Today marks 61 years since I came into this life journey. Being born on April 22nd gives me the birth totem of the beaver. In the animal world beaver is the builder and the doer of things. Being strong in both water and earth energy there is a strong sense of family and home with those of us who have beaver medicine. We are prone to creating situations that do not back us into corners because we instinctively know that in order to be industrious we must always look at alternatives in everything that we do.

Beavers will have several entrances and exits to any dam that they construct. They do not plan to get trapped in their own home. I find myself doing this when traveling, even if it is a just a trip to the grocery store. Where I currently live, I have four different routes that I can take to get to the same store. Quirky? Maybe. However, knowing the different ways to get to the same point has been beneficial more than once. A bad car accident has traffic backed up for a mile or so. I know that I can turn around or get to a certain intersection and get out of the dammed up traffic. Just last week we had an exorbitant amount of rainfall and two of the roads that I can take were closed due to water covering the roads. I knew two other ways to go to get to the store for our weekly grocery needs.

Beavers Building at Allposters.com

Those of us with Beaver medicine love to work and we like the sense of achievement when the job is complete. We know that when building our dreams it can not usually be done alone. We love working as a team and can take on the group mind set easily. We value the talents and abilities of others knowing that each contributes his or her own piece of the puzzle and that when the task is complete there was a harmony that made it happen. We do not like big egos as they impede or dam up the process of completion.

I have another connection with beaver in my given name. When I was a kid and found that Beverly means a dweller in the beaver meadow, I was not a happy little camper. Why in the world would my mother name me a name that had such a weird meaning? She had not planned to give me the name of Beverly. I was supposed to be named Vickie. The story goes that while in labor she lapsed into a dream state and saw a girl on a rock. She had given birth to me while still in the dream and the nurse asked her, “What is her name?” Mom was seeing the girl on the rock and said, “Beverly. Her name is Beverly.” So, the nurse puts my name down as Beverly. I have come to believe that this was no coincidence. I think that spirits guided Mom in that dream because I was meant to have the strong connection with the beaver totem. Those of you that are regular readers might pick up on the little detail that the girl was sitting on a rock, too. You might recall my spiritual relationship with the Stone People and how I can renew my energies through the stones.

Under the glow of the Pink Moon 61 one years ago, a girl child was born and has traveled through life with the guidance of the beaver totem never far from her side. Her name came from a dream state which connected her with an even stronger bond to this spirit animal. During her 60th year she was given her spiritual name while standing among the presence of ancient stone formations…kind of cool, huh?