The Power
Mighty, archaic animals, they carry the wealth of knowledge and power accumulated over millions of years by the mammals to which we belong. Especially the power of family (a mammal invention, in fact), tradition and clan. Female elephants possess matriarchal wisdom (in a broad sense: matriarchy as a society in which power rested with women is an ‘academic legend’ and has never existed), as they live in herds of mothers (sisters or cousins) with their young children and older, wiser females. The adult males, on the other hand, generally live alone. They are known to worship the dead.
Element: Earth and Water
Plant World: Roots and tubers (potatoes or other)
Expansive phases: All year round. Rainy season. Day
Body parts: Smell, nose. Teeth, skin. Outer ear. Sexuality. 1st chakra
Powers: Royalty. Peace, prosperity, longevity, power (also sexual). Bringer of rain. Stability, immutability. Removal of obstacles and barriers. Atavistic memory, cult of ancestors, sacred sense of life and death. Patience, matriarchal wisdom. Marital fidelity. Clan loyalty, camaraderie. Social and family order. Care for the young, respect for the old. Law of compensation. Implacability, revenge. Fury.
It has enabled man to shorten distances in space and time. To visit new lands and conquer them – he is therefore an ally. There are only two species of elephant left in the world:
the Asian one, which has smaller ears and can be tamed; and the African one, which is more massive and completely wild.
Although the African elephant’s powers are more intense, but also more difficult to control, the two species have similar characteristics. Lovers of water in which they must frequently bathe, showering with their trunks, they are rainbearers, both in Africa and Asia. Even among the Maya people (who are not supposed to have ever seen this animal), the rain god Chac is equipped with a trunk. Such is their power over the rain that elephant spirits travel in the clouds: that is why so often one sees the shape of a white elephant in the clouds.
Calm animals, confident in their size and royalty, if provoked beyond measure they become enraged, becoming destructive and implacable.
At times, a gland located between the eye and ear secretes a hormone that makes them furious. This effect is greater in males and seems to have a sexual function. This is also why sexuality is among their powers.
The elephant is a lunar animal because it is linked to the cycles of rain and water levels.
Linked to the Earth, it is in Asian tradition a cosmo-phore animal, like the Turtle for the American Indians: it supports the world on its back. Its very rounded body is the cosmos, while its mighty legs are the 4 supporting pillars at the 4 corners of the universe. It carries the ancestral powers of the Earth from which we and our ancestors come and to which we return at death. However, it is also connected to Water, especially as rain and mud, which it covers itself with to rid itself of parasites.
Plant world
Il suo potere è connesso ai tuberi, come patate e simili, e alle radici di cui si nutre cacciandole fuori dal terreno con le zanne. E’ anche protettore dei raccolti cui garantisce pioggia e fertilità.
Expansive phases
The Elephant is active all year round. However, it fears drought and is strongest in the rainy season. It wakes during the day and rests at night. Elephantesses have long gestations (18 to 22 months), the young will be reared until they are 5 years old and will not become adults until they are 15. Therefore, this animal offers the power to create new things through a long and profound process, the projects and transformations will be slow, but in the end they will appear in their majesty and unshakeable solidity.
Body parts
Hindu tradition rightly associates the Elephant with the 1st chakra or root chakra, which connects to the deep forces of the earth. In particular, the power is in the teeth and the skin, which in the elephant is very important and, contrary to popular belief, very delicate. In the nose and sense of smell. Finally, mention must be made of the power of the ears, more specifically the pinnae, through which the elephant disperses body heat and with which it also fans itself in hot weather.
The Elephant as messenger
Elephants are primordial powers, ancient life forms and our ancestors in mammal history – so we maintain a dark connection with them, as with our mother.
That is why in psychoanalysis, rather foolishly, it has been said that they represent the mother or the unconscious. In reality, they are very powerful and primal forces that are difficult for us to tame (impossible in the case of the African Elephant), but which we can draw on to (trans)form our lives. However, if we cannot control them because we are incapable or too afraid to face them, they will overwhelm and crush us. If they appear to us in a vision or a dream, they may come to bring us the baggage of power and tradition of our lineage. I myself, when I came to my family heritage, an elephant with a large load on its back came to my aid: in the middle I recognised the things that had belonged to my father, who had already been dead for some years. Sometimes the Elephant comes looking for us when we run away from our dark, animal side and keep our lives within the realm of well-civilised, domestic powers.
Here, too, coming to terms with its power will save us from losing our roots and withering away. Sometimes, if the Elephant appears to us furious or otherwise aggressive, it may want to push us to make up for a wrong suffered. Sometimes he may appear to us in the role of avenger of an adultery or a breach of group loyalty.
The Elephant as Totem
He who has the elephant as an animal of power or totem is regal and has the power of tradition and memory. In addition to the memory of mammals and family, there is also personal memory – but in this case it is mainly the memory of wrongs suffered: elephants remember an outrage even after many decades… and they take revenge. He who has the elephant as an ally must bear this in mind, as well as the pre-Christian wisdom of the law of retaliation. Of course he can choose not to take revenge, but he must know that he had better demand compensation for the wrong he has suffered, otherwise he will tend to take revenge unconsciously: which is much more dangerous because it is out of control.
The power of these people is developed in the family and traditional structures, divided by age and gender.
They can (and must) develop loyalty and clan spirit. Also remembering that the elephant is the guardian of marital fidelity and does not allow adultery. Respect for elders, care for the young and child-rearing are favoured.
This is also why they often come as allies to children.
This is how the lineage and the great mammal family bring the power accumulated over millennia to the newcomers, fragile and unsuspecting, defend them and help them to grow and build themselves.
The Elephant often gives the power to summon rain, fertility and therefore wealth. It is no coincidence that the Hindu god of wealth, Ganesha, has the head of an elephant. Those who have the elephant as an ally generally have a developed sense of smell, both in a physical and emotional sense.
Their skin is delicate and may tend to thicken. They sometimes tend to accumulate water in their tissues.
They are calm, but they become infuriatingly implacable and must be careful not to overdo it.
They have or must have worship of the dead and ancestors and a sacred sense of life and death.
They are strong, they know how to remove obstacles from their path, but – like the animal – they do not have the ability to leap over them. They must always remain attached to the earth. Therefore they are not able to overcome problems lightly, they must instead face them directly. Their life can be serious and demanding, but also full of gifts.
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