Introduction

^{Welcome to Totem Body, an online project using the visual arts to explore and celebrate our 'creature consciousness,' the awareness that the human body is also an animal body and as such belongs to the natural world. The inspiration for this project came from my book, The Way Beyond The Shaman–Birthing A New Earth Consciousness (O Books/Moon Books, 2008). The project is now also the subject of a PhD which I am pursuing through the School of Art at Aberystwyth University in Wales, and my article "Creature Consciousness" has been published in issue 81 (Summer 2011) of Caduceus Magazine .}

^{Totem Body explores the human body as a ritual space in which our animal selves can be rediscovered. For as psychologist}^{Peter Levine}^{points out: "most of us have become separated from our natural instinctual selves - in particular, the part of us that can proudly, not disparagingly, be called animal."}

^{We are part of nature. Indigenous peoples have always known this, and tribal societies generally embrace the}^shamanistic^{worldview in which the whole universe is experienced as alive, animated by invisible spiritual forces. We are human animals, just as a cat is a feline animal and a dog is a canine animal. It is this knowledge which forms the basis of the two central ideas in this project – that the human body may be experienced as a}^{power animal} ^{which can energize and protect us; and that it may also be understood as a}^{totem animal} ^{– as a unifying symbol for the whole human race.}

^{Our animal body is what we all have in common. While the separateness of each human body has been a symbol in the past of alienation and isolation from one another, the body as a totem animal can bring a sense of kinship and sharing to the whole human species and unite us as human beings.}

^{During 2010 I formed}^{a group of visual artists}^{to investigate this theme and our work was exhibited as}^{Totem Body}^{in the}^{Crypt Gallery}^{under St Pancras Church, London, in June 2011. I also had two solo shows exploring this theme, shown below.}

Exhibitions in 2011:

TOTEMS & TRANSFORMATIONS (Solo show) Quay Arts Isle of Wight, 15th January - 5th March 2011

TOTEM BODY (Solo show) 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, 12th March - 14th May 2011

TOTEM BODY (Group show) The Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras Church, London 10th - 26th June 2011



			^{TOTEM BODY} EXPLORING A NEW EARTH CONSCIOUSNESS by artist and author Barry Cottrell