Spirit Lodge - Totem Animals - Page 144

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Totem Animals

Page 144

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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

SALMON MEDICINE
By Mouse

Salmon's Wisdom Includes:
*Value of returning home to regenerate
*Swimming upstream through emotional waters to gain insight
*Understanding divination messages
*Rebirth of spiritual knowledge
(From: http://www.geocities.com/~animalspirits/index32.html)

The Salmon
There are several different types of salmon located on both the Pacific coast and the Atlantic.
Their acute sense of smell is one of their most amazing features. This ability helps them find
their way back home to spawn. They have the uncanny ability to find the one stream that they
were hatched in based solely on its odor. Salmon usually return to their place of origin every 5 to
7 years. They have solid bonds with their history. For those with this totem life changes are
prominent within this time span. At the end of a cycle a new beginning emerges. Swimming
upstream and overcoming all obstacles is part of what the salmon teaches us. When this medicine
is underdeveloped it could be asking us to stop battling the currents of life.

Because its origins are so important to it, the salmon reminds us to honor our true heritage.
Those with this medicine have strong spiritual desires and work tirelessly to manifest them. They
make excellent priests, nuns, spiritual counselors and teachers. The study of geneology is
important…Incredibly determined, a salmon will jump 10 foot waterfalls and struggle past
eagles, bears and many other predators, including humans, to reach their home waters. Their
drive to reach their place of origin is remarkable. They rarely eat on their journey home and have
little interest in anything but getting to their destination. Once there they spawn then die.

When the salmon is seen laying eggs in the coarse sand and gravel beds of streams it suggests
that the birth of a new idea is at hand. It cautions however to make sure that the new idea is not
laid on a rough foundation. The salmon shows us how to swim the sacred waters upstream,
overcoming all obstacles to return to the source. Although struggle is part of its journey the
salmon teaches us how to focus our energy and attention on an objective and maintain the
discipline necessary to accomplish it. Sometimes it takes single minded determination to
overcome obstacles and achieve a desired goal. Salmon medicine people are hardy and can
persevere when others cannot. They often choose a life full of challenges because they know that
within each challenge lies the opportunity for growth
(From: http://www.sayahda.com/cyc4.html)

Birth Totem Salmon is an individual whose outer personality is driven by the need to Create and
have dominion over his/her environment. The desire to create is motivated by Birth Totem
Salmons desire to leave a lasting impression. Depending upon what level of personality the
Salmon individual is choosing to operate from, this may manifest itself as either the desire to
inspire others through their own example, and thus be as a lantern in the night, or they may be
operating from the desire to bring acknowledgment for the achievements they have made to
assuage the feelings of self-doubt which may harry them until they learn the lesson of Self acceptance.

Just as the Salmon is driven home to spawn, the individual who has Salmon as his/her Birth
Totem, is most fulfilled when exploring the depths of his/her own soul (home) so that a true
work of art may be given birth in the form of poetry, paintings, or the less tangible creation of
ideas. Life's emotional currents may run deep, and at times tumultuous, yet as the Salmon will
forge its way upstream against seemingly impossible odds so that they may propagate their
species, Birth Totem Salmon will become truly Whole when he/she has conquered the currents
that roil within their own hearts. Only once he/she has learned that the Destination is not the End,
and that life's currents are not always an upstream battle, when the realization is made that one
must delve within for the Answers they desperately seek, may they find the insight which is the
Birth Right of this Totem. Then, as they swim in the deep clear waters of Awareness and
Understanding, they will realize that the doorway to Home has always been Within.
(From: http://wolfs_moon.tripod.com/birthtotemsalmon.html )(beware of multiple pop-ups)

CinnamonMoon:
The Druid Animal Oracle by Phillip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm
Salmon: Wisdom, Inspiration, Rejuvenation

Salmon is revered as extremely sacred in the Druid tradition--it is the Oldest Animal, and it
offers us wisdom and inspiration. Often with great difficulty, the salmon will return to the place
of its birth to mate. To find wisdom, we too need to recapitulate our lives, to journey in
consciousness back to our beginnings--to our childhood and perhaps beyond to our very origins
in God or Goddess. Salmon brings not only wisdom but youthfulness and inspiration, but
remember that to find these things you must maintain an attitude of openness and innocence
rather than strong-headed determination.

Contrary it may indicate that you are trying too hard to reach your goals, or that you are relying
on someone else to find your wisdom for you. Contemplate the stories of Taliesin and Fionn mac
Cumhaill and try to adopt a more relaxed and open approach to life. The salmon is able to jump
upstream not by fighting against the current, but by utilizing its knowledge of the reverse current
which flows beneath the surface current. From this salmon leaping we have derived the word
summersault, as a corruption of salmon-sault. Children summersaultand salmon is urging you to
connect with the leaping, dancing child within.