What if you see a pair of Magpies noisily chasing a hawk away? Or a black swan with a white feather in its beak? What if a kookaburra cheekily swoops down and snatches from your hand that tasty morsel, just before you are about to eat it? Have you had a butterfly alight on your shoulder, or perhaps swallowed a fly? Does your favourite jam have rosellas on the logo? Or did you ever find a pattern of seashells on the beach, or a rock engraved with images by nature? The ways the creatures and other symbols in this book can make an impact in your life are numerous.
The world can be a living oracle through which God/Spirit/Higher Self speaks. Our environment may spark off deeper introspection, and as a ‘side effect,’ provide solutions to dilemmas that may seem insoluble, or bring a sense of peace about them. By regarding the events in your life and dreams as messages, you are, in fact, allowing your brain to access the less-dominant, more intuitive side of your psyche. In seeing something in a new way, or from a different perspective, you are allowing your thought processes to expand to accept new viewpoints in other areas of your life. By taking a fresh approach, or another angle, you are opening yourself up to creative new alternatives and insights.
Divining your own meanings for the symbols in Native Symbols and your life can be a challenge that leads you to exploring archetypes, or patterns, that run like threads through the tapestry of you and your role in the larger world. A symbol will mean different things to different people. For example, a rabbit caught in a trap is welcomed by the grazier who is plagued by them, or the hungry person looking for a feed (unless they are vegetarian); but to a Greenie, it might be a tragic metaphor. It depends, largely, upon what you know about the creature, and any previous experiences with it. In this way, we each perceive things uniquely. Native Symbols, really, is a stepping stone, or starting point, for you to divine and define your own personal meanings.
There are some questions you can ask yourself about the creatures and other symbols you encounter, especially for those ones that have had an impact on you in some way.
What can you learn from the animals and things of nature you meet in your life; what would they say to you if they could speak? What associations does the symbol carry for you? Does it remind you of something from your past? How does it represent your own nature; how is it like you, and not like you?
What is your initial response? Are you drawn to it, awed, repelled, frightened or indifferent? Do you have this same response to anything else in your life?
Questions to ask:
In times of difficult decision-making, a question with sometimes funny (or enlightening) answers you can ask yourself is, “if I were my totem, how would I respond to …..?”
