Bear: The Calm Hermit
Bear of the Family Ursidae has always been a unique Totem to me. He is a big deal in many many cultures and a lot is put upon him. We all know how strong they are, that they sleep in the winter, and that you have to be careful of them. While Bear is definatley no slouch in the power department if you look closely at bear behaviors an odd thing happens. Bears have giant teeth and claws that can rip open mini vans, and yet they are scavengers, foragers and occasionally fishermen. With a few exceptions (the Asian Black bear and the polar bear) these creatures don’t hunt like the predators we see them as. They climb trees to eat copious amounts of acorns, climb mountains to seek out high fat moth eggs. Even when they fish often they wait in the shallows for something to jump into their mouths. These traits are what inform me as to the greater spiritual secrets of Bear, and the metamorphosis it undertook when I meditated on him.
Oddly if you look for myths and legends about bears you run into several stories about people being cruel or hunting bears only to be punished by various beings. Rarely is the bear a violent antagonist, unlike say the Wolf or Tiger. The Russians have strong ties to bear representing Family and strength, the Christians used the bear as a sign of triumph over the pagans. He played a large role in Native American and Asian dogmas, but again in a peaceful strong Unitarian sense. Until modern times there were very few ( if any) references to demon bears, which is odd as many of the ancient cultures had demonic entities in almost all forms imaginable.
Bear as a core totem is tricky. I haven’t talked much on my blog about how totems in different cultures may differ or how a particular species might fall in one category or another. There are two definite paths that crop up a lot when ruminating and focusing on the Bear energies. The first is the Western Native and Russian view of Bear: strong, dependable, family oriented, and brave. The second is the less used Asian and South American view of the quiet hermit. Take the Grizzly and the Panda, both bears both fall squarely within bears Totemic house, however it’s hard to imagine two creatures that could be farther apart in personality given our view of them from popular culture and anecdote. This of course is untrue – where the Panda has an ideal, easy to grasp food source, the Grizzly has to be a bit more overreaching. The Grizzly fiercely protects its young from the truly hazardous climates it lives in; the quiet contemplative life of the panda has breed all but a few of the most base survival instincts out of it. Now if these two animals had switched early in their development we would be deathly afraid of giant black and white monsters, and think grizzly were adorable zoo creatures. So in summation someone with a core Totem of Bear could be Strong, Quiet, Contemplative, Brave, Family Oriented, Aloof, Survivor, Lazy or any other combination of the two vastly different totemic energies.
Now this dichotomy changes when it comes to being a spirit guide. The Guardian Bear is a zen-like guide with a steady thrum of power. Bear expects you to follow where it leads and if you don’t it will gently, for a Bear, remind you of what you should be focused on. One of my favorite examples is an anecdote where a companion with a Bear guardian was thinking about his spirituality, strayed to mundane thoughts, and was mentally batted across the skull thanks to a spiritual Bear paw to the face. He tried harder to remain focused after. While Bear can be used as a strong healing Totem, outside the immediate or nuclear family the healing is a tad lackluster. They make excellent family Chiefs and thrive in family affairs such as family-owned businesses or farm lifestyle. A Bear Shaman often has a large extended family of what were once strangers or acquaintances. A strong Bear energy makes it to where anyone you care about seems like Family and deserves that same fierce protection.
Life Totem wise the Bear could hold many many places in your totem pole. Like we discussed earlier due to cultural interpretations and differences among the eight species of bear (yeah only eight!), they have many unique yet shared traits with other totems. Health and Wellness obviously makes sense as a large robust creature. As a Communication Totem, Bear will often warn you long before it kills you terribly. A Totem to help with insomnia? Look no further than a big Caniform that sleeps a large portion of the year. The point is how you view Bear is how Bear can fit into your life, he is unique in his utter versatility.
Bear is an awkward Omen, as we don’t see bears often in day to day life. An encounter with a bear in the wild might warn you about the dangers of thinking you can master nature, or about a dangerous life habit. But usually we receive images or omens of bears when we need to take life a bit slower. Stop worrying about chasing down our goals and focus on whats readily available in our lives.
Bear isn’t one of my Totems personally, but someone asked me to talk about him. Bear is a close friend that just never fit into my Totem pole better than the Totems I had picked. I think it’s mainly because we understand each other and I would take on too many of his lazy traits. Honestly I don’t need any reminding to take life slower than I already do. If Bear has come into your life, rejoice! Bear is right where he is supposed to be.
CUBS!!
Urban Sprawl Wanderer 
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