Parts is parts

[yiaya.livejournal.com]

I've been lurking for bit and now make my introductions *waves*. I'm a practicing animist for ten years now. It all started when I took a workshop from a visiting Native Siberian choreographer who lives on the Amur River in southeastern Siberia. She was teaching some of their traditional songs and dances that surrounded a bear ritual that was practiced up until the 1930's. (When the Russian government stopped the practice.) The ceremony revolved around taking care of an abandoned/orphaned bear cub for 4 years before dispatching it in a ritualized way. The spirit would then journey back to the land of the animals and would explain how well it had been treated during that time. During the workshop something clicked and I knew that I'd found a path that made sense to me. Up until then I'd been practicing Wicca but it never felt right for me.

Recently after two ceremonies out in nature I came across a salmon jaw and a dogfish shark. When something like this happens after ceremony I sit and pray for guidance about what to do. In both cases I was directed to take the jaws from both. I know what both animals mean to me. What I wonder is if anybody has had experiences where the message was not from the animal per se but from the part that was given. In this case the jaws from both fish.

Thoughts?