Deer

Deer Totem Keywords: Gentleness, Innocence

What can the appearance of Deer signify in my life?

• Deer represents innocence and a return to wilderness.
• Look for new perceptions and degrees of perceptions to grow and expand for as much as the next 5 years.
• You could be being reminded to establish a strong connection with your children before you expose them to many people and strange energies.
• It could be a reminder to move gently back to a tradition family unit and roles. Deer may indicate that you have gotten too far away from the role that would be most beneficial to you.
• Be gentle with yourself and others. A new innocence and freshness is about to be awakened or born. Be aware of a gentle lure of new adventures. There is an opportunity to express gentle love that will open new doors of adventure.
• Ask yourself, are you being too critical of yourself? Are you trying to force things? Are others?
• Opening to the qualities of Deer will enable you to achieve sophistication, subtlety and elegance, in the best senses of these terms.
• Deer invites you to look beyond the material, beyond the superficialities of life, to the heart of things, to the realm of causes rather than effects.
• Deer may warn you to become more assertive instead of adapting yourself to demands and expectations set on you by others.
• You may need to be wary of becoming preoccupied with the Otherworld. You may have reached a point when the esoteric needs balancing with a period of outer activity.
• If your intention is to harm the animal realm, you should beware. But for those who hunt for knowledge, and not to kill, you will be lead deeper into the heart of the forest, into encounters with the Otherworld, and with the realm of Faery.
• People with strong Deer energy are very alert, graceful, and intuitive. Their thoughts may seem to jump ahead to the extent that it may be perceived that they aren’t listening.
• Consider how you eat since Deer is an herbivore. Deer may appear to help you if you strive to lose weight, or eliminate animal fats or toxins.
• Antlers ask you to pay attention to your inner thoughts and perceptions, they are likely more accurate than you think.
• With Deer as a totem, you will find increasing abilities to detect subtle movements. You may start to hear what is not being said directly, and have the ability to read between the lines.
• Pay attention to simple things, clean out useless clutter and noise, and listen to what Deer teaches you that is really needed to grow and thrive.

More About Deer

Deer can adapt to every sort of habitat and are thus native to every continent except Australia. To many, Deer is considered the most important animal ever hunted. The hunt is what transfers our civilization to the wilderness.

The White-tailed Deer is most common in the US, known widely for the antlers of the male Deer. In other families, such as Reindeer and Caribou, both male and females grow antlers. Antlers are solid bone, and are shed every year. They grow behind the eyes and are very protective. Each year, till age 5, antlers grow bigger and with more points. Numerology can help define the message Deer is trying to convey to you, so count the points on your Deer friend’s antler. Antlers symbolize antennae, connections to higher forms of attunement.

Fawns are born a colour that hides them well. The mother nurses them often. This is significant for those with a Deer totem. Many societies taught the importance of staying with newborns for a distinct period of time, with no visitors other than the Father. This protects the young from possible negative electro-magnetics as well as the exchange of energy that is important to early development. Does stay with their mother for as much as a year, while bucks usually leave after a few months. The father takes no part in rearing. Deer’s senses are very acute. Their vision is designed for clarity at a distance.

A female Red Deer is known as a hind and was considered especially sacred by Celts and Druids. In the world of the Celts deer were treasured for their hides. They were used to make women’s clothes.

All Deer are beautiful, graceful creatures, but Stags are majestic, with antlers made up of a number of spikes or tines. According to Welsh tradition, the Stag is one of the 5 oldest animals in the world. For millennia humans have tried to partake of Stag’s power, dignity, and connection to the Otherworld by dressing for ceremony and dance as them. The lord of the animals was depicted as a man with antlers. Many myths and legends such in King Arthur, mention deer luring man deep into the woods where they encounter new adventures. Deer is a central religious image for Buddhism. Buddha is often pictured with a deer, and it is told how he first preached in a deer park.