Walrus | Gentle Giant, Spirit Guide, Medicine Man
He may not have the prettiest skin in the world, but Walrus wants you to know it’s really thick. Which comes in mighty handy in today’s harsh climate.
Walrus knows something about harsh climates. He’s been swimming in them for 25 million years. With his immense size and strength, and his ability to endure tough conditions, Walrus has something to share about facing adversity.
Walrus makes his home in that liminal space on the ice between the sea and the sky. Between the buoyancy of the salty waters he swims in and the gravity of the earth where he mates. It’s a fragile space. A space sensitive to a changing world. To survive it, to endure it, he’s had to be strong, adapt, and work in community.
Some may think he looks fearsome, with his girth, his whiskers, his giant tusks, and his guttural love songs, but he’s truly a gentle giant. Walrus doesn’t have many neighbors to fear—the occasional orca in the sea or the polar bear on the ice. Those who know him best, know, while he is quite capable of defending himself, he’s not an aggressive creature.
Instead, he’s known for his go with the flow attitude. He’d break a hole in the ice and dive in rather than confront a polar bear. He’d use his powerful flippers to propel himself away from an orca if he could. He’s so inclined to relax, he’s got air sacs around his neck that act as a flotation device when he wants to hang in the sea—by his tusks from an ice hole. His huge body bobbing along in the currents as he naps. Just being.
Sometimes you’ve got to do that. Renew yourself. Especially when the tides are changing and you don’t know yet which way. Don’t get me wrong. He can be a fearsome fighter. But Walrus knows he can’t afford to waste energy before he really understands where he needs to put it.
What Walrus has going for him is his pod, his herd. His community supports itself by its sheer numbers, often thousands strong. Living in such close proximity, that thick skin of his keeps him from reacting to every offense. He knows to pick and choose. To focus.
To those who know him best, those who live and sail around the northernmost regions of this planet know Walrus to be not just a Gentle Giant. He is revered as a Spiritual Giant—for his massive strength, his adaptability to changing conditions over millions and millions of years. For his ability to survive in severe conditions, through the plummeting temperatures and penetrating darkness of the Arctic winter.
He’s also powerful Medicine. In addition to protecting him from the harsh climate, his thick skin and blubber have healing properties for his human neighbors. He provides fuel to warm, food to nourish, and salves to soothe and heal.
Walrus has seen the world change—and he sees it changing now. The ice sheets he rests on are growing thin. His air is filled with the boom and crack of calving glaciers. He has seen and survived this again and again. Walrus knows the challenges we face are many, they are serious. The fight is long, and time is short. Not just for us, but for all the creatures of the planet.
Walrus invites you to call on him when you need his strength, his ability to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world. When you need to heal. Walrus has wisdom to share:
Swim with your pod. Commune with your herd. Put on my thick skin—don’t react to every offense. It will only exhaust you. Connect with those who uplift and sustain you. Share what you know. Listen to what calls you. Give it your attention. Recognize the world has changed and there are changes we, too, must make. Envision a new, more perfect union. For the planet. For ourselves. For the common good.
Keep Walrus Spirit near with PittaPat's Walrus Collection.
