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My first memory of Cardinal acting as a Power Totem for me was the 1980 Yule Season. I was driving cross country from New Jersey to visit California and Oregon over the holidays. I was driving through Alabama where the Cardinals spend the winters and flocks of them flew and swooped merrily by the front of my car in greeting, as if to say Yuletide Blessings and Best Wishes for a Prosperous New Year. My next memorable up close and personal Encounter of an Animal Totem Kind was the summer of 1991 when I spent six weeks on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. There was a male cardinal who took up residence near where I was staying who would come for shelled peanuts and cheerfully helped eliminate the bug infestation on neighboring trees. He was always so upbeat, cheerful, energetic and chivalrous. No task was too large or great, he seemed to say. Then when I relocated from Oregon to Florida in 2001, one of the first local wildlife to greet me was a Cardinal Couple. There was a bushy tree by the window where I was working on the computer and they would just come and visit and look in on me to see how I was doing. Later on when the tree was removed suddenly by the apartment management, they took up residence in a nearby bush. Throughout my five year stay there, the Cardinal Couple were a constant presence, making an appearance whenever I needed cheering up or encouragement or inspiration. One of their messages was that the colour of hope was vibrant red. The same colour as the vibrant red of the male Cardinal's feathers when he is out and about in the wild. The vibrant Cardinal red reflects a bright presence that inspires others with renewed expectancy and a trust in better tomorrows. It instills generous warm heartedness and a desire to be of service. It also promotes enlivened one-pointedness and the stamina necessary to accomplish arduous tasks. The diet of robust strong billed Cardinals includes seeds and small berries. Cardinals mate early in the spring and their nests are loosely woven in high bushes in open woodland. The time of year that most resonates with the Cardinal energies is Christmas. The Cardinal energies can be attuned to anytime of the year by listening to inspiring, joyful, upbeat, and uplifting music like traditional Christmas Carols, chants, hymns, or lovingly crafted songs and melodies. The Male Cardinal pointed out that when he shared the incubation of eggs with his soulmate wife, his feathers became almost the same colour as hers for protective camouflage. He intimated that sometimes it was best to mask intense emotional responsiveness behind the feathers of keen intellect, practical objectivity, and philosophical rationalization. Everything the Male Cardinal did, he did with great enthusiasm and verve. He accepted the challenge of fully integrating emotions and personality by staying at his task and did not fear expressing his deepest and most colorful rapturous and sensuous feelings since they too were resplendent with beauty and the hues of divinity. Fulfillment for him came from a state of contentment arising from emotional satisfaction. It was a case of Full Glasses and the Whole Being Greater than the Sum of Its Parts which arose not from mental understanding alone; but, from direct cognition in tandem with a clear inner sense of knowingness borne on the winds of vital spiritual beliefs.
One of the tasks of Cardinals in life was to eat weed seeds and harmful insects. The female Cardinal reminded me that it was also often important to review all aspects of my daily living to see if weeds were crowding out the flowers or bugs chewing up all the leaves in my personal garden. The Female Cardinal pointed out that I needed to examine whether or not I was eating, imbibing, or digesting things that were injurious to me or were affecting my overall vitality. She also noted that what I watched on television, what music I listened to, what fabrics I wore, and what food I ate and drank also needed to be examined to see if they were planting seeds of vitality, hope, and cyclical renewal in my mind, body, emotions, and psychology. If they were not, then it was time to weed my mental, physical, and spiritual garden by "Taking Care" with what I ate, watched, listened to, and surrounded myself with on a daily basis. The Cardinal Couple pointed out that everything I did was of importance not only to myself but to them and to my ever widening circle of friends across the global landscape. Routinely taking some time out to rejuvenate and revitalize myself by processing the past, sowing new seeds, and germinating new life was vitally important. Brightening my environment by adding colour to my life was highly recommended. The Cardinal Couple told me that they served as flexibility and resourcefulness Power Totems for people with high religious and spiritual ideals who were on a continual quest for knowledge about the purpose and the meaning of life. As such, they seek to open heart and soul windows to allow the trustful positive emotions of joy, hope, and inspiration to blow across fields of dreams. They wanted me to start listening more to what I heard blowing in the winds about my personal Days and Ways, to my own heart song, to my own inner voice, and to my own intuitive sense of inner knowing. If I continually remembered to value the soul flowers of my inner knowing, my inner voice, and my intuition, then my self confidence would continue to grow, enabling me to recognize my innate beauty and the importance of my roles on life's stage. They conveyed the message that fulfillment comes from a state of contentment arising from emotional satisfaction. It was a case of Full Glasses and the Whole Being Greater than the Sum of Its Parts. This best case scenario arose not from mental understanding alone but from direct cognition in tandem with a clearly held inner sense of knowingness borne on the winds of intuition and vital spiritual beliefs. For the sake of health and well being, it was important to schedule some personal time everyday for renewal, for reflection, for inner dialogue, for self nurturing, and for acknowledgment of self worth. Beyond that it was also important to have an ever widening circle of friends that included the angels and the animals.
The special cycle number
of Cardinals as an Animal Totem is 12. The Cardinal Couple pointed out that I
could look for positive, life affirming changes for my overall life based on
that cycle or rhythm of 12 (whether it be minutes, hours, days, months, or
years).  Read Animal Communications Articles ArticlesAboriginal Animal Totems, Alchemical Animal Allegories, Dolphin Swimmers Between the Realms, Dreamweaves with the Dragonflies, Enlivening Daytimes Hearty Cheerfulness Cardinals, Feline Guardians of Human Temples, Hawk Messengers from Spirit, Power Totems and Nature Spirits, Sacred Landscape Dreamtime Guardian Koalas, Sparrowly Hearth Fire Advice, Squirrel Medicine with a Hearty Flavor
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Animal
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