Signs Everywhere!

4/23/2019

There are so many types of divination. Witches aren’t limited to tarot cards. Of course, many of us read tea leaves, scry in mirrors, water or crystal balls. Some throw dice, runes, bones, etc. Many of us just see signs EVERYWHERE!

Reading From Nature

I’ve always gravitated toward items from nature that pop up. Most of the time I just feel what they are trying to tell me. Feathers are a big one for me. I often find unusual feathers in unexpected places. When I am wondering about an issue, suddenly I’ll find a feather that is pointing in one direction. I might find an especially beautiful feather in my path and take it as a yes. When I see a mess of feathers on the grass indicating a fight or perhaps a kill, I have noticed that a conflict type situation pops up soon after.

I don’t work with angels and don’t subscribe to the meanings some have ascribed to feather colors as being messages from angels, by the way. I just love the visual and tactile beauty of organic items and for much of my life I’ve almost compulsively picked up shells, stones, feathers, twigs, buttons; anything that seemed to call to me (unless it was at a crossroads) and much of it ended up on my altars or in jars on my mantle. I feel the messages come from nature, animal spirits or my deities. Or, they could just be my mind making patterns to figure things out. No way is more or less sacred, wrong or right. Sadly, I lost most of the contents of my home in 2012 so a lifetime of collecting many wonderful things was lost.

Some of the collections of items I lost. So much magick and beauty. So much personal history!

OVOMANCY

I will often notice synchronous things popping up; imagery, symbols, words, sounds, etc. This is often related to a deity trying to get my attention but it can also be a specific message about someone or something, a reminder or even a warning. If it seems odd or a pattern starts to form, it does not hurt to pay attention. I ascribe to the, listen to your gut, stay safe, philosophy. If you are right, you avoid harm, if you are wrong, you are still safe and the worst thing that might happen is feeling a little silly.

Lately, I’ve been seeing double egg yolks. Last month I cracked a few eggs from good old, Trader Joe’s and they had double yolks. Then my roommate mentioned that every single egg in the carton had been a double yolk for him. I had cracked three from the same carton that were normal so this means eight out of a dozen were double yolked! Quick, math person; what are those odds?

Double egg yolks which happen when two yolks are close to each other when the shell forms around them. are supposed to be very rare, one in a thousand so I wasn’t sure if he was teasing. This month we bought another carton of eggs and the first one out of the dozen was a double yolk. I’m not sure that it means anything but extra protein in my case. It also may mean that the egg farm is using very young hens whose hormones haven’t balanced yet.

(You know the voice to use in your head)
"OH MY GODS; a double egg yolk! What....... does it ...MEAN?"

Folklore

Common folklore says, this means I’m pregnant or someone near me is with child or about to get knocked up. Our household eats a lot of eggs. (Come at me cholesterol!) In the past few weeks I’ve had the double yolk appear twice while my roommate as I mentioned, has been finding quite a few. He’s been doing antidepressant enforced celibacy for a while now and there’s not even a remote possibility I'm pregnant. If you listen closely, you can hear crickets chirping in the desolate wilderness of my lady bits. Our upstairs neighbors already have a small child who has two modes: crying or screaming, so I hope they don’t get another little blessing.

But here’s the thing about omens. When your granny saw you crack one of these open, nodded wisely and said, “someone is about to get pregnant” or saw blood in the yolk and gasped, “someone is going to die” she was telling the truth; "someone" and "somewhere " are pretty vague and therefore, always accurate predictions. "Someone’s going to get pregnant," is one of those pronouncements that will never be wrong, along with those psychic chestnuts, "I feel that a famous person is gonna die soon," or "a big news event will happen in the world this week," or "there will be a large earthquake somewhere in the world in the next few days!" Big earthquakes happen a lot more often than we think, but the news doesn’t always cover them. People die every day. Someone, somewhere, is always getting pregnant, and chances are it will be someone you know!

I did a little research, and the portent of a double yolk varies a lot depending on what culture you hail from. Pregnancy is a big one. A double yolk can also mean, of course, TWINS! The Norse thought it was a sign of death. Some folklore says a woman who finds a double yolk will soon be engaged. It can mean fertility, prosperity or luck. I figure since the odds are normally one in a thousand we must have some incredible luck headed our way soon.

It tasted lucky.

OMENS

The past few days, I’ve been seeing owls everywhere. Yesterday, I stopped for coffee at one of my favorite places. I opted to sit down and enjoy, rather than dashing off with a cup to go. I was handed my latte in the sweetest owl mug. Of course, I immediately thought of the Goddess, Athena. Athena is the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. (Also: courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.) Owls are also mentioned in Celtic mythology with Cailleach and Blodeuwedd. They are also prevalent in Native American cmythology.

Artist: Cynthia Sheppard link in references

Artist Tsuyoshi Nagano. Link in references

OWLS

Owls are associated with wisdom, observation and seeing the truth. An owl can see clearly in the dark. Their senses are acute enough to home on on small, quiet prey. They can swoop in silently and with precision. Owls are messengers and associated with magic so of course they were a perfect choice for the world of Harry Potter. Seeing lots of owls feels important. It’s been my experience that deity or spirit likes to drop these sorts of hints so it’s possible that Athena, or more likely the Cailleach is trying to get my attention. I think it’s about more than that, but I’ll be open to seeing more.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about owls. I have had some moments when I have suddenly seen one in the wild that left me breathless. One of my coolest owl moments was a few years back when I was driving down the coast from northern California late at night. It was a raging rainstorm and the road was kind of precarious, especially when I was on the coastal winding roads. I was driving really slow because visibility was so poor. Finally, I headed inland and the rain slowed a bit. Really dark and I was still going slow. Suddenly an owl with a large wingspan came gliding past the front of my car and grabbed, probably a mouse or rat, from the brush at the side of the road and kept going into the night. If it hadn't gone right in front of my headlights I'd have never seen it. Majestic.

They are amazing creatures. I’ve never vibed closely with any of the deities they are attached to, so I was a bit stumped about just WHO was speaking to me. Many of the attributes of the owl resonate. I tend to be the observer no one notices who takes them by surprise, speaking the truth. I am certainly not stealthy or much of a hunter. I’m a clutz who rarely makes a silent entrance. Ironically one of my means of stealth is my loudness. People assume incorrectly, because I am chatty that I am neither observing or really listening to what they say.

Owl of Athena

Ultimate Grounds on Park in Oakland, California!

Albrecht Durer

Mostly, I associate owls with my adoptive mother who has collected them for years. I am mostly estranged from her, with good reason, and her birthday is a few days away. She’s getting older. So, while my first thought was the most obvious one, that this was some prodding from Athena, last night I had the stronger thought that I need to suck it up and call my mom to check on her. So, if it was a poke from Athena, that was probably what the poke was about. I’ll probably follow through because it’s hard for me to pass up a sign or a suggestion.

Do you see signs and omens everywhere? Do everyday objects or finds in nature speak to you? Do you find meaning in your dreams? Do patterns appear that others don’t see? Have you actually made your own systems for divination from found objects? I would love to hear about it.

A Podcast Recommendation: Tarot Reveries

A bonus! In keeping with Tarot Tuesday, here’s a podcast recommendation for you.

This is fairly new and the podcaster has kept themself anonymous. It’s called, Tarot Reveries and is a splendid opportunity to get to know one card at a time in depth, but in a brief format. Each episode, there are four so far, focuses on just one card and includes a bit of interesting history or information, a description of the traditional imagery, symbolism and then you are invited to do a wonderful, short meditation with the card.

I highly recommend this podcast for beginning tarot readers who need to get to know the cards and may be putting pressure on themselves to learn 78 definitions. I think it is also just splendid for an experienced reader like myself. The meditation is brilliant. The mysterious narrator actually brings you into the meditation and then gives you a little silence for your own reverie, then gently, brings you out again and concludes.

Each installment follows the order of the tarot, starting with the major arcana. So far: The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, and The Empress each have an episode. They seem to be coming every couple of months. An episode is only about 15 minutes so you have plenty of time to catch up.

Links in the reference section. This podcast is available on podbean, apple podcasts, player fm, all the usual suspects. A lot of thought seems to have been put into crafting each episode and the narrator has a wonderful, soothing voice so I hope that it will manage to continue through the entire tarot!

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