Spirit Lodge - Totem Animals - Page 196

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Totem Animals

Page 196

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Bear Medicine	Birth Totems	Coyote Medicine	Dragon Ranks	Dragonfly Medicine	Eagle Medicine	Four Animal Helpers	Grey Wolf Medicine	Hawk
Heron Medicine	Horse	Magpie	Raccoon	Salmon Medicine	Spider Medicine	Swan Medicine	Thunder Being Medicine	Totem Loss Disc

YOUNG TOTEMS
By StarryNight

The Heron is one of my totems. Today I saw a young heron swimming in a lake. I've never seen
it before. The mother was looking on. I believe there is a message in this for me today.
I was wondering if a young totem has any particular significance.

CinnamonMoon:
It's often the onset of that Medicine coming into the forefront to see a young one, so I'd say some
lessons will be coming. If you can look into Heron and see what the life cycle of their young is
like you might be able to see how long this phase will last or how long it might take you to grasp
what Heron wants you to know. The nature of the animals is the nature of their Medicine and
teachings. And often the young appear to us at the introduction of a Totem so we’re not
intimidated so both issues could be at play here for you.

StarryNight:
Thank you so much! I certainly feel as if I'm on a learning curve - my dreams reveal that too. I
will look closely at Heron's life cycle. Thank you for pointing me in this direction. It has been
very informative. There are different stages of the young heron's development. I was wondering
which one was significant - or how the significance of each, plays into heron medicine.

a) after a few weeks, the young heron tests their wings;
b) at approximately 42 days he is at adult size;
c) after 60 days the heron leaves the nest;
d) mature sexually at 2 years of age

It is interesting that both the male and female take turns sitting on the eggs for about 28 days, and
both parents feed the young heron. Thank you for your help with this. It is helping me come to a
better understanding.

CinnamonMoon:
Hon, I'm going to encourage you to look at the stages of growth and development pertaining to
whatever seems to be emerging spiritually for you right now. What Heron is bringing you
pertains to the Medicine of this creature-teacher in some way and you would mark your progress
by the growth and development. I'll give a hypothetical example here and hopefully that will help
you a little.

Self-determination and Self-reliance that are aggressively worked at are going to be the
hallmarks of what you're now learning in some way.

“a) after a few weeks, the young heron tests their wings;”…Whatever the lesson is for you,
it is only going to take a few weeks to experience
before you test it in your life somehow. You're going to find a need arises calling for you to test
this new knowledge to resolve the issue. It's likely to be very personal...an issue that belongs to
you. (We always learn to hone our gifts, abilities, or knowledge on ourselves first.)

“b) at approximately 42 days he is at adult size;”…Within that 42 days your knowledge, through
this testing experience, will have fully grown to understand how it functions. You'll hold the full
scope of that...maturity of the lesson.

“c) after 60 days the heron leaves the nest;”…At the point of 2 months you would likely take this
knowledge and the skill you've developed around it out into the world. You would use the
knowledge to help others who are learning this lesson themselves or would benefit from it. They
would come to you, seeking your assistance, we do not seek them. This is how you know who you
are to help...they must ask. It will likely be initiated through close relationships first (short flights
from the nest) where family, friends, or acquaintances are in need. From there it may be a
neighbor or someone in your community expanding outward from there.

“d) mature sexually at 2 years of age”…The maturity of your knowledge through these
experiences leads to wisdom at approximately 2 years after onset. You've made your mistakes,
had your successes, and through that experience you recognize where, when, why, and how to
apply this knowledge or skill...or not. Since Heron teaches an assertion toward self-reliance and
self-determination, this is going to be about finding some form of inner strength and courage,
likely born out of a need or circumstance in your personal life. Once understood and
accomplished you'd share that with others who need to learn to stand on their own, or depend
upon themselves instead of others for their strength, perhaps against very strong odds. (An
example might be someone trying to overcome the control of another as in a partner; to free
themselves from some sort of abusive situation; to free themselves from an addiction...anything
that would call for them to fight for their strength to stand on their own through a determined will.)

“It is interesting that both the male and female take turns sitting on the eggs for about 28 days,
and both parents feed the young heron.”…If the eggs incubate for 28 days and are nested by
both parents you can look for one full Moon Cycle where the concept of what you need to learn
to do for yourself must incubate within you. (Tossing things around inside yourself before you
recognize how to go about things...cracking your shell/blockage or challenge and initiating the
birth of the lesson.) Also look into your feminine and masculine natures being in harmony or
adjusting harmoniously over this period. With both parents tending this....you have the balance
of the masculine and feminine nature here...through the masculine you will find the aggressive
actions you need to apply to the lesson's teachings and to bring up from yourself to achieve them
(determination); through the feminine you will have the more passive reliance (nurturing mother
that does what is necessary no matter what, does it quietly because it needs doing, and takes on
the responsibility by nature).

For those 28 days you will learn to receive the insights and balance them by actions to get your
footing with the lesson. Only through balance will you feed on the knowledge and digest it...a
delicacy...a delicate state of balance...carefully tended. So this will be something you learn to do
on your own, and the Medicine of Heron is your key to understanding this and your guideline or
model to follow in your applications. Masculine is active, electric energy, aggressive, it is in
motion of projection. Feminine is passive, magnetic, receptive, it is in motion of attraction. How
to you attract this lesson to you and what do you do to balance it and use it? Just some things to
think about. *S* Wishing you well with it.

StarryNight:
Wow. Okay....I don't even know where to begin to express my thankfulness for the knowledge
that you've shared. I knew that I was in the early stages of a significant shift in my life..... You've
given me wonderful insights to sit with. Thank you so very much!

I was out at the lake where I first saw this young heron. I was thinking about how I was feeling
and how I've been paying attention to heron medicine and its application in my life. It is
definitely about standing on my own, balancing looking to others and inside myself for answers
and then taking action; trusting myself and allowing my higher self to be my highest authority.
Throughout my life I've found that I've presented myself powerfully, not knowing that was what
I was doing, it seemed "natural" just a part of me. Yet, although people were drawn to it, it
intimidated them as well, it seemed to overwhelm them. They'd come back for more of "me"
later, but in a short time would be overwhelmed. This caused me to look outside of myself for
guidance about how to interact and be around others, since relying on myself was apparently not
going well. This created confusion within me as I realized that looking to others was not
satisfying my own spirit. I became confused. Heron has reminded me to rely on myself, and is
teaching me when to be visible and when to be invisible. This was something I was struggling
with and was unaware of it - I just knew what I was doing was not working.

That day, I found myself asking God to use me, to assist someone, if that is what is intended.
Almost immediately, I saw the young heron who had turned into a young adult now, fly right in
front of me. It was powerful. I loved the synchronicity. I understand aspects of the heron
medicine that I did not grasp before, and I've learned much. I have tended to mismanage my own
medicine, not knowing that was what I was doing, to the detriment of others and of course to the
detriment of myself. I've learned much and I look forward to learning so much more. I just
wanted to share how this young totem came into my life and how I see myself growing with it.

CinnamonMoon:
Yay!!! You're doing great too!