Excerpt from DIY Totemism: Your Personal Guide to Animal Totems by Lupa

Chapter Four: Open-Source Totem Cards

I’ve been thinking about the concept of totem cards, decks that supposedly help you find your totem animal(s) with just one reading. In Fang and Fur, I explained some of the downfalls of a number of methods used to determine one’s totem. One of the shortcomings of cards is that they necessarily have to limit the number of animals you have as your choices, and even the creators that add a few blank cards for “animals not pictured here” still put the odds in favor of BINABM (Big, Impress North American Birds and Mammals) and whatever other critters they chose to include in their decks. Additionally, unless you read for other people, once you’ve read your cards what do you do with them? Some sets advocate using the cards for divination, but others seem to primarily want to use them for determining your life totem(s).

… I wanted to come up with a system of cards or other symbols that could be used both for seeking totems and magic, as well as other purposes. I saw the limitations as a challenge, and wanted to find a way to answer them. While I’m happy with Andrews’ deck for my own divinatory purposes (he does include a nice mixture of animals), and the Wolf Song cards for evocation, I wanted to create something that was more inclusive overall. I wanted a deck that wouldn’t limit me by what totems I could work with, and that I could use both for divination and for other forms of magic.

What I came up with was a set of thirty-three cards based on taxonomy (specifically phyla), habitats, and other basic categories of information about animals. Not every card would be used in every type of reading, but I managed to create a set that had fewer cards than most decks, and allowed for more animals than any other (Not that I’m bragging or anything…). I also managed to address the issues I’d had with existing decks.

Lupa

Lupa is the author of Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic and A Field Guide to Otherkin. She is the co-author of Kink Magic: Sex Magic Beyond Vanilla with her husband Taylor Ellwood and has also contributed to the anthologies Magick on the Edge and Manifesting Prosperity: A Wealth Magic Anthology. Lupa is also an associate editor, layout tech, and nonfiction publicity/promotions manager for Immanion Press/Megalithica Books.

Lupa’s upcoming book: DIY Totemism

While a basic working knowledge of magic and totemism is helpful, DIY Totemism is written in an approachable fashion. Solid research and proper citation methods are paired with thorough practical results showing Lupa’s work, and rather than being a dogmatic guide to what you should and shouldn’t do, once again Lupa provides you with tools you can integrate into your own practice.
Websites:

• The Green Wolf
• Pagan Book Reviews
• Articles by Lupa
• Lupa’s Artwork
• Immanion Press
• Therioshamanism

Recommended Reading

WildSpeak.com

Music Credits

• Opening Music: The Oracle Speaks by William Wilde Zeitler from Elegy for Atlantis
• Closing Music: The Witch Outstrips the Wolf by The Psycho Daisies (Podsafe Music)

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