Keynote: Primal energies of strength, birth creation, destruction and intuition.

Alligators and crocodiles live in and around water. Water is symbolic of the mother energies of giving birth. They are both associated with the Great Mother. Great Mother is an American Indian term for Mother Earth. Water can swallow you up, being destructive, so again you have the idea of creation-destruction. As with a lot of totems you have the famine of Shiva. This theme predominates nature because balance and the life-death cycles are always there in nature. Birth and death in esoteric terms can mean an initiation. Esoteric death can also be when the old dies making way for the new.

Alligators and crocodiles watch the shorelines. This is how they catch their prey. They hang near the game trail and at the water's edge. When an unsuspecting animal comes near the water's edge, both the crocodile and the alligator will jump up and grab the prey. They pull it under the water drowning it, rolling it over and over. Sometimes they will knock out the prey by whipping the tail. Esoterically speaking, this patrolling the shorelines that separate land from water also separates birth from death. Here they are sentries at the gates of knowledge between the realms of birth and death.

Alligators are excellent mothers, which is rare in the reptile world. When babies begin to squeak, telling the mother it is time to hatch, the mother will actually help them hatch out of the shell. Then she will carry the living young in her mouth to the water, making sure that they get to the water, bettering their chance at survival. The alligator makes a nest of mud for the eggs. The crocodile makes a nest in the sand.

Both alligators and crocodiles are cold-blooded. Both balance their body temperatures by sunning themselves until it gets too hot, and then they go into the water to cool themselves off. Both alligators and crocodiles are known for sunning themselves.

On the island of Madagascar, the crocodiles do not bathe in the sun like the rest. They live in caves. The crocodiles were forced to move to the caves for two main reasons: one, Madagascar is so dry and desert-like the water that is not safely hidden in the caves from the sun has simply dried up. Man has cut down most of the trees. Trees provide shade and keep tropical areas tropical. Remove the trees from a tropical paradise and you turn it into a desert wasteland. Water is essential to the crocodile's survival. Two, The humans who live on the island of Madagascar hunt the crocodiles. So as an extreme example of adaptation, these crocodiles live in dark caves of Madagascar. Crocodiles have gone to great lengths in order to survive, even more than any other animal. This is why crocodiles have survived the longest. According to some scientists, crocodiles were here at the times of the dinosaurs, but are still here now and have survived extinction.

The crocodile is more aggressive than its cousin the alligator. Between the two, the crocodile would be more Sith than its more passive cousin the alligator. The crocodile has a tooth on the bottom jaw that jets out. The crocodile has a more pointed jaw. The alligator is more rounded in the jaw.

Alligators and crocodiles have eyes high on their head. Esoterically this stands for higher vision and clairvoyance. On the practical side, this allows both alligators and crocodiles to hunt for their prey without being seen. Alligators grow faster than crocodiles. Alligators will grow as much as a foot a year until they reach ultimate length, about 12 feet. The alligator digests its food slowly. If you get alligator as a totem, your intuition will increase rapidly. It will increase more slowly if your totem is crocodile. Because alligator digests slowly, accumulation of knowledge should be done slowly, in an orderly fashion, finishing one thing in its entirety before moving to the next subject. If you get either crocodile or alligator as a totem, look for primal strength and creation energies to show up in your life. Reptiles usually harken back to the primal since they are one of the earliest lifeforms on the planet. Many descendants come from the reptile world.

A crocodile will shed tears to rid the eyes of salt. This is where the expression "crocodile tears" comes in. This expression is usually in reference to a cold hearted person who feigns sadness for a manipulative purpose. If you get crocodile as a totem, make sure it is not saying that you are crying crocodile tears. This is of course if you are a Jedi. If you are a Sith, you may want to use your crocodile tears to manipulate people as Palpatine did in Episode II when he feigned his concern for Padme's life. Is someone near you crying crocodile tears? The crocodile can also warn you if you are being manipulated by another in this fashion. Here your intuition will help guide you.

Here is an Alligator:

Here is a Crocodile: