 Hello, beautiful souls. Welcome to the magical world of the octopus spirit animal. If you are drawn to octopuses or starting to see them anywhere, if you've dreamed about them, or maybe if you're a little afraid of them, sounds like octopus may have some medicine for you. So in this video, we're going to be looking at the spiritual meanings of octopus, including some of the shadow aspects of octopus. So stay tuned and hopefully you'll discover something that will help you figure out what this amazing spirit animal is trying to tell you. All right. So first of all, just a little bit about the octopus. There's about 300 species of these animals worldwide. They can be found from really deep water and sometimes up to the tide pools. So but they're definitely ocean animals. And they are a member of the mollusk phylum, which means that they are somewhat related to like clams and snails. But they're actually a lot more complex than these animals. So let's look at some of the meanings of octopus. Probably the thing that jumps out most about octopus is that it is a master of illusion. It can change the color and the texture of its skin in a flash to blend in with its surroundings, reveal its mood and feelings and or to make a statement. And some octopuses can actually look make themselves look like other creatures, like even like a poisonous lionfish. So it depends on the species. So because there are so many different types of octopuses, you might want to, you know, if you have a specific one that's coming forward for you, you might want to look at particular traits of that one and you might get more detailed information, you know, to help you with the spiritual meaning. Here we're just going to be looking at basically the generic octopus. Okay, so it's really able to change its shape, change its color, and it can actually squeeze into really tiny places. So it's one of the primary spiritual meanings of octopus is going to be the idea of shape shifting or adaptability and flexibility. Okay, but the octopus doesn't stop there. If it gets a fright, it squirts out a cloud of ink and zooms away. Okay, so it's got the ability to take in water and it's got a little gland or organ that has this dark substance in it. And it creates this ink cloud that acts as a smoke screen, leaving its enemies baffled and giving it a clean getaway. All right, so if octopus is coming forward, the smoke screen aspect of the octopus could be something that, if that speaks to you, then look for a couple of things. One is there something that is obscuring your vision or keeping you from actually realizing what's going on, right? There might be something, maybe information that is being either withheld or false information or just kind of a cloudy situation, right? So one of the things that you can do is to use your logical mind, right? To discover what it is. Remember that the octopus also has these eight long tentacles or arms, right? And it is really good at manipulating its environment and feeling through things and picking things up and taking them apart, right? So and the octopus, unlike its relatives, the clams, right? It has a really well-developed brain. It's very, very smart. In fact, it's smarter than a lot of animals with backbones. So it's been shown, octopuses have been shown to really be able to use this logic, logical part of the brain. They can solve puzzles and problems. And so this is one thing that you can use if you want to use octopus energy in a positive way. If you feel like you're kind of being kept in the dark or being misled somehow or something's being, you know, kind of, if you're dealing with a cover up, you can use that logic to kind of clear the air, clear, you know, clear whatever you're working with. And you can also use your power of kind of feeling through things. So an octopus has a really, really sensitive skin. Again, it's able to change a lot, but it's also got a very, some very interesting aspects to its skin. One is that scientists have found genes in octopus skin that are usually only found in eye tissue. Okay, so in addition, the octopus has a really well developed eyeball that they can actually, it's thought that they might actually be able to see or at least sense, you know, light and dark or something with their skin. Okay, so what does this mean spiritually? We're looking at being able to really feel one's way to the truth, right? Trusting your instincts, trusting your intuitive, like your third eye vision, right? Especially in the sense of being able to feel energy or feel what's going on. Octopus showing up is really giving you a clue to maybe use your sense of feel, use your sense of intuition to feel your way through the dark, especially if you're in a situation where you feel like you can't see through, right? That would be like an alternate way to use those gut instincts to find your way through wherever you need to go or to uncover what is any kind of illusions that are being perpetrated on you. Octopus can actually show up to show you that maybe there's some deception going on in your field. Okay, so one thing that we can't ignore when we're dealing with octopus is its environment. Okay, so we're looking at the ocean and again, it can be a really deep ocean. Water, anytime we're dealing with a water creature, it's going to have something to do with the emotional body, the emotions are dealing with the emotions and or the intuition, right? Or the subconscious or the deep subconscious, right? Or the collective unconscious, we're dealing with some of those unconscious energies, which can sometimes indicate that there might be something under the surface, something that you're not even aware of that is wanting to come up and surface. So this can get actually, this can get dark, okay? So when we're dealing with the shadow side of octopus, don't be afraid of this, okay? What it means is that there's something deep in the unconscious or deep in the collective unconscious or somebody else's unconscious that you're dealing with, right? That that could be surfacing or coming up and the reason, you know, that that needs to be addressed, right? That might be trauma that hasn't been addressed, but something could be under there and it's no coincidence that there are a lot of fictional characters that are octopuses or octopus-like that are actually monstrous or evil, okay? So here we're going to dive into the shadow aspect of octopus and just keep in mind that the octopus itself, if it's coming forward for you, this isn't anything to be afraid of, but it's just like this spirit animal is calling your attention to things that haven't been addressed or things that need to be balanced, okay? That's why the shadow comes up. So when we're looking at the shadow side of octopus, it can be things like illusion, which we've already addressed or deception, confusion, right? Or also we're looking at those eight arms grasping, right? Pulling into the depths and there are so many stories of like the old sailor stories of giant octopuses, the Kraken, right? Or Cthulhu, which is this octopus kind of demon, right? Which is in popular literature. If he's coming up, again, that's energy that's wanting to pull you down into the depths, pull you into depression, pull you into addiction could be, right? And or kind of pulling you down into some sort of a fourth dimensional kind of hell realm or something like that, okay? So, and this can be really related to spider energy because octopuses have eight arms just like spiders do, but it's going to be less vampiric and more just simply sucking you down, right? Trying to pull you down into the depths. And it can also be really manipulative. Remember those eight arms of the octopus, they want to manipulate, right? Octopus is really good at picking things up and just moving objects, okay? So, and with octopus coming up, it's not going to be pulling at you from just one place. It could be, it could be multiple things that are kind of pulling at you, either multiple different things pulling at you or one thing that has its tentacles in all sorts of different places, okay? So, this is a really, I feel like it's a really core archetype for right now because there's a lot of kind of stuff going on underground in our society where one example would be like in the internet, there's this kind of underground sort of porn, you know, porn world underlying the internet that a lot of people, a lot of people kind of get sucked into, right? And it's, what it does is it sucks you away from your higher purpose, away from your higher truth, away from your light, okay? We're down into the dark and it's involving some of the really deep unconscious drives that we have and wanting to pull those into service to the dark, okay? And then another aspect of this is like Ursula the Sea Witch, the manipulative kind of energy that wants to take away your voice, right? That means take away your truth or try to get you to bargain, like bargain your soul or that kind of thing, all right? And some of the ways that this can show up in real life would be like being lost in emotion or being sucked into the emotions, right? So, an octopus has like a really well developed nervous system but a really large portion of the neurons that an octopus has are in its arms and its arms can actually reflexively move without those impulses going to the brain. So, we're looking at knee-jerk emotional reactions that can really bypass the intellect and bring you down into a world that's very highly emotional and pulling you in a way that's wanting to kind of pull you down. So, being lost in emotion, being lost in the dream world also, being lost in fantasy and we're going to get to that in a little bit. It can also show up as being overly sensitive or overly empathic, right? If you think of, you know, because the octopus is a really super sensitive being, right? But if we're overly sensitive, then it kind of sucks us down into, it almost can be a little bit paralyzing, right? But for overly empathic, what is that but being kind of sucked into somebody else's world, into somebody else's energy field, right? So, if octopus is coming up and if any of this is resonating, it's really a call to, you know, start, grow a backbone, right? Start working on your solar plexus chakra and work on your kind of getting that spine or getting, it's okay to get a little more rigid, right? Flexibility is great, but sometimes we need a rigid framework or a little bit more rigidity in our life or a little bit more of a framework to help us ground. Now, the octopus does have the suckers on its tentacles, which are a grounding device, right? So, if we're looking at more the positive side of the octopus, we can be flexible and still be grounded, right? So, when we're working with this or any spirit animal, you really want to kind of feel into any of this information that I'm giving you that kicks off like an energetic sensation in your mind or in your body, really start looking deeper into those aspects of the spirit meaning of octopus, because your body and your gut and your emotional system will give you clues as to, you know, which parts of this message, what parts of the spirit meaning of octopus are going to be relevant to you particularly right now. Okay, so looking at the positive side of octopus, adaptability. We've already talked about just how changeable they are and very, very flexible, they can really move their bodies in all sorts of ways. And again, they're also found in all sorts of different parts of the ocean, right? So, working with the spirit animal can help you be really adaptable. If you are more of a rigid person, it could be an invitation to let go of some of that rigidity and know that, you know, it's, it can be safe to move through, right, in a little bit more flexi flowy way, right, and have fun with it. Okay, octopuses are really curious and they've been shown to exhibit play behavior and it's really sort of like this child like energy that then an octopus brings to the table. Magical and it's the kind of magic and mystery. It could be an invitation to embrace the mystical and also an invitation to go into that dream world, right? Because sometimes we need to do that and an octopus is a wonderful guy to help bring us there. Okay, shape shifting, right, being able to be adaptable, change with the tides, right, go with the flow. All these are beautiful. The psychic ability, right, to trust your instincts, an invitation to dive into your emotions, to dive into your feelings, right, but always remember that there's, you know, we also want to hold on to that, you know, remember that the octopus has that highly developed intellect too, right, it's an amazing problem solver. So it is an animal that is not just emotional, not just sensory, but it also has that amazing balance of, you know, the emotional, the flow with the intellect, right, which allows it to kind of take things apart mentally to solve the problems, right, to see how things work. And this is a really amazing ability when we're dealing with anything that is connected with the emotions, with deep emotions, we want to be able to connect the mind and the heart. And this animal has both those, the intellectual capacity and the, you know, the sensitive feelings. So this is a great animal for balance, right, for being a more balanced whole person between mind and heart. Also, just this idea of protecting yourself with that intelligence, right, we need to think about protection when we're thinking about octopus, right, because it is a very vulnerable creature, it's soft. And so one way that the octopus does protect itself is through intelligence to outsmart challenges, instead of just muscling through. So just kind of think about, well, can we be strategic about whatever is coming at you, right, it can protect itself through finding a place to hide, right, safe space, finding safe spaces, that's going to be really, really important when you're dealing with octopus energy, and probably also a good idea to proactively think about, you know, protecting, what I'm getting really strongly here is protecting your information, right, not putting stuff out there online that can be used. Remember that whole idea of deception and illusion, where your information can be used to deceive both you or others, right, so we want to protect and keep a little tight boundary. The octopus will kind of find little nooks and crannies to hide in. So it's also a kind of a caution or an encouragement if you are going to go into the dream world, which is some, you know, can be a real invitation here, you also want to put your protection in place, which means calling on your protective spirits, calling on protective angels like Archangel Michael, right, or drawing a circle of protection around yourself before you go into any kind of spiritual journey or dream world, also securing your home, you know, securing your finances, any kind of thing like that. We want to make sure that there's a, you know, that you have safe spaces set forth, right, and then allow yourself to go into this flowy state of mind or being. We need both, and that's, I think that one of the big things that octopus is kind of bringing forward is that these two things, the intellect and the heart and the being in the flow, but also having kind of the safe spaces, they are not only not mutually exclusive, but they actually go hand in hand, right. So, oh, and I promised to go back about fantasy when I was tuning into octopus. The first thing that I was guided to do when starting to look into octopus was to actually paint him. So, this is a painting that I created of octopus, and a lot of times when we have images of octopus, especially when it has to do with the psychic or the spiritual, they're really, really dark, right, and that refers to some of those like the Thulu images and the deep dark kind of subconscious scary stuff, right. But this one came out really, really in the light bright colors. So, I feel like it's an invitation to kind of move into that more go with the flow spirit of play aspect of octopus, and that's what this piece is really meant to be a portal for. But one thing that I did find interesting was this particular color of blue in here, I was really guided to use that and it is called genuine lapis lazuli. So, it's an actual paint that is made out of ground lapis lazuli stone, and this is a stone that is, first of all, it's a stone of truth, and it helps to open the throat chakra and remember back to the Ursula, the sea witch, right. So, there's this connection there of truth and, you know, finding the truth. This painting reminds us that when we go into the flow, and when we dive into the intuitive realms and the fourth dimension and all the dream world, right, we also need to keep, you know, keep anchor, right, keep one arm anchored in the truth, anchored in the real world, we want to stay grounded, and also to realize that one way that the shadow side wants to get at us sometimes is through false light, and that's the kind of the rainbows and unicorns feeling, right, of being in that dream world, so that we're not paying attention to what's going on. And so, the octopus has this incredible gift of vision that is a really good counteraction to that, as well as its intellect. More, one more thing, some species of octopus actually have the power of bioluminescence, so this is where the actual tissues of the creature will light up, and these, this is a reminder that you are a being of light, and we can bring the light of our being even into the depths, whether it's your own consciousness, your own dark night of the soul, or if we're dealing with a collective experience of the dark night or the depths, octopus coming forward, it can speak to you of shining the light from within. Okay, so I hope you've enjoyed this foray into the spiritual meaning of octopus. I am putting this painting up on my website, like all my paintings, I feel like there's one specific person that is really meant to have this, and I hope that it is a portal for that person for opening up to the childlike innocence and spirit of play that octopus represents, as well as also abundance, right, with those eight arms and finding opportunities in all sorts of places. So if you're interested in purchasing this piece, the link to that will be in the description below. Otherwise, have a lovely time exploring the world of octopus, and remember, you were born to be free.