A Dream of Shamanism

I had a dream last night that I feel was shamanic in nature and perhaps, an answer to some deeply spiritual concerns I have had lately. I'm surprised I can remember it so clearly this late in the morning. I wanted to write down what I saw as soon as I woke up, but I was too sleepy and fell back to sleep.

I was standing at the top center of a diagram of some kind, like a family tree that goes downward, to my side and below my feet.

Looking at the diagram with me in the center:

On the left of the diagram, I couldn't make out anything significant, though I saw empty spaces ready to be filled. I want to say a Black Bear was there directly to the left of me (on my right side), but when I woke up, I thought it might have been on the right side of the diagram. It seemed to go back and forth in my memory of the dream.

On the right side of the diagram, there were a few spaces where there were tiny images of animals in circles that I couldn't make out because they were too small. The full-sized animals that were in their own places in the diagram were the Wolf (beside me at my left arm), a fluttering mass of Butterflies (to the right of Wolf but below the line he and I were on), and what I perceived to be the bear at times in my memory (to the right of the butterflies when on the right side of the diagram).

I was dressed in a Native American buckskin dress with feathers in my hair and a staff of some kind. Think of the staff used by Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies. It was similar in shape, taller than me (I'm 5'6"), wooden, was adorned with dangling stones and silver, and there was a glowing blue light from within. There were beautiful designs around it, too. I stood straight and tall and felt like a statue in its rightful place.

Behind me and the diagram was darkness filled with stars. Beneath me and the diagram was the thick green grass of Earth. I was standing on the top line of the diagram, and this top line divided the black sky from the green grass. The diagram went downward from there. Think of painting dark green flat grass, then draw the diagram on the grass.

I have re-read the various animal totems seen in my vision, and I think I know what it means. I wish, however, that I could remember where the bear was and what other animal was there that I feel was too blurry for me to make out.

I can decipher the meaning of the animals I did see clearly, but I don't know the significance of a right side and a left side. Obviously, it means something since the bear kept switching. Maybe it kept switching so I would understand there is a difference and a meaning to the two sides. Maybe the positive and the negative?

Maybe the other animals that were too small to make out are just waiting to be important enough to take their place as fully grown totems. I'm confused, though, why Raven wasn't there. Raven has answered several of my questions with his presence. Maybe he was one of the small ones and wasn't a large animal yet because I haven't reached the potential he needs me to be. If that is the case, does that mean the other 3 that were large mean I reached their potential? I don't think so. Maybe those 3 are large because I need to work on them right now and their size was to get my attention. I still have to find out what right and left mean.