Badger

Badger is next level shamanic depth. Earth in her fiercest and rawest form. When badger shows up, pay close attention. Read my personal history with badger, and what we can learn from her lifestyle, wisdom and Medicine.


MY PERSONAL STORY

It was Deer who introduced me to Badger. During an evening walk in Italy, Deer showed up on the road behind me, running from something. I turned around because of the - for Deer rather uncharacteristic - noise and there was Deer, running away from me. Only to be followed by an even louder noise, coming from the uphill side of the road, downwards.

Frozen in my tracks, and equally scared and curious, three seconds later I found myself a few metres away from a Badger. Larger than I expected. Beautiful. Wild. Solid.

Since then, badger has visited me more often. On the wildlife camera we have on our land in Italy. In a shamanic drum building ceremony. Where I was offered badger bracelet because of the symbolism and power it holds. In conversations, stories and journeys. In smells, many times during my walk. But never again in real life. Yet.

Badger symbolism, her medicine and her gift is deep, dark, and powerful. And this exploration is an attempt to offer the ones connected to Badger Spirit, some guidance in how to work with her.
An attempt, because although this is true for all animal wisdom, Badger spirit is particularly personal and underground.

BADGERS

There are 11 kinds of Badgers (although some sources say ten or twelve). For this part we will take the example of the Eurasian badger, but if the badger in your country is a different kind, then make sure to look up their specific characteristics and lifestyle.

(Eurasian) Badger medicine is that of tribe, underground living, and ferocity. They are nocturnal animals. While in summer they also come above ground before sunset. Badger is most at home in Shadow and Darkness.

Badgers don’t just dig dens. They create complex, underground systems. Careful. With intention and function, connections and different entrances and exits — sometimes dozens — spread across a wide area. Inside, the tunnels connect sleeping quarters, nursery rooms, and safe refuges, with some passages dug deep for insulation and protection. Air flows through the network thanks to the way entrances and tunnels are placed. A main sett can be in use for decades, even centuries, expanded and maintained by successive generations. Around it, smaller outlier setts provide extra shelter or seasonal space. Every structure is adapted to the land — the soil, the slope, the safety of the location — making each sett a unique, living design.

There is no mammal who lives this deep into the earth, and uses this instinctual intention to cocreate such a robust and sustainble living space with the Earth. In the darkness, with the soil. Between the roots of the trees. For decades.

Badgers teach us a deeper level of building and cocreating with mother Earth. Doing beneath the surface. Into the dark. To find, create and expand safety, nurturing, collaboration, there where most don’t go.

They are tribe oriented, but also ferocious. Hunters, Diggers. Fighters, if they must.

BADGER TEACHES US

“Come down here,” Badger whispers. “Leave the glare of the surface for a while. Let your eyes adjust to the dark. This is where the real work happens — under the skin of the earth, in the places no one else sees.

I am the feminine in her deepest form. I know the dark not as absence, but as the womb. Here we root, we dig, we excavate what matters. We clean house — fiercely and often — because every chamber, every path has a purpose. Nothing here is by accident. Be particular. Be intentional. What you place where will shape how life flows through you.

Make your body your sett. Safe. Solid. Sacred. Learn to move in your darkness as easily as in your light, carrying both the black and the white codes. Build not just for yourself, but for those who will come after you. Build with the land, with the soil, with the neighbours whose paths cross yours. Use the quiet intelligence of the field — it knows where the roots run deep, where the ground will hold.

In the darkness, trust your instincts, your sense of environmental awareness. And mostly, your smell.
The smell of the place. Your sense of energy. What does the room, space and field feel, and smell like?

Go beyond grounded. Root until you feel the heartbeat of the earth. Sense the pulse of the place.

Dig until you touch the truth beneath the truth. Create something that can hold life and wisdom for decades, for centuries. And when the day’s work is done — keep a clean house.”

Work with Badger to dig deeper into your divine feminine qualities. And deeper, and deeper.
The raw, dark, ferocious, musky feminine. That place, that state where not many of us are willing to go. Badger holds Shamanic medicine, that invites you beyond what you know and are familar with.

Not just earth, but dark earth.
Not just roots, but between the roots.
Not just feminine wisdom, but her sensual wisdom, in its rawest form.

Listen to the information, the nourishment of the woods. Hear the worms find their way. Feel the vibration of the intelligence of the field. Don’t think. Sense. Get down. Use your claws, your nose, your sixth sense.

And for the masculine energetics: protect, fight, provide and own your Work. Your legacy, your tribe, your Kingdom. This is the warrior and the wild man waking up in you. The Shamanic leader integrating, intentionally. Building a fortress. A realm. In the Earth. With the Earth

When Badger shows up it is time to dig deeper, clean up what is done, excavate hidden wisdom, and become not just familiar, but rooted beyond familiar. Rooted into time, truth, and the ground that will hold you for lifetimes.

Rooted until you are Earthfast.