Amazing Owls & Magic

In rural and forest areas, such as around our cabin, the frigid stillness of February nights is sometimes shattered by the mating call of the Great Horned Owl. It’s an eerie unearthly sound. And their hunting noises are downright frightening. I remember hearing a long, single owl call as I lay in bed one night. “Hoo- hoo-hoo.” Immediately after, an animal, perhaps a rabbit who had foolishly ventured out of its hole after dark, gave a series of blood-curdling screams which were cut off abruptly mid-cry.

I went out in the woods the next morning and looked for blood marks. All I found was a circle of tiny frenzied paw prints.

No bird (except maybe the raven) has as much myth and magic surrounding it as the owl.

Because it’s a nocturnal bird, and night time has always seemed mysterious, the owl is a symbol of the feminine, the moon, and the night.

Ancient civilizations had widely divergent opinions about owls. The Greeks chose owls to represent Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She had a companion owl on her shoulder which revealed unseen truths to her, and it was the guardian of the Acropolis.

The Romans considered them bearers of ill omens. They believed placing an owl feather on a sleeping person would allow one to discover the sleeper’s innermost secrets. It’s not hard to understand this superstition when you look at the owl. It is a bird of night, stealthy and soundless in flight, and its eyes can adjust from telescopic to microscopic focus in a fraction of a second. When you look into an owl’s eyes you certainly feel he knows your deepest secrets.

The ancient Egyptians had a kinder view of owls, believing that they protected the spirits of the dead as they travels to the underworld.

Many Native shamans considered owls to be intelligent messengers, and would listen for their calls so they could time their magical work accordingly. To the Pueblo, they were associated with the Skeleton Man, the god of death, but also a spirit of fertility.

If you work with owl medicine, you will be able to see and hear what others try to hide. You have the unique ability to see into the darkness of other’s souls and life. This can be scary to many people and one reason why owl is often the medicine of witches. But while you may be drawn to magical practices and perhaps the dark arts, you should resist any practice that takes energy away from another person or being.
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There are more than 100 species of owls, and they have always had an intimate link to humans. Where we live, so do rodents, one of the owl’s primary food sources. 
The Great Horned Owl, sometimes called a hoot owl, is the most successful predator in the owl family. It can easily snap the neck of a woodchuck or rabbit and will not hesitate to take whatever live food presents itself, even other birds of prey. This has enabled the owl to adapt to constantly changing environments. Unfortunately, this same ferocity has interfered with the reintroduction of the peregrine falcon into some of its former habitats, including the Virginia coast. In the peregrine’s absence, the great horned owl has taken up residence and refused to share its habitat or food source.

The favorite food of the great horned is the skunk! The owl doesn’t have a great sense of smell, which is probably why it is the skunk’s most fearsome predator.
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The tufts on the top of this owl’s head is not its ears, but merely tufts of feathers. The ears are located lower in the head. The Barn Owl, (my totem bird, along with the raven) can locate its prey even easier with its ears than with its eyes. The ears of the owl are asymmetrical, and one ear is usually larger than the other. They are also located in different positions on the head. This enables it to sort out the auditory signals it picks up. The barn owl will swivel its head and rock back and forth to pinpoint noises of its prey. It also makes periodic clicks as a form or echo location.

If you have an owl in your barn, count yourself lucky! Unfortunately, many hunters and farmers kill owls, believing that cats will do better with rodent control. Not true. A barn owl can kill ten time the amount of mice that a cat can in a single night and more if it has young to be fed.
 
Owls have some of the strongest talons in the avian kingdom. The five-pound great horned can curl its talons with a force of 300 pounds per square inch, roughly comparable to the strongest human bite. And the largest owls, such as the great horned, have talons comparable in size to those of much bigger eagles, which may explain why even desperately hungry eagles usually won’t attack their smaller cousins. In fact, depending on the habitat, great horned owls can be considered “apex predators,” meaning that healthy adults have no natural predators in the wild.

Owls blink by closing their upper eyelids, giving them a human-like expression, but, unlike humans, they cannot move their eyes. Instead, their neck is flexible. While it can’t turn completely around, they can move it so quickly that it can appear to make a full rotation.

If an owl has claimed you as a totem and your neck is stiff and inflexible, you may be hindering your own perceptions to a great degree.

The barn owl has a heart-shaped facial disk which is unique among owls. As a totem, this reflects the ability to link the heart and mind. It also has darker eyes, and a golden buff feathering on top. When seen at night from below it has a ghostly appearance, which has earned it the name of ghost owl. It is an owl whose medicine can connect you to old haunts and spirits of properties and homes that may still be lingering about. Its medicine can be used to help develop mediumship and spirit contact.

Many owls do not build nests. They lay eggs in the forks of trees or use the abandoned nests of other birds. People sometimes find owlettes and fledglings at the base of trees where they have fallen. Many people pick them up, believing them to be abandoned. This is rarely so. If left alone, the mother will take care of them.

Owls fly silently; the front edge of the wing has a fringe that silences flight, and the large wingspan enables the bird to fly slowly and smoothly. This silence is something that all with an owl totem should practice. Keep silent as you go about your business.

We know quite a bit about owl’s eating habits, predominantly due to “owl pellets.” An owl will usually swallow its prey whole and head first. The parts of the prey that are indigestible (bones, fur, teeth, claws, and such) are then regurgitated in the form of pellets. It is said that by swallowing the prey head first, the owl takes into itself the wisdom and energy of the prey. The regurgitation reflects its ability to eliminate those aspects that are unbeneficial and unhealthy for it. 
To awaken your owl senses, select a night when you will be alone. Outside, light a single black candle, and decorate your space with tokens of winter, such as pine cones and evergreen boughs. Gaze into the flame while you visualize an owl flying silently above a frozen woodland. See it lead you to your goal.

Return slowly from your vision of the owl to the here and now. Tonight you’ll likely have a vivid dream relating to your quest.

Happy flying, and Blessed Be.