I sometimes wonder where we humans ever come up with our ideas. That we can look at a set of circumstances, or a reality, and then posit something completely opposite to what the facts suggest is one of our biggest deficiencies as a species. It's not even as if conclusions are reached out of ignorance - which could at least be an excuse - for all the evidence is usually right there for any and all to see.
In some ways it's a rather extreme form of denial; a willful blindness that allows people to ignore reality in order that their vision of the world remains intact. One of the worst examples of this that I have come across is the manner so many new age folk have taken to viewing the natural world. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, they have created some Pollyanna world where everything is bright and beautiful and all live in harmony in bucolic splendour.
They have their books to tell them how to go about finding their animal totem to act as their guide. They will learn how the animal's attributes and characteristic behaviour will be their clues to leading a better life. A person who has a beaver for a totem, for instance, is industrious but needs to watch that they don't create bottlenecks of their emotions by damming them up.
Since they are an aquatic mammal that can stay submerged for great lengths of time there is some sort of lesson to be learned from that, just like there is from the big flat tail and the ability to chew through wood. Of course the fact that they wouldn't recognize a beaver in the wild state if it walked up and shook their hand is far less relevant than the fact that going in and out of the beaver lodge is similar to traveling the birth canal repeatedly.
Of course they need to learn how to invoke the "teachings" of the beaver in order to fully integrate its important attributes. Don't worry if you are at a loss as to how to go about doing this, the book will explain all about creating a ritual to fully realize the potential of the beaver within you.
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