Shadow of Arctic Wolf

Role: The Taskmaster

Lesson: Vulnerability

Element: Earth

Wind: West The Quest Within

Medicine: Transcendence

Keywords: Aloof. Vulnerability. Determination. Transcendence

When manifesting as a Shadow Totem, Arctic Wolf brings lessons in the life experience that will tend to build up a defensive wall around the Shadow Wolf Soul.  These individuals enter onto the Red Road with a good deal of vulnerability, in many instances a higher degree of sensitivity to their environs than most two-leggeds.  Yet, as time goes by, extremely painful circumstances are met that will either construct a fortress of solitude or a friendly barrier that keeps Others at a "safe" distance, thereby decreasing the chances that the individual may once again be hurt.

These individuals are the stoic and resolute individuals who appear to weather any storm with a spirit of strength and perseverance.  And indeed, they are quite capable of enduring many hardships, yet the true lesson for the Shadow Arctic Wolf individual is in the act of maintaining a certain measure of vulnerability in the face of the brutal lessons they encounter.

When operating from Contrary Medicine, these souls may appear to be quite aloof, particularly to those who have hurt them, going into a frigid distancing that is equaled only by the frosty winds of the Arctic blowing upon the tundra.  Though it is not that they don`t feel or don`t care . . . merely that this is their way of gaining detachment from the pain of the encounter.

Though Shadow Arctic Wolf is a naturally geared toward a mostly solitary existence, he/she will have a couple, to a few close & trusted friends that will be more like family members than their own biological family.  The reason for this is due to the fact that the Shadow Arctic Wolf soul will often grow up in a family that is either highly dysfunctional, or in circumstances where one or both parents are absent, be this as in the sense that the parental figures are deceased, or where the mother and father are emotionally unavailable.

Again, trust is hard won in the two-legged beside whom Shadow Arctic Wolf walks, and bonds once forged in trust, will rarely be broken unless there is an extreme betrayal on the part of their loved one.

The ultimate challenge of these individuals is to learn to be open, vulnerable and trusting in the face of a lifetime of lessons in rejection, disillusionment and betrayal.  Yet it is interesting that these two-leggeds will often be the ones to break off relationships, and are seldom the one to be "left behind."

The lesson here again, is to face the lessons that the relationships represent (for it is in their interpersonal relationships that these souls learn their greatest lessons), else they will meet the same issues again and again until the lessons they represent are resolved.

Through determination, the Shadow Arctic Wolf individual will persevere despite all odds stacked against him/her, and ultimately transcend beyond the past, retaining the openness of Divine Love.