The interesting about the Totems is that reading about what the are suppose to mean in a book can be missing a whole lot, like you said, there is a chance that not everything that a totem teaches applies to everyone, further more I've found that most of the time when I work with spirit animals their lessons have little or nothing to do with what a book says they mean as a symbol and more to do with me as an individual and things I must learn/work on. Sometimes that also applies to my clients, the totems may be there to help with a clients healing or share something of value for healing and growth.
The Important point to remember, is that even though shamanic tradition and symbolism across the world shares many common elements the lessons and experiences of a shaman( or Reiki healer in this case) are extremely personal, hence the need to understand what the spider means in to the healer (and perhaps the client). Weather is shamanism or Reiki, I have found that intuitive messages and symbols are deeply personal in nature and the best way to deal with them is to learn how your own intuition works, perhaps as healer one receives information that is best understood from your clients perspective or the other way around and even then each individual will be given information in the way thats best suited for them ( for example visual impressions, sounds, feelings etc) all of this is what in my opinion makes healing and intuitive work so profoundly personal and powerful.
Once again Ranting from Beyond the Rainbow
RD
RMT
