Medicine Cards: 46 Raccoon

Mi-Shell

Raccoon:
Well, I really do not know, from where Jamie received the information, that she shared in the book, that accompanies the deck.
It can not be from the seneca - or any other of the 6 Nations as you can see in the images.
Any Raccoons I have ever known – and we work in/ with an orphan Raccoon raise and release program – have been forever squabbbbbeling growling hissing and biting at/ with each other over food, places to sleep and also displayed all the signs of dominance versus submissive behaviour with the large males taking and vigorously defending the best feeding and sleeping places and also chasing away the females which whom they mated and their own as well as other offspring.
If we put out 4 feeding dishes, the dominant males will try to claim defend them all........

However, what in all the 25 years we worked with Raccoons, wild ones, sick ones, healthy ones, hand raised ones and migrants and observed is their phenomenal hand dexterity. Their hands have a multitude more sensory receptors than human hands and so through their hands the Raccoon experiences the world in a much more profound level than a human. Often Raccoons do not even look at an object, they just “handle it between their front paws and receive all the detailed information they need to make very informed and also smart choices.
They rely on touch more ton anything else to make a living.
They also have extraordinary strengths in their fore arms, needed to quickly shimmy a quite corpulent body (just before hibernation time) up a limbless Tree trunk. They also need this upper body strengths to go back down the Tree head first.
Raccoons also have a very delightful language that of feeeeps and squeaks, rumbles and other specific sounds, that over the years my husband and me learned. Not only can we so communicate with the frightened orphans we raise, but also with wild Raccoons or Raccoons in other places than our home.
But their communication is not only through sound:
They have a VERY expressive body language: for example, shaking your back and bud while putting the head on an angle is an invitation to rough-house and play=wrestle. Is the head angled to the other side, is it rather a semi playful challenge between siblings.
A loud relaxing sigh then will signal the end of play-time and everyone will settle down right away.
Any wild Raccoon will react if I entone and or mimik these sounds and body postures and react accordingly, realizing, that I am none threatening and with the right fiep sounds inmitated will not run away.
So, if in one of my readings the Raccoon card shows up I will mention communication skills, verbal and none verbal, the joy to learn the language of another species -> person, things lost in translatio, things un-clear and so on...
And of course everything that has to do with hands!
Dexterity -> artistry, talent, skill for crafts or in the trades excelling at tasks that involves using your hands like fixing things – yes, and sadly also breaking things....
TOUCH -> sensitivity in the hands used for exploration but also for laying on of hands, for massage and other hand oriented healing arts.
What do you feel? With your hands, while closing you eyes – and your mouth?
I will also address curiosity and sticking your hand into almost anything – which may be good – or maybe not so,= negatively aspected.
What I also will take into account is Raccoon's endless curiosity.
They do not like secrets and things that they do not know and will try patiently and with all their dexterity to open boxes, bottles bags and anything with something inside it, that moves or rattles or makes a sound. When we plant our small garden in the spring our Raccoons will usually dig EVERYTHING BACK UP in the hope to find what we put into the earth, what is beneath it and then mess up all the seedlings. Is there a high fence around the garden? More fun for them. So our garden is a wire mesh cage with a full wire mesh top – just another playground for them – and a sleeping spot on hot July nights when they get ventilation from beneath them.
Raccoons go into semi hibernation, end October we see the last of them. Their BIG ENEMY is the Fisher, an Animal larger than a Marten and smaller than a Wolverine. Sadly every winter we loose animals to this nemesis of Coons, Porcupines, Cats and small dogs.
Well, everyone knows Raccoons love water, so I will just mention that here.
Young Coons zeeeeeter endlessly if they are not quite happy. This may in the wild alert a predator.
Like: Is the client complaining very much (princess on a pea syndrome??)
Attracting unwanted attention?
 

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Mi-Shell

Now:
How do the Native American People see Raccoon?
Well, turns out, very similar!
Here I will leave you with a number of pages about Raccoon from the Book “Animal Wisdom” – Jessica Dawn Palmer and from “Sacred Animals of the Oglala Sioux” by Joseph Epes Brown
 

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2dogs

That is brilliant, it's great that you have got to know these animals so closely and from that you can apply their characteristics to an oracle reading for yourself. I love the photos too. :thumbsup:
 

Smiling

Thank you for posting so much helpful information. I haven't studied the Racoon card yet, since it wasn't in the old set, and I still have to spend more time with this deck. But I love reading your description and stories. And I appreciate the connection you make between observing the behavior of the animal, and how to interpret the animal for the oracle.

My experience with racoons in my neighborhood is one of setting boundaries, since as you say, they can be aggressive, so people pretty much stay out of their way. They can sometimes be found foraging in garbage cans, so I also see how resourceful they can be! And yet they are these beautiful, soft, furry animals, too. But they can't be underestimated, can they? :laugh: