Mouse

Mouse Animal Medicine: Scrutiny

Mouse is an animal with a highly sensitive sense of touch through its whiskers. Since it is a source of feed for many animals, it has a keen sense of danger too.

In American Indian medicine traditions, Mouse is associated with the ability to examine things in detail at close quarters. So Mouse as a power animal, encourages you to pay more attention to detail and examine the “small print” of what comes before you. Mouse also urges you to examine the details of your life more closely, and not to disregard the “little” things, for they are all components of your life and teachers for your spiritual progress. Mouse tells you not to ignore the obvious because that which you are seeking may be right in front of your eyes.

Mouse also puts you on the alert.   Things and people aren’t always what they appear. Be careful not to be trapped into situations that might be harmful to you, or be enticed by offers that appear attractive but may contain hidden snags. Examine everything carefully. Take care and look closely.

Mouse says, “I will touch everything with my whiskers in order to know it.” Paradoxically, this is both a great power and a great weakness. It is good medicine to see up close. It is good medicine to pay attention to detail, but it is bad medicine to chew every little thing to pieces.

Mouse has many predatory enemies, including birds, snakes, and cats.   Since Mouse is food for many, it has a highly developed sense of danger at every turn. So-called civilization is a highly complex set of components which calls for more and more organizational skills and scrutiny to detail every year. Mouse is a powerful medicine to have in these modern times. Things that might appear insignificant to others take on enormous importance to Mouse.

Mouse people anger many other medicine types because they appear to be nit-pickers. Mouse people will spot the link on your coat, even if it matches in color. They will try to convince you that the simplest task is fraught with difficulty. They are fixated on methodology. They sort and categorize and file away for later use.   They may seem like they are hoarding, but this is the farthest thing from Mouse’s mind. They are merely putting everything in order so that they will be able to explore it more carefully at a later date.

The chiefs tell us that without Mouse there would be no systemization of knowledge. Mouse ended Renaissance Man and harkened the age of specialization. Mouse knew from the very beginning that “there is always more to learn.” One can always delve deeper and deeper and deeper.

If your personal medicine is Mouse, you may be fearful of life but very well organized, with a compartment for everything. You should try to see a larger picture than then one staring you in the face. Develop largesse of spirit. Try to become aware of the Great Dance of Life. Realize that even though you may be sitting in Los Angeles, there is also a New York, a moon, a solar system, a galaxy, and an infinite universe. Jump high, little friend. You will glimpse Sacred Mountain.

If Mouse is in your card-spread, its medicine is telling you to scrutinize. Look at yourself and others carefully. Maybe that big hunk of cheese is sitting on a trigger that will spring a deadly trap. Maybe the cat is in the pantry waiting for you. Maybe someone to whom you have delegated authority, such as a doctor, a lawyer, or even a plumber, is not doing the job faithfully. The message is to see what is right before your eyes and to take action accordingly.

Focus. Pay attention. Handle one thing at a time. Honor your perceptions.

Source: Sams, Jamie and Carson, David. Medicine Cards (Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988).