(Totems)

Sometimes it's pretty rough for me to explain the difference between my totem animals and my "Weresides" because of the whole "Polywere" thing. Sometimes I think that I just want to trash the whole "Were" label and simply call myself a "shifter"... as I see Humans as animals. Some that I've talked to have insisted that it is having a nonhuman animal that makes one a "Were". I don't agree, but that's just my opinion. That's a little off the topic though, so... Anyway...

One of the main differences (to me) between a "Wereside" and a "Totem-Animal" is that in order to have a "Wereside" one must be a "Were"... a "Wereside" is either another self or an aspect of oneself, and a "Totem Animal" is more like a guide or guardian spirit which is not connected to or part of the self. Like I said, this is a tough question for me, because of being a Polywere (or "shifter"). I don't know that there is any animal that I cannot shift to... and so in order to explain which is a Totem and which is a Wereside, I sometimes have to get pretty damn analytical. I can never seem to explain things to people really well when talking about all of this. I always feel like even though I can tell the difference, I can't explain it to other people in a way that they will be able to understand the difference. Many people don't believe in Weres, and so the only way to have them understand me is to speak only of totem animals... this bugs me because it seems that my explanations vary from person to person and I come off as being quite hypocritical. I just try to explain things so that the person I'm talking to gets the point, and the explanation might vary because some people see things quite differently than others do. For this post though, I'll assume that people do actually believe in "Weres"... so... I'll try it this way... I usually call something a "totem animal" when it is an animal that represents me... not when it is an animal that IS me. For example, Wolf is one of my totem animals... I am much like a wolf in my ways and life-path, and the spirit or essence of wolf often guides me. Wolf is ALSO a "Wereside"... meaning, I "SHIFT" to wolf... or towards wolf, whatever you want to call it or however you want to see it.... I BECOME wolf... become trans-specieal, if you will. I hope that makes some sort of sense. Without going into the whole MPD thing too much, a Totem animal would be outside the "system" and a Werside would be part of the "system" or an aspect of one of the people in the "system".

I think that many people have multiple totem animals, but I'm inclined to think that no matter how many a person has, there tends to be one that is most "dominant". (It gets tricky with me, as I'm many people... but each one of us has a dominant totem animal, even though we have many. If you took all 18 of my dominant animals, I guess that you could create a totem for this body... and then depending on the day or minute or whatever, one of those animals would be the dominant totem-animal. As I've said... VERY CONFUSING and I'm a little bugged that I don't feel that I've explained myself clearly. I think that the dominant totem animal is the animal that is seen as the "Spirit Guide". If you're a "Medicine Card" user, it'd be the animal in the "East", I think... basically, the first card you draw. (By the way, I've found that the "Medicine Card" deck is incredibly accurate, at least for me.) It's all a matter of perspective though.

Again, it's not the easiest question in the world for me to answer... I just hope that in chasing my tail I'm actually amusing the hell out of someone other than myself/ves.

If you want to read "Clan of the Cave Bear", it touches a lot on the totem animal thing... and it's also a really good read. (A bit off in so far as the historical accuracy and such, but good none the less.)