Bird Wisdom

"I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers,they teach me how to listen." 
- Terry Tempest Williams      

                                                                                                          

Did you know:

Coins in Greece had engraved owls to keep a watchful eye on commerce.



The sun is borne aloft by eagles every morning.

In Norse mythology the god Odin has two companions. The Ravens three were sent out every morning to travel and gather news of the world. They returned to his shoulder at dusk.

In Native American myths, the thunderbird was grandson of the sky spirit who created the world. The water spirit tried to rid the world of people by flooding all the land. Then the people traveled to the highest hill and prayed. Thunderbird came to fight the water spirit sending a great bolt of lightning that split open the earth and drained the water spirit saving humankind.

Crows and their raven cousins have held a spot in mythology as symbols of knowledge and power. Associated with the otherworld, war and death, these corvids have accompanied figures such as Apollo and the Celtic goddess Morrigan.

The Nez Perce considered the osprey (sea hawk) as a medicine bird. Seeing an osprey in a dream or vision provided a sign that a man had been granted spiritual power as a healer. 

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time; it is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. - Last words of Crowfoot, Blackfoot Chief