In Native American tribal traditions animal spirits play a huge role in spiritual teachings. Creature teachers such as the rabbit totem share medicine or life lessons with us to help us become better humans as we walk on our Earth Journey. We are all born with a birth totem that walks with us throughout our lives here on Mother Earth. We also have power totems that are also life long spirits who teach us regularly. A rabbit totem could be one of your power totems or it could be a messenger totem that comes for a short time in your life to share its medicines and then moves on after you have accepted or learned what it was there to teach you.

The Story Of Rabbit and Eye Walker

A very long time ago when the Earth was young, Rabbit was a fearless and brave warrior. Eye Walker, who happened to be a witch, was a friend to Rabbit. They spent a lot of time together sharing and talking about all sorts of things. They were very close friends.

One day Eye Walker and Rabbit had walked a long way and decided to sit down for a rest. Rabbit said, “My throat is really dry. I’m thirsty.” Eye Walker looked around, found a leaf, blew on it, and handed Rabbit a gourd of water to drink. Rabbit drank but said not a word of thanks. Then Rabbit said that he was hungry. Eye Walker took up a stone, blew on it and turned it into a turnip for Rabbit to eat. Rabbit ate it quickly and still remained quiet.

The pair started back on their walk and ended up in the mountains. When they were almost at the top, Rabbit fell and rolled almost all the way to the bottom. When Eye Walker finally found her friend he was in really bad shape. She tenderly applied some of her magic salve on his little body to relieve his pain and to mend his broken bones. Rabbit said not a word of thanks to Eye Walker.

After a few days Eye Walker was looking for her friend but could not find him anywhere. She finally gave up her search and went on with her daily activities. And then one day, quite by accident, she ran in to her little friend. “Rabbit, I feel like you have been hiding from me and avoiding me. Why would you do that?”

“Because I am afraid of you! Your magic scares me!” Rabbit was cowering as he said, “Just leave me alone!”

“Oh I see,” said Eye Walker. “I have shared my magical powers to help you and now you turn on me and no longer want my friendship.”

“That’s right! I want nothing more to do with you or your powers! They frighten me terribly. I hope we never meet again!”

With tears in her eyes Eye Walker spoke, “We were once companions and great friends, but no more, Rabbit. I have the power to destroy you but I will not. Instead, I lay a curse on you and all of your tribe. From this day forward you will call your fears and they will come to you! The sweet bonds between us have now been severed for evermore.”

So, now Rabbit is known as the Fear Caller. He goes out and sees Eagle and shouts, “I am afraid of you Eagle!” Eagle hears and swoops down to eat him. Rabbit calls out to all of the predators: bobcat, wolf, coyote, and snake. They hear him and take him as a meal.

People with the Rabbit Totem: are so afraid of tragedy, illness, disaster, and “being taken”.

They call those fears to themselves to teach them lessons.

When I first learned the meaning of the Rabbit totem

I thought it was such a sad totem to have working with a person! Who wants to walk around in fear all of the time? And then I realized that actually the medicine of the rabbit totem is pretty special. Totem animals always have a positive lesson to teach us so I needed to look deeper to the lessons Rabbit teaches so that I didn’t think it was a sad totem to have working with someone.

People who have Rabbit working with them must stop talking about the horrible things happening. They must let it go so that more bad things do not happen. They must remove the “what if” in their vocabulary and look at the “what is” in their lives.

The positive medicine is to turn your fearful attitude into one of courage. Do not let yourself become paralyzed over the things that are beyond your control. If you allow it, you will become your fears.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the Rabbit totem and if you feel that Rabbit is trying to share his medicine with you, I hope this helped you on your journey. Please do let me know that you stopped by today.