We all recognize “Native American” totem poles, those painted, carved wood monuments constructed by the peoples of Alaska. Did you know that the ancient Romans also had clan totems? Julius Caesar’s clan totem was the eagle (Aquila). Japanese noble, and perhaps also ordinary, families maintained clan totems, and samurai armor featured these symbols.
Imagine if the last thing you ever saw on earth happened to be a gigantic iron butterfly? The Ainu, a nation of primitive white people living in the north of Japan, hold the bear sacred. The “aboriginal” peoples of Australia and New Guinea also revere totemic animals. Go to the Metropolitan Museum or the Museum of Natural History and look at the carved house poles and the canoes. (Michael Rockefeller was supposed to have been eaten by these people after he made some kind of bad move during an expedition.)
The “American Indians” are supposed to have maintained a kinship with nature, considering animals as another lineage of individuals. Witches were believed to use “familiars,” animals found around the house (dogs, cats, piglets), as facilitators of magic.
Are you drawn to a particular animal? For example, do you like dogs better than cats? There might be an ancestral basis for this. I own a Haitian sequined voodoo banner (or drapo) with the image of Katia Boissou, a West African fertility deity, which I bought because its name suggested mine and the design looked like something by Miro.
This boils down to a basic fact: if you think your folks were born with table napkins and silverware, you are WRONG. Wrongity wrong wrong.
Do animals think? You bet they do. Are they stooped? Naww. (This is a digression.)
It occurs to me that people need “magic,” or perhaps wonder, in order to function. Life is tough. Have we perhaps gone too far in “civilizing” ourselves? I miss the shadowy old church architecture, the stained glass windows, and the Latin Mass. Some character with an acoustic guitar just doesn’t cut it. Why do so many people crowd into Stonehenge for the solstices?
So, what do you think your clan totem is?—Kathryn Nocerino