Icarus
Excellent topic, Jax! Another thing about the shadow selves…. if you notice, the animals that you are most afraid of often have the spiritual characteristics of the “shadow” parts of our selves. We often encounter these animals in normal consciousness, but we also will encounter them in meditation and dream states. Hence the name, “shadow totem.” 
Anyways, it’s always a scary thing to open up to our own shadows, but it is a necessary thing, so I just wanted to say “GREAT TOPIC!”