When I was a kid we’d sit out on the front porch of my grandparents house and just talk the day away with the community walking by. These little bugs would always crawl down the wall and they looked so spiky and creepy that we’d all just leave the area. I took this pic the other day and learned today that it’s a gypsy caterpillar. I haven’t seen one in so many years. I also learned it was an experiment gone wrong.

“Like the tale of the sorcerer’s apprentice, the gypsy moth is an example of an experiment gone horribly wrong. The moth was brought to the United States in 1869 in a failed attempt to start a silkworm industry. Escaping soon after, the gypsy moth has become, over the past century, a major pest in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.”

I always come across bugs, insects and animals, and take pics. My reiki master taught me these are signs (animal totems) and so I should look them up to see what they represent at that moment. This caterpillar couldn’t have come at a better time as I’m reviewing my next steps in life, going back to school, going for a promotion at work and a few other things I want to accomplish, and I want to move faster but need to be patient and let things take their course. It was a divine message I needed to hear.

Here’s what the Caterpillar Animal Totem represents: The infant stage prior to transformation, teaches patience that all things will come to fruition in nature’s time and not before, perfect timing and time of growth and harvesting, preparation period. Notice how you are moving like the caterpillar; inching along, resting, rapidly moving, pausing now and then. Caterpillar qualities will show one should move for the moment. His lessons of movement and preparedness is for the greater good of the transformation that will be arriving.