Every culture familiar with owls have their own beliefs about what these birds represent and symbolise. Owls have always ignited stories of mystery, witchcraft and magic due to their natural inclination to the darkness, impressive but scary hunting abilities and their wide eyed glare with that unnatural head-spin!
Within this post I will be delving into the most popular traits and beliefs that people hold for owls and where these originated from!
So what do owls symbolise?
Owls symbolise many things such as knowledge, magic, death, Athena and Native American Culture. This is not limited to these 5 main areas but these are commonly held traits and beliefs. Every culture hold their own symbolism and beliefs which can vary greatly!
In this post I will be talking about the 5 main areas of owl symbolism that I have heard the most about, these include:
- Knowledge
- Athena
- Magic
- Death
- Native American Culture
The Wise Owl (Knowledge)
Ancient folklore holds that the owl is a wise animal full of knowledge and this is further supported through television. Think about Owl from Winnie the Pooh who was presented as the old wise mentor of the other characters. Owls character was created to be the intelligent one of the bunch but it is all a bit of an act. The reality is that he is rather ditzy and the other characters such as Rabbit would probably actually outdo Owl in a test of intelligence. This highlights that we have this internalised opinion of owls as wise but perhaps this is nothing but one of many owl symbols that may not be all that accurate. It cannot be denied that owls are very impressive in their own skill set, they are amazing hunters with incredible hearing but they aren’t wise knowledgeable guardians of life. Owls are designed by nature to hunt, and to hunt well so they continue to flourish as a species, therefore with this incredible optical equipment and super impressive auditory sense system installed, they have little room for a massive knowledgable brain as well!
Its probably the case that anthropomorphism plays the main role here in creating the assumption that owls are especially wise. Due to their human like characteristics we often consider them to be more intelligent. We see the owls large eyes and long stare, we see how they watch, how they listen closely which are qualities that we have and which come with wisdom – watching, listening and paying close attention.
This link to knowledge also derived from the owls link to Athena.
Athena – Greek Goddess:
It has been claimed that Athena the goddess of wisdom was an owl herself or a general bird goddess taking various forms, one being the owl. At one point Athena sheds her animal form and is often just reduced to a figure with wings within artwork, the legend is that she dropped her owl-mask before she lost her wings. Athena has always been closely described as owl-like due to the descriptions of her gleaming bright eyes. She is often depicted holding an owl on her hand or has an owl perched on her shoulder. Because of the owl’s association through Athena, it became the national mascot of the Athenians, and then this linked the owl as the symbol of wisdom. Athena gave her name to Athens as she was the cities guardian and goddess and was widely worshipped there. She was part of the cities transition from monarchy to democracy and her owl association led to the owl becoming her cities symbol. Athena was extremely knowing of all things and the owl’s ability to see incredibly well even at night, represents Athena being able to ‘see’ when others cannot. She can see the knowledge in all things which many would miss.
Mystery and Magic:
Owls come across as the most mysterious of birds because they tend to be active at night and anything that comes alive in the darkness seems mysterious to us humans who prefer to live our lives during the day. We think of the night owl lurking in tall trees, silently hunting its pray in the pitch black of the night – how can that not seem mysterious? It also doesn’t help that they are linked to magic, and wizard like activity (think Harry Potters Hedwig)! Greeks and Romans believed that owls were just witches in disguise so they could suck the blood of people, specifically babies. Owls are used in black magic all over India and this is because it is widely believed that their body parts could be used in rituals to attract wealth, cure fevers and even pass exams. During Diwali, India is known for their staggering numbers of owl trading and poaching. Owls are trapped and sacrificed during the festival of lights and it has been found that almost 15 species of owls are sacrificed during this time for tantric practises. It was also suggested that owls were witches messengers and would hoot if a witch was nearby. In the world of magic, owls are recognised for their connection to the underworld and their link to death.
Death:
Within some Native American tribes (Apache) they believe dreaming of owls meant that death would be approaching. Cree people believed that responding to the call of the Boreal owl was like responding to a spirit. If you didn’t get a response it was a sign that death was soon to follow. Many cultures believe people become owls after they die so if you kill an owl, you have also killed the soul of the person whom the owl used to be. Within England we have some rather disturbing tales of owl death. It is said that if you walk around a tree where an owl is perched, it will continuously follow you with its eyes until it wrung its own neck. This seems to have derived from the fact that owls can rotate their neck 270 degrees. This fascinating fact quickly resulted in a disturbing myth.
Native American Culture:
Following on from the links owls have with death we lead onto the topic of Native American Culture and how there are many stories of their fear of owls since they are considered to bring bad luck as they symbolise death or are viewed as messengers for the dead. Also many tribes linked owls to witches and witchcraft, the Cherokee people use the same word ‘skili’ to describe a witch and a Great Horned Owl because apparently The Great Horned owls horns contain spiritual powers and so they are one of the most feared owls. This witchery also leads to tales of owls being shape shifters who are actually restless spirits taking different forms. Other tribes believe that those into witchcraft and dark magic who practice dangerous medicines will change into the form of an owl so they can lurk silently at night and spy on those they need information about, so they can cause harm effectively. Therefore, since you cannot tell which is a real owl and which is a shape-shifter in owl disguise, owls could not be trusted and therefore should be avoided. Therefore, Native Americans will avoid looking at an owl if they cross one. Of course different Native American tribes will have varied beliefs and the owls isnt always seen as an enemy, some actually celebrate the owl with a totem pole crest, a Screech owl dance and Great Horned dance. The Dakota Indians saw the Burrowing owl as a protector for brave warriors.
The five traits that owls symbolise have now been discussed and I think it is fair to say that the owl has been a victim of folklore and stories for as long as we can recall! Our poor little owls eh? they just want to get on with their lives drama free in my opinion!