Spirit Lodge - Totem Animals - Page 45

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Totem Animals

Page 45

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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

DONKEY or ASS
By SisterCyber

The donkey is an unsung hero that has often been misrepresented and misunderstood. They were
first domesticated approximately 4,500 years ago and were considered to be a status symbol for
their owners. Versatile and willing workers with a gentle intelligence donkeys have been known
to live for 40 plus years.

Donkeys come in a variety of colors from gray to brown. Most have white muzzles, eye rings
and light bellies. Some donkeys have a marking on their back that appears to be a cross, leg
stripes are also seen. There are various myths and fables of how the donkey obtained the cross on
his back. Some cultures believe that the donkey carried the Lord on his back and received its leg
stripes from walking through the palm branches that were laid in his path in honor of the burden
he was carrying. Other stories suggest the donkey was God sent and the Prophet was carried to
the heavens on its back. The donkey embodies the qualities of perseverance and servitude. They
are tireless workers with a strong dedication to spirit.

The characteristics of donkey are noted in those with this totem, spiritual dedication, undying
faith in the creative force and a willingness to take on the responsibilities and burdens of others.
Helping others is a wonderful trait although taking on more than one can comfortably carry can
lead to physical and emotional problems. Learning how to say no and being responsible for one’s
own well-being is a life lesson.

Donkeys are not fond of change and often appear stubborn. If they deem something as
dangerous, they simply won't do it. It’s not because they are stubborn it’s because they respect
their own intuitive senses. They are smart enough to know when they can or can’t handle
something and teach us how to honor and abide by our own personal knowing.

The donkey evolved in the desert. The rugged terrain in which they lived taught them how to
move with caution.. When frightened the donkey would simply freeze or run a little way out of
danger then stop and look at what startled them. They learned how to navigate their way out of
difficult situations and as a result developed cunning and crafty survival skills. When donkey
appears in our life it asks us to stop and look at what is challenging us and find a way to move
forward safely.

The ears of the donkey are big and funnel like and can detect sounds from a far distance.
Donkeys understand the messages each sound carries and teach us how to listen and awaken our
clairaudient skills. This amazing animal is a master teacher. When it appears in your life it is
asking you to awaken, develop or apply your own inherent gifts in one or more areas of your life.
(www.sayahda.com/cyc2.html) (no longer available)

Ancient people revered the ass because it was so important for their survival. Rather easily
domesticated, wherever the beast of burden was found throughout the world, it was highly
esteemed as a faithful friend to humankind.

In India, the sacred king Ravana had ten crowned human heads surmounted by the head of an
ass. In ancient Egypt, the ass was a symbol of the sun god, Ra. Set, one of the Egyptian dynastic
gods, bore the head of an ass on his shoulders, and his kingly scepter flourished a pair of ass's
ears at its tip. In Greece, the animal was considered sacred to Dionysus.

The mighty Hebrew hero Samson slew the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. And after
Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the colt of an ass, the sturdy four-legged beast was
held sacred by the Christians. According to an old folk legend, the dark cross of hair across the
donkey's shoulders was thought to be an everlasting reminder of its role in the passion of Christ.
If the ass, the donkey, is your totem animal, your spirit helper may have assessed as one of your
basic needs the necessity of getting down to serious business regarding your mission on the earth
plane. You may also discover that you are becoming much more conscientious about the small
details that you may previously have tended to ignore, and that you are learning to be more
practical and goal-oriented in your various earthly pursuits.

The donkey also comes to the workaholic and cautions against too much work and not enough
time wisely spent in recreation, family activities, and spiritual searching. As a spirit helper, the
donkey will present you with solid, sensible advice on your quest to higher awareness.
This is more like it ~ Onager is a very good friend of mine. Couldn't find anything specific about
totems, but THIS is the Wild Ass I really mean to post about.
*hugs Onager*

I did find some information about it at
http://www.informationgenius.com/encyclopedia/o/on/onager.html (not available)

Onager
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Genus: Equus
Species: hemionus
Binomial name
Equus hemionus

The Onager (Equus hemionus) is a large mammal belonging to the horse family and native to the
deserts of Syria, Iran, India and Tibet. It is sometimes known as the Half Ass or the Asiatic Ass.
Like many other large grazing animals, its range has contracted greatly under the pressures of
hunting and habitat loss, and of the four subspecies, one is extinct and two endangered.
Onagers are a little larger than Donkeys at about 290 kilos and 2.1 meters (head-body length),
and are a little more horse-like. Some authorities regard one of the four races as a seperate
species. Onagers were used in ancient Sumer to pull chariots, circa 2600 BC.

Found more on Onager here, but didn't post it here (too much hassle for me; no way to contact
the authors for permission to reprint); just leaving the link for those interested:
http://www.arabianwildlife.com/archive/vol1.2/onager.htm (couldn't access)

Don't know that a totem significance would mean, since I couldn't find anything about it as a
totem using "onager as a totem" for search words....

But yes... ONAGER... yessss....