Learning About Lucid Dreaming from My Groundhog Jedi Masters

How can a groundhog be a Jedi? Hello, remember Yoda? He wasn't much bigger than a groundhog. So with all the groundhog energy in my yard lately, I thought I should take another look at the critter's symbolism, get in touch with it on a shamanic level and see what the animal might represent. Sometimes, yes, it's just a pesky groundhog, but here's what I found.

Excerpted from Ted Andrews' "Animal Speak":
Because of their digging and tunneling abilities, the appearance of a groundhog may reflect your own ability to go deep within an area of interest or when a new area of study is about to open up.

The groundhog's "medicine" is its ability to hibernate for long periods. In the winter, its body temperature drops to just above freezing, its breathing slows to one breath per minute (wow) and the heart beats only about 4 or five times per minutes (wow, wow). This symbolizes opening to the dreamtime and using it more powerfully. Groundhogs can alert us to the significance of dreams and the ability to develop lucid dreaming and other altered states.

Just like groundhogs, shamans, yogis and other mystics would slow down their own breathing and heart beat in order to enter altered states or trances. In these states, they would seek healing or knowledge. So, the groundhog announces more opportunities to explore these states of consciousness.

Ok, cool, so I guess I need to pay more attention to my meditations, journeys and dreams, to delve deeper. There's quite a bit about consciousness I haven't explored, and I do have much more to learn. We've actually discussed this in our shamanic workshops, and there's one recurring dream I have that I'd like to explore in a more intentional way. This has always been a fascinating topic to me.

But then it gets scary: "Animal Speak" also suggests that groundhogs, because of their ability to hibernate, can offer lessons associated with death and dying and revelations about its process. Um--that doesn't sound all that fun. Thank you Messrs. Groundhog, I'll take all this under consideration--but I think I'll focus on the dreams instead!

Of course, don't forget Groundhog Day in February--same time as Imbolc or St. Brigid's Day, when the critters emerge from hibernation to predict the weather.

Learn more about groundhogs here, or read the full "Animal Speak" entry.