Spirit/power animal: The Owl…

 

Spirit/power animal:  The Owl…

The most striking animal meaning for the owl is its deep connection with wisdom and intuitive knowledge. If you have the owl as a totem or spirit animal, you’re likely to have the ability to see what’s usually hidden to most. When the owl guides you, you can count on the power of this spirit animal to see beyond illusion and deceit to access the true reality. Owl spirit animals also offer wisdom about the unknown and life’s magic.

What is the owl spirit animal meaning?

Common meanings for the owl are:

Intuition, ability to see what other do not see

The presence of the owl announces change

Capacity to see beyond deceit and masks

Wisdom

Owl spirit animals are associated with curiosity for the unknown, life mysteries

The traditional meaning of the owl spirit animal is the announcer of death, most likely symbolic like a life transition, change

The owl spirit animal and the power to see in the dark

The owl sees in the dark: As a spirit animal, the owl guides you to see beyond the veil of deception and illusion; it helps see what’s kept hidden. It also symbolizes the ability to cut through illusions and see the real meaning of someone’s action or state of mind.

When the owl is one of your power animals, you have a strong intuition and can access information and wisdom that’s usually hidden to most. The spirit of this animal encourages you to look beyond deceiving appearances into the true reality of a situation or a person’s motives.

The owl is a strong spirit guide for discernment and making decision based solid foundations. Call on the owl totem when you have to assess a situation or are going through confusing times.

The unknown and the owl power animal

If you have an owl as a totem or spirit animal, you probably like to explore the unknown. The mysteries of life are a fascinating field of interest. As the owl guides your steps, you are likely to develop an appreciation for life’s magic.

When the owl shows up in your life, listen and look out for the subtle signs that are around you. Your animal spirit guide is a great helper to be attentive to what usually goes below your radar, but is now of particular importance.

The owl is also a guide to uncover your hidden potential and abilities. Check whether you need to reveal more of your intuitive nature.

Night time is particularly auspicious for your creativity, so take the time to focus your creative energy then.

Owl spirit animals as messengers of change

Owl spirit animals are symbolic of death in many traditions. In most cases however, it should not be taken literally: If the owl is associated with death, it can be viewed a symbolic death, meaning a transition in life, important changes that are taking place or about to happen.

When the owl shows up in your life, pay attention to the winds of change. Perhaps you are about to leave some old habits, a situation that no longer serve you or bring something new in your life.

Dream interpretation of the owl

When you dream about an owl, your spirit animal may be contacting you to warn you about a danger or threat hat you need to pay attention to. It can bring a wise insight about important matters that you should not ignore.

When an owl appears in a dream, it could also mean that the intuitive part of you is calling for attention: Pay attention and listen to the subtle signs in your life, to what is important, but not necessarily obviously so.

The owl could also be a animal spirit guide offering you insight about a moment of transition. Since this totem animal is often associated with death, when an owl shows up in a dream, it could mean that you are receiving guidance regarding personal transformation, change.

In many dream interpretations, the owl can represent a deceased friend or family member who comes back in the dream in the shape of a spirit animal.

The owl spirit animal & superstition

Birds, especially birds of the night, are often associated with departed souls. The owl is no exception. In some popular believes, they are considered as bad omen signifying the imminent death of a close relative or someone important. Romans even believed that an owl hooting from the top of a public building announces the death of an important public figure. It could also represent the spirit of a deceased family of close friend.

The night owl was the animal associated with the Lord of Death in the Aztec tradition. There’s a similar meaning for the Celts who associated the owl’s spirit with an animal announcing death, especially if it flies into someone’s window while a sick person is inside the house. It was viewed as the spirit animal that would carry the souls of the departed to the underworld.

Other traditional meanings for the owl spirit animal

In some Native American traditions, the owl is called the Night Eagle. The owl totem has a special connection with the night and the moon, while the eagle is connected to the sun.

The owl is associated with witchcraft in a number of European and some American Indian traditions. Witches would often take the owl as an animal spirit guide.

In Greek mythology, the Goddess Athena, goddess of the wisdom and war, was represented as an owl. It is said that the Romans believed that someone would reveal all their secrets during their sleep if an owl feather was placed near their pillow. What is the owl spirit animal revealing about your secrets?

Moro
I think this page was my original source for the post, if memory serves me correct: http://www.spiritanimal.info/owl-spirit-animal/

The picture I chose for the post back then was from an animal conservation page but I am unable to track it down now. Instead, it seams it has become a very popular wallpaper many many sites.

“What is the difference between a Spirit Animal, a Totem Animal and an animal ‘Familiar’?” ” What is a Totem Pole?”

“What is the difference between a Spirit Animal, a Totem Animal and an animal ‘Familiar’?

” What is a Totem Pole?”

A “Spirit Animal” is the one who will present life’s lessons. The Spirit Animal is the one who comes to you in order to show you, through its own unique nature and skills, how to deal with the manifestations of your Spiritual Journey. Spirit Animals do not necessarily guide you, but they come to teach you that which you need to learn, in order to know how meet the challenges of your Spirit Walk.

Each Spirit Animal has certain powers and skills to teach and certain knowledge to share, for each Spirit Animal has its own methods of overcoming the many challenges it must meet in order to survive.

The Spirit Animal’s appearance signals a time to connect with your true Self and your life’s purpose. Pay attention to the repeated appearance of this animal and of repeated patterns or themes. Awakening to the recognition of these seemingly synchronistic occurrences teaches you to be aware of the hidden messages in everyday experiences.

There are many ways by which your Spirit Animal may make itself known to you and many ways by which by which it may pass on its message. Do not let your perceived image of the animal prejudice you as to the significance of its message. You will meet with the Spirit Animal whose lesson you need to learn.

You do not choose your Spirit Animal, it chooses you. Do not try to “compel” your Spirit Animal to manifest itself just because you want it to. True Spirit Animals will appear only at the time and place in your life when you are ready to accept them and the wisdom the come to offer.

And … they always turn up at exactly the right moment.

A “Totem Animal” is an animal spirit that you call upon or invoke, as an individual or a tribe, for its special powers and survival skills, to serve as a guardian or protector when facing adversity.

It is customary for many Native American tribes (as well as others) to be made up of smaller groups or “Clans” united by actual or perceived kinship and descent and formed around a founding member or “ancestor”. Often this ancestor is an animal spirit which becomes the Clan Totem. The clan totems are often the animals that inhabit the local area, (The wolf, bear, turtle, and deer are common clans of the Great Lakes area.), and which have a unique relationship to the tribe and its heritage.

Some of the clans of the Six Nations are the turtle, bear, wolf and the heron and often within these clans there are different “sub-clans” represented by such animals as the Snapping Turtle and the Painted Turtle in the example of the Turtle Clan.

The “spiritual powers” of the various totems help each clan to carry out its own special duties and responsibilities within the tribe in accordance with the attributes of that totem. (The Turtle Clan usually being the tribes “Keepers of Wisdom”, the guardians of the legends and mysteries mysteries within the tribes ceremonies and practices.)

Again, never let your perceived image of an animal effect how you see its ability to serve as a “Totem”. Though it may seem incongruous to invoke a rabbit as a totem for battle, remember the wisdom shown by “Bre’r Rabbit” in defeating an enemy.

Totem Poles

The Totem Pole is an arrangement of symbols representing animal totems from the tribe’s ancestral past. Totems were a form of communication for the Pacific Northwest Coast Native Americans as they had no written language and thus the Story Poles were used to convey their legends, stories and events. Totem poles may also be messages passed on by those that carve them. The pole’s symbols may often tell a very personal story of the carver himself, as well as that of his own family, clan or tribe.

Totem Poles

The Totem Pole is an arrangement of symbols representing animal totems from the tribe’s ancestral past. Totems were a form of communication for the Pacific Northwest Coast Native Americans as they had no written language and thus the Story Poles were used to convey their legends, stories and events. Totem poles may also be messages passed on by those that carve them. The pole’s symbols may often tell a very personal story of the carver himself, as well as that of his own family, clan or tribe.

“The Familiar”

A third type of Animal Spirit, little heard of outside of Shamanism and Witchcraft is called a “familiar”. The familiar is a spiritual entity that will appear as a facilitator in the communion of the human, animal and spirit realms.

The true shaman or witch does not just decide to walk the “Path”. They must first be chosen by and then accept a spirit being or deity as their mentor. Usually, this mentor will send forth an animal spirit to guide the initiate to them, or in many cases, they themselves may take the form of an animal spirit, only later revealing their true nature.

One example, in the case of shamans and witches who come from the background of the European Celtic traditions, the Goddess Morrigan will often appear to the initiate in the form of a raven or crow as their familiar and she will reveal her true self only after the initiate has actualized as an “enlightened being”.”

http://www.spiritwalkministry.com/spirit_guides

Moro

Photo/art from: http://www.crystalinks.com/totemanimals.html

‘The Shaman as Poet of Consciousness’

 

‘The Shaman as Poet of Consciousness’

‘…Our earliest poets were shamans. Today as in the earliest times, true shamans are poets of consciousness who know the power of song and story to teach and to heal. They understand that through the play of words, sung or spoken, the magic of the Real World comes dancing into the surface world. The right words open pathways between the worlds. The poetry of consciousness delights the spirits. It draws the gods and goddesses who wish to live through us closer.

Shamans use poetry, sung or spoken, to achieve ends that go deeper than our consensual world. They create poetic songs of power to invoke spiritual help; to journey into nonordinary reality; to open and maintain a space between the worlds where interaction between humans and multidimensional beings can take place and to bring energy and healing through to the body and the physical world….’

by: Robert Moss

from @ http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/dreamgates/2013/06/the-shaman-as-poet-of-consciousness.html

As a side and personal note, regarding the title of the art, I don’t see the same thing the artist does when he created his art…as a master of beasts, I instead see the spirit and energy of one who walks with them, side by side and connected…

 

Moro

Art title: ‘Beast Master’ by TheBastardSon @http://www.deviantart.com/art/Beast-Master-321785208