What is the symbolism of an owl coming to visit before someone dies?

Symbology and symbolism has always played a great role in the esoteric's sphere of life. Discuss everything about symbols here.

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What is the symbolism of an owl coming to visit before someone dies?

Post by believer » Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:29 pm

I know there is American Indian fokelore that speaks of an owl showing up and death.  But I was curious if anyone out there knows differently or more on this subject.  An owl bumped against the sliding glass door at my sisters house a day before my Mom died and stay around a week after.  We had a picture but somehow it got deleted otherwise I would have posted it.  I'm interested in hearing any comments good or bad  :smt002

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An owl showing up before death,,,

Post by believer » Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:31 pm

Dang I hate when I spell incorrectly - Folklore not Fokelore  :smt005

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Post by Lady of Avalon » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:36 pm

I am very sorry for your loss :(

Poor Owl, probably recovering, I personally don't see Owl as a harbringer of death at all, in fact I thought only one nation did? The Apache? They are full of little stories of folklore like Apache Tears :) The screech owl is the one most blamed as its screech is like a banshee or person fighting for their life and screaming. There are so many different species of owl, don't blame them all many sound beautiful and just hoot peacefully lol :)

Owls are nightworkers, they are about wisdom and secrecy, and sacred flight, they hunt as the light dwindles and their wings cause no sound. Patient and fierce they wait silently and wait and wait the swoop instantly onto their prey, they can also see 360 degrees and can spin their heads round, oh and their claws hurt like crazy!!
Last edited by Lady of Avalon on Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by aedria » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:25 pm

From what I understand, being raised in a shamanistic tradition, that the owl represents a bad omen.  It is also superstition that if a bird flies into the window it means that a death will come soon.  An owl is supposed to say the name of someone who will pass soon.  It is remarkable symbolism, you are quite on the right track in thinking it would be connected with her death.

Traditionally, an animal will come around during the time of a death.  Sometimes it is a cat, a lot of times it is a cat, but an owl is also a very apt creature to show up.  

Owls are considered to see beyond our ability, to be wise- knowing the spirit world and walking (flying) between our world and the spirit world.  They can see all angles of a situation, what is coming and what has gone before.  They come out mostly at night, hence their correlation with death- which night also represents as the eve or death of the day.  Being a winged creature, they most certainly are related to the flying away of a soul to the spirit world.
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Post by suzisco » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:29 pm

In Scotland seeing a barn owl meant that there would be a death before the night ended.  It was thought that the owl guided death to the right house.

I love owls and all birds of prey and think they are beautiful.

Owls traditionally are seen as the wise and all seeing of birds.  They are characterised as silent, watchful and not hasty.

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Post by Lady of Avalon » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:35 pm

None of you have owls nesting near by then lol :) They do not bring death, they are old folk tales. Owls are beautiful :)
posted with blessings from Avalon......

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Post by suzisco » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:49 pm

Oh hey I love owls they are beautiful and for my christmas i got a session with some owls learning all about them and looking after some rescued owls.  I was only telling of old myths and the symbols bit lol.

I live in the country and see wild birds of prey every day.

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An owl comes when death

Post by believer » Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:12 pm

Thanks for your kind words regarding Mom.  I also love the owl for it's unique features.  But it was so strange that it showed up then and never before or again.  

Since her passing, all of my siblings experienced different happenings even the ones who don't believe.

Aedria -how interesting your knowledge of the shamanistic tradition.  Ver cool information.

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Post by tourbi » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:12 pm

I was posting the other day and used Image She is a crone, a woman of wisom and on her shoulder is the "Wise old owl".  I realize in reality I look at the owl as a symbol of wisdom.
The owl arrives for me to let me know, I need to look at the wisdom.
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Post by alee » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:56 pm

Maybe it implied a change in the energies of your life. My intuition say maybe you will be heading towards certain situations  in that particular period and you need the some sort of wisdom to get "penetrate" thru and benefit from it?

Maybe you noticed that you have some changes in the career front that cause you to get into some misfortune?

Just some intuitive guesses.......
whispers of the heart

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owl showing up before a death occurs

Post by believer » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:13 am

VERY INTERESTING!  Many different thoughts to ponder.  Thanks,



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Post by Doe » Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:47 pm

I had a similar experience last summer (this is from my journal):

One night I went out to the pool house in the dark, because Alessandro needed something from out there.  Ordinarily I probably wouldn’t have done that—too spooky (imagine that!).  As I got to the door of the pool house something flew at me from above the door.  It startled the hell out of me, of course, but then I saw that it was a baby owl—fully feathered, but smaller (I think) than adult owls I’ve seen (now that I think of it, it’s possible that he was an adult, but I don’t think so).  I have no idea how he could have gotten inside the screen of my mother’s lanai—an opening big enough for an owl would have let in millions of bugs, etc.  He was beautiful, with huge, yellow, spooky eyes that stared at me with an intensity I’d never seen.  He was also terrified.  I wanted to catch him and let him out, but every time I got near him (he did let me come pretty close) he’d fly off and try to get through the screen.  I tried for quite a while, but it wasn’t working, and I didn’t want to scare him to death or make him hurt himself, so eventually I just went to bed.
In the morning he was still there, sitting above one of the lanai’s doors.  He was asleep; I was actually able to touch him for a moment, and then he woke up and flew into the pool house.  I opened the big window in the pool house, and after a few minutes I was able to get him to fly through it and be free again.


It really made no sense whatsoever that the owl was able to get inside the lanai at all.  About a week later, the man who lived next door to my mother's house (his house was right next to my mother's pool house), died suddenly.

When I was on the Zuni pueblo in New Mexico last summer, though, I bought a beautiful little owl fetish, because I read that they're symbols of "seeing things that others don't see"--which I was doing (still am), BIG time.  He sits over me at my desk here.  I'm completely in love with owls ever since that night in Florida, whatever their meaning is!

(This is what I found on americanindianjewelry.blogspot.com:

The Zunis (unlike the Navajos, who consider the owl to be a symbol of death) greatly admire the owl, and it is an important figure in Zuni legend and art. The owl is the essence of wisdom. It can see what others cannot see. This means that the owl understands the spiritual world as well as the physical world, can uncover deception, and can discern true meanings.)


Doe

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Post by Night Owl » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:19 pm

Geetings

Well to begin, when an owl are seen by a person that is near death, it is in fact a guardian that manifests/transforms itself into as owl because it doesn't want to cause any shock to the person upon appearing.  Our ancestors believed that a guardian would come down from the heavens, sent by the Goddess Sophia (many knows her as the Holy Spirit or the Old Crone).  If someone is near to death, the owl/guardian would appear before that person and it will stay with that person until he/she passes away.  From there it will lead or guide the spirit of that person to the heavens above.  

About 2yrs ago, an uncle of mine, he was a very well known medical doctor here in my country, and he told my aunt and his children the day on which he passed away (due to cancer), that there was an owl in his room, and it was seated on his bedside.  He also said that it is an angel sent from the heaven to come and fetch him.  Off course my family was surprised by him saying this, because they could not see what he was seeing.  But they told me and the rest of the family about it anyways.  So, this is being said by people that is near to death even till this day.   So, as I see it, whether you want to see this as mythical, or what ever you prefer calling it, there is a reason why they believed in this.  

To explain just a little bit more as to why an owl symbolizes wisdom... it is written that the Goddess Sophia is the daughter of the Devine Will (God) and she is also a part of the Devine Will.  The Devine Will is also called the Lord of Wisdom & Knowledge, so to explain it in better terms, Sophia is the daughter of the Lord of Wisdom & Knowledge and upon her shoulder sits an owl.  The owl  being a guardian (or as many prefer calling them angels) are linked to Sophia and symbolically seen as Wisdom, with good reason.  Because just as Sophia is a part of the Lord of Wisdom & Knowledge, these guardians are also a part of the Lord of Wisdom & Knowledge.   If you are interested in learning more about the Devine Will, Sophia & Logos then I suggest you start studying and learning more about Gnosticism, which will help you understand this better.  

Things like this isn't just a Myth!

Best Regards,
Night Owl
"There is one thing one has to have:  either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul cheerful by work, love, art & knowledge."

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Seeing an owl before someone dies

Post by believer » Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:11 pm

Night Owl,

Thank you for your response.  Very interesting about the wisdom of the owls.  I really wish the picture had not gotten deleted, it was a cool owl.  My Mom did not actually see the owl (that i know of) the day before she passed she was like in a coma.  But I believe that the owl was definately symbolic.  

Thank You,
Believer

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Post by Night Owl » Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:22 am

Dear Believer

I am glad to have been able to explain the symbolic meaning about it to you.  Many people today just think of it as a myth or a legend.  And in this case it is not just a myth.

The thing that really struck my curiosity about this, was before my uncle passed away with saying that there is an owl on his bedside, I was studying owl's, everything I could find about owl's I wanted to know.  Since I was a child I was fascinated by owl's, and just more or less a month before my uncle passed away I had come across the historical beliefs of why tribal people believed that when an owl is seen by someone who is near to death, it is a guardian of the Devine Sophia, sent to guide the soul of that person whom is near to death.  With my mother being a psychic too and very superstitious, I told her what I found out.  And then later on, we received a phone call in which my aunt told me and my mother about what my uncle had said.  At that moment, I started believing in things like this occurring and that some superstitions might actually be true, how could I not.  

You see my uncle, with being a doctor was a Christian, and he didn't believe in things like this.  He was the type of person that what he sees is what he believes.  And with him, saying what he did...well, you know what I mean.  

Anyways, to tell you another thing that is interesting, there are a total of seven guardians that is connected to the Devine Sophia, and not just the Devine Sophia, but also to the Devine Logos.  Sophia is represented by the moon and Logos is represented by the sun of which they are a part of the Divine Will that is represent as the cosmic universe.  These are the names that They are called by in Gnosticism.  Earth is called Gaia, and to me earth is as much a physical living entity, as we are.  And the moon and the sun is also alive, because the energy force radiating from both is very powerful and serves as proof that it is alive.  We may not see it as we see each other, but with us living on earth in this plane, everything we do affects earth.  I'm rambling now...

To get back to the point, I suggest that before people belief that a thing is just a myth/legend, they should really do a study on it first before they believe the things that other people wants them to believe.  One thing I can say, is that there was many people in the past, that was more connected to the spirit and the Devine Will (Lord of Wisdom & Knowledge), we today are trapped in a period of materialism which are focussed on the physical plane.  At least, there is still hope, because there are still people out there, that are very much connected to the spirit and the Devine Will.  And the best thing about it, is that it is due to an internet website like Mystic Board, that these people are brought forth and friendships grow.  So, by saying this I would like to thank Swetha and all of the moderators for making things like this possible.

Sharing information today, by word of mouth is made much more simpler then it was in the past.  People today are all slowly but surely turning back to the old ways...  

If there are anything else you are curious about, just let me know.  I will try my best in explaining it to you.  There are so much that people today are clueless about and I have joined to serve the purpose of telling all I know, sharing the wisdom & knowledge that I have gained.  

I wish you many blessings!  Until we meet again, take care.

Regards,
Night Owl
"There is one thing one has to have:  either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul cheerful by work, love, art & knowledge."

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