Totemism

Exploring the Philosophical side of the Occult.

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landing
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Totemism

Post by landing »

Totemism belief is linked to animism or shamanism? which is much older religion?

In withcraft, has totem spirits , or familiars to work and protect, too.

It seems not very safe to work with Goetic spirits, is it safe to work with totem spirits , and when i want to work with other entities/spirits like goetic, can i ask my totem for advices and support? it belongs to white magick?
can a totem be a guardian spirit like guardian angel?
sometimes i feel my totem is the shapeshifting from my angel/or god / goddess/ , could it be possible?
maybe thats why people worship totems in ancient times?

Thank u.

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Re: Totemism

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Totemism belief is linked to animism or shamanism?
animism, shamanism and totenism are words use by 18th and 19th century scholars to describe similar practices between religions that wasn't christian. It's important to understand that a totem in papa nu guinea is not the same as a totem-pole in north america.
which is much older religion?
We honestly don't know. There has been very little archeological excavations done and it's hard to say if these practices are hundred of years old or thousand of years old.
In withcraft, has totem spirits , or familiars to work and protect, too.
It's not that simple. I can link you a longer article about familiars if you like reading.
can i ask my totem for advices and support?
In some tradition it works like that.
it belongs to white magick?
If you ask the Iban then yes it would be considered white magic, if you ask in traditional witchcraft, familiars are part of black magic and was one of the accusations brought forwards against witches.
can a totem be a guardian spirit like guardian angel?
Yes, you do see that in some traditions, and I think most scholars would agree that the concepts are very similar. You have to remember that guardian angels is not a christian concept but more of a folk-christian concept.
sometimes i feel my totem is the shapeshifting from my angel/or god / goddess/ , could it be possible?
Yes.
maybe thats why people worship totems in ancient times?
There is very little evidence that people actually worshiped totems.

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Re: Totemism

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Desecrated wrote:
In withcraft, has totem spirits , or familiars to work and protect, too.
It's not that simple. I can link you a longer article about familiars if you like reading.

.
Very much appreciated, Desecrated.
and I would like to read the article if possible, too. totem and familiar r same thing, right?
Is the north america totem pole a native american symbol for different tribe?
Thank u:)

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Re: Totemism

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landing wrote:
Desecrated wrote:
In withcraft, has totem spirits , or familiars to work and protect, too.
It's not that simple. I can link you a longer article about familiars if you like reading.

.
Very much appreciated, Desecrated.
and I would like to read the article if possible, too. totem and familiar r same thing, right?
Is the north america totem pole a native american symbol for different tribe?
Thank u:)
It gets more complicated than that. In witchcraft there is both physical familiars and spiritual familiars, and with modern practitioners they might talk about astral familiars as well. Also the concept of familiars tend to be more British/american then European. Although they do appear later on in northen europe as well.
So not all witches had familiars, and not all of those that had familiars had the same concept of familiars, and even today you do see different approaches to this subject.

Totem in some culture means something similar to taboo, Each family has a totem so that they can keep track of each other and don't end up in an incestuous relationship.
In some tradition each member has their own totem and this is usually something that comes to them in a dream. There is a very thin line between totem and spirit animal in some traditions.

Then in north America we see a whole range of different totempoles with all sorts of different meaning. Sometimes they tell a specific story, sometimes they tell the story of the clan, sometimes they tell the story of the clan but are expended upon by some feat. I saw a wonderful documentary about Canadian Indians and they made totem-poles to celebrate certain individuals at different occasion. So each individual had a totem and when you got married to somebody else from a different tribe you would create a totempole with both tribes totem.
And yes to confuse it even further, some tribes do have totempoles to signify the tribe, and then individual totems, AND spirit animals.

And sometimes the spirit animal is presented as a totem...

Anyway: article is here:

https://innerlives.org/2017/07/18/creat ... pamphlets/

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Re: Totemism

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Re: Totemism

Post by Cerber »

Totem is like servitor just not personal but communal
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Re: Totemism

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Cerber wrote:Totem is like servitor just not personal but communal
Yes,
This is a very important factor to consider as well.

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Re: Totemism

Post by landing »

I have never thought of totem as a servitor...
the totem appears to me like a goddess/god,

Desecrated ,is that a youtube video? can u give me the link, i cant see it . thanks:)

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Re: Totemism

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landing wrote:I have never thought of totem as a servitor...
the totem appears to me like a goddess/god,
Sometimes, to some extent, it's same thing.
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Re: Totemism

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landing wrote:I have never thought of totem as a servitor...
the totem appears to me like a goddess/god,

Desecrated ,is that a youtube video? can u give me the link, i cant see it . thanks:)
Different societies have different views on gods. Here in the west gods tend to be really powerful, while in the east a god can be really really weak. Some people might see totem as gods and some see them more like spirits/servitors.
In japan anything that exists has a soul, and therefor it has a god. So there is a god of money (obviously pretty powerful) and there is a god of abandoned shoes (Not that very powerful). And yes there is also a god of keyboards, and a god of discarded tv cables and so on.
So in their eyes, an individual totem has a soul (is a spirit) but all totems collectively have a god and one think connects to the other. All trees are individual spirits but they are connected to the tree god so you can communicate with the tree god through every tree.
So a totem is both an individual spirit and a gateway to the totem gods. And if you make a totem of a god, that totem will have a connection to that god as well.

But that's not necessarily how other tribes thinks about totems...



Link to youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08H5W_Py448

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