Precision

[beccaelizabeth]

Things that are bugging me today: lack of specificity in new age woo.

Like, I can find a list of druidic/celtic totem animals (in many locations with few variations, as is the way of the internet).  But sometimes it’ll list things really specific,and other times really general, and either way, what is up with that?

Like ‘Adder’ is on the list, and then you wonder, why not smooth snakes, or grass snakes?  I mean, a snake whose only defence is to “produce a garlic-smelling fluid from the anal glands, or to feign death" might not be a totem anyone wants, but why would the spirit world care?  Maybe you need the lessons of the stinky snake.  Maybe learning how to bleed from the mouth and nose is a lesson that will get you through the week.  And yet, totally not on the list.  But then you read about the ‘Adder’ and everything it says is just generalised snake woo.  They’ve just looked up snakes in Britain and decided to use adder as an interchangeable word.  Rather than a specific species.  Really, woo or not, the lessons of the poisonous and the constrictor snakes are just not the same lessons.

But then there’s ‘Owl’.  Just ‘Owl’.  Is it Barn Owl or Brown Owl?  Long eared Owl or Short eared Owl?  We’ve got to write a description here!  And okay,  swooping out of the night looking all ghosty does put Barn Owls ahead on points, but they aren’t all the owls.

Similarly, ‘Hawk’.  What, precisely, do they mean by ‘Hawk’?  When they just write ‘Eagle’ the probably mean Golden Eagle, them being ubiquitous, but they might mean White Tailed Eagle, also known as Sea Eagle.  They’re both huge great bitey death from above, but one is associated with catching all the fish.  But then you get to ‘Hawk’ and… really?  That’s… that’s your word, here.  You realise that’s a pretty big category?  I mean, are we talking all the birds of prey here?  Because the size range goes down to Merlins or ‘pigeon hawks’ with a 20 inch wingspan and up to the ‘fish hawk’ or osprey with as much as 71 inches.  Some of them are the fastest things above Earth (Peregrines), and some of them were considered stinky carrion eating underwear thieves and driven nearly extinct (Red Kites).  They have very little in common in size, habits, or appearance, aside from that hook beak.  You’re really going to decide that the ‘hawk’, as a whole, is just one symbol?  Yes, yes they are, because they only thing they’ve decided the ‘hawk’ symbolises is clear sight and advance warning.

This from a list that distinguishes between Cow and Bull, or Pig and Sow, each getting more of a write up than Hawks.  Granted people had a lot more to do with them, but Hawks were actual food acquiring tools/partners too.

Also, lists that end up with Unicorns and Dragons are clearly not taking this nature spirit thing seriously.

This rant brought to you by attempting Sentinel/Guide fic with local totem spirits.  Because taking an hour to open every wiki page for native animals, imprecise and weirdly sourced though they are, is clearly more than some of these ‘guides’ do.

Comments

[anne_d]

I hear ya. I use animal totems in my art, and I just take what I like and ignore the rest. Same with all the other symbols.