Significance of water in totem dreams?
As far as I can remember, I have never had a dream that was specifically about my totem (Badger). This one was interesting especially since it taught me something about the animals that I did not know. I am curious if anyone might have some insight about what this might mean, especially my totem revealing something to me about themselves.
My dream:
I was on a dock overlooking a large, calm, shallow lake or bay... or it could have been part of a river that just opened up a lot. It was hot, so I decided to go swimming. As I waded into the water, I saw a very young badger skip into it from some reeds and begin to swim. Concerned for its safety, I went towards it, then saw its mother follow. My first reaction was confusion, because I thought badgers could not swim. Then, as I watched them, it became humorously obvious -- of COURSE they can swim! Their thick coats help keep them afloat and those huge front paws and strong arms move them through the water as easily as they move through the earth!
(That is the part that turned out to be true -- I looked it up and apparently they CAN swim every bit as well as I saw them do so in my dream.)
My second thought was to be worried that the mother badger would be distressed by my presence near her baby and become aggressive, so I stooped low and stayed still, allowing them to choose to swim past me. As they showed no fear or aggression, I decided to swim with them. I felt like they "recognized" me as one of them. Though the water seemed still, I could feel currents beneath the surface carrying me with them, and played with the baby a little, holding his or her (I wasn't sure which) paws in mine and letting them swim through my fingers.
As they approached the shore some distance from where we had set off, the bottom of the water got closer to my feet and I was afraid to walk on it because... I've always been afraid of there being sharp things or crawly stuff with pincers underwater that could hurt me. But I needed to go into shallower water so I finally put my feet down and found nothing harmful there, just the gently waving plants.
The badgers left. I started to walk back towards the dock and passed what looked like a river flowing away from the open water into a forest. It was flowing downhill... not like a waterfall, just a gentle slope that was subtly twisted in a weird way, like the surface was obeying gravity in a different direction than it should have been... I knew I couldn't follow that water because it could harm me. Instead I dove into a tunnel formed by a hedge along the edge of the water and scooted along a concrete curb on my belly until I came to some long black pipes, which I swung and slid down like giant railings or those hand-swings on children's playgrounds, but much larger. When I got to the bottom, my father was there. He told me I shouldn't swim in that water because it was "dirty." I found that odd and idiotic, since clearly these pipes had to be much dirtier than the clear water above us... and what did getting dirty matter anyway? Dirt couldn't hurt me.
That's all. Sorry for the length, but it's the only totem-dream I've ever had, and it's clearly symbolic. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance. :)
My dream:
I was on a dock overlooking a large, calm, shallow lake or bay... or it could have been part of a river that just opened up a lot. It was hot, so I decided to go swimming. As I waded into the water, I saw a very young badger skip into it from some reeds and begin to swim. Concerned for its safety, I went towards it, then saw its mother follow. My first reaction was confusion, because I thought badgers could not swim. Then, as I watched them, it became humorously obvious -- of COURSE they can swim! Their thick coats help keep them afloat and those huge front paws and strong arms move them through the water as easily as they move through the earth!
(That is the part that turned out to be true -- I looked it up and apparently they CAN swim every bit as well as I saw them do so in my dream.)
My second thought was to be worried that the mother badger would be distressed by my presence near her baby and become aggressive, so I stooped low and stayed still, allowing them to choose to swim past me. As they showed no fear or aggression, I decided to swim with them. I felt like they "recognized" me as one of them. Though the water seemed still, I could feel currents beneath the surface carrying me with them, and played with the baby a little, holding his or her (I wasn't sure which) paws in mine and letting them swim through my fingers.
As they approached the shore some distance from where we had set off, the bottom of the water got closer to my feet and I was afraid to walk on it because... I've always been afraid of there being sharp things or crawly stuff with pincers underwater that could hurt me. But I needed to go into shallower water so I finally put my feet down and found nothing harmful there, just the gently waving plants.
The badgers left. I started to walk back towards the dock and passed what looked like a river flowing away from the open water into a forest. It was flowing downhill... not like a waterfall, just a gentle slope that was subtly twisted in a weird way, like the surface was obeying gravity in a different direction than it should have been... I knew I couldn't follow that water because it could harm me. Instead I dove into a tunnel formed by a hedge along the edge of the water and scooted along a concrete curb on my belly until I came to some long black pipes, which I swung and slid down like giant railings or those hand-swings on children's playgrounds, but much larger. When I got to the bottom, my father was there. He told me I shouldn't swim in that water because it was "dirty." I found that odd and idiotic, since clearly these pipes had to be much dirtier than the clear water above us... and what did getting dirty matter anyway? Dirt couldn't hurt me.
That's all. Sorry for the length, but it's the only totem-dream I've ever had, and it's clearly symbolic. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance. :)