Spirit Animal - Pig - Part 1

Picture from email, - photographer unknown.

When I was growing up, my Dad raised pigs for a cash crop and also to provide food to feed six hungry children and assorted family and friends that may appear at dinner.  Quite often, piglets are born in early February when it can be quite cold.  We have had countless litters of piglets warming up in our bathtub and sometimes had to bottle feed them until they were strong enough to be returned to the barn and their mother permanently.  Dad would take these early litters out to the barn to be with their mother for several hours and then bring them back in. 

Our Ancestors quite often kept pigs in their houses, not full time, but to help keep the rushes that served as the floor, clean and turned, and to keep all of the bugs and rodents out of the rushes.  Since the earliest piglets were captured by our Ancestors in the wild and brought into the camps or villages to be domesticated, pigs have worked and lived with humans.  Although it seems that the earliest pigs are documented as being in Asia and parts of Europe, pigs are found all over the world. 

Pig is similar to dogs and cows and horses in that they have agreed to sacrifice their independence to be subordinate to humans.  From the earliest times, pigskin is a much used leather to make pants, leggings, and gloves.  Some make drums with it since the leather has its own vibrational sound.  Pig too, provides food both from its body, and as an assistant to human's work.  The best "tiller of soil" is the pig.  And, for years, people have turned pigs loose in the gardens in the fall, so that the pigs will clean up the garden and till the soil in readiness for spring.  Pigs are used in the woods in France to find the exquisite "truffles" that are a gourmet delight.

Medical doctors and scientists have found that the Pig's chemistry and organs are very similar to humans chemistry and organs, especially the eyes and the hearts and the tissue.  Therefore, Pig is now a "guinea pig" that researchers try many experiments and drugs upon.  Pig has saved many lives.  Our lives are so entwined with Pig that many of our sayings and quotes refer to Pig.  Some examples are:

"Buying goods unseen is like buying a pig in a poke!" - Anonymous

“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” - Winston Churchill

"All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God.  Humanity is just a work in progress." - Tennessee Williams

Most of us are somewhat familiar with a most famous pig from TV -- the famous "Arnold" pig actor of "Green Acres" fame.  Arnold is a shining example of the intelligence of pigs.  Some of his acting outshone the work of the others in the scene.  That intelligence is one of the reasons that many people have made Pig their friend or at least their pet.

May all your experiences make you happy as a pig in mud!

Judith       (See our new list of classes on our website www.angelsandancestors.com)