Spiritual concepts
Totem group
A totem group of people is usually a group of people, whether ancestors long dead or family who are living, who are related genetically. The equivalent in Scotland is the Clan. The name is most frequently used in hunter gatherer communities. Our word "totem" is thought to derive from the Ojibwe word odoodem, meaning "kinship group".
The group of Higher spirits, departed or still living, forms a collective consciousness with more power as a group than it has individually. If a shaman is able to access this collective consciousness as opposed to just his own memory and knowledge he is able to tap into accumulated wisdom – he becomes wiser. In the days before reading, writing and written records, this form of collective knowledge was especially important as it bestowed wisdom unavailable from any other source. It could be argued that it is still exceptionally important, as it is likely to be closer to the Truth – Reality.
Totem groups are still a very prominent feature of Native American Indian society, Australian aboriginal society, African society and South American Indian society. It was also a very important part of the belief system of prehistoric European hunter gatherer groups. The concept of the totem is thus widespread and a surprisingly large number of common beliefs are shared across these societies in various parts of the world.
Many totem groups in indigenous societies are named after an animal or a plant, fish, bird etc. This has a number of uses.
- It helps people without a written genetic record to remember their family lineage and avoid inter breeding.
- In advanced shamanic societies it indicates the animal that is the group’s spirit helper.
It helps to a certain extent in conservation of animals and the environment, as in many hunter gatherer societies there was a rule that one should not kill the animal that is your totem animal.
By extension, the same taboo was applied to members of the clan/totem group, as such it might be thought of the very first instance of the biblical commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’ – albeit only with respect to your clan group.
The totem pole of Native American Indians is a symbol of the clan – the totem group. Totem poles were used as symbols primarily by cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. The totem poles we see nowadays are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, usually cedar, but mostly Western Redcedar, but originally totem poles were smaller and used as house posts, funerary and memorial markers as symbols of clan. The carvings on the totem poles are there to act as a sort of aide memoir for legends or myths, clan lineages, notable events, cultural beliefs, leaders or other important clan figures, and to represent shamanic powers.
Observations
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- A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Goanna totem
- A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Weilwan tribe
- Ancestors, the - Art - David Lewis-Williams from The Mind in the Cave
- Ancestors, the - Art - Totemic groups
- Anna from Greece has a NDE from childbirth
- Benjamin, Walter - On Hashish - Out of the cracks grow great tufts of hair
- Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad – The Creation myth – 04 Verses 1.4.9 to 1.4.10
- Bruce Chatwin - Climate as the motor of evolutionary change
- Bruja ointment
- Corbin, Henry - Qazvini
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - The atavistic tendencies of mania
- Dr Robert Crookall - More Astral projections - Mr George Sandwith has multiple OBEs
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti and the possession of Lavinia Williams
- Genesis 04 - Cain and Abel
- Genesis 10 - The Tribes
- Grof, Dr Stanislav - Accessing group perception using emotion as the index
- Grof, Dr Stanislav - Ancestral memories
- Hans Peter Duerr - Tungus shaman
- Jacquetta Hawkes – A Land – Civilisation is the sharp knife cutting man from the matrix
- Japanese tea ceremony 1
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Making storms
- Jung, C G - Memories, Dreams and Reflections - Fate and destiny
- Known each other before
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - The Vision pit
- Lethbridge, T C – ESP Beyond Time and Distance – They knew that when they died, they were not extinguished
- Lyall Watson - On African totem groups
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 04 The Creation of the First humans
- Monroe, Robert - The I-There Clusters
- Organisation of Pictish society – Roles - Knight - The Whitham Shield
- Paul Devereux - Totemism
- Rig Veda - Death
- Sacred geography - Korean mystic shamanism – Poles 2
- Sacred geography – Picts – Crannogs 02
- Sheridan, Clare – The concept of the Totem group and synchronicity
- Symbolism - Korean mystic shamanism - Bear
- The Healing Wisdom of Birds – Lesley Morris - On Parrots
- The Lotus Sutra - 06 Bestowal of prophecy - 1 Kashyapa
- The Lotus Sutra - 06 Bestowal of prophecy - 2 Subhuti
- Totem group – Picts
- Totem group – Picts – 00 Tattoos
- Totem group – Picts – Elements - Angels and Deer [Aether]
- Totem group – Picts – Elements - Eagle [Air]
- Totem group – Picts – Elements - Fish [Water]
- Totem group – Picts – Elements - Snake [Earth]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - 00 Overview
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Cat [Caitl]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Crest headed [Circenn]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Fairy hound [Fib]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Floclaid [Fotla]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Rivers and streams [Fortrenn]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Warriors [Ce]
- Totem group – Picts – Planets - Woodsman [Fidach]
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Archer
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Boar
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Cow [or Ox]
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Fox
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Giant
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Goat and-or Bear
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Goose
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Hare
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Horse
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Raven or Crow
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Stag
- Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Wolf
- Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation – Dr Ian Stevenson – 23 The Tlingits of Alaska an overview
- Villoldo, Dr Alberto - Animals as symbols
- Vonnegut, Kurt - Graduation Speech: What the ‘Ghost Dance’ of the Native Americans and the French Painters Who Led the Cubist Movement Have in Common
- Vonnegut, Kurt - Kerass, Granfaloon and synchronicity
- War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness – 02 Reorganization of Temple worship & Programme of the forty years’ war
- War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness – 03 2 The standards
- War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness – 04 The standards [continued]
- Watson, Lyall - African totem groups
- Xam bushmen - Creation myth
- Yaqui Myths and Legends – collected by Ruth Warner Giddings - The first fire