Oh Man, It's an Omen

Once upon a time, when I was entering into a new and potentially risky venture, I saw an omen or a sign. Without sharing too many gory details I'll just say I had made a decision that I wasn't entirely confident about. Here comes the omen: As I turned off our road and set out in earnest on this new path I saw a fox run away from the fence line and toward the woods on my left. At the same time an owl flew away from the fence line and flew toward the woods on my right. I told myself that this was a sign that I was making the right decision and that my doubts and concerns would prove to be unfounded.

I was wrong. My doubts and concerns were very much warranted. To be fair, I don't completely regret taking that risk. I had some good times and learned a lot about myself, about interpersonal relationships and life in general. I also learned a lot about pain and regret and guilt. So, it was perhaps an invaluable learning experience but also probably the second most painful time period in my life. If I had been a little less selfish I would have taken the opposite interpretation of the omen seriously. Or maybe I did but quickly discounted it.

They say hindsight is 20/20. And this is no more true than when speaking of omens. The above example is just one of the omens I've seen and either didn't recognize or interpreted incorrectly because I didn't take the time to think, meditate and perhaps research them. I know better now. If it strikes me on an emotional level I know the universe or the spirits of the land or the gods are trying to tell me something. This is especially true when I see something I've never seen before. I see it now and I know it.

To be fair, not all odd occurrences are necessarily omens. Sometimes a bird is just a bird. Sometimes there's nothing to learn. When I see a young eagle cruising a field and it's only mildly interesting to me and not visually startling then I know it's not an omen. It's just nature gracing me with a glimpse of its magnificence. The trick is something I've only learned with the passage of time. I've learned to trust my intuition, to listen to my instincts. May it be so with you.

The Spirit of the Walnut

Shamana Flora has a wonderful, inspirational post over at her blog, Gaia's Gifts about her love of the Walnut. And it really got me thinking about something I've been mulling for several years now. Once upon a time, while I was under the influence of Sacred Datura, I saw an old wizened little man in the trunk of our walnut tree. And ever since then I've wondered about it. I've considered making offerings, feeding the tree with fertilizer, decorating the tree, etc. But, for some reason, I've never made a move to do any of these things. I just wasn't ready to acknowledge something I could only see during a journey. Now, thanks to Shamana, I'm considering making use of the walnut's medicinal properties. But more than that, I'm finally ready to take my vision of the walnut tree spirit seriously. I'm accepting that I really did see him and he really is there. And it's time I honored him. Karya is the Greek name for a nut tree spirit but that sounds very feminine so I think I'll try to commune with the tree spirit and learn his name on my own.

I don't know whether or not to consider him a genius loci, a Roman spirit who safeguards the land, or a hamadryad. I'm leaning toward hamadryad as a genius loci isn't necessarily tied to a specific thing whereas a hamadryad is bonded to its tree for life. The more I think about him the more I think he is a hamadryad as he looked like he really belonged to the tree. This little man was old, still healthy like the tree, but definitely not a childlike figure. I can't help but wonder why he is such a small figure, almost like a wrinkled old dwarf. Perhaps I'll learn more as I get to know him and his tree better. And I think he might need some help as he seemed a little sad. So, I'm going to do what I can to honor him. During this Sacred Datura experience (my only journey) I saw a barely remembered figure in another tree. So I think I'll start making offerings to more than one tree. I feel like I'm finally learning and grokking the lessons Sacred Datura was trying to teach me.

P.S. Lest you wonder, dear reader, I'll tell you straight up. Yes, I am a little crazy.

Albino Spirit Animals

The above starling image comes from Wild About Britain.

I recently had the luck and great pleasure to see an albino bird. I was going 40 mph at the time so I wasn't in the best situation to view it but as it was moving roughly in the same direction I was I did see it well enough to realize that it was most likely an albino starling. It was flying in a group of birds with the exact same size, shape and flight pattern but it was stark white with no coloration while the other birds were the typically black against the blue sky. I'd never seen an albino bird before and except for the White Squirrels of Marionville, Mo I'd never seen any stark white wild animal before. (For the record, and you'll learn this if you read the above article, there is still some debate about whether or not the Marionville squirrels are really albinos or not. I've seen dozens but never close enough to see their eyes, so I can't call them albinos with any certainty.) At first I couldn't really see it clearly but when it turned slightly in its flight I could see that it was completely white. I couldn't see its eyes so there's a chance it wasn't a true albino but even so, it was a rare and joyous occasion. So I went on a search to learn about albino animals.

Like human albinos albino animals cannot produce pigmentation. While they may sometimes have blue eyes they usually appear as stark white with pink skin and eyes. This pink look is resultant from the blood vessels beneath the skin. Absence of the protective virtues of coloration of the eyes causes albinos to have very poor eyesight and many are completely blind. Their eyes and skin are also extremely sensitive to light and can burn easily. An albino animal in the wild has a lot stacked against them and they usually don't survive long. This is because, as mentioned above, they have poor eyesight, no camouflage and are vulnerable to sunlight. For all of these reasons, and because an albino birth occurs anywhere from 1 in 100,000 births to 1 in 1 million births, it is a very rare thing to actually see an albino animal in the wild.

There is quite a lot of albino animal lore to be found in the world, especially among American Indian traditions. To kill an albino animal was/is a major taboo with serious consequences.

If an albino squirrel were hunted and killed, the hunter would suffer loss of his hunting abilities. If an albino deer were killed (and without remorse) the hunter might later loose his life in a freak accident often involving his hunting or survival skills.

The White Buffalo is probably the most sacred of albino animals in American Indian lore. As a portent of peace and something of a host for the Great Spirit just to look upon the White Buffalo was to gain some of this power.

Among all tribes, the Albino animal had spirit connections, one of the strongest among the Plains tribe was the White Buffalo, a definite omen of great wisdom. The symbolic significance behind white or the quality of "whiteness" was not associated with purity as in Western culture but also wisdom and ancient knowledge of greater conceptual and spiritual magnitude.

The taboo against killing an albino animal is closely related to the fact that an albino animal is easier to kill and it is thus not a fair fight to hunt an albino animal. To learn more about Spirit Animals visit Encyclopedia Mythica.

In Asian society the White Elephant is an omen of good luck and in 2001 was used as a political tool to bolster the regime of Myanmar. This is particularly disgusting given the current situation in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

As for myself, I consider my sighting of an albino bird a portent of good things to come. When I saw it I was driving home from my second visit with two of my most favorite witches. We started a women's group years ago and things didn't work out but we have since rejoined. I feel my albino bird sighting was an encouraging sign from the gods that, this time, we will stick together and learn and grow together for a long time to come.