When a child is born into an indigenous culture, if its true identity and purpose hasn't already been established by a shaman visiting it in its mother's womb and then broadcasting it to the rest of the tribe, as with many African societies, then it will make its way slowly into the world watched by its elders.
In Native American society the infant is viewed as having arrived into an aspect of what they call the medicine wheel, a circle that encompasses all life, like the Earth itself, believing all nature to be purely a mirror of ourselves. That circle is split into what is known as the 4 directions, North, South, East and West and depending on what qualities that child displays early on in life determines what quadrant best describes where that child should belong to.
A child's initial way of perceiving the world might be in a very creative, visionary way of which it would be best suited to being associated with the golden yellow of the morning dawn within the East of the medicine wheel, alternatively the child may appear more shy, always looking within, so the western quadrant and the black of the night will be more appropriate. If appearing more knowledgable then the white sector of the North best suits the infant or if feeling its way through life with innocence and trust in a more heart felt way then the green of the South best aligns. This is where life starts for the child within its beginning place.
Similarly those quadrants normally have an animal to represent them too, determined by the medicine men and women of the tribes. For many this will be the eagle of the East with its far sighted qualities, the mouse of the South who can only see things right up close, the bear of the West that hibernates for a large portion of the year and the buffalo of the North that gives its wisdom through the meat it offers to the people.
These various ways of perceiving the world along with the animals that represent these qualities give rise to a child's beginning name so they might initially be called Golden Eagle, Green Mouse, Black Bear or White Buffalo. However children may display more than one way of perceiving, gaining their illumination from going within so Black Eagle or Golden Bear might more appropriate. The point being however that from wherever the child starts on the medicine wheel it will have to journey around all the various quadrants to become fully whole, gaining an understanding of what it is to be all the other people that perceive the world in different ways to themselves.
This journey assists us all in our healing too when we start to understand that even though we are now disconnected from such knowledge we still have remnants of it within our own being, we have modern equivalents of circle wisdom that we can tap into through our personality types and psychometric testing. The point being however that we will not become fully whole until we can manage to establish what it means to know ourselves truly as mice, eagles, bears, buffaloes or their modern day equivalent and then discover what it is like to be everyone else in as compassionate a way as is possible.
I find the naming ceremonies of the indigenous to be fascinating being so closely linked to nature. A child will journey with its beginning name given to it by its own society until it reaches adolescence where he or she will then go out into the wilderness on their own vision quest to be given their true name by nature itself, finding the animal that is most truly aligned to their particular medicine they have to bring to the world.
Perhaps you have been drawn to a particular animal all your life and not known why, this maybe the reasoning behind it, inviting you all the time to reconnect with nature and in so doing taking more responsibility for both that animal and the planet as a whole. Something I believe we all need to do purely by getting to know ourselves better in this way and rediscovering our more authentic way of being in the world.
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Until next time.
Much love Sx.
