Tag Archives: introspection

Secret Gardens: Bear Symbology

From First Nations people we learn that animals have much to teach us as they are messengers of the Great Spirit. In their culture a Power Totem Animal is an animal symbol that is there to guide them through their entire life.

There are three other types of totems:
A Journey Totem that is with you for a period or phase of your life perhaps anywhere from a week to a year.

A Visiting Totem who comes briefly with a message for the moment.

A Shadow Totem is an animal whom you may initially fear. They represent the hidden side of yourself and will soon become your allies after certain initiations giving you the opportunity to overcome your fears.

bear1.jpgBear Symbolism – Strength, Introspection, Knowledge, Healing
Bears hibernate in the winter, which may explain their association with “dreaming the Great Spirit” or retrospection. The symbolism of the Bear’s cave reflects returning to the womb of Mother Earth. [A Cave is an archetype for the mind - sleep - returning to higher consciousness.This female receptive energy, for centuries has allowed visionaries, mystics, and shamans to prophesy.] This also suggests a strong feminine aspect, one of nurturing and protection. Bear cubs, born in the early spring, can spend as many as seven years with their mother before reaching maturity.

People with Bear Medicine are considered by many as self-sufficient, and would rather stand on their own two feet than rely on others. They are often considered dreamers. Many have developed the skill of visualizing new things, but as a result can get caught up in the dreaming, making little progress in waking reality.

Bear’s medicine includes introspection, healing, solitude, wisdom, change, communication with Spirit, death and rebirth, transformation, astral travel, creature of dreams, shamans and mystics.

Bear is the keeper of the dreamtime, and stores the teachings of dreams until the dreamer wakes up to them. Many tribes have called this space of inner-knowing the Dream Lodge, where the death of the illusion of physical reality overlays the expansiveness of eternity. It is in the Dream Lodge that our ancestors sit in Council and advise us regarding alternative pathways that lead to our goals.

Bear is the spirit keeper of the West which is the place of maturity and good harvest. The gifts that Bear offers to those with this totem are strength, introspection and knowledge. From this spirit keeper of the west we learn our personal truth, and find our answers that reside within. This animal will show us the path to reach our personal goals.

Bear holds the teachings of introspection and teaches you how to make choices from a position of power. Bear can help us with the ability to turn inward to access our strength and honor your nature cycles. He teaches us when it is time to act and when it is time to be still.

When Bear shows up in your life pay attention to how you think, act and interact. Use discernment in all that you do and discriminate with care.

Related blog posts:

Wisdom: The Old Man/Woman

Secret Gardens: Dreamtime Bear Cave

Evergreens a Symbol of Rebirth

New theme for a new cycle

Secret Gardens: Dragonfly Symbolism

Secret Gardens: Recycling Lost Life

See also: Dreaming
Bear Symbology

Secret Gardens: Dreamtime Bear Cave

Deep in the cave am I. Deep in the cave and fully conscious. Every cell of my body breathing in the earth energy and breathing it out again. I smell the rich earth. Before me on the wall I see a painting or perhaps the shadow of a big brown bear who is sleeping.

I stand and drop my furs and I walk from the cave into a dimly lit tunnel. I walk for a long time and then I see an opening and, I step from out of a cleft in the rocks into the light.

Now I am entering a garden surrounded by an evergreen forest. I am alone, yet, I sense that only here I am one with all that is and was and ever will be.

The garden is abundant with spring life. Flowers are peeking through the icy edges of almost fully melted snow. Where the grass shows it is a lush emerald green. Birds are singing, flying and hopping about and I hear bees buzzing.

I walk towards a sparkling stream that frolics and bubbles over rocks into a shallow turquoise pond, where a doe is drinking. As I approach the doe lifts her head and our eyes meet. I am lost in their beauty. They speak of gentleness and kindness.

I recognize that I am thirsty too and that she has invited me to drink. So, I kneel next to her and scoop rainbow colored water with my hands into my mouth drinking deeply. As soon as I begin to drink I begin to feel lighter and happier. When I have almost had my fill, a dark shadow bear towers over me blocking the warmth of the sun but, this does not frighten me. I feel the warmth of protective love.

The shadow has shifted now. The sun has sunk down close to the horizon and, I am conscious of feeling cold. A shiver runs up through my spine and goose-bumps rise on my flesh. I think of covering up with my furs but, then I remember that I left them in the cave. I’m anxious now. I’m quickly walking away from the pond and hurrying back to the cave. But, I stop for a moment and I lift my eyes skyward.

There in the blue sky I see an old woman in the clouds beckoning me to join her at her campfire. I do not recognize the old woman but I and hasten to meet her and I feel a sense of rising, a sense of being lifted upward.

I find myself standing in the opening in the cleft of rock that is the entrance to my secret garden. I see a parting glimpse of the back of the old woman as she disappears into the rock cleft on her way down the tunnel into the cave. I also feel a cool breeze and see wisps of foggy mist studded with stars flow downward from the sky into the cleft of rock behind the old woman.

Now I stand naked and alone at that same entrance in the full glow of silver moonlight. I am looking over my shoulder. I am searching for someone. I look up and I see a star above me. Quiet joy fills my heart for, as I watch, the star turns into a pair of eyes — the eyes of the doe that I drank with at the pond.

I am sitting down now. I am in the cave by a campfire beneath the shadow of the bear on the cave wall. The old woman sitting beside me smiles and hands me more furs. I lay down and cover myself in them. I snuggle down feeling warm and safe. I am prepared now to drift into sleep and to dream. I know I’m about to take a journey and, I know that the old woman, the bear and the doe will be my guides during that journey.

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