Spirit Totems

I was thinking about spirit totems the other day. Apparently these are part of a native american belief system. Based on shared characteristics, you choose an animal that will be your guide and advisor. With this knowledge, I went looking for a totem, and was surprised at the breadth of choices available to today's spirit totem shopper.

First off, I looked at the weasel. A reputable online guide to totems (that I found on Geocities, natch) described the weasel as follows: "Seeing beneath the surface for intent/meaning, developing clairaudience, ingenuity, paying attention to inner voice, keen, tricky, revenge, cunning, playful, observant" This description seemed charitable in the extreme. The weasel characterstics that I though I shared were "low slung, flexible morality, and razor sharp teeth." The tricky and revenge parts are cool, but I was hoping for more.

So I engaged in another period of self reflection. "Who am I?" I thought. "And would this process be enhanced by eating some sort of traditional fungus?" Eventually I noted the following defining traits:

• Hard to kill (Trust me. You should see the scar on my throat.)
• Eats whatever is available
• Scuttles away whenever the light is turned on.

And so I've decided that my spirit totem shall be the cockroach. All hail the way of the cockroach. I'm not sure what the traditional headdress looks like, but I bet it involves antennae.

LM