Totem of the day is Orca! Listen to your intuition when meeting new people in the upcoming time for you may meet someone who belongs within your close group of friends due to their common interests, beliefs, and experiences. It will help to pay attention to every aspect of communication from body language to vocal inflections over just the words spoken. Pull from the support of your friends and family in order to reach your goals. This may include letting others see artistic projects you may have been hiding away to avoid criticism. Let your fears go and have confidence. The Orca spirit guide is known for it's connection to perseverance, instincts, communication, song, empowerment, and community. Orca can come as a reminder to look within ourselves to find our inner truths. We must listen to our own songs to find our next actions. This connection to music teaches us to look into sound for healing. This can include metaphysical forms of healing as well as healing through vocalization and communication such as with psychiatrists. Musicians or singers can draw powerful influences from connecting with Orca. With it's connection to water, Orca draws us closer to sensitivity and emotion. At times, Orca can push us to being more social when we find ourselves lost in loneliness. Engage in activities with friends and family. Orca reminds us that family doesn't always mean those you were born into, but the people who have stuck by you and have become a unit of their own. The Orca is seen as a very important medicine animal to Native American tribes along the Northwest Coast and are symbols of power and strength. Many tribes saw Orca as their clan animal, or totem, and many would never hunt them. The Kwakiutl tribes believe that their hunters of the sea would turn into Orcas upon their death while the Tlingit tribe saw Orca as a special protector of humans. People who connect with Orca are often systematic with a flair for organization. They enjoy working with others in social groups either when working or simply hanging out. These individuals are creative, but often keep this from other's view, and are known to be able to camouflage in situations with a choice on whether they are noticed or not.

Orca, Orcinus Orca, are carnivorous marine mammals that can live up to 50 to 60 years in the wild. Also known as a Killer Whale, these animals are actually the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family and are not whales. They can be found throughout oceans all over the world from tropical seas to Arctic waters. These marine mammals are well known for their distinctive black and white patterns and large, stocky body. On average, an adult Orca will reach up to 26 feet in length and weigh over 19,000 lbs. Females will generally be smaller than males. Orcas are often grouped into 3 or 5 types. While it is debated if these are actually subspecies, there are enough distinct differences to set them a part. Offshore Orcas are a population found in the northeast Pacific which feed primarily on schooling fish. They are smaller than other Orcas and females possess rounded dorsal fin tips. Resident Orcas are the most popularly sighted of the three groups and feed on primarily fish and occasionally squid. These animals group into complex social groups called Pods and have even been seen to travel with other dolphins as well as seals and sea lions. Their females have rounded dorsal fin tips ending in a sharp corner. Lastly, Transient Orcas possess the least complex dialects with their females possessing triangular pointed dorsal fins. These types will travel in smaller groups of 2 to 6 with less family bonds in comparison to Resident Orcas. Transient Orcas also have a gray or white marking around the dorsal fin known as a "saddle patch". These types of Orca will feed primarily on marine mammals such as seals. Orcas are known as one of the dominant predators of the sea with an ability to reach up to 30 mph at their top speed. They are able to retain a speed of around 26 mph for extended amounts of time. They have been known to travel over 50 miles without stopping. Communication is highly developed for Orcas with complex clicks and whistles known as echolocation. Extremely vocal and social, Orcas are known to travel and hunt together. They are known to participate in a range of behaviors such as breaching(jumping completely out of the water), tail-slapping the water's surface, and spyhopping which means to hold their head out of the water for a view of their surroundings. The social structure of Orcas is among the most complex of all creatures. Only coming after elephants and higher primates. Hunting occurs in groups with the adults helping to teach the young how to work together in organized fashions to catch prey. One technique called Carousel Feeding includes the Orcas herding fish into a tight ball by releasing bursts of bubbles or flashing their white undersides before slapping the ball of fish with their tail flukes. This hard slap stuns or kills up to 15 fish at one time. This technique has been studied primarily among those in the Norwegian population as well as some oceanic dolphin species. In New Zealand, Orcas will also eat sharks and rays. When hunting sharks, they drive the sharks to the surface and strike them with their tails. When hunting rays, they will corner and pin them to the ground before bringing them to the surface to eat. Orcas have even learned how to flip over rays and sharks which induces a state called tonic immobility in which they can't move. Sharks who need to move in order to breathe are even suffocated to death while the whale holds them still. Whales hunting seals atop floating ice will swim rapidly towards the ice in a single line to swamp the floating surface with water to wash the seal into the water. When breeding occurs, male Orcas will search for mates from other pods to avoid inbreeding. After courting and breeding, females will give birth after around 15 to 18 months to a single calf. This only occurs once every five years. The young are born fully able to swim and take their first breath of air with help from their mother. Staying closer to her in the pod, they will begin weaning after 12 months and fully stop nursing around 2 years old. Orca calves have a yellow tint to their white parts until they reach an older age and the yellow fades to their iconic bright white.