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When we speak of animal totems, or animal medicine, we are speaking of the wisdom that Great Spirit gave each animal to impart to the two legged's in this world. In acknowledging this wisdom we bring ourselves closer to harmony with All Of Our Relations. The *medicine*, or wisdom of the animal kingdom helps us to heal our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual selves - to bring ourselves into harmony with the Universe, to walk the Beauty Way.
Animal medicine comes to us in many ways. It can be the actual animal appearing in our everyday lives, or it can be the voice of a specific animal coming through in dreamtime. The messages that we receive are connected with the lessons that we need to learn on our individual paths.
We need to honor this medicine by paying attention when an animal chooses to come into our lives in any manner. Speak with them - ask them what message they have for you, thank them for being there and ask if there is anything that you can do for them. Take their messages into your life and turn it into wisdom.
Animals honor us by appearing when sought out - when we recognize that a specific type of medicine is needed to balance our lives, we can call on the animal through prayer or in dreamtime to come to us and help us heal. When we do this, we are aligning ourselves with the energy of each animal. Respect the knowledge that you are given - treat it with reverence.
A very special animal medicine is that of the Bear. Bear is the keeper of dreamtime - he remembers our dreams and brings them into our waking hours. A person with Bear medicine takes the knowledge given to him and spends time alone with it, trying to understand what he has been given. Bear people have the gift of thinking things through thoroughly before making decisions or taking action.
Bear has the ability to walk between the physical and spiritual worlds. He embodies the energy of introspection, and is the keeper of the West on the Medicine Wheel. Walking with Bear means centering and grounding ourselves on mother earth and opening up to the Great Void.
Through the Great Void we receive messages of wisdom from our ancestors. Through them, we are able to see the alternatives in our lives - that our goals may be achieved in a myriad of ways.
The strength of the Bear is that of allowing us to enter our inner silence and through the quiet found there find the way to bring our goals into reality.
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