Hedgehog personality type

Hedgehogs and Foxes – Two Personality Types – The Foresight Guide

Hedgehogs and Foxes – Two Personality Types

Two Valuable Organizational Types. Brown (2011).

This is a great simple model of trait differences between people, one with many foresight implications. In 1953, philosopher Isaiah Berlin wrote a short essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox”, about two common personality types. He based it on a quote attributed to the Greek poet Archilochus, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Forecasting scholar Philip Tetlock revisited Berlin’s essay in his seminal work on political forecasting, Expert Political Judgment (2006). According to Tetlock, many self-declared futurists and future thinkers are psychologically biased to be generalists, learners, and “foxes”, folks who seek to know a little about a lot of different things. Other forecasters and future thinkers, including many foresighters (foresight specialists), are “hedgehogs”, folks who seek to know a lot about a few things, driving their knowledge and capabilities deep into a few subject areas. Hedgehogs are typically more common and more respected in business, but there are exceptions, including startups, and on strategy, marketing, editorial, creative, and R&D teams, some of the better-known places where foxes thrive. Which animal are you? Soozie Brown at InnovaTribe offers a nice graphic for each type (picture left).

If we imagine each of us wielding a “t-shaped” sword of adaptation in life, folks are always trying to expand the hilt (the horizontal part) of their “t”. Foxes seek to advance and protect themselves with their breadth of knowledge and ability. As they learn more things, albeit at a shallow level, the hilt of their sword grows, changing from a “t” into a “T”. Meanwhile, the blade of their T, their mastery, doesn’t get any longer or sharper, as they are often more interested exploring (the learning function in the Eight Skills) than doing (innovation or execution). Oversimplifying a bit, foxes tend to be driven more by their passions and interests, and less by their masteries, those marketable things that they and others see they are effective at doing.

Hedgehogs seek to protect themselves by sharpening and lengthening the “blade” of their “t” shaped sword of adaptation, increasing the depth of their specialty learning and ability, while neglecting the hilt (breadth of knowledge). Oversimplifying a bit, hedgehogs tend to be driven more by their masteries, those things they and others see that they are good at doing, and less by their passions and interests. They constrain and focus their passions to serve their existing masteries, and are often not interested in learning new ones outside their current areas of specialization.

Foxes can easily be drawn to explore too many foresight career skills and paths with too little depth and unclear goals. Hedgehogs can easily explore too few skills and paths, with too much detail. Deep focus on one skill can leave hedgehogs vulnerable later when the technological, economic, or social environment changes.

Lifelong learning is a great habit, but what we choose to learn, and whether that knowledge will ever be used, is a key question both personality types should always ask. There is an S-shaped learning curve, with declining marginal returns, to every new social role, industry, function, and method we learn. Our learning curves typically start out flat (we learn little of value per time spent at first, as we don’t yet understand the domain), then they get steep (we learn a lot with each new experience, an exciting time) and eventually, they start to flatten again, with time or effort. At the top of the S we are finally in the mastery phase, and we can charge our clients the most for our expertise. Figuring out which learning curves to climb (which mastery “blades” to add to our quiver), and climbing them, is a key strategic challenge for both personality types.

If foxes don’t serially specialize, they never reach mastery with anything. They also need to guard against over-applying the many things they know superficially, and being overconfident. As Charles Darwin wryly observed, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”. The more one knows in any specialty, the more qualified and cautious one’s statements should naturally become within it.

Hedgehog personalities grow much faster to mastery in just about any specialty, due to their impressive focus. But they may need help in picking their specialty, knowing when it is time to change to a new specialty, and in seeing the wider context. They need to guard against over-applying the few things they know very well (i.e. “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail”). If hedgehogs don’t enjoy developing their own strategic thinking and leadership skills, they need partnerships with strategists and leaders who can help them grow in that area, and who’ll also help them best employ their skills.

Management consultant Jim Collins, author of Good to Great (2001), proposes that hedgehogs are consistently better than foxes at building “good-to-great” companies, if they stay focused on the intersection of three things: 1. What can I be best at? 2. What am I passionate about? and 3. What drives my economic engine?

But for startups and serial entrepreneurship, it is critical to have at least a few foxes in top executive roles, for their confidence and willingness to jump in and figure out problems, even with a minimum of subject knowledge, is often critical to success. Entrepreneur Scott Handsaker offers a nice infographic for the fox (picture left). It cites, at the bottom, the immortal quote from the late science fiction author Robert Heinlein seen in Chapter 1: “Specialization is for insects.”

In reality, each of us are of course blends of both hedgehog and fox, the urge to depth or breadth, and each of these mindsets will be dominant for us in different contexts. If you aren’t sure if you are typically more of a hedgehog or a fox, try Tetlock’s thirteen question assessment, posted by Hal Finney at the Overcoming Bias blog.

Again, a great early career goal for both hedgehogs and foxes is to become “T-shaped”, with at least one deep skill you regularly use, as well as a broad hilt of general knowledge and ability. No matter where you start in life, becoming T-shaped will make you adaptive, and is a great base for further career development.

As your experience and mastery mounts, T-shaped people also have opportunities to become “Star-shaped”, practitioners with several different deep skills, all of which they use regularly enough to keep “sharp”. Live long enough, work hard enough, add enough cutting points to your star and you become a polymath (Renaissance person), perhaps the highest skill-based compliment any one of us can get, at least from Robert Heinlein’s perspective. Deciding which new skill to add to your existing repertoire next, and knowing which will best serve your passions and goals, is of course a key life choice.

Make your mastery choices carefully dear readers, as you can’t unchoose them. Again, Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You, 2012 is a great start for tips on making such choices. Joining a foresight development community, and building your own dream team of trusted foresight colleagues and advisors, is another great approach.

The Hedgehog Personality

Graphology WorldPersonality Types

The first thing that you notice about a hedgehog is his spikes. It seems as if he is covered from top to toe with tiny little pins.

However beneath that rather unapproachable exterior, the hedgehog is really a very shy little creature and if you so much as look at him, he will roll up into a ball and spread out his spikes like a pincushion.

With eyes firmly closed and his little nose well tucked in he looks like a prickly ball that you can roll down a hill.

But if you can patiently coax him out of his defensive exterior you’ll find that the hedgehog is a sensitive and gentle little creature with sparkling black eyes, a cute nose and a soft cuddly underbelly.

Who would guess that he spends most of his life rolled up like a pincushion?

The Hedgehog Personality

A person with a hedgehog personality uses his prickles to defend himself against any unwanted intrusion on his privacy.

He is defensive and tends to be a loner.

When agitated, he rarely makes a frontal attack but will retort with little pinpricks and sarcastic responses.

Much like our real hedgehog, he is very shy but if you can sidestep the prickles, there is a gentle side to him.

A hedgehog handwriting

I have coined the term “hedgehog handwriting” for the following sample because it reminds me of the prickles of a hedgehog.

Notice the sharp points and flying strokes on the t-bars that seem to dominate every aspect of the handwriting.

There are so many prickly signs in the handwriting that the dominant aspect is one of sharpness. And indeed the writer of this sample is sharp and irritable and a bit of a loner just like our real hedgehog.

Nervousness permeates this handwriting. Notice how the letters in the first word of the third line are crushed together. Then look at the wide spaces between the words.

It’s a stop and start sort of handwriting. It’s as if the writer cannot make up his mind to stand still in one place or to make a sudden dash for it.

Look again and you will see that the middle zone is very small with one or two rounded letters:

Our hedgehog writer exemplifies the hedgehog personality with a prickly and sharp exterior but with a soft and gentle nature beneath it all.

Treat him with respect but keep him at arms length to avoid a confrontation – because he’s irritable and irascible.

However, if you get the opportunity to know him better and can manage to coax him away from his defensive attitude it’s likely that he will reveal a much softer and gentler side.

Also check out “The Lion Personality“

The Graphology Review

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Your Tricky personality as "Hedgehog in the Mist" character - Tricky - tests for girls

Who are you, what are you?

𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚒é 𝚅𝚘𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚗29.08.2022 at 18:00

26 148

~Don't get lost in this endless fog of life~

Let's try to separate four types of trickkists. I will mark them as characters from the cartoon "Hedgehog in the Fog" (not rely on the philosophical essence of the characters).

The first type - in fact, the Hedgehog himself, who is in the flow of countless information, accepts it and establishes certain meanings for himself. This is a test maker user, or one who passes tests himself, most often not getting involved in communication. Such a user is most often ... however, the description will be in the result.

The second type - Teddy bear, as you might guess, a forum member, a blogger, and in general a good person;

The third type - Owl (or Owl, as you like) - is not particularly active, but likes to comment on what is happening.

And the fourth type - the most important and most complex - the Voice (I don’t know how else to call it): such a trickkist keeps order, helps someone, he is either loved or hated, or he remains in obscurity just because for taking such a high position. Well, let's go; I warn you that, since psychological tests are not my forte, your type may not match the one that fell out as a result.

Question 1.

°°hello dear trickkist; To begin with, I'll ask - when did you register here?°°

It seems that I have not been here for so long, but I will be here in two years.

none of the answers are correct.

when? in general, quite recently, maybe two months have not passed...

I have already stopped counting, but I can - after all, I remember the registration date exactly.

Question 2.

°°excellent, trickkist; what do you expect from being here?°°

I want to find friends, I want to know how others live; want to express myself by creating and taking tests

I like communication on the site, I like making friends - I'm waiting for new notifications and messages from the site.

I don't know, I've been here not so long ago; but I just like being here watching others.

I want to achieve some order so that users are polite and understanding to each other; maybe I want to be respected, I want to help others.

Question 3.

°°very commendable; how are the forums?°°

I do not particularly participate in this side of life, I do not like such communication.

this is the main part of my life! forum - one of my main societies!

I can fuck, [probably] keep a diary. I like it, but it's not the main thing.

forums? sorry, I'm not a sociable succulent at all © (even if sociable, you just aren't interested in them)

Question 4.

°°what forum topics do you support, trickkist?°°

I do not support, but sometimes I go to look in someone's diary.

very different, but I like to express my opinion more.

I repeat, I'm not interested in the forums.

I often go to role-playing; I myself have my own topics, for I know that my responsibility will not let me abandon them.

Question 5.

°°how are your friends on Tricky?°°

I don’t accept everyone as a friend, it’s written in my profile. therefore, they are few, [most likely] not exceeding 100. [probably] although the requests are frequent.

There are not very many of them, but I love to write to them. I only accept "normal" or if we have at least something in common.

enough friends, even many

accept all!/other

Question 6.

°° will be done soon. now about the tests. what types of tests do you like best?°°

knowledge tests, "who are you" and "what suits you"

history tests, insertion tests, character tests

yes, I go through almost everything, horoscopes

I usually take hall of fame tests, whatever they are

Question 7.

°°Do you like "interactive" while taking the test, for example, the phrases "tastes great, I like it", "I like it too" etc.?°°

not really, I feel embarrassed that the author of the test is talking to me. .. :P

yes, I like communication with the author, it makes the test more charming or something

somehow I don't care

I think this is distracting, but if the author needs to express himself, why not

Question 8.

°°last question. What are your dreams about Tricky's website?°°

to get into the hall of fame in the column "the best authors of all time".

become the most popular leading role-playing

get comfortable and meet someone interesting / not yet decided

...the next step is to become an administrator, probably

More tests:

A. Demkin. "HEDGY IN THE FOG apocryphal mythology of a children's fairy tale"

A myth that has lost social significance becomes a fairy tale.
I. M. Troisky *

* Troysky I. M. Antique myth and modern fairy tale // S. F. Oldenburg: On the fiftieth anniversary of scientific and social activity. 1882-1932. - M., 1934.

The film, shot in 1975 by director Yuri Norshtein, was created based on the fairy tale of the same name by the writer Sergei Kozlov, the author of many well-known children's fairy tales and scripts for cartoons (“Tryam, hello”, “The Lion and the Turtle” ) . In 2003, "Hedgehog in the Fog" was recognized as the best animated film "of all times and peoples" according to a survey of 140 film critics and animators from different countries.

The imaginative depth of the film evokes many violent emotional reactions from the audience. Like any talented work of art, this short animated film, in addition to the actual, substantive content, has a complex symbolic and allegorical meaning, which has a multi-level effect on the viewer. Someone, perhaps, is touched by the childish defenselessness and sweet naivety of a children's fairy tale, someone can see both the symbolic and allegorical meaning created in a fabulous way. However, some of the viewers will also be affected by the imaginary meaning of the content of the tale, which does not at all follow from the actual events. If we ask a person what exactly touched his soul, then most likely we will not get an exact answer: the viewer may be under the impression of internal images born in the depths of his subconscious that are not associated with either the actual or the imaginary symbolic meaning of the picture.

There are several levels of interpretation of the content of the cartoon. Child psychologists talk about the cathartic reflection in the film of the main childhood fears: primarily the fear of death, and as its private manifestations - the fear of the dark and the fear of the unknown, which are happily resolved in the course of the plot. Going to a higher level, one can interpret the content of the film as a reflection of the child's fears of growing up and the first independent exits into the Big World, full of dangers, but so attractive. Fans of Viktor Frankl will surely notice Hedgehog's attempt to fill the existential vacuum of life - to structure his life by counting the stars.
Connoisseurs of psychotropic drugs will surely notice in the cartoon images of a “clouded” consciousness by drugs, characteristic of acute hallucinatory psychosis: a white horse, a huge owl, a bat, an oak leaf falling from the sky, threatening to crush the Hedgehog.

From the point of view of analytical psychology, the Hedgehog's night journey is a reflection of a psychoanalytic session, when a person begins to get acquainted with the symbolic content of his unconscious sphere. Night, fog, water - all this is a symbolic series of the sphere of the unconscious, dark and unknowable. However, not as terrible as it might seem to the viewer at first glance: the owl only relentlessly follows the Hedgehog ( The image of the Shadow by K.G. Jung) , sometimes revealing its frightening face from the fog ( Unconscious ). "Someone in the Water" brings the Hedgehog to the shore, and the Dog helps to reunite with an important lost part of himself, which serves as a source of pleasure - a jar of raspberry jam.

At first glance, it may seem that all interpretations differ from each other and represent the subjective views of people burdened with certain "filters" of their own knowledge and characteristic life experience. Let's try to figure out if the film contains an even deeper meaning, a kind of universal fundamental principle that can unite people with different education, national culture and outlook on life in a single perception of the film.

First of all, let's turn to the work of Sergei Kozlov. Perhaps in his tales we will find some clues, peculiar notches on tree trunks in the forest along an inconspicuous at first glance path. Sergei Kozlov wrote a cycle of miniatures about the Hedgehog and the Bear cub. Several works have attracted our special attention. It is obvious that a very characteristic imagery is emerging, deliberately incorporated by the writer into his works. Read the short sketch "Sounds and Voices". Here and below, we have highlighted keywords to which you should pay special attention:

- Half asleep , Little Bear, you can imagine anything you want, and everything you imagine
will be like a living thing. And then...
- Well!
- Then...
- Speak up!
- And then... the sounds and voices of are heard. The hedgehog looked at the Bear cub with large round eyes, as if right now, right now, he had guessed something very important.
- And who did you hear? - Bear cub asked in a whisper.
- Today?
- Yeah.
- Finch, - said the Hedgehog.
- And yesterday?
- Frog.
- And what did she say? ..
- She - sang. - And the Hedgehog closed his eyes.
- Can you hear her now?
- I hear, - said the Hedgehog with his eyes closed.
- Let me close my eyes too. - Little Bear closed his eyes and stood closer
to the Hedgehog so that he could also hear.
- Do you hear? - asked the Hedgehog.
- No, - said Little Bear.
- You fall into a slumber.
- We must lie down, - he said. Bear cub. And lay down.
- And I - near you. - The hedgehog sat next to me. Just imagine: she sits and
sings.
- Introduced.
- But now... Do you hear? - And the Hedgehog waved his paw like a conductor. -
Sang!
- I can't hear, - said Little Bear. - She sits, her eyes goggled and is silent.
- Talk to her, - said the Hedgehog. - Interest .
- How?
- Say: "Hedgehog and I came from a distant forest to your concert."
The little bear moved his lips.
- Said.
- Well?
- Silent.
- Wait, - said the Hedgehog. - Come on, sit down, and I'll lie down. Ta-ak.- And he
mumbled something, laying down next to the Bear cub in the grass.
And the day flared up, and tall, slender autumn staggered through the pines and
swirled like a hollow leaf. Little Bear opened his eyes a long time ago and now looked at the red trees, at the wind that wrinkled the puddle, and the Hedgehog kept muttering and whispering, lying next to him in the grass .
- Listen, Hedgehog, - said the Little Bear, - why do we need this frog, huh?
Let's go, pick mushrooms, fry! And I saved an apple for you.
- No, - said the Hedgehog without opening his eyes. - She'll sing.
- Well, he will sing. What's the point?
- Oh you! - said the Hedgehog. - Fungi! Apples!.. If you only knew how
sounds and voices are!

In the Miniature "Hedgehog Mountain" Hedgehog ... from heard a conversation somewhere far, far away, as if they were talking on the clouds, and he - at the bottom of the sea ... Hedgehog looked at the forest, at the hill, at the Crow circling beyond the river , and at the friend realized that he did not want to answer so much, he did not want to go down from his mountain. .. And he began to think gratefully about the kindness of whom he ended up on this mountain.

The hare, in the story "The Bird", trying to climb into the sky to the stars on a rope that he wove all summer, breaks down and falls down: The hare opened his paws and flew, flew,
flew, only the black night wind whistled between his ears .
"Where is the sheet? Where is the earth?" - thought the Hare and did not know, that he, like
a large bird with wide wings, flies above the ground and can no longer fall.

The same Hare in the “Spring free wind” … on this light sunny day really felt like a free autumn wind in the morning, flying through fields and forests.

In other short stories, the Hedgehog talks with Fire, together with the Little Bear they talk with the Mountain that hides the Sun, they “set off” the silence. Their forest neighbor Hare is talking to Water, Pinecone and Grass, who sings "The Last Autumn Song". The Teddy Bear and the Hedgehog dream of the Hare, and then they meet and it turns out that the dream was common to all three. A bear cub in the middle of winter in the morning slumber dreams of a summer shower, and when he wakes up, it turns out that winter has receded from their piece of forest and you can go with friends for a summer picnic on the river bank.

At first glance, it may seem that all the described states are the fruit of a child's fantasy, but a closer look reveals something else. The symbolic series of fairy tales by Sergei Kozlov is close to the mystical philosophy of the "Blue Bird" by Maurice Maeterlinck, where the characters - Tiltil, Mitil - children, make a journey in a dream to the Land of Memories, the Palace of Night, the Gardens of Bliss and the Kingdom of the Future. During their journey, children communicate with the Soul of Light, the Soul of Water, Bread and Sugar and the Spirits of Nature around them.

Fairy-tale animals in Kozlov's fairy tales also tell us about altered states of consciousness - half-asleep, in which one can revive one's thoughts, become wind, reach the stars, fly above the earth, cause summer rain in winter. These fabulous beasts talk to the parts of nature around them, listen to the voices of those who are not around, and communicate with each other in their dreams.
Who is capable of such actions in our human world? The answer is simple: the bearers of the ancient unified animalistic religion of all mankind are shamans.

The shaman is able to become the wind and ride the Eagle Owl to fly (like the Little Bear in the fairy tale “Don't look at me like that, Hedgehog”). The shaman talks with the spirits of trees, grass, water and mountains. The shaman can make it rain. The shaman climbs the Tree with nine branches (as Belka advises in the fairy tale "Bird") to the Sky - to the Upper World. The Shaman plunges into the Lower World, like the Hedgehog into the Wolf Pit, where he almost dies, but is reborn ("Don't look at me like that, Hedgehog"). Shamans own the technique of joint dreaming. Yes, and the Bear is one of the most important creatures in shamanism - the bearer of Strength and Wisdom.

The shaman knows that when a person dies, a person is born again, the same thing that the Donkey came to in “Will we always be true?”:
The donkey thought again. Now he was thinking about how
bury Little Bear so that he would return like summer. "I will bury him on a
high, high mountain," he decided, "so that there is a lot of sun around,
and a river flows below. I will water him with fresh water and loosen the earth every day. And then he will grow. And if I will die, he will do the same -
and we will never die..."
- Listen, - he said to Bear, - don't be afraid.
You will grow up again in the spring.
- How is the tree?
- Yes. I will water you every day. And loosen
the earth.
- You won't forget?
- What are you!
- Don't forget, - asked Bear.
He lay with his eyes closed, and if his
nostrils had not twitched a little, one would have thought that he had completely died.
Now the Donkey was not afraid. He knew: to bury is
to plant like a tree.

The same theme is repeated in a more symbolic form in a short dialogue between the Hedgehog and the Bear:

- Let's not fly away, Hedgehog. Let's sit forever on our porch, and in the winter - in the house, and in the spring - again on the porch, and in the summer - too.
- And our porch will slowly grow wings. And one day you and I will wake up together high above the ground.
- "Who is that dark one running down there?" you ask.
- Is there another one nearby?
- Yes, it's you and me, - I will say. " These are our shadows ," you add.

Kozlov expresses through the mouth of the Hedgehog the idea of the preexistence of the soul:
And when you were not there, were you somewhere?

- Uh-huh.

- Where?

- There, - said the Hedgehog and waved his paw.

- Is it far?

The hedgehog cringed and closed his eyes.

The theme of rebirth indirectly continues in the "Merry Tale". Wolf asks Donkey:
- How old are you?! - asked the Wolf, continuing to work with his paws.
- 365,250 days.
The wolf thought.
- Is it a lot or a little? he finally asked.
- It's about a million, - said Donkey. *
- Are all donkeys that old?
- In our woods - yes!
* About 1000 years

In the same "Merry Tale" Sergei Kozlov also gives a more specific description of shamanic practice - the "mental" battle of the Donkey with the Wolf, from which the Donkey emerged victorious:
One day the Donkey was returning home at night. The moon was shining, and the plain was all in fog, and the stars sank so low that at every step they trembled and rang in his ears like bells...
The Wolf meets the donkey and is about to eat it. However, the Donkey begins to read a spell to himself:
" Hit the moon, like a tambourine , - Donkey thought to himself, - crush the wolves with a hoof , and then your ears, like ferns, will remain on the ground." He repeats the mantra again:
" Beat the moon like a tambourine , - the Donkey remembered. - Crush the wolves with your hoof !.." But he didn’t hit, no, he just laughed. And all the stars in the sky laughed softly with him. across the white plain, like a janitor sweeping the stars with his tail."

Let's return to the central image of the cartoon. Probably, Sergey Grigoryevich Kozlov got a happy opportunity to tell with figurative means of animation what could not be expressed in a short miniature in a book. Studying the work of Sergey Kozlov , shows that at 1969 he adapted and retold for children the tales of hunters and reindeer herders of Chukotka.*
* How a raven got the sun for people: Tales of hunters and reindeer herders of Chukotka / Recorded and edited by I. Lavrov; Retold for children by S. Kozlov. - M .: Malysh, 1969.

Probably, work with the mythological material of the northern peoples practicing shamanism served as an impetus for Sergei Kozlov to get to know the ancient religion in more detail, which formed the basis of his worldview, which was directly reflected in the fairy tales about the Hedgehog and Bear cub.

What happens in the cartoon with the Hedgehog from the shaman's point of view? Having understood the underlying reason, we will probably (but not necessarily) be able to understand the reason for such a strong impact of this work of art on the souls of people.

So, when dusk falls (the best time to start traveling to the Underworld), the Hedgehog sets off on his journey. Next to the Hedgehog follows a formidable and mighty Spirit - in the form of an eagle owl, with whom the Hedgehog is not yet so familiar and friendly. This spirit relentlessly follows the Hedgehog, sometimes appearing from the Fog and frightening the Hedgehog. Perhaps this is the Spirit - Udha (hereinafter, Buryat terminology is used) - the guardian spirit of the Hedgehog, the spirit of Owl, who wants to attract the attention of the Hedgehog, but the Hedgehog is not yet fully ready for a meeting and relationship in reality with the guardian spirit. He does not see or hear Owl, although he is a few steps away from him and hoots at the top of his voice. The Hedgehog himself - a closed and silent nature, prone to contemplation - is probably at the beginning of the path to acquaintance with the Spirits - the sphere of Fog, Night attracts him, despite the lurking dangers.
Starting his journey in the world of relative Reality - the Middle World, the Hedgehog makes several attempts to look into the Lower World - he looks into the water and into a deep well, which are symbolic "gates" from the Middle World to the Lower, used by shamans for their travels. At the beginning of the journey, passing through the Dark Forest, the Hedgehog, talking about the upcoming meeting with the Bear cub, mentions juniper twigs that are to be thrown into the fire. Juniper fumigations are used by shamans to enter an altered state for traveling - juniper smoke has a mild hallucinogenic effect. Also, fumigation with juniper smoke allows you to cleanse the spiritual body of filth.
Climbing the mountain, the Hedgehog suddenly sees a White Horse in front of him in the fog, which attracts him. The image of a horse - a horse is directly related to the concept of the Wind Horse - personal spiritual power. It is the presence of a strong Horse-Wind in a person that allows him to establish a connection with the spiritual component of his essence and perceive the spiritual essence of the world around him. In its other incarnation, the Horse - in the form of a tambourine (Big Horse) or a harp (a small horse) is able to carry the shaman on trips around the Upper and Lower worlds (tambourine) or the Middle World (vargan).

Visual contact with the Horse (Horse) made the Hedgehog want to "go down the hill into the fog to understand how it is inside. " The hedgehog starts descending. Of course, he does not yet fall into the Lower World. The spirits allow him to familiarize himself with the Vestibule. Descending into the Fog, the Hedgehog loses even his body in it: “Here, even the paw is not visible ...”. He is trying to make contact with the Horse - but so far he has not succeeded. However, other encounters occur in the Mist of the Lower World: a leaf falls from somewhere above, a horned snail crawls out from under it, a vision of an unknown beast with a trunk appears and disappears. The Hedgehog continues to move in the Fog, and his Horse is somewhere nearby, where the Hedgehog himself was just a second ago. But not all inhabitants of the Lower World are safe. A moment later, the Bat almost attacks the Hedgehog. At the same time, the Owl - the Spirit of Udha follows the Hedgehog relentlessly and comes into contact with him from time to time, but the Hedgehog still does not perceive the Owl properly, calling him "Psycho", and immediately the bat, an unfriendly spirit, tries to attack him again, living in these places.

Suddenly, somewhere nearby in the Mist, the Hedgehog detects the presence of something very large. The hedgehog tries to grope at random with a stick (a shaman's staff) and discovers that he is at the roots of a huge oak tree, with a trunk bifurcated at the bottom. The trunk and branches of the tree stretch upward, far beyond the Mist. Without a doubt, the Hedgehog found in his journey, flowing on a whim, the axis of the World - the World Tree, whose roots begin in the Lower World, at the gate of which the Hedgehog is located, and the upper already invisible branches - extend to the Upper spiritual world. This tree is Turge - the concentration of everything - the meeting place of Father-Heaven and Mother-Earth, - the sheer axis Gol - the World Essence. Past, Present and Future converge in this place, and the shaman can instantly move from here to any point in time and space. However, it seems that this is the first journey for the Hedgehog, and he is not yet properly acquainted with either his Wind Horse, or his guardian spirit and other helper spirits.

A crevice - a hollow in a Tree - may invite the Hedgehog to descend even lower - to the sources of roots in the depths of the Lower World, but he is not yet ready for such a journey and the spirits do not tempt him to continue such a dangerous journey. As soon as the Hedgehog looks into the Hollow, he hears the distant voice of the Bear Cub - calling him. The spirits are trying to protect the Hedgehog from danger for which he is not yet ready. As another distraction from danger, a case immediately arises for the Hedgehog - to find a bundle left somewhere with a jar of jam. Immediately there are luminous entities - fireflies, which lead the Hedgehog out of the dangerous proximity to the entrance to the Lower World and the thickening fog into a beautiful grove that resembles a temple. But the Hedgehog still does not know how to communicate with the Spirits and ask them for help - the fireflies fly away. The fog thickens again, and unfriendly, as it seems to the Hedgehog, entities emerge either in the fog, or in his mind. From the cycle of negativity that has begun, the Hedgehog is snatched out by the voice of the Bear cub and the strong Spirit that instantly appears in the form of a dog, which, despite its formidable appearance, is very friendly and returns the lost bundle of jam to the Hedgehog. The hedgehog can probably learn one of his first lessons from the journey - the world around is friendly enough, and if your path is bright, and you find the strength and desire to turn to your spiritual essence, looking beyond the Middle World, then the spiritual beings around you will take care of you and help you in any, even the most hopeless situations. Although, perhaps, we understood this, and the Hedgehog has yet to reach this point.

Probably to reinforce this lesson, after taking a few steps in the Fog, the Hedgehog falls into a river that flows, as we see, not far from the World Tree. What is this river? This is another personification of the concentration of the universe - the river Dolbor, connecting the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds, linking consciousness into a single whole. Here two aspects of the life of a shaman meet - life in the physical reality and in the spiritual. Like the Tree, the River serves as a source of strength. Using the energy of the Tree and the River, the shaman can do almost anything he wants. The Dolbor River is also the personification of the stream of Consciousness, to which the Hedgehog prudently submits: "I am in the river - let the river itself carry me." Despite the obvious fear of the elements, the Hedgehog submits to her and is carried downstream. Down is further into the Lower World. Dolbor originates in the Upper World - at the top of the World Tree. The hedgehog acts like an experienced traveler - submits to the river and waits where it will take him. Most likely, somewhere ahead there is a waterfall in the gorge or a hole in the ground, where the waters of Dolbor fall with a roar. However, the spirits understand that the Hedgehog is not yet ready for such a journey - for this he should gain strength and enlist the support of his helper spirits.

Floating down the Dolbor, the Hedgehog sees the stars in the sky - possibly the Nail of the Sky - the North Star, which can guide him on his Journey. The image of the Wind Horse reappears. The hedgehog is afraid of the elements that have taken possession of him and, anticipating a possible fall into the Lower World, thinks about death. However, as in the case of the bundle, the Spirit ("Someone"), which has taken the form of a fish, comes to the aid of the Hedgehog, returning him to the shore. At the same time, the Hedgehog's communication with the Spirit-Pisces occurs through a "silent" conversation. The spirits also do not let the Hedgehog into the Lower World also because the Hedgehog is not yet a Shaman. The hedgehog has just embarked on the path, and this first trip to the spiritual world is, in essence, a revelation for him.

The Hedgehog completes his journey at Bear's house. In the film, a sharp contrast is specially made between the "earthly" concerns of the Bear Cub and the new state of the Hedgehog, who only "a quarter" of the ear listens to the worries about the raspberry jam that has ceased to interest him. The eyes of the Hedgehog are fixed on the Existing Space, to the origins of which he has just touched and left the Fog completely different. His soul was touched by a completely unusual experience and experiences that have already launched the transformation of his personality. Before the eyes of the Hedgehog is the starry sky and the image of the Horse-Wind, and that indescribable quiet delight of not yet conscious insight, which, after some time, will surely make its way to the Hedgehog's Consciousness.

This is the journey our Hedgehog made in the Fog. Why does it touch the audience so much? These Journeys are recorded in the genetic memory of each of us. These Journeys are contained in the area of the collective unconscious, inherited from the ancestors who lived in the pagan era. The Journey of the Hedgehog remotely resembles the great Journey of the Soul from the moment of death to the subsequent rebirth. The memory of the posthumous journey of the Soul is contained in the Personal Unconscious of a person .

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A. Demkin. "HEDGY IN THE FOG apocryphal mythology of a children's fairy tale"