras when I created this card a few years ago.  I hadn’t done much work with Bear either, but this card just seemed to flow together and almost made itself.  It has remained pretty much a mystery to me until a few months ago when I did some research on the Chakras for a class I was teaching.

Who are you? I am the one who is standing with all four paws flat on the ground. I am the one who is grounded.  I am the one who provides shelter and light for myself and my family. I am the one who loves the night and also the light of day.  I am the one who enables a good balance of strength and power (day/solar energy) along with intuition (night/lunar energy).

What do you have to give to me? I give you the medicine of dreamtime. I give you shelter, sustenance and a home that embraces you with color and light. I give you healing for all your wounds.

What do you want from me? I want you to sit awhile with me and rest in the shelter of my sturdy body.  I want you to know the perfect balance of power and intuition.

Given my natural attraction to cats, I wasn’t surprised when Lion showed up as one of my animal totems!  He is directly related to my 5th Chakra center, the Throat, which focuses on self-expression.

Who are you? I am the one who is King of the jungle, king of the forest, king of all that is.  I am the one who is both gentle and ferocious. 

I am the one who roars when I have need to roar and who is silent when silence is demanded. I am the one whose eyes have seen all and know all.  I am the one who is called Aslan in your favorite children’s book. I am the one of wisdom, strength, gentleness and courage. What do you have to give me? I give you strength and courage.  I give you the ability to roar, the inner peace and centeredness to be silent, and the wisdom to know when each is called for. I give you Power and Authority and Wisdom. What do you want from me? I want you to be still for a moment and feel the power of life roaring through you.  This power, this energy, is always there, always inside of you, surrounding you.  I want you to notice it, feel it, grasp it, claim it, allow it to transform you.

NOTES:

4/2006- Daily Reading- I am the one who is strong and at ease with my own strength.  I am the one who is totally at ease with who I am.  My message for you today is this: be comfortable with all of your many strengths. Be yourself.

4/2007- Daily Reading- I am the one who is the Grand Parent of the cats you so dearly love in your daily life.  I am the one who helps you rise above daily worries and fears, who carries you above the clouds and closer to the Sun.  My message for you today is this: take my energy with you into all of your relationships.  What needs to be said?  Say it.  Ask yourself, and others, the questions that need to be asked.  Answer them.  Allow the answers to come forth.  I am the energy of your throat chakra.  Allow my energy to open this area of your body so that your voice can be heard, and given and received in love.

This is my 7th chakra (crown chakra) Companion Animal card in my SoulCollage^® deck.

Here is some more information about chakras and animal companions if you’d like to know more.

I made this card intuitively, not really knowing if it was part of my Companions suit or not.  For many years, I’ve been drawn to swans- in real life, in fairy tales, and in art.  And swans had appeared on several of my SoulCollage^® cards that were not in my Companions Suit.  So I wasn’t sure.  But after I did the interpretation below, it was very clear to me that Swan is indeed one of my companion animals, and definitely related to the more spiritual, divine chakra that is the Crown.

The background in this card makes a huge difference in its energy, and in what the swan is saying to me.   The swirling background feels kindof like a tunnel to me, a tunnel that looks like it is leading into a brighter light and peace.

Who are you? I am the one who has transformed into a pure white beautiful swan.  I am the one who is not the ugly duckling that everyone thought I was.  I am the one capable of beauty and flight.  I am the one of mystery and magic.  I am the one who crosses into and out of other worlds- mystical realms of color and light. I am the one who sees the future, who travels the tunnel of transformation with you.  I am a symbol to you of the Divine.

What do you want from me? I want you to relax into your journey.  I want you  to remember that you are not a duck, that you are not bound by your own or others’ expectations of you. I want you to believe in the power of your own transformation, to trust in the existence of other worlds (imaginary as well as real).  I want you to know that when you die, all really will be well.

I made this card at the KaleidoSoul retreat last month.  When I got there, the image of the pink figure with the butterflies in the stomach area really grabbed me.  I was a little surprised, because I really wasn’t experiencing nervousness of any kind.  Later, when really looking at it and observing my own inner world that weekend, it spoke to me of inner excitement, and of a deep and focused power centering in my solar plexus region, the area of the 3rd chakra. And guess what?  The third chakra is the only chakra I hadn’t discovered an animal totem for. On Sunday during the Animal Companions session, we listened to Seena Frost’s Guided Visualization but I didn’t “see” anything then (probably because I was facilitating that session and was more focused on holding space for everyone else!).  But during the cardmaking time afterwards, I made this card (except for the bright orange butterfly near the bottom… I added that after I got home)…. and then suddenly it was apparent to me that Butterfly is my 3rd chakra totem animal!

At first I was kindof hesitant to accept this animal, thinking I should have a more powerful animal for this seat of power chakra.  BUT… then I thought…. what could be more powerful than the butterfly’s transformation from caterpillar into a beautiful graceful winged creature? So here is my 3rd Chakra Butterfly card.  I haven’t yet done the interpretation, but I will post it here when I do. 

From a very young age I have been drawn to dolphins.  The week before my mother died a few years ago, I read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Ring of Endless Light, and was totally captured by the intuitive nature of the dolphin.  Also, there were many messages for me in that book about communicating with other beings in ways beyond words.  This is how I came to choose Dolphin for my 6th Chakra, the intuitive third eye, located at the center of the forehead.

Who are you? I am the one who is the prince (and princess!) of the seas.  I am the one who smiles, who laughs, who knows.  I am the one who rides the waves in pleasure and delight.  I am the one who loves to play, who can “talk” to humans, who knows what others are feeling just by listening to their thoughts.  I am the one who knows that communication exists on many, many levels.

What do you have to give me? I give you freedom from time constraints, freedom from past and future, freedom to remember this present moment.

What do you want from me? I want you to slow down, to take the time to play a little each day, to remember your outer “tribe” of playmates and to let go of all inner and outer judgements and to give yourself permission to play often.