Animal Totem: Snow Leopard

In the last few days, I've been reading up on Animal Totems. One of my friends and dog/nature painter, Skye Sutherland, had mentioned totems to me in the past, but I never really sought them out. That is, until I couldn't get snow leopards out of my mind. In the last few months, I've been feeling a nagging persistence to go to the Bronx Zoo. It started out innocently enough, "let's go to the zoo" and then it was almost an obsessive chime in my head "Snow Leopards, Snow Leopards..".
Skye suggested that maybe it was my totem. I quickly Googled it and found scarily accurate things about my totem--things that reflect lessons I should be learning.

Here's the part that resonated with me the most:
"Snow Leopard Souls are here in part to learn the lesson of Self Reliance.  Like this Totem Spirit that has a mostly solitary life, the Two legged beside whom  Snow Leopard strides, will face many encounters and situations in their current incarnation which develop the ability to rely upon and trust the inner Self.

Curious, I started to wonder if there was jewelery I can purchase, so that I can be constantly reminded of my totem.This is where I found foxloft.com. The artist, Foxfeather Zenkova (yes, her real name) sells artwork and artisan jewelery of totems/animals. These beautifully crafted pendants are carved out of tagua, which according to her site is the "nut of a rain forest tree". Basically a natural, renewable resource that's similar to ivory in texture and hardness. 

  Much to my delight, they had snow leopards!


Check out Foxfeather's wares here.
And check out Skye Sutherland's gallery of paintings here.



All images are from foxloft.com