This post comes to you in two parts: the first part was born of an animal card reading I did for myself, which felt deeply resonant for some of the current collective energies. The second is a meta-exploration of the more fraught aspects of working with animal symbolism as part of our animist toolkit.  The other day I pulled out my ancient deck of Medicine cards*. This is the oldest divination deck I own: my mother got it for me as a gift when I was…