OWL + MEDICINE + POEM

DETAILS: The Kenyan Eagle Owl feather fastened with a copper tubing and sterling Silver bail, has a size of 13 cm. The hand painted, storage box size is 20,5 x 5 x 4 cm with total weight of about 60 gr. The box is inlayed with faux fur and it was polished with pine tar and anointed with holy oil.

SYMBOLISM

Native Americans refer to the Owl as a Night Eagle because of its keen vision. They regard the Owl as a conjuror who is silent and fierce, and who foretells the oncoming of death. The owl is the guardian of the portals of the underworld, therefore, the owl is in the West. The Owl is a harbinger of truth, particularly to self, and a creature that brings magic on its wings.

HOLY BIRD

2. Owl

Due to its ability to see in the dark, ie. beyond the visible world, this bird – lord of the night – was considered the incarnation of the clairvoyant god Dionysus / Horus. The species name owl comes from the divine name Sabaz or Sabazius, and the other – owl – from the anagram beech of the divine name Kub or Kubar, used by our ancestors in Kubratova and Volga Bulgaria. It seems that the names of the bird of wisdom owl, the sacred tree beech and the priests Dionysus bukolosi, derived from the name Kubar.

The Thracian Orpheus was one of the prominent bukolos. His grandfather Harops was fortunate to be personally honored by the god Dionysus with the privilege of receiving the Hermetic knowledge of the Mysteries, as well as the title of hierophant or archemist (high priest) to govern the observance of Dionysus’ cult practices in Thrace. Harops passed on his skills to his son Eager, and he in turn passed on his skills to his son Orpheus.

Even the name Orpheus is dedicated to the divine patron Dionysus / Chorus: Orpheus, or-Day, i.e. “God Chorus”. The full version of the name – Orpheus – is analogous: Or-Feus, or-Deus, i.e. again “God Chorus”.

Every bukolos – Buk-Ol, Buk-Al, i.e. “God beech [Dionysus]” – did the noble work of a shepherd through word and book (beech), i.e. as a teacher-writer. From the beech tree, which was one of the plant hypostases of Dionysus / Chorus, the priests of the god, such as Orpheus, prepared in the Rhodopes the books of the Bacchic doctrine (mysteries) – finely written three-leafed leaflets or three boards connected by copper rings as a triple icon to close and store in cedar chests.

In eight verses (№ 961-968) of the tragedy “Alkesta” Euripides (480-406 BC) reveals the secret of the existence of Orpheus’ beech tablets (human speech):

“Obedient to the muses,
I rose to the heights of the stars,
I am involved in many sciences,
but of the Terrible Fate I
forces I do not know – a means
there is no [to get rid of – B.V.Y.) of it on the boards,
which she covered for the mortals
the verbal speech of Orpheus [k.V.Y.]. ”

/ Euripides. Tragedies. Per. Innocent of Annensky. T.I. M., Science, 1999

NATIVE AMERICAN BIRD MEDICINE

Traditional Native Americans have considered birds their allies for at least ten thousand years. Birds bring many blessings and play many roles in the life of indigenous people. They are messengers, healers, communicators, guardians, life changers, teachers, meteorologists, musicians, storytellers, role models, and more.

Bird Medicine is a worldwide tradition that finds its most beautiful and sincere expression in Native American culture. Still free of formalism and formulas, without pomp or platitudes, this tradition continues today within Native American culture as a joyous, spontaneous exploration of the bond connecting what we call nature, what we call God, and what we call ourselves. In fact it is the place where the three merge and become one force, one spirit. It is one area of earthly physical reality that is still completely untamed and unharnessed and blissfully unfathomable to the human mind.

As long as we don’t kill the messengers by destroying their habitats, we should be able to rely on receiving these messages from beyond the blue horizon for eons to come. But perhaps that is asking for a miracle beyond what even birds can offer.

THE BIRDS OF THE FOUR DIRECTIONS

In the larger Medicine Wheel of all the animals, all the birds are in the South, presided over by a grandfather and grandmother eagle. They are associated in that wheel with the element of air and the quality of wisdom, or “thinking big thoughts” (un-kee-das-see-wach’n in Mi’kmaq), which they and their feathers embody. Fire is to the East, water to the West, and earth to the North. But air is to the South of that wheel. The air element is associated not only with wisdom, but with thought, speech, and communication in general. Birds embody these powers. It is the direction of messengers, and to the Mi’kmaq, most birds arrive from the South in the springtime, bringing messages for the coming year. So there are wheels in each of the four directions of the larger one, and perhaps others we don’t know about.

According to Robert Young Eagle, an elder member of the Setalcott Nation of Setauket, New York, one of the thirteen Matouac nations of Long Island, there are four sacred birds that are associated among his people with the four cardinal directions of the Medicine Wheel. These are eagle, hawk, crow, and owl. The eagle is in the North, the hawk is in the East, the raven (or crow) is in the South, and the owl is in the West. According to this teaching, these four powerful gatekeepers look after the other birds.¹ The four gatekeepers, the eagle, hawk, raven, and owl, are not the only birds to which Natives look for signs by any means, but they are all strong birds and can be our protectors in various ways.

E N E R G E T I C S

☾ Becoming Bird

Archaeological, iconographic, ethno-historic, and ethnological sources reveal a wide range of traditional human-raptor interactions in Mesoamerica. Raptors – including vultures, hawks, eagles,owls, and falcons – have played a significant role in Mesoamerican cultures dating back to at least 500 BCE. In many prehistoric, historic, and contemporary Mesoamerican societies, raptors are members of a shared human lifeworld, where they provide messages and omens, are sources of spiritual power, link humans to the world of sacred and spirit beings, and serve as important emblems and aspirational identities for various human activities including leadership and combat.

Owls provide negative omens in most Mesoamerican cultures as they doin many cultures worldwide. Forthe Ch’orti’, pygmy owls as well as great horned owls are bad omens. The Ch’ol Maya say that when a large owl calls, that means that someone is going to die, and especially if one circles around a house, someone in that house will die within fifteen days. The Ch’orti’ similarly say that someone will die if a great horned owl calls near their house.

Some raptor species, especially owls, are sometimes seen as sorcerers, or the spirit companions of sorcerers, or even the spirit form or transformation of sorcerers themselves. The ability of sorcerers to transform into animals or to have animals such as owls or other raptors as spirit companions is widely accepted in Mesoamerican cultures. The early colonial K’iche’ Maya mytho-historic narrative, the Popol Vuh, recounts how the “Lords of the Underworld” sent owls as their messengers. It even mentions a class of sorcerers as aj tukur, literally “owl masters”. Aztec shamans also transformed into owls. The Great Nahualpilli priests, known as oceloquacuilli, nahualli, or nahual, bore the responsibility “to transform into an owl (or another animal) and provoke evil and disease”. Even further back in time, Classic Maya depictions of the supreme god of the underworld show him either accompanied by an owl or with an owl headdress.

☾ Medicine Wheel

The ancestors of the Plains Indians left behind hundreds of stone circles, often laid out like the spokes of a wheel around a central cairn, or pile of rocks, and with other cairns placed at intervals around them. Archaeologists now believe that these medicine wheels, as they are called, helped Native Americans follow the progress of the year by charting the movement of the Sun and stars. Medicine wheels are associated with spirit forces, and the land on which they lie is sacred. Sacrifices and sacred items were often left within them.

☾ Sky Spirits

Many people shared the belief that the Milky Way, the broad band of faint light that can be seen in the night sky, was a“path of souls” to which people went after death. The Luiseño of California explain that the First People went to the sky when their work on Earth was done, taking their families with them and becoming star people. The Navajo think of stars as “friendly beings” because they lighten the night sky and also because the stars help them tell time and mark the seasons. According to Pawnee creation stories, their tribe is descended from the Morning Star. The Pawnee settled on the banks of the Loup, Platte, and Republican Rivers in Nebraska. In their tales Morning Star overcame the others and directed them to stand in their appointed places. Morning Star wed Evening Star, and their daughter traveled to Earth, where she married the child of the Sun and the Moon. From this union came the Pawnee people.

Everything in the world is inhabited by spirits, which can be grouped into several different kinds: The sky beings, such as star gods, the Sun, and the Moon. Spirits of the atmosphere, such as the four winds, whirlwinds, rain, and Thunder bird, a huge bird—perhaps like an eagle—whose flapping wings create thunder and whose flashing eyes create lightning. The rulers of animals and plants, such as Buffalo Spirit or Corn Spirit; also those connected with natural places such as mountains, waterfalls, and the sea. The powers of the underworld, such as Mother or Grandmother Earth, snakes and cougars, and the ruler of the dead. But birds an essential part of Native American spirituality.

Eugene Blackbear Sr., a noted Cheyenne arrow priest, says that many birds are sacred, including geese. “We respect our birds!” he says and adds, “People should respect nature, themselves, and their children.” He confirmed emphatically that living birds were sacred to the Cheyenne and that eagle feathers play a role in the restoring arrow ceremonies. He said that different nations from the East, West, and Great Plains have different traditions, but they respect each other, including each other’s bird traditions. According to Etaoqua, a Mohican woman, the Mohicans tend not to attribute as much special significance to the eagle as do most other nations but have an affinity to the hawk, which in a way serves to confirm what Blackbear has said: You can’t lump all Indians together.

☾ Birds and Burial Rites

We find that early human burials in the Levant (today’s Israel, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon), Cyprus, and in an early North American burial in Texas are united by a focus on birds that is strange to us, but logical given their close proximity to human activity and the sense of awe and wonder they still inspire.

The inhabitants of the West Indies in the Caribbean are quite familiar with the idea of spiritual flight and go to great lengths to make the human-avian connection. Eliade writes, “For instance, Laborde reported that the masters ‘also rub his (the neophyte’s) body with gum and cover it with feathers to make him able to fly and go to the house of the zemeen (spirits).’” Eliade notes that the birdlike costume and other symbols of magical flight are an integral part of Siberian, North American, and Indonesian shamanism.

As many societies believe the soul leaves through the mouth, it can be rightfully suggested that these ancient burials with a bird propped in the mouth of the deceased (or bird bones in mouth bones as we see now) were meant to ritually amplify the prayer that the person’s soul would not be trapped on Earth but would transcend to the highest realms.

It is a natural comparison; a belief in winged angels dates back beyond the earliest known cuneiform writings from Sumeria, and wings are a feature that is exclusive to birds, bats, and insects—not humans. Over time, most societies became earthbound and materialistic and turned away from bird spirituality, with exceptions like St. Francis of Assisi and Leonard da Vinci, who, like the legendary Icarus, wanted wings to fly like a bird. But countless traditional Native Americans I have spoken to, and most modern medicine man.

Prayer from the “Seven Fires Prayers” (Commanda spoke at The Cry of the Earth conference at the United Nations in 1993)

☾ To Save All Bird Life (Large and Small)

We pray that our birds may still survive, for they too are suffering due to air pollution and earth damages of wood, berries, and other food supplies that they rely on to survive. The water pollution does not help matters any for our bird relations. They are being poisoned by these types of harm. We as people believe that when our bird relations are extinct, that all life will cease to exist.

EXPAND. FORESEE. CREATE.

🦋 Onça’s aim is to revive this sacred tradition, with symbolism for revival and regeneration, instead of judgment and punishment. The understanding of the cyclical power of Life and to show gratitude towards it, because without the seasons, our Earth would have been a very different place. Thanks to this story of transformation struggle, which blooms into fruitful harvest, we humans have existed. The wisdom here is to never forget how important for us is this balance of light and dark, summer and winter, sweet and sour.

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Jarow for OnçaRitualOfferings series are reclaimed, recycled and repurposed.