This post on finding symbolic meanings of animal sightings comes as a response to a comment left for my symbolic meaning of Owl post. Here is the question:
hello. I was looking for symbolsim on owls and found your comments. I have had an owl sitting outside of my house for about a month. It is there every day. About a month ago, my mother, who lives nearby, got very sick and I have been looking out for her night and day ever since. She is getting much better. The owl still sits outside my house, every day, on a a frond of one of my many tall, white Birds of Paradise. That area is a very protected area of my yard, and the Birds of Paradise thrive and bloom there. The owl sits on one of the low, dying frond. (I leave it natural outside- maybe I should clear it away.) I am still concerned about why his is out there. I sure hope it is a really, really good sign. Thank you for your commments, feedback.
Hi Peony,
If you’ve read my websites & blog – you’ll know I continually hammer one point home: “The only correct interpreter is you.”
We all have our own opinions because we see the world and experience life through our own personal filters and belief structures.
I would encourage you to follow the trail of your first instinct and impression about the Owl when it came into your awareness.
I would not allow other people, legends, myths, or interpretations to negatively impact your emotional energy.
That Owl is there for you, and you alone. This is a relationship between you both – take the time to cultivate the connection. Mine this experience for the nuggets of knowledge nestled deeply inside this connection.
First impressions are often our most accurate. I read in your first comment (which I accidentally deleted) that you felt rather uplifted by the Owl making its presence in your yard. I’d stick with this impression, and follow it – see where those first feelings take you.
I love how the Owl chose this area of your yard, how you emphasize the Birds of Paradise, and how these plants thrive and bloom. I believe it is no accident you’ve made a distinct connection between the Owl, and its choice to settle in this specific location.
Your attention to this specific connection may be a key to personal interpretation (answers) on a deep level.
I invite you to consider the themes of hope, protection, and trust in relation to this experience.
I would also advise you to consider the Owl as more than an event…rather, consider this a relationship. You chose each other.
Take quiet time to free associate about this experience. Take a creative, meditative stance (not a logical one) when contemplating this scenario. Relax with these details. By freeing ourselves just a bit – phenomenal insights come.
And how do we loosen those tight logical bindings that often choke out our most profound interpretations? Here are some ideas:
- Drawing. Color, paint, sketch, doodle the Owl, the Birds of Paradise, your yard, your mother, yourself – just play with this imagery randomly. In this way, various parts of our brain work together a differently than linear logical thought operates. This different way of processing information yields interpretive gold.
- Sleeping. We all know brain patterns are quite different during sleep than in waking hours. We can use sleep as a tool in our interpretive process. Contemplate your Owl before sleeping. Write a few lines about the owl before sleep. Or, look at a picture of an Owl before sleeping. Make a clear intent of connecting to the Owl before sleep. Most often this is an easy, organic method of garnering clarity about animal visitations.
- Meditating. I’m a big advocate of meditation, and believe it to be the single-most effective technique for clarification. Meditation is nothing special. Indeed, every human is designed to meditate – it’s a natural ability that our busy, distraction-riddled lives have numbed us from having. Simply be still in the energy of the Owl. Just be still. When thoughts come, let them pass like soft, rolling ripples of water in a calm sea. Thoughts will continue to wave into your awareness as you are in this meditative stillness….continue to let them roll. Eventually waves of deeper communication will roll to you – these are the thoughts that carry nutrient-dense insight to your cause. You will know them when they press against your awareness. Swim with them, follow them.
These are just a few ideas on mining for symbolic meanings to your Owl visitation.
Another tip: Ditch the anxiety-causing babble. Perspectives born from a place of ignorance or fear will never serve you. The meanings that make us cringe are not our allies in life.
Rather, work with the Owl. Work with yourself. Work with the details that sing to your soul. When you come across perspectives that lift you as high as the Owl can fly – that’s your sign of a genuine insight – a true understanding.
Other pages of interest and assistance:
Lovely….I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment and enjoy very much the balanced feel of your wonderful blog (I just discovered it today as I am researching the symbology of dragons!)
I initiated some energy release for myself the other day and encountered something interesting! I unlocked a box inside my left thigh (a place where I have held tension in my body since I was quite young) and out flew hundreds of green dragons! They were joyous and seemingly so thrilled to be liberated! I took this as a very good sign.
DO you have any thoughts? I ask because I respect your opinion.
Thank you for your work in the world and Blessings,
licia
This post is a “wowzer” thx!
I often read your blog and website. You have a style of communicating essential information in a way that’s very sticky.
I don’t retain information very well, but for some reason your stuff sticks in my head. Often i can recall what you’ve said and it helps me to work out meanings as they come.
I also like that you’re not a know-it-all, and that you really seem to care about people and animals and what you’re doing. I just wanted to thank you.
Hi Licia,
Dragons own a soft spot in my heart….I sent you an email with some thoughts…Namaste.
Hi Val,
What kindness!! My gratitude and blessings to you.
Namaste,
A.
Hello again and thank you so very much for taking such time and effots to respond to my owl “happening.” Strangely enough, the owl was not on the branch this afternoon — and my mother was taken to the emergency room at about the same time I noticed that the owl wasn’t there. (I am not making up any of this.) I seriously considered hacking off the frond while the owl was away so it would not come back. I was prevented from doing that because I had to meet my mother at the emergency room and was there until late at night. (I guess I’m not supposed to get rid of the owl’s spot.) My mother is ok and at home at present. I must say that I feel so much better now that I have read your feedback, and, yes, intially, before I read anything about it, I regarded the owl as a wonderful gift and felt honored that it found this place so desirable. I am doing my best to trust my first instincts as you suggested. I really find it amazing. Has anyone else had/seen an owl sit outside all day – day after day? Thanks again for your very helpful and uplifting feedback. I will follow some of your suggestions.
hey Peoney, i have a story to share with you.
Rremember Y2K? I was panic-stricken during this time thinking my life would end and i was plagued by fear and stupid, obsessive worry.
Dec.1999 (at the cusp of “d-day”) a barred owl took up residence in my back yard and i was completely enchanted. Mind you, i am not a bird-watcher. not even a nature guy. But, something about this owl captured all of my attention.
i can’t say if it was the owl, and its weird cockyness (it was as if that owl CHOSE me and my home – that made me feel good, and it made the owl seem like some kind of magic authority – hard to explain) or if it was my shift in attention (away from the dread end-of-the-world-as-i-knew-it and refocus on the owl), but there was a noticeable improvement in my mood and life when that owl made its own home within MY home.
don’t know if that helped, but that’s my story and i’m stickin to it!
Dear Colossal. Thank you. I love your story so much. I can visulize the whole thing. I think it is a god feeling to feel that there is something bigger, larger out there than you in charge or affecting things, and I am not really religious –sometimes I can get pretty spiritual. I have been able a few times to completely distract myself in the face of fear, as you did. Thank you so much. It was and is getting so that I am feeling that the owl did chose my home, or me, or both. That, actually, felt wonderful until I got “smart” about it and started reading on the internet. (He’s back out there this morning, by the way – in fact, as I look outside the window where I am sitting at my computer, he is virtually in a direct line, and about the same hight as my shoulder.) Then, that the bird chose my home or me started freaking me out. I thought I would find wonderful things about the symbolism of the owl. What I found at first really made me feel bad. Then I found this wonderful blog. I am still having trouble getting back to where I was when I had such a nice feelng about it. Hoping some of the suggetions help. I am starting to explore some of the more positive meanings of this all in my mind. Thanks again. I tried to get near the owl to see if he was okay early on. I thought he might have been sick, not knowing much about owls and thinking they should only be visible at night. But it scared him away. I’d like to get a picture of him. I’ll try to do it thtough the window. I won’t be here to do it today — I have to stay with my mother today. Thanks again.
Hello,
You have a great set up of your thoughts/opinions and interpretations of animals. I was wondering about the significance of an Owl calling in the night. I heard one hooting three times this night after months of not hearing a thing from it. I haven’t seen the Owl at all, I’ve only heard it hooting. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks.
Hi Crystal,
Thanks for your kind words.
I do have some thoughts on this. In fact, requests for more symbolic information on Owls is overwhelming.
Consequently, I’m working on a comprehensive article detailing many fascinating symbolic aspects of the Owl. This will include symbolic meanings of various breeds, interpreting flight patterns on a deeper level, and gleaning meaning from Owl voice patterns too.
Thanks for your interest.
Namaste,
A.
I also am curious about an owl calling in the night. Last night I woke up at 2:30 after hearing ‘who, who, who’ over and over. My husband and I went outside to find two owls in our tree (talking), then a third answering from a neighboring tree. I had such a feeling of overwhelming peace… I invited the owls to stay, if they so choose. I’m eager to see if we see (hear) them again 🙂
Hi Laura,
It’s settled then, I’ll publish further insights (including symbolism of Owl speech) as I’ve written them. I’ll provide a link here once it’s written. Thanks for sharing!
Namaste,
A.
Avenefica, I love how you encourage readers to have more faith in their own instincts. People often second guess or doubt themselves and disbelieve what their hearts and minds are telling them. This is how people miss details. I share your view that people hold the answers they are seeking to the meaning of events in their lives. It is an exercise in learning to trust.
Hi Liara,
Thanks! As a follower and fan of your writings and blog, I sense you take the same approach with your readers. I believe we share the vision of lifting the veil of illusion to those who would have it lifted. That veil being the fallacy (false notion) that people are powerless on their spiritual/self-improvement Path. This is rubbish. We are all our own best advisors and interpreters.
ooo
Excellent, I’ll be looking forward to your article Avenefica.
I’d also like to add that the next night I had heard two owls calling/talking to each other. It was interesting, although after that night I hadn’t heard anything from them. But I have had some encounters with other birds of prey.
Insights are coming in response to symbolic spoken word uttered from Owls. Slow, but coming. Apparently (and not suprisingly), Owl would prefer I express more determination in my quest for deeper meaning of the language.
The interest in this topic is a great motivator, and I’m glad to know all of you are tapping in, and more willing to explore this topic.
Namaste,
A.
Greetings,
Like the others, I had a VIVID dream about an owl (Great Horned) and an Eagle (bald), and found your blog, which is most helpful. [Is it my imagination or is the OWL appearing more frequently now?]
Although I’ve never dreamed about an owl or written about a dream on a blog, I felt compelled to do so now for a number of reasons (which I won’t go into here). The main reason is because the dream was positively real – quite vivid, full of technicolor and even sense of touch.
Both the owl and the eagle were at my left shoulder watching over (protecting) me while I slept. When I woke up and stretched – my left hand/fingers felt softness, and I thought it was a rabbit or a deer sleeping next to me. I looked up and it was an eagle and owl (think it was the owl I touched). Owl stepped onto my forearm and I sat up – it fluttered its wings a bit but stayed on. I tried to shoo it off gently, encourage it off – to fly away. But it wouldn’t. Just stayed. Looked at Eagle behind me. It stayed too. Colors were absolutely BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL…even saw the tiny white specks on the owl feathers. They both just stayed with me…quiet and intent.
I’m glad I found your blog. Thank you.
Tonight wasn’t my first time seeing an owl. I’ve seen one or two displayed in public places (zoo, etc.), but never out in nature, or in this case, out of nature. While I was driving home contemplating my agenda for this evening, I noticed in the very middle of a very low traffic road near my house a motionless dark figure. At first I thought it was a black cat and was hoping that it wouldn’t run out into the street while I was driving. As I got closer I noticed it was indeed an owl and as I drove past, it spread its wings to fly away while still standing in the same position. I didn’t see if it actually flew away. I was the only one on the road at that moment. It appeared as though it was waiting for me. Even the headlights or engine noise from my vehicle didn’t scare it away. He waited until he was in direct view of my driver’s side window before spreading his wings. What was he doing sitting in the middle of the street? How did he know that sitting in that particular area in the road would prevent him from being hit (or out of the way of traffic)? What does this mean for me?
@Christine,
In interpreting larger, deeper symbolic meanings, we not only consider the energy of the animal, but we can also take in the environment of the encounter.
Streets/Roads speak about direction, navigation, journeys. If you were thinking about an agenda at the time of the encounter, the Owl might be a message of further education in the directions you are taking in relation to the agenda on your mind.
Other surrounding circumstances can add meaning. In what direction were you traveling? North, South, East, West all have a symbolic meaning. http://symbolic-meanings.com/2008/01/02/symbolism-of-the-compass-meaning-of-the-four-directions/
You yourself were traveling – another symbolic inference of direction/navigation/journeying.
Was this at night or during the day? Nighttime is symbolic of unconscious, shadow self. Daytime is symbolic of controlled, conscious self.
Here is more on owl meanings: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-owl.html
Here are some tips on exploring meanings of animal encounters: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/knowing-your-totem-animal.html (it references “totems” but it’s not totem specific).
Namaste
A.
Hi
Last night when we arrived home after dinner with family, around 12:10AM as I was going to the front door I saw an owl sitting on the roof looking at me! I have never seen an wild owl so close. That night, I had repeated dreams of old friends that have passed away a few years back while I was overseas. I didn’t get to say goodbye to them but I kept dreaming of them and sometimes it didn’t make sense. In one dream, I was consoling someone at a funeral but in real life, they both passed away. It was all very confusing. I dream almost everynight but they were never of these people. What does this mean?