Totem Quotes

“Every culture that has lost myth has lost, by the same token, its natural healthy creativity. Only a horizon ringed about with myths can unify a culture. The forces of imagination and the Apollonian dream are saved only by myth from indiscriminate rambling. The images of myth must be the daemonic guardians, ubiquitous but unnoticed, presiding over the growth of the child's mind and interpreting to the mature man his life and struggles.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

“Like a wolf, she lived by instinct.”
― Nikki rowe

“When people believe that what you believe is what they believe, they turn you into a belief.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“We invite you, in reading this book, to cast away your preconceptions and enter, with us, a magical world where all things are connected to you, and you are connected to all things.”
― Sun Bear, The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology

“I wouldn’t touch a one-eyed teratoma like you with a ten-foot totem pole.”
― Gerri R. Gray, The Strange Adventures of Turquoise Moonwolf

“Il totemismo presuppone e regola una società divisa in un certo numero di clan che credono di trarre la loro origine da un mitico antenato comune, animale o vegetale. Il totem è il segno distintivo del clan, la sua bandiera; per questo viene venerato e rispettato. Generalmente i membri del clan evitano di cibarsi degli animali ai quali sono legati da parentela attraverso il comune avo totemico; però hanno l'obbligo di mangiarli durante particolari occasioni rituali; in quel caso si crede che il banchetto "antropofago" garantirà magicamente l'abbondanza della specie in questione; il vantaggio ovviamente andrà solo agli altri clan della tribù; i loro membri infatti potranno cacciare per tutto l'anno quell'animale, senza temere di vederlo scomparire.
Il totemismo ha dunque un significato sociale evidente: rafforza l'identità interna di ciascuno e ne sviluppa l'altruismo.”
― Carlo Alberto Pinelli, L'alba dell'uomo

“It’s the living you have to be fearful of, not the monsters in your dreams”
― S. E. Turner

“The main lesson taken from the kangaroo is that it does not step backward. It is not possible for it. It always goes forward, even when going around in circles! It's long tail is like the trunk of a tree and bears its weight. Many people choose kangaroo as their totem because they feel a real kinship and recognize the necessity of learning balance in their personality. I liked the idea of looking back over my life and considering, even when it appeared I had made mistakes or poor choices; on some level of my being, it was the best I could do at the time. In the long run it was going to prove to be a step forward.”
― Marlo Morgan, Mutant Message Down Under

“The hummingbird represents beauty and joy. She is a creature of flight, bringing her closer to the cosmos with each wingbeat. She is constantly moving and is rarely seen at rest, preferring instead to perform her aerial acrobatics. Her heart is as fast as her wings and her colors are bright and shifting; they are colors that capture the sunlight in their iridescence. She brings love wherever she passes by.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“The phrase "low man on the totem pole" was coined by a White man in the 1940s to mean a person with no respect, status, or power. He clearly did not consult the Natives who carve the poles. They honor the figures they represent by immortalizing them in precious old-grown red cedar. Each member of the totem pole is significant, but the one on the bottom is often given the most reverence. They are the one who holds up everyone else; they are the one who starts the story.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“The bear is a symbol of motherly love and familial strength in the fiercest way. A mother bear will not allow her children to come to harm, but she will not coddle them either. No one dares come between the mother and her cubs, but still her cubs must keep up with her and learn to be strong themselves.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“The salmon is a symbol of prosperity and determination to the Coast Salish tribes, the band of tribes in the Pacific Northwest of which the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe is a part. She defies nature, swimming upstream to provide for the people of the land. Yet she must sacrifice herself to give that abundance to others. Her determination comes at a deep personal cost.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity