Mighty, archaic animals, they carry the wealth of knowledge and power accumulated over millions of years by the mammals to which we belong. Especially the power of family (a mammal invention, in fact), tradition and clan. Female elephants possess matriarchal wisdom (in a broad sense: matriarchy as a society in which power rested with women is an ‘academic legend’ and has never existed), as they live in herds of mothers (sisters or cousins) with their young children and older, wiser females. The adult males, on the other hand, generally live alone. They are known to worship the dead.

Element: Earth and Water

Plant World: Roots and tubers (potatoes or other)

Expansive phases: All year round. Rainy season. Day

Body parts: Smell, nose. Teeth, skin. Outer ear. Sexuality. 1st chakra

Powers: Royalty. Peace, prosperity, longevity, power (also sexual). Bringer of rain. Stability, immutability. Removal of obstacles and barriers. Atavistic memory, cult of ancestors, sacred sense of life and death. Patience, matriarchal wisdom. Marital fidelity. Clan loyalty, camaraderie. Social and family order. Care for the young, respect for the old. Law of compensation. Implacability, revenge. Fury.

It has enabled man to shorten distances in space and time. To visit new lands and conquer them – he is therefore an ally. There are only two species of elephant left in the world:
the Asian one, which has smaller ears and can be tamed; and the African one, which is more massive and completely wild.
Although the African elephant’s powers are more intense, but also more difficult to control, the two species have similar characteristics. Lovers of water in which they must frequently bathe, showering with their trunks, they are rainbearers, both in Africa and Asia. Even among the Maya people (who are not supposed to have ever seen this animal), the rain god Chac is equipped with a trunk. Such is their power over the rain that elephant spirits travel in the clouds: that is why so often one sees the shape of a white elephant in the clouds.

Calm animals, confident in their size and royalty, if provoked beyond measure they become enraged, becoming destructive and implacable.
At times, a gland located between the eye and ear secretes a hormone that makes them furious. This effect is greater in males and seems to have a sexual function. This is also why sexuality is among their powers.

The elephant is a lunar animal because it is linked to the cycles of rain and water levels.

Linked to the Earth, it is in Asian tradition a cosmo-phore animal, like the Turtle for the American Indians: it supports the world on its back. Its very rounded body is the cosmos, while its mighty legs are the 4 supporting pillars at the 4 corners of the universe. It carries the ancestral powers of the Earth from which we and our ancestors come and to which we return at death. However, it is also connected to Water, especially as rain and mud, which it covers itself with to rid itself of parasites.

Plant world

Il suo potere è connesso ai tuberi, come patate e simili, e alle radici di cui si nutre cacciandole fuori dal terreno con le zanne. E’ anche protettore dei raccolti cui garantisce pioggia e fertilità.

Expansive phases

The Elephant is active all year round. However, it fears drought and is strongest in the rainy season. It wakes during the day and rests at night. Elephantesses have long gestations (18 to 22 months), the young will be reared until they are 5 years old and will not become adults until they are 15. Therefore, this animal offers the power to create new things through a long and profound process, the projects and transformations will be slow, but in the end they will appear in their majesty and unshakeable solidity.

Body parts

Hindu tradition rightly associates the Elephant with the 1st chakra or root chakra, which connects to the deep forces of the earth. In particular, the power is in the teeth and the skin, which in the elephant is very important and, contrary to popular belief, very delicate. In the nose and sense of smell. Finally, mention must be made of the power of the ears, more specifically the pinnae, through which the elephant disperses body heat and with which it also fans itself in hot weather.

The Elephant as messenger

Elephants are primordial powers, ancient life forms and our ancestors in mammal history – so we maintain a dark connection with them, as with our mother.
That is why in psychoanalysis, rather foolishly, it has been said that they represent the mother or the unconscious. In reality, they are very powerful and primal forces that are difficult for us to tame (impossible in the case of the African Elephant), but which we can draw on to (trans)form our lives. However, if we cannot control them because we are incapable or too afraid to face them, they will overwhelm and crush us. If they appear to us in a vision or a dream, they may come to bring us the baggage of power and tradition of our lineage. I myself, when I came to my family heritage, an elephant with a large load on its back came to my aid: in the middle I recognised the things that had belonged to my father, who had already been dead for some years. Sometimes the Elephant comes looking for us when we run away from our dark, animal side and keep our lives within the realm of well-civilised, domestic powers.
Here, too, coming to terms with its power will save us from losing our roots and withering away. Sometimes, if the Elephant appears to us furious or otherwise aggressive, it may want to push us to make up for a wrong suffered. Sometimes he may appear to us in the role of avenger of an adultery or a breach of group loyalty.

The Elephant as Totem

He who has the elephant as an animal of power or totem is regal and has the power of tradition and memory. In addition to the memory of mammals and family, there is also personal memory – but in this case it is mainly the memory of wrongs suffered: elephants remember an outrage even after many decades… and they take revenge. He who has the elephant as an ally must bear this in mind, as well as the pre-Christian wisdom of the law of retaliation. Of course he can choose not to take revenge, but he must know that he had better demand compensation for the wrong he has suffered, otherwise he will tend to take revenge unconsciously: which is much more dangerous because it is out of control.
The power of these people is developed in the family and traditional structures, divided by age and gender.
They can (and must) develop loyalty and clan spirit. Also remembering that the elephant is the guardian of marital fidelity and does not allow adultery. Respect for elders, care for the young and child-rearing are favoured.
This is also why they often come as allies to children.
This is how the lineage and the great mammal family bring the power accumulated over millennia to the newcomers, fragile and unsuspecting, defend them and help them to grow and build themselves.

The Elephant often gives the power to summon rain, fertility and therefore wealth. It is no coincidence that the Hindu god of wealth, Ganesha, has the head of an elephant. Those who have the elephant as an ally generally have a developed sense of smell, both in a physical and emotional sense.

Their skin is delicate and may tend to thicken. They sometimes tend to accumulate water in their tissues.
They are calm, but they become infuriatingly implacable and must be careful not to overdo it.
They have or must have worship of the dead and ancestors and a sacred sense of life and death.
They are strong, they know how to remove obstacles from their path, but – like the animal – they do not have the ability to leap over them. They must always remain attached to the earth. Therefore they are not able to overcome problems lightly, they must instead face them directly. Their life can be serious and demanding, but also full of gifts.

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L'articolo The Elephant proviene da The Drum of the Shaman.

The power of the Horse – a Lakota sacred man once told me – is the power to cross many lands and reach a distant land, when you are driven from your land. Without the Horse you will remain close to the town you belonged to and you have to beg hoping they will welcome you back” The Horse has the power of travel and freedom.
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Element: Fire and Water

Plant World: Wheat, cereals

Expansive phases: All year round.

Body parts: Sexual organs, legs, feet, 1st and 2nd chakras. The whole body

Powers: Travel, freedom, shamanic journey. Means of transport, cars, motorcycles. Rhythm and race of Time. Sexual potency. Fertility and creativity. Awareness. Clairvoyance, listening and speaking to the spirits and souls of the dead. Psychopomp. Knower of springs, bringer of water and rain. Kingship, battle..

It allowed man to shorten distances in space and time. To visit new lands and conquer them – he is therefore an ally in battles. Even if today it is only used for pleasure, the spirits of means of transport, in particular trains and cars, but also ships and engines in general have the power of the Horse. Whose power we in fact measure in horsepower. The shaman’s horse is the drum, and its rapid sound is the gallop of hooves through the other worlds.
Often the Horse also leads us on the last journey, therefore it has psychopomp powers (guide of souls), and some horses can reside in the Underworld. Sometimes shamans traveling in the deepest areas of the Lower World, where the Land of the Dead is located, come across a horse with a black or dark red coat, which instead of eyes has two black and shiny globes – since there under ordinary sight it is no longer useful. If you meet him, he is a hellish horse, an ally of the deities of Hades and often a playmate of children who died before their time. Powerful, elegant and regal, capable of leading us far, the horse manages the forces of instinct, which however are never fully controllable without depriving them of power – therefore it is also skittish and easy to panic. We must know how to master it otherwise he will throw us to the ground and trample us with his hooves.

Elements

The Horse Spirits emerge from the recesses of the earth, generated by the underground Fire. Or from the sea, as the large waves that we call breakers remind us: The foam of the sea is the manes of white horses or the drool in the mouths of wildly galloping steeds, Homer sings in the Iliad. This is why the Horse has the powers of Fire and Water. He has the power to make a spring flow by tapping the ground with his hoof and to call the rain spirits. Therefore, if we need to find water in the ground or a new source of emotions and spiritual or emotional nourishment in our life, the spirit of the Horse can help us.

Plant world

Lunar animal, it has the power of sexuality (and therefore fertility) and knows the underground waters that govern the growth of plants. The horse therefore protects the cultivation of wheat and cereals in general, which it feeds on. The chthonic Spirits (i.e. from the depths of the earth), like the horse, once tamed become protectors of the cultivated fields, that is, of the tamed land. Furthermore, the horse as a spirit of war offers its power to fight the scourges of crops. Its fertility power in favor of the crop seems to reside above all in the tail..

Expansive phases

The Horse, thanks to the speed but also to the rhythm of its run, is the spirit lord of Time. It’s no coincidence that his hooves beat like clockwork. He rises from the chthonic fire, passes unscathed through the land of cold and death, and therefore also winter, until light and spring, giving life to golden wheat. In fact, in March the ancient Romans celebrated the Equinia, and after the harvest on October 15th a horse was sacrificed to Mars. The Horse is therefore expansive-active throughout the year: during the winter it runs through the underworld, while in spring-summer until mid-autumn it travels the earth in the light of the sun. The same symbolism occurs between night and day. As the spirit of the Journey and the race of Time, the Horse carries the subterranean and seabed powers up to the light of the sun and even up into the Sky and the Upper World. He therefore has the power to transmute and sublimate the energies of the underworld, to transform them into intellectual and uranic creative forces. The volcanic fire is carried by the winged horse Pegasus into the sky where it becomes the lightning of Zeus, i.e. the celestial fire. So from a lunar animal on its journey it becomes solar, from black or dark red, it first becomes saurian or bay (terrestrial), then white and sometimes winged.

Parts of the body

The power of the horse over sexuality is strong. Here too, sexual energy can be transformed during the race, therefore the dark or chestnut horse is especially associated with the organs of reproduction. Equal power in the legs and feet. Anyone who has problems in these areas can draw help from the spirit of a horse. But the horse gives power to the whole body as it effectively becomes the body of the rider (which is the head). Today it also gives power to the car or motorbike, which have become the body of the new travellers

The Horse as messenger

The Horse offers you the power to travel and be free, to reclaim yourself, your time and the future.
However, you must distinguish the type of horse, its coat, its colour, whether it is tamed or not. Dark or brown horses bring chthonic forces – if they are restless or wild they can also bring you great sexual energy, if docile they can perhaps bring the power of fertility in the earth or in the material fields of life.
Light or white horses are messengers of the uranic worlds, they come from the stars, from the Sun or from the Upper World whose powers they embody. A winged horse often has the power to dream and perform great spiritual or intellectual feats.
Conjunct with the Wind, it is our personal psychic power (character, clarity, awareness), called the Wind Horse by the Mongols. A hellish horse can be a harbinger of death in dreams. Sometimes he appears as a dead horse, for the dead horse in this world is alive in the Underworld.

The Horse as an Animal Power

The Horse is fast and rapid, resistant, instinctive and sensitive, sexually powerful, fertile. If wild, it is freedom-loving. He is regal and has the power of battle, whose chariots he once drove to victory. He can protect you on any type of trip and protect your car or motorbike.

Those who have the Horse as an animal of power can take on different characteristics depending on the type of horse, which in any case is better if it is wild. In general he will or can become a free traveller, capable of feeling spirits and having sudden premonitions, moody and shady. He will be fulfilled by traveling and visiting other places, literally and otherwise. He will often love engines, cars, even more motorcycles. When a place or field of activity can no longer give him anything or damages him, his way of power will be to be led by his Horse elsewhere.
However, the horse is a herd animal and realizes its freedom in the group and, whoever has it as an ally, if rejected by its group, will travel and find a new clan to belong to. His path to power is through teamwork and community.
He must avoid being dominated by instincts and take care of his lungs, which are very delicate in horses.

L'articolo Horse proviene da The Drum of the Shaman.

The power of the Bear is enormous. It is the first animal to have been worshipped by man, and the Neanderthals ritually buried Bear skulls along with human skulls. Many native peoples believed themselves to be descendants of Bears, thus in Siberia or Mongolia – but in our culture, the inhabitants of Arcadia in the Peloponnese (Greece) also believed themselves to be descendants of Bears. About 25 years ago, an evolutionary scholar asserted that man did not derive from the ape, but from the bear

Elements: Earth and Fire.

Plant World: Ayahuasca. Corn.

Expansive phases: All year round(?). Night. Eclipses of the sun and moon.

Body parts: Head. Eyes, eyesight. Cheeks. Beard and moustache. Temporal lobe. Jaws. 6th chakra. Limbs and joints.

Powers: Ambush. Attack. Aggressiveness, ferocity. Timing, sprinting, sense of opportunity. Confidentiality, silence. Prudence, caution, mistrust. Strength, power. Mastery, versatility. Solitude, individualism, self-sufficiency. Impatience. Clairvoyance, vision of other realities. Journey through space, time and worlds. Shamanic journey. Lord of mountains and echo. Lord of the underworld, psychopomp. Sound and power of the drum. Guardian of Fire.

Bears, like our ancestors, lived in caves, and like them and us, can walk on two legs. But unlike humans, it has exceptional strength and self-confidence. No animal can frighten or kill him.
In order to become like the god Bear, men have built weapons that can put them above all animals — certainly from the power of the Bear they asked for help in building them, so that they would have the strength of the Bear in them.
So it is true of a Mongol people: from the union between a woman and a Bear descended our people.

Lunar animal. The Siberians and Inuit of Alaska say it belongs to the Moon because it disappears in winter and reappears in spring like the plant cycle, which is regulated by the Moon.
Also in ancient Greece, the Bear was an animal sacred to Artemis, virgin goddess of the Moon, solitary hunter and protector of wildlife.

Element

A chthonic animal, he comes from the depths of the earth. But like man after him, he has acquired the power to master all the elements. He is also the guardian of Fire. He has brought him with him the power of Thunder and the Subterranean Sun.
He belongs to the West, the direction of the Underworld, the Land of the Dead and Thunder.

The vegetal World

The cult of the bear has always been associated with the Tree, which is also, like the bear, similar to man in many respects: it stands erect, sinks its roots into the earth, from which it comes, but reaches for the sky. All bears are in fact, despite their size, able to climb trees. If you have to invoke the power of the bear, it is a good thing to call upon it and worship it at a sacred tree.

Expansive phase

The bear’s power is active and expansive from spring, when the winter retreat into the cave ends.
It does not really go into hibernation, as is believed, only slows down its metabolism and body temperature in autumn-winter. However, it remains awake enough to give birth, in the case of females. They rear their young in the cave and at the end of winter come out into the open with their offspring already a few months old. This gives the bear the power to give birth to new ideas and projects – but also babies! – in voluntary retreat and to raise them safely for the very first few months. Bear cubs, however, stay with their mother for a long time, about 2-3 years, so the power of the Bear does not allow for lightning-fast successes, but is suitable for projects that develop over a few years.

Body parts

The Bear during the winter retreat stops the arrival of the kidneys. His control of these organs is extraordinary. Anyone who is ill with kidneys should seek his help. The kidneys belong to the first chakra and to the management of territory (and therefore also of money), in fact animals mark their boundaries with urine.

If the Bear visits us in a dream or vision or otherwise, a strong, maternal and protective being has come from the depths of time to bring us the power that belonged to our most remote ancestors who lived in caves. If we welcome it, the ancestral strength of our Stone Age ancestors is made available to us.
However, it should not be forgotten that he is a ferocious and unpredictable animal – therefore if we do not treat him with due respect, he can tear us to pieces and drag us back into the depths of the cave from which we came out.
Maybe we feel weak or need to retreat for a while and give birth to something new. But it may also be that we have to decide to leave the cave, trusting in our strength and that of our ally.
Sometimes we need introspection and discernment in our ideas or feelings: if we lack discernment, the bear can therefore come to help us.
The bear can also offer us healing through retreat and the appropriate use of herbs and roots.

The Bear as an animal of power

The Bear is strong and powerful, but at the same time incredibly fast. He is also courageous and ferocious.
One of the few animals that does not let itself be frightened by man and which, if enraged, is extremely destructive and bloody. He therefore has the power of hunting and war, and – at least in ancient times – also of the government of peoples with the sword.
However, on the other hand it is also the bearer of healing powers through herbs and roots.

Those who have the Bear as their power animal are or can become strong and silent, courageous, agile and introspective but fast people, even mentally. Women, but not only them, have a strong maternal instinct and are very protective. However, they are sometimes grumpy and, if angry, ferocious individuals. Their heart, well protected by power, is nevertheless sweet, like the honey they love to feed on. They will do well to add it to their diet. They can become great leaders.
If they synchronize with the natural rhythm of their ally (and they will be more powerful if they do), they will work alone and create new projects in the cold season and then compete with others in spring-summer. Their love life and sex will also be more active in the summer. Not infrequently people – especially males – whose strong mother was decisive in their lives have the Bear as their power animal. They especially must avoid the temptation to always remain closed in their cave.

L'articolo Bear proviene da The Drum of the Shaman.

Its Indian name is yaguara, ‘he who kills with a leap’. This animal in fact does not chase its prey, but waits in ambush and at the most opportune moment pounces on it, biting its head off at both temporal lobes. When the jaguar hits the ground, the prey is already dead with its skull cracked open. If it fails the blow, however, it will not try again a second time.

Element: Earth and Fire.

Plant World: Ayahuasca. Corn.

Expansive phases: All year round(?). Night. Eclipses of the sun and moon.

Body parts: Head. Eyes, eyesight. Cheeks. Beard and moustache. Temporal lobe. Jaws. 6th chakra. Limbs and joints.

Powers: Ambush. Attack. Aggressiveness, ferocity. Timing, sprinting, sense of opportunity. Confidentiality, silence. Prudence, caution, mistrust. Strength, power. Mastery, versatility. Solitude, individualism, self-sufficiency. Impatience. Clairvoyance, vision of other realities. Journey through space, time and worlds. Shamanic journey. Lord of mountains and echo. Lord of the underworld, psychopomp. Sound and power of the drum. Guardian of Fire.

More massive than the leopard, it is smaller than the lion and the tiger, but fiercer even than the latter.
A mysterious and solitary animal, it is very difficult to see and very little is known about its habits.
Jaguars inhabit a territory that can stretch up to 300 miles. They only meet during heat, but are so solitary that they even irritate each other during sex.

Their power is both strong and versatile.
The jaguar can hunt in the prairie as well as in the forest and swamps; it prefers the proximity of water, with which, unlike most felines, it is comfortable; it can fish with its paws in the manner of bears; it is an excellent swimmer and also hunts small alligators or caimans. On the other hand, jaguars have been seen up to 3800 metres altitude.
It is no coincidence that Indians say they can fly over mountain peaks and that there are water jaguars that inhabit the depths of rivers. In Central and South America it is the Lord of the Animals and the main ally of many shamans.
Not just an ally, the Jaguar is indeed the shaman among animals.
Shaman and Jaguar are not merely equivalent, but each is at the same time the other.
Shamans roam the mountains and spy on or kill their enemies in the form of jaguars, and jaguars take possession of the souls of men, turning them into shamans. Many shamans upon death become jaguars for good.

Shaman-animal and Traveller between Worlds, it is through his travelling in this and other realities that he has acquired his many powers. And he has the archaic wisdom (perhaps out of fashion today, no wonder he risks extinction) of keeping his knowledge secret.
It seems, however, that his origin is chthonic, from the Underworld to which he often accompanies the souls of the dead, in the role of psychopomp (guide of souls). He is also the lord of the mountains, the echo and the drum. His roar is the voice of the Drum and the Thunder.

One must be respectful of the Jaguar. Only shamans can master its spirit, in ordinary men it can give rise to phenomena of severe possession: in South America, ‘were-jaguars’, similar to European werewolves, are known.

Jaguars are often lunar animals, because they are shy and predominantly nocturnal. But above all, the Jaguar is the embodiment of the Earth, which devours the sun at sunset and becomes the power of the sun during its nocturnal run.
It is therefore the Sun that shines in the underworld. It is also told of a blue jaguar, who lives in the Celestial World. It has two heads to devour the Sun and the Moon (eclipse) and the Tupinamba Indians say that at the end of time it will descend to earth to prey on men.

Vegetal World

In the Amazon, like the shamans of that land, he eats the bark of Ayahuasca, the powerful psychotropic plant used to have visions. The Indians say he does it ‘to leap into the other reality’.
No white person has directly seen him do it, although they have found traces of it. But in experiments on cats, they have seen them, after eating ayhuasca, make backward jumps: jumps ‘in reverse’, to the Other World.

It is also the protector of maize. The Indians say that since its origins four jaguars have stood guard at the four corners of the maize fields.

Element: A chthonic animal, he comes from the depths of the Earth. But like man after him, he has acquired the power to dominate all the elements. He is also guardian of Fire. He brought him with him the power of Thunder and the Subterranean Sun.
He belongs to the West, the direction of the Underworld, the Land of the Dead and Thunder.

Expansive phases

It is mainly active at night. But to some extent also during the day, especially at dusk and dawn, and this is no coincidence: these in fact are the ‘in-between’ hours, when gaps between realities open up, gaps that the Jaguar-shamans cross, often devouring ayahuasca.
It mates, it seems, at all times of the year.

Body Parts

As a jumping animal, it has powerful limbs and joints. But its mastery of ambush requires great power in its eyes and sense of smell. Its jaws and teeth are then incredibly strong, among the few capable of breaking even the strongest turtle shell. The unusual killing technique, which does not break the victim’s neck but the bones of the temples, tells us that the jaguar strikes at the head and the evolved areas of the brain and that it feeds on these powers: head, 6th chakra.

The Jaguar as messenger

If you hear a Jaguar roar, it is possible that the spirit of a dead person is coming to speak to you.
Or perhaps a Thunderstorm is about to shake your life: you can either suffer it in terror or make the power of Thunder your own, which charges you with electricity and awakens nature (even in the city!).
If a Jaguar comes to visit you, you may be experiencing or will experience an eclipse, but the Jaguar reveals to you that the Black Sun is none other than the Sun that shines underground and illuminates a hidden world and powers you did not suspect.
You can treasure these powers, but know that you will have to do everything yourself and keep your intentions secret.

The Jaguar as an animal of power

It is difficult to master this powerful totem. In other cultures they would say that only those called to become shamans can, the others are possessed by it. We moderns, so complex, are more seldom victims of true possessions; on the other hand, we are very good at defending ourselves from powerful spirits by ‘weakening’ them. Therefore often those who have a Jaguar or other too ‘strong’ spirits (such as the Eagle) as their power animal are perhaps not possessed, but are very weak.

The Jaguar in fact brings us powers that are very challenging to manage, such as strength and versatility together, talent in many different fields, but also loneliness, the power to manage these talents alone, without the help of others.
Jaguar-men, if they take their power into their own hands, know how to express themselves in very different terrains, explorers of vast and untouched territories in both the literal and spiritual sense.

They are masters of ambush and biding their time, and when they attack they are relentless.
It is difficult to master the jaguar’s aggressiveness and they can, when the time comes, be possessed by it: they absolutely must train themselves to keep their ally in check on this level.

They have the ability to throw light into the underworld and illuminate places that most others would not want to see

They must develop their plans alone and keep their intentions secret otherwise they will lose power and eventually be weak and defeated. Everything they achieve will be due only to their own efforts.

They are charming but arouse fear and distrust. Shy but also aggressive and sometimes ruthless.

They manage to live in situations where others would not survive and find sustenance in unexpected ways and in all fields. That is why it is not surprising that they can become other people’s guides and masters, while remaining ultimately alone (as do traditional shamans).

They will have a keen sense of smell and sight, especially at night, or they will sharpen them by strengthening their bond with the Jaguar. So too will their teeth and jaws. They can see in the dark and therefore have clairvoyant abilities, often from childhood.
If, however, they cannot handle or refuse the challenge of mastering their power, they will have problems with their eyesight and teeth, fail to express aggression and the Jaguar will become aggressive against them. Or they will be dominated by the animal occasionally without being able to really harness its power.
They are active at night and during the day, but more so at night. Their powers, especially shamanic ones, will be greatest at dusk and dawn.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

L'articolo Jaguar proviene da The Drum of the Shaman.