Tick

Tick

I am here to share, from my research what a tick means spiritually. All of us hate the annoying pests that pounce on pets and invade our homes on ourselves or our animals. It is obvious that you have encountered a tick, which is why you are here reading my article - and you are thinking about the spiritual meaning. Does it mean anything that you have seen a tick? Spiritually, is this a sign of something? What is the spiritual meaning of a tick? 

What is the spiritual meaning of a tick?

I associate a tick from a spiritual perspective with other people using your energy - just like the tick sucks blood from its host this is about protecting yourself from those that suck out your energy. In all human beings, energy is limited. We must accept this fact. Like a car running on gasoline or a battery with a slowly depleting energy source, you can too run out. In contrast to inanimate power sources, you are able to control where your energy goes. You can decide where to invest your energy and avoid people that can drain you of it. 

The spiritual meaning of a tick is twofold. What is sucking the life out of you? and, secondly, think of the term “tick” spiritually. It may mean there is someone in your life and you want to understand how to make them tick. My aim in this article is to search and pry open a door of wistful spirit and wonder what has existed between our physical world and the transient realm to help and guide you in the meaning of a tick.

A tick is a parasite, it lives on the outer body of the vertebrates such as a cow, dogs, buffalo and deer. They feed on blood from their host. What we mostly dislike about ticks is they give us an unpleasant feeling and make us feel that they are harmful. In extreme cases, we can develop a phobia about their unpleasant nature.

When we notice a tick, we try to kill it at once, due to the irritating feeling that we have. To have a tick as one’s spiritual guide (yes it can happen) will be somehow challenging for us – simply because of the nature of such an animal. Most people dislike ticks - even when we see this parasite we are afraid. We may experience an irrational feeling towards it.

Understanding how energy works in your life is an important tool to use if you encounter a tick. Psychological research suggests that it is possible to be born with the characteristics of sucking energy from people, but many people who use other people’s energy are a result of poor upbringing and close family relationships.

You must first know what they are clinically called. "Energists" are normally those that are sucking out our own energy and have high self-esteem. Excessive admiration of others and an exaggerated sense of self-worth. Furthermore, it results in a severe lack of empathy for others. People feel superior to everyone around them and are more valuable, capable, and talented. They feel they can control the lives of those around them because of this unrealistic view of themselves. The tick in this instance is asking you to be aware of the energy of people around you.

The most important problem is that most people do not understand why they should avoid these types of people. What is so bad about having them around? Your energy keeps you going. In fact, the more energy you have, the harder it becomes to handle all the tasks you need to do. It's sad that so many people have no idea who or where these people are. Because of their toxic personalities, we end up spending too much time with them. Similarly, energies can make you tired and unhappy, and make it harder to get through your day. These types of people -  do more than just make you feel tired. They take your energy away from you. 

So how do you know if you have encountered a tick in life (whatever the situation) how do you identify these types of people? They can instil anger, hatred, sadness, bitterness and other negative emotions. You will notice they will take your positive energy and replace it with negative energy. They make you feel tired and unmotivated.

Just like ticks suck blood there are people all around us that will take our good, wholesome energy. Some are more obvious than others. Friends, family, or coworkers may appear as these people. They can mask their true nature and trick you into believing that they can continue to control your emotions. 

But we must be open-minded about the worth of all creatures, especially fight against the strong impulse to draw the line at parasites. Ticks are known as “The parable of the beast”. Ticks can live in a state of suspended animation. They are unaffected by heat and cold. They can survive under any condition. When an animal walks by, they stick on the body and then the tick starts sucking blood from that animal.

The symbolism of the tick gives us an alarm that we should be careful even about small things. Even a small thing can destroy a giant remember. The tick sends a message that we should be careful with the words we speak. Even a word can hurt others or can spoil a healthy relationship. The tick also symbolizes the danger of inflating fears way out of proportion compared to risk. Like a tick, fear is also a parasite in human life which sucks the entire life out and makes one feel empty. So, we should make bold decisions in our life with a sense of awareness in our minds.

Fear should not rule us, we should rule the fear. The tick gives us a message which we need to follow in our life. The message is "Do want you to want to do... take sensible precautions and do not let your fears cripple your enjoyment of life”. The tick is the symbol of precaution and awareness. If the tick is one’s animal totem it also gives us positive energy. If one tries to crush the tick, it would not die, it will live, it will try hard to keep its life. The message of such totem animal is that one should not get discouraged when an obstacle comes our way, we should strive hard to get success in our life. In our dreams of a crawling tick appearing, we have to pay attention to our health. We should also examine our love and friendship or whether any human tick is sucking our life.

What is the biblical meaning of ticks?

In scripture, it is widely believed that ticks were made to help the survival of the human species. The reasons why are not explained. They are often unseen by people. There is not much scripture that relates to ticks. There is a verse in Samuel 24:14 that states “a dead dog, a single flea” it is hard to know from the scripture that denotes what the purpose the tick has. I believe we have to relate the flea to ticks as they are blood-sucking and in a further passage of Samuel 26:20, it states that one should not rely on blood to fall from the ground, but search for a single flea, just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains. Therefore, we can assume that the tick is about hunting to make sure we can follow our true path in life. 

What does it mean spiritually for you to have a tick on your body?

To find a tick on your body could be alarming, in a spiritual sense, this is about ridding yourself of negative energy in life. We will all benefit from removing negative energy of some form. In fact, this will help us in life to become better, lighter, and happier people. The first (natural) reaction to a tick on the body is to want to remove it. If we look at this in a metaphorical way, it could signal that we need to remove something in our lives. What do you want to remove? 

Despite feeling better than others, most people are not narcissists. Communication can bring them back to earth. Despite the fact that we don't like hearing negative things about ourselves, they can help us be more grounded and aware of reality. They defend their self-esteem and don't fear taking a strong stance, sometimes causing harm to the other person. Particularly when the comments are made by someone you trust and know.

Critics find it difficult to criticize narcissists. Because of their exaggerated self-image, they view criticism from others as a sign of jealousy. Whenever they are confronted with criticism, they tend to either blame or criticize the person who is criticizing them or emphasize the accomplishments and successes they have to dispel the criticism.

What is the folklore of ticks?

There are many folklore methods to remove the tick, methods such as touching ticks with a hot match, using pantyhose in Victorian times and rubbing the tick with alcohol. These methods prove ineffective at tick removal, of course in this day and age. 

What is the purpose of a tick?

This was a question that I often plundered over, why do they even exist. They after all just suck blood from people. If you think about it, ticks help an older animal to pass over. I know that is not the nicest form of existence. In life, I do consider them part of the darker astral planes because the spread of disease. We often attach them to the deer for at least one whole day before being able to transmit the disease. 

Tick shows up as a spirit guide when

  • We face a problem in our life.
  • We lose our spirit in our life.
  • We face failure in our life.
  • We are scared about something.
  • Someone ignored us.

Call on the tick as a spirit guide when

  • We want to examine our relationships.
  • We are seeking to overcome obstacles.
  • We engage in analyzing our mindset.
  • We need to be protective.

Research Sources

  • Failing, R.M, C.B Lyon and J.E Mckittrick, the frightening folklore 115:16-19
  • Dunn LH, the ticks of Panama, their hosts. Amer J Trop Med 3:91-104

Updated: May 21st 2022

By Flo Saul
Mar 26, 2013