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Bandicoot - The Gentle Shadow
Keywords:
The Gentle Shadow. Earth Magic. Sand Knowledge. Sand Magic. Coastal Desert Knowledge. Secrets of the Sclerophyll Scrubland. The Quiet Existence. Releasing Ties with Kin. Stability. Grounded Aggression.
General Description:
The bandicoots in the family peramelidae are a rabbit-sized marsupial quadruped found throughout Australia. They have pointed ears and tapering snouts, and the same foot structure as wallabies and kangaroos. Their hind legs and feet are enlarged and carry most of their weight. They generally have non-prehensile thin, long rat-like tails. They have light to dark brown fur, and some have bars of lighter shades across their backs. The bandicoot is ground-living. It finds most of its food by digging conical shapes in the ground and locating insects, tubers, roots and other plants with their heightened sense of smell and their whiskers. The bandicoot is nocturnal. It lives in woodlands, sclerophyll forest, grasslands and rainforest. The adults tend to be solitary, and aggressively territorial - though the bilby has a strict dominance hierarchy.. Both sexes vocalise with yaps, squeaks, barks, grunts, hisses and snuffling noises.
Lessons:
Please remember that if this animal is contacting you, it will often be the best resource for teaching you what its lessons are. What I write is only intended to be a guide, it is not absolute, nor is it infallible.
- Bandicoot is the gentle shadow. It is a solitary creature, intimate with the shadows, excavating burrows for food and gently negotiating its way through heath and sand and earth. Bandicoot teaches us the safety and security that is to be found in the darkness and the shadow, and is a great guide for those who are currently in a dark part of their lives who need some respite from what might seem an endless, shadowy, tumult. Bandicoot can also aid those who are scared of the dark.
- Sand is both menial and trivial, yet it is the stuff that makes mountains. We walk on it, it gets in our hair, it makes up the structures that often house us. It is in manipulated forms a shelter and a part of our lives. Yet so often we just sweep it off the porch without a second thought, or for those of us who live in countries with little sand, we rarely think of it at all. Bandicoot teaches us sand knowledge and sand magic. There are gems of wisdom that can nourish us from within what might seem the barrenness of sand, and bandicoot can help guide us to discover what this wisdom is.
- Bandicoot helps us to release ties with kin that are negative and unhealthy.
- Alongside kinship relations, bandicoot teaches us the power of dominance and hierarchy. Do you know where you stand with your friends, family and partner? If not, why not? Find out! Bandicoot tells us to step up quick smart and find out our place with the people around us. We know how to maintain our own boundaries, if we know where our boundaries stand with others.
- As bandicoot shares lessons of the earth and ground, it also shares guidance on issues of inner stability. We need to find our own earth paths in life that are stable, solid and supportive. Bandicoot teaches us that we can't live a healthy path if every path we walk is unstable. We must look within and without for paths and parts of our life that are stable and grounded.
- Bandicoot teaches us how to be grounded and aggressive at the same time, so that our aggression comes from a place which is true to us, and doesn't let us 'fly off the handle.' If you are in a time of your life which is so frustrating that you are snapping and angry at everyone, it might be time to listen to what bandicoot has to say, and to control your aggression.
- Bandicoot teaches us that one of the most successful ways we can understand the ancient earth is by living a quiet existence, especially amongst times of noise and trauma. Bandicoot comes in our lives to quietly nuzzle our shoulder and point out a little shadowy, sandy track that we missed, and to not neglect it simply because it looks quiet and uninteresting. Like bandicoot, sometimes the quietest places are where we find the most nourishment.
If you have Bandicoot as your guide:
People with this animal as a guide will often manifest traits similar to the animal itself. I work on the philosophy that we only have one guide, and it teaches us lessons as well as representing the core aspects of our personality. Therefore -
- People with bandicoot energy give good, grounded advice to all who are willing to listen. However sometimes these people have a bad habit of never taking this advice themselves.
- People with bandicoot as their primary guide are introverted and sometimes thought of as being selfish. Often they have little need for other people in their lives.
There will be many other ways your guide manifests, and you will recognise them with awareness and communion.
As shadow guide/guide:
The shadow guide is the animal we often fear irrationally, that teaches us things about ourselves that are profound and difficult to confront. Often the traits we fear most within the shadow guide, are the traits that we dislike in ourselves. We must scrutinise why this is, and learn how to work with them.
- People with a fear or revulsion associated with bandicoots may be claustrophobic, or have a phobia of the night and the darkness.
Contacting Bandicoot:
Like all animal helpers, this animal will only appear when right and appropriate, and cannot be forced to visit you, commune with you, or share messages with you.
Bandicoot responds to grounding and centering exercises, and tends to also respond or vibrate to stone energies - particularly the energies of sand, clear quartz and agate/jasper. Bandicoot is a shy animal that isn't generally too forthcoming in visualisations and journeys, when it appears it brings messages from the ancient earth, and should be treated with the utmost respect.
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