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WISER LEADERSHIP & SELF MASTERY
13 Animals that Symbolise Wisdom
Looking to the animal kingdom to describe the elusive quality of wisdom
Wisdom is my thing. Well, one of my things. But even though it’s a relatively well-known trait, and widely described, attaining wisdom can be a bit like grasping water. In my often Sisyphean pursuit of wisdom, I tend to take a multi-pronged approach (a bit like my approach to using metaphors to make a point).
Many people have sought to use metaphor and simile to understand wisdom — perhaps a less obvious path to understanding wisdom is animal symbology.
So below are a number of animal wisdom symbols and the best understanding we have as to why they have come about within their respective cultures.
Tiger — Korea
As you might imagine the tiger tends to symbolise power, strength and courage in most cultures. But in Korean culture, the rarity of the white tiger also symbolises wisdom. The tiger is also one of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
In Life of Pi, the Tiger (called Richard Parker) is a major protagonist and symbolic of the animal nature in all of us. Pi’s survival relies on facing his animal nature as well as the huge predator in the boat. Richard Parker forces Pi to face many parts of his own nature.
Ravens — Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Native American
The term raven is a catch-all term that’s used interchangeably for almost any black corvid (i.e. raven, crows and rooks).
My consultancy company is called Woden which is the Anglo-Saxon (since I was born in the UK) version of Odin. In the story of Woden/Odin he attains wisdom through suffering. Depending on the version of the story it includes a raven plucking out one eye. But far from being an enemy of the god, they’re his allies.
In Mesopotamia, Ravens are also the animals of the wisdom and ritual god Enki.
