#animal symbolism

[novlr]

A quick guide to animal symbolism:

Animals have a long history of symbolism that varies between cultures and customs. As literary tropes develop, some animal symbolism has become universally recognised in the western literary canon. Here are some examples you can use in your writing to give subtext, develop motifs, or promote your thematic content.

🐥 Birds: freedom, hope, escape 🦁 Lions: strength, courage, royalty 🐶 Dogs: loyalty, devotion, protection 🐱 Cats: independence, stealth, mystery 🐺 Wolves: intelligence, nature, wildness 🦊 Foxes: cleverness, cunning, deception 🐍 Snakes: temptation, evil, deceit 🦋 Butterflies: transformation, change, new beginnings 🦉 Owls: wisdom, knowledge, mystery 🦅 Eagles: strength, freedom, nobility ◾ Ravens: death, mystery, the unknown 🕊️ Doves: peace, love, purity 🐻 Bears: resurrection, strength, power, new life 🤘 Bulls: virility, sovereignty, wealth

[porcelainnpines]

End of the Chase

[path-of-grass-and-leaves]

Working with Collective Spirits: Plants and Animals

UPG Warning: Content is based on personal experience.

Individual vs Collective

The difference between an individual spirit and a spirit collective is pretty simple. Working with an individual involves connecting with a being who has their own personality traits and motives. Some are well-known (like the Witch Father), some are spirits of the dead or specific ancestors, some are tied to certain individuals, families, and locations, and some are Nameless or long-forgotten.

A spirit collective is sort of like a current that runs through all living beings and objects. It can be as broad or as narrow as you wish. For example, you can work with the spirit of all trees or you can work with the spirit of Maples.

This is easy to conceptualize if you're an animist who believes that all life is connected and there is spirit in all things. Imagine the life force that runs through us all is a large river, and specific spiritual collectives are the tributaries.

To put it simply, if you are leaving offerings to the spirit of a dead rabbit that you found on the side of the road, you are engaging with an individual. If you are leaving an offering for all rabbits in your immediate area you are working with a collective.

Overlap

Sometimes a spirit can exist both as a collective and an individual. For example, the spirit of your house or local river may be made up of several different spirits and go by many names.

Additionally, if I'm working with the spirit of Apple Trees, one could assume that I'm working with millions of apple tree spirits formed into a single collective.

Connecting with Collective Spirits

If you're like me, you need to have an emotional and physical connection to certain spirits before you begin involving them in workings. This usually means that I'm working with plants and animals that exist in my own local biosphere.

Here are some ways to start getting to know plant and animal spirit collectives:

Meet them in their own environment: For example, if you want to work with the spirit of Oak Trees, start by spending time where they are known to grow. You can take a walk through a local forest or visit individual trees in a park or your own backyard.

Learn about them: Find reading material about the species you're interested in. Learn about their native habitat, behavior, diet, growth rate, myth and folklore, the time of year that they're present, etc. I find that engaging with a plant or animal on a scientific and material level helps you get to know them more personally and will therefore strengthen any spiritual relationships you wish to pursue.

Care for them: If you're looking to work with the spirit of Lilac, plant and care for a lilac shrub. If you want to work with the spirit of Hummingbirds, install a feeder. If you're interested in the spirit of cats or dogs, start fostering or volunteering for a rescue.

Observe them: If the collective that you want to work with is that of an animal, take some time to watch them from a safe distance in their natural environment. If you're working with a plant, feel free to get up close and personal as long as it's safe and you are not disturbing a protected species.

Veneration

I want to start by saying that veneration is not something that is required when working with spirits and in some cases can actually be a bit of a hindrance. However, it is beneficial if your goal is to emotionally connect with spirits, gain favor with them, and establish highly personal ongoing relationships. My workings boast a higher success rate and rich personal meaning when I am working with a spirit who I have developed a connection with through consistent offerings and acts of kindness.

Physical offerings

The most common form of veneration is a physical offering. They can be left at an altar or outdoors in the natural habitat of the collective spirit that you plan on working with.

Outdoor offerings should be left with great care for the local ecosystem. For plants I usually leave compost or fresh water. I will also drop specific food items in my compost bin as an offering to whatever plant spirit I'm working with that day.

For animals, things can be a bit more complicated. When offering food, it's crucial to be 100% certain that it is safe for wildlife to consume and that you aren't leaving so much so often that animals start to rely on you for food. I usually stick to birdseed, acorns, peanuts, fresh fruit and greens, unsalted sunflower seeds, and cat food for the strays. Keep in mind that food is left only in my own backyard (never, like, the woods) and never in high abundance. When in doubt, a bowl of fresh water is a more than sufficient offering.

Indoor offerings allow much more room for variety. Food items that cannot be left outside (like meat, cheese, confections, and alcohol) can be safely offered this way. You also won't be limited to compostable items and will be free to leave assorted trinkets, jewelry, or whatever you find appropriate.

Acts of Kindness

Personally I feel that acts of kindness are the best way to venerate plant and animal collectives. Not only are you building real-life relationships and connections, but you are making an active difference in the lives of actual living beings and this will always be well-received from a magical perspective. In my practice, how I interact with the physical world is in direct relation to that of the spirit world, so this is an important step for me.

Some acts of service can overlap with physical offerings such as leaving bowls of water for the wildlife on a hot day, filling a bird feeder, or watering a plant, but there are countless other options to choose from, including activism, rewilding, rescue, volunteering, and habitat restoration.

For example, if I want to work with the spirit of Monarch Butterflies, I may start a monarch waystation full of milkweed and nectar-producing native plants. If I'm venerating the spirit of Black-Eyed Susan, I could scatter some seeds on the roadside. If I'm working with the spirit of domestic dogs I might feel compelled to volunteer at a local shelter. Perhaps the spirit collective that I want to work with is fresh-water dwelling and I opt to help clean a local river.

In addition to physical offerings and acts of service, some ideas include constructing miniature altars and spirit houses, creating devotional art, and wearing devotional jewelry.

Working with Collective Spirits

There are many benefits to working with spirit collectives. They can be involved in spellwork, called directly during divination, and petitioned to help advance certain skills. This is where knowledge gained through study and observation are put to use. Plant and animal collectives come with their own folklore and symbolism, natural skill-sets, and physical and behavioral qualities which are useful in magical workings. Once you have a handful of spirit types that you're familiar with you can start putting everything into practice.

One way to begin choosing which collectives you incorporate into which workings is through divination. Break out your cards or bag of charms, call upon the spirit of your choosing, and ask them what their skills are. If you have researched the plant or animal in the past or already have a rough list of correspondences, you can compare the answers to your existing notes.

Petitioning spirits in magical workings is a great introduction to spirit work and can be easily executed by beginners. For simple workings, it's enough to just call upon the spirit, leave an offering, and ask for assistance. Here are a few simple ideas for getting started:

Divination: Call upon a specific plant or animal collective that corresponds with your question or possesses skills related to the subject at hand. Ask for them for their wisdom and guidance.

Spellwork: Before casting, call upon the collective spirit of your choosing and ask for them to assist you.

Glamours and Ambient Spells: Ask for the collective spirit to lend you some of their qualities, features, or skills, or ask them to bless a physical space or personal astral location with characteristics of their native environment.

Celebrations and Rituals: Invite the collective spirit of certain animals or plants to your ritual. For example, the spirit of Rabbits could be invited to join a Spring Equinox celebration.

Blessing or Enchanting Objects: Ask for the corresponding spirit collective to charm, enchant, or bless an object.

These are just basic concepts. Feel free to get creative and fine-tune some of these ideas to your personal practice. Working with collective animal and plant spirits is extremely rewarding and I've found that my magical skills have grown exponentially since doing so. My awareness of and connection to the natural world has also improved and I find that I notice and am able to identify significantly more plants and wildlife than I used to.

[andromedasdomain]

Sources:

Chamberlain, Lisa. Runes for Beginners: A Guide to Reading Runes in Divination, Rune Magic, and the Meaning of the Elder Futhark Runes. Chamberlain Publications, 2018.

Kristen. “15 Best Herbs for Protection.” Schisandra & Bergamot, 19 Feb. 2023, schisandraandbergamot.com/herbs-for-protection/.

“Animal Symbology: Animal Spirit Guides: Shamanism.” Animal Symbology | Animal Spirit Guides | Shamanism, www.wicca.com/animal-guides/symbology.html. Accessed 21 Oct. 2023.

[inluvwcaitvi]

i love love love LOVE when angry, hurt characters begin to act animalistic, primal, disgusting, even. it’s not their authentic self, it’s not “who they always were”, but it’s part of their true selves now. it’s the self they’ve had to become in order to survive, in order to keep themselves from completely crumbling and succumbing to the pain, to everything that holds them down.

they were not born an animal. they had no choice but to become one. it was either that, or die, and they refuse to. they have too much to say, too much to prove, too much to do.

[weluvyou11]

when theres animal symbolism

[waterfrontcomplex]

CYCRANE KILLER - A YANQING SERIAL KILLER AU

TW/CW FOR MURDER, VIOLENCE, DISMEMBERMENT, GENERAL MENTAL INSTABILITY, MENTIONS OF ABUSE

AU INFO ↓

after the disastrous battle at dragonprayer terrace, yanqing is left disheartened, confused, and alone. he was just defeated by 2 criminals, and the one person he trusted with his whole being left him there with no explanation.

he gets healed at the alchemy commission, and returns home. jing yuan eventually recovers, and... everything returns to some sense of normalcy. no 'i'm sorry', no 'are you okay?', no nothing. he receives assignments as usual, and goes through with them with ease.

during an assignment in cloudford, he encounters a man who was on the run and had a warrant out for his arrest for domestic abuse. yanqing pursued the man until he accidentally cornered him with some particularly violent mara-struck, and was killed before he could stop them.

that night, he couldn't stop thinking about the man. he had let a civilian die. but... that man was a terrible person. he had a family that loved him, and he hurt them in return. yanqing felt an unexplainable burst of 'satisfaction' or even 'happiness'. that man would never hurt anybody again.

a terrible idea appeared in his head. what if he purposely killed people like those?

it's extremely illegal and goes against his duty as a cloud knight, but they would deserve it and he's just so, so frustrated. so, he looks into a couple cases and finds one he takes interest in. if he wants to go through with this, he can't use yanzhuo or his ice swords; it would make his identity too obvious. he grabs a blade he's been itching to test out, dons a cloak and leaves during the night.

the break-in and murder is easy enough. most people on the luofu stand no chance against him. adrenaline is rushing through his veins, and now there's a body on the floor and his dagger is covered in blood.

the cleanup is simple; he has the knowledge and resources available to make it look as if his target had just vanished during the night. he dismembers and disposes of the body and returns home. he had just killed another civilian... but they were a terrible person— no, they're not even a person. they're just vermin, unworthy of the title of 'human' and waiting to be eliminated. he feels static in his head.

in the following weeks, he does his best to avoid searching up information about his target. yanqing listens in to gossip instead, and gathers that they had been reported missing but no traces were found. he had gotten away with murder.

and he was going to do it again.

the next few nights, he claims more lives; lives of those unworthy of them. after the murders, the static in his head clears, but comes back later. they disappear during the night without a trace.

while disposing of a body, yanqing encounters a partially broken down cycrane with sentience, like his swords. he fixes it up, and it says it doesn't want to 'return to a mundane life of endless deliveries', so he takes it home and hides it. after a bit of searching, he gives it a name: rosebane.

the cases are starting to catch the attention of the higher-ups. the public now knows about the 'mysterious disappearances', and rumors start spreading like wildfire. some claim it's a monster, other say it's a stalker, and some are claiming that it's a whole group of people. nobody suspects him a bit. tensions are high.

yanqing doesn't want the public to worry too much. rumors of a monster could put the cloud knights on high alert. if he let any witnesses see him, they would know it was a human. and if he brings rosebane, they would know it's the same person, and not a group of people. rosebane wouldn't reveal anything about his real identity, and would be particularly useful for tracking down targets. a monster would be extremely concerning, but a person would be... hopefully less concerning. and with a cycrane, it would lead the investigators away from him.

during his next murder, he chooses a time where there would be a witness, and commits the crime, leaving the body. word gets out, and news of the 'cycrane killer' is everywhere. yanqing masks his nervousness as worry for jing yuan, but he doesn't fully buy it.

he's not crazy, he's not insane at all. he doesn't kill for the adrenaline rush, or to clear the static in his head, or for whatever other reason.

he's just... doing the luofu a favor.

☆⋆⋅───────

RELATIONSHIPS

YANQING -> ROSEBANE

friendly. they are extremely close, but can't talk much since yanqing shouldn't bring them out during the day. they're partners in crime, bound to their secret. he finds their sentience interesting.

YANQING -> JING YUAN

tense. yanqing partly blames jing yuan for his... new hobby. he still cares and would never hurt him on purpose, but he's extremely frustrated and confused. he mainly wants an explanation but feels as if he has no right to ask for one. yanqing also has to tread lightly around jing yuan to avoid him figuring out about his murders.

YANQING -> FU XUAN

cautious. if fu xuan suspects him of anything, she could easily rat him out with the matrix of prescience. he's been keeping his distance.

JING YUAN -> YANQING

worry. jing yuan knows yanqing's upset and has been acting strangely ever since he recovered. he also knows that his retainer is hiding something, but doesn't know what.

[atbussysparks]

CHARACTERS THAT CAN BE COMPARED TO OR SYMBOLIZED WITH RATS, LAMBS, RABBITS, AND MUZZLED DOGS >>>>

[mtndw-whteout]

“I’m not a violent dog, I don’t know why I bite.”

TW blood !!

Urgh urgh urgh

[luneillusoire]

doodle dump 🍄

[mushyfart]

made some more doodles of my au

happy valentines day😋♡

[kosmic--kid]

will graham my beloved 😭🙏

[spellbook246]

Badger Symbolism

So I know it's generally agreed upon that Vlad's nickname of 'little badger' comes from either Danny's color scheme (black and white) or the mascon for the University of Wisconsin (Wisconsin is also known as the badger state). But I'm also really into symbolism so...

I think the comparison really fits Danny. I don't know if the writers knew about this or not but I think the comparison really demonstrates Danny's determination against the odds.

[inluvwcaitvi]

some animals that i associate w arcane characters:

powder: mouse, kitten/cat, & sheep

jinx: kitten/cat & bird

vi: dog/wolf, lion, & horse

caitlyn: bird & cat (and maybe horse? a little?)

silco: snake

[beetlewine-art]

The Sides and their animals: Part 1.

I've been thinking a lot about the use of animal symbolism in Sanders Sides, so i wanted to make a short post to analyse the animal symbolism of the main characters, wich i decided to divide in 3 groups of 2:

The "canon/strongly hinted" animal group: Janus and Virgil.

The "I am not 100% if this is canon but the clues are there, i'm just not sure wich animal in specific they are" pair: Patton and Remus.

And the "I have no idea wich animal those two could be asociated with because they have shown no animal traits or hints" duo: Logan and Roman.

This post is about the first group, because they are the ones who show the most animalistic traits and hints of what animals they could be asociated with, so i want to get the easy ones out of the way first. Also, this is a very, VERY shallow analysis, i'm in no way am expert in animal symbolism and i'm just talking in a very general sense.

Let's start with Janus and his snakes:

Janus is, with no doubt, the side who's animal symbolism is the strongest and best done, since his animal asociation is more than just an aesthetic choice, is literaly a part of him because he IS half snake and his logo is a two headed snake. Now, i want to remember everyone that animals can represent diferent and multiple things depending on what culture we are talking about. And snakes/serpents have some of the most dual symbolism, having both extremely negative and positive asociations:

The most negative: Evil, temptation, treachery, betrayal, bad luck, chaos, toxicity, destruction and death.

The positive meanings: Rebirth, life, change transformation, fertility, inmortality, healing, creative force, sexual desire, knowladge and protection.

As we see, this animal fits perfectly with Janus, because he is a very dual character both in what parts of Thomas personality he represents Deceit and Self-preservation, having a negative and positive role and his personality (Janus can pretend to be misterious and elegant all he wants, but he's just a giant goofball, even with his manipulative tendencies).

Honestly, it surprises me how his animal asociation is so well done, is rare to see a character who's animal symbolism is so acurate and well used.

Next we have Virgil and Spiders:

I want to first clarify that i've seen a lot of people with the HC that Vee's animal is a black cat, but i believe that as far as canon clues go, his animal is a spider. He has a pet spider and spiderweb pattern courtains and i am pretty sure we saw him decorating Thomas house with spiderweb in one of the endcards and, while not sure if it's canon, Virgil tries to give Roman a spider as his animal companion. The spider asociations are STRONG with this one, not to mention, spiders can hisss just like cats, so Virgil's tendency to hiss can also be spider-related. I feel that, while Vee does have a big "grumpy black cat" energy, that's more a part of his personality than a hint of his animal asociation.

With that out of the way, here are some meanings of spiders: good luck, creation, patience, persistence, self-awareness, grow, balance, curiosity, creativity, fate and rebirth. Also, they can be simbols of fear, anxiety, death, disgust and negativity (specialy black spiders).

Surprisingly, Spiders and Snakes have very similar symbolism. Despite being asociated with a lot of negative things and being seen in a negative light in modern culture, both have a lot of positive asociations (also, both are asociated with femninity... For some reason). Again, the asociation is very well done and it works well, because how what spiders represent and how they are percived. Also, what they provoque in people: A lot people fear spiders and get anxious when they see one. Again, similar to snakes.

Virgil doesn't show a lot of animal traiths like Janus does (other than hissing) and is more dificult to see the relation, but is still a very well done use of animal symbolism for a character, even if it seems to be more of an aesthetical use of symbolism.

Next part is going to be about Roman and Logan and what their posible animals could be, is mostly going to be expeculation based on popular Headcanons, because again, this two don't really show ANY animalistic behavior. So next part is just going to be me ranting about headcanons.

Tag list: @emomightmareace @pattonpattoff @roman-can-gay @dorkyduckling16

[crowcake0]

While rdr2 John might be associated with wolves I feel like crows would fit rdr1 John just as well, while wolves symbolize loyalty , strength and perseverance. Crows symbolize revenge and change, which both are themes in rdr1.

(spoilers for rdr1 below)

Also this might be stretching a little bit but in the mission “pestilence” where John defends the ranch’s silo from crows I feel it parallels well with a later mission (and also the last mission with John) where John defends his family from the US army/pinkertons.