According to native american traditions nine animal guides are assigned to a person which provides a way to spirituality in this life as well as in the next one. Nowadays peoples are confusing totem with totem pole. The animal guide which is assigned to a person is called totem whereas a piece of wood carved from a totem is called totem pole.
Usually there are dogs, bears, crows, bulls, cheetahs and crocodiles as the totem animals guide. A person have to recognize the main guardian from these nine guides and should try to communicate with him to find a direction towards wisdom. You may have connection with your totem animal. You may have dreams of that animal while sleeping. The dream can be a comforting one and can also be a nightmare. Sometimes, we suddenly wake up and find ourselves taking faster and deeper breaths with some blurred memories of dreams of that animal. Those peoples who don’t know about the totems at all get frightened by these dreams.
But you should not get frightened but should try to find their own totem animal. You have to go back in your life and think that if there was any animal who you found more interesting than others. It could be a bird or insect also. The animal may have drawn your attention in zoo. It may have caught your eyes while you saw it in any picture. You have to do all these stuffs in order to find your totem animal as your totem animal can take you near to the river of divinity.