Listen to the Animals: The Llama

For this Tarot Notes feature, I pull one card each week from a different animal-themed deck to represent an important message from that animal.

If you are interested in finding out who your own Animal Guides are, you can get an Animal Guides Reading through my _Etsy shop_ or my _Web Site_.

This week my deck is Dawn Brunke's Animal Wisdom Tarot, illustrated by Ola Liola (CICO Books). To read my review of this deck, click _HERE_.

On a side note, in my latest animal dream, I was swimming around under water in a very large swimming pool (like the one at Sea World) and I saw this immense, shadowy shape passing over me. Of course, I'm thinking "shark"! Somehow I could talk to people up on the side of the pool and I said, "What is that, exactly? Is that supposed to be in here? Do I need to get out of the pool?" The shape moved away, toward the other end of the pool, and I saw my chance to get out. I swam over to the side, came up and started to try to pull myself out -- but the shadowy shape, now submerged, was closing in! Suddenly up popped its head. It was a manatee. In fact, there were two of them and they were adorable and very friendly. A little bit later one of them spoke to me in a soft, small voice, asking me to see if the trainer/owner (or whatever) would bring him some food. I told the person in charge, and he said the manatees had just eaten, but they could have a snack.

Okay, now let's see which animal has a message for us this week.

The LLAMA has come forward.

The Animal Wisdom Tarot

This card is subtitled "Seeker of Fossils." In The Animal Wisdom Tarot, this sweet child is comparable to the traditional Knight of Pentacles and is given the elemental associations Air of Earth. Dawn Brunke writes that this "suggests a grounded ability to understand abstract, metaphysical concepts," helping us to "stay centered and connected even as our minds open and our thoughts roam far." I love that idea!

Qualities assigned to this card (as we might expect from the Knight of Pentacles) are "steady, patient, practical, receptive."

In South America, llamas work as pack animals and are used for food. I recently attended an animal fiber event here in the U.S. where people exhibited llamas and alpacas, and were awarded ribbons like horses or dogs. Here are some photos I took of some of the llamas.

 

And here is an _article_ about the popularity of llamas as pets:

The message of the llama in this deck is: "Center your body; free your mind."

Sound advice, I think!