Ornithomancy – Messages From The Birds

If there is one message that you will see peppered within my blog posts, it’s that the universe is always speaking to you in the form of signs, symbols and synchronistic events. You need only to open yourself to the possibility to see them all around you.

We are always being guided – it’s that uneasy feeling in your gut, the chill down your back, even that mysterious voice that you are positive you heard whispering on the breeze. But most of all, it’s that inner feeling of just knowing when you don’t know how it is that you know.

When you put the two together – your bodies reaction to your inner knowing, or intuition and the signs, symbols or synchronicities that the universe offers as guidance, you have the potential for a rich life full of connection to the wonderfully mystical, world all around us.

Interpreting the signs, symbols and synchronicities in life is a form of divination or a conversation with the divine. We humans for millennia have created systems and tools as reliable paths to direct connection. What can I say, human beings have always searched for a direct link to Source.

Divination modalities such as tarot, runes, tea leaf reading, charm casting, even tossing small bones are nothing more than an organized system with predetermined parameters or meanings paired with the readers personal intuition. The patterns or symbols that come up create a visual dictionary of sorts that the reader can draw upon. Add in the readers practiced ability to open themselves to source information and guidance, and you have created an amazingly accurate, wise and thoughtful reading.

For centuries, nature was a universally excepted form of divination. Back when we lived close to the earth, it was quite common to look to nature for signs and omens when deciding what actions to take.

• If you hear frogs, the frost is out of the ground and it is safe to plant.
• If the brown stripe in the middle of the wooly caterpillar is narrow, the winter will be harsh. If it is wide, the opposite is true.
• Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.
• If March comes in like a lamb (fair weather), it will co out like a lion (harsh weather).
• Spiders were thought to predict weather. Lots of webs around – a dry spell, no webs – a wet spell.

Now birds have a long history as spiritual communicators, especially because they are air borne creatures and the sky, it was thought, connected heaven and earth. Ornithomancy (Greek) is the art of divining the messages from birds by their flight patterns, cries and calls but can also be called augury (Roman) bird divination although many ancient cultures considered birds as messengers from the spirit world including indigenous north American tribes, the Celts and the Druids.

Birds, and personal spiritual messages have figured in my posts several times. In fact, it was the visitation from an owl that started me on my own spiritual journey years ago but crow and hawk have also left me messages. Yesterday though, it was great blue heron who came by to connect.

It happened first thing in the morning as I stared out the kitchen window while waiting, sleepy eyed, for my morning coffee to brew. A great blue heron flew directly across my line of sight towards the western sky.

Full disclosure here, a sighting of a great blue heron is not unusual. In fact, they have a regular fly path from the ocean to some local ponds and lakes running in a north/south direction and can occasionally be seen off to the right of my line of vision, early mornings and at dusk. But in my 32 years of looking out my kitchen window, I’ve never, ever seen one fly from east to west.

Here’s the thing about determining if you are receiving a sign from any form of nature, it should be unexpected – even out of the ordinary. Something that is going to arrest you out of your normal thought patterns so that you will take notice. This particular morning, while in my pre-coffee stupor, being surprised by a great big bird flying past my window, an activity that I had never seen before, perked up my brain and got my attention.

Now I don’t know everything, but I have the wisdom to intuit that I should look up what the spiritual meaning of my great blue heron sighting represented. So I went the the greatest oracle of all – Google, and here is what I found.

Well that’s a timely message. My hubby has recently left for work out of town and will be away for the foreseeable future so I am solitary right now. I take this message as a tip from the universe to take this time for myself and seek out adventures for my own personal expansion.

And here are some tips for you as well, should you want to consider birds as spiritual messengers in your life.

• First, figure out what kind of bird you are sighting. Is it native to your area or an anomaly? If it is a local bird, there should be something different about it’s behavior to warrant notice. Look online for the spiritual symbolism of this bird. That may be all you need to glean a message.
• Is there more than one bird? Numerology (another form of divination) is a great place to gain insight about the quantity your are seeing but use your intuition as well.
• Watch their behavior. Sometimes the message is a warning, like a storm is coming. I know when I see the seagulls come inland and nest at the local school that we are in for some heavy wind and rain.
• Flight pattern. Grid the sky into quadrants so you can determine the direction they were flying (if that’s the case). Here are the basic energies of the four directions East- element is air/breath, energy is thought. South – element is fire, energy is creativity/passion. West – element is water, energy is emotions. North- element is earth, energy is the body/material.
• Lastly, observe the flight pattern. Is there a symbol or design in the flock formation or if it is one bird flying, is it flying in a pattern such as a spiral, or in a zigzag? Once again, Google is your friendly oracle for interpretations of patterns. Look it up but also use your intuition. If the explanations resonates with you, odds are that’s your answer.

Modern society is so removed from nature and as such, we are disconnected to the wisdom of the natural world around us and what it can offer. More and more we rely on technology for information, and while I joke that Google is the great oracle because its knowledge is vast, it does serve our desire to have any answer within seconds and at the touch of a button.

Still, we are living breathing beings. We are organic, natural souls and are an integral link in the chain of life here on earth. Ornithomancy may sound like a flight of fancy (pun intended) and a touch woo woo, but by practicing an awareness of the odd occurrences of the feathered creatures in your environment is a simple exercise to keep you in good standing as card carrying member of the ecosystem known as earth. And who knows, you may just receive a message or two of wisdom while you’re at it.