I’m not totally daft . . . at least not in this regard. I’ve been ranging long and far in my recent hikes, right past the old tin mining shack and up the long aspen glade that loops west and back up the hill. And every time I’ve returned from one of my forays, I’ve told my hubby, “There’s something really big down there.”
I knew it wasn’t the big cat, as we haven’t heard her caterwauling for weeks. Besides, whenever she’s around, she makes my hair stand on end. I thought maybe it was a bear, as bears carry a strong “beware” kind of energy, which I definitely feel while navigating the marshes and thick stands of aspens. But this “beware” wasn’t quite the same. I simply couldn’t put my finger on it, and wondered if it was just my imagination.
Nope. Moose are on the loose!
I had just finished my afternoon e-mails when I caught a hint of movement in the woods outside my office. Rather I should say, it seemed that the entire forest shifted a bit. Then I saw a big brown leg and rump that resembled a horse’s backside. Then it moved again, and I saw the unmistakable proboscis of a moose. No. Two moose ~ a mother and her baby (“baby” being a description of age not size, as the little one was as big as a donkey). Mom and baby trotted past my house, across the dirt road and into the woods on the other side. Then, startled by my neighbor’s dog, they circled back and trotted up the road, giving me a magnificent view of their magnificence. Finally, they disappeared into the ravine to the west of my house.
In my twenty-one years on this hill, I have never seen moose. So, naturally, given my mystical bent, I wondered at their significance and looked up “animal totems.”
Moose is one of the most ancient and unique of all “power animals.” A bull moose’s bellow can be heard by a lady moose a full six miles away. Her response puts him in the mind to bulldoze anything that stands between them. Thus, two aspects of moose power are determination and “presence.”
Moose are also masters at camouflage, and despite size and apparent gawkiness, they move unseen and unheard through their territories. Thus, have they earned the name “shapeshifters” among shamans and mystics.
The massive antlers the big guys sport symbolize the crown chakra and openness to higher wisdom.
Since moose calves are born with their eyes open, it is said that folks who carry “moose medicine” see things with exceptional clarity on both inner and outer planes of existence.
Moose wisdom acknowledges the truths denied by the ego and finds parts of the soul that we hide from ourselves. Moose are symbols of confidence, determination and strength. And moose always reminds us that unkind criticism and nitpicking wound the spirit.
Finally, in apparent contradiction to all that strength and power stuff, Moose is a primal feminine force that is both deeply maternal and symbolic of death and re-birth. Some say it’s because moose can submerge underwater for long stretches and then reappear, seemingly out of nowhere.
So . . . now, as I walk through the woods, I ponder the lessons of moose wisdom to discern how they apply to me. Surely, such creatures would not manifest for me to see unless they brought me a lesson. Oh, and I remain on alert to ensure that I never come between mother and baby. For hell hath no fury like a riled-up moose mom!
Kitty R. Connell
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