You have no idea how thrilled I was today when I flipped over our daily draw. My exact thought was, “well it’s about damn time.” I don’t love birds (and we all know how I feel about small furry things that are NOT dogs) and fish are okay, mostly on a plate. The insects (and arachnids) have very good messages, as do the other totems. Horses are way up there in the Top Ten List, as are bears. Snakes, well obviously I love those. But there is one creature that I have always had an affinity to/with. I never think of it as a bird though, more like a mystical being. (Really, I’m so excited about this card that we are going to do that part first tonight, with lots of the guidebook info as well.)
Probably one of the main reasons I adore them is because they are nocturnal, like me. Another would be that they have a sort of mysterious quality to them that has just always been so compelling. They are often vastly misunderstood in modern belief systems, and that fact bothers me. As I think of it now, I realize that one other feature I like about them is that they eat rodents (like snakes do). Of course there is also the Goddess level about them too.
I went on a ride-along several years ago with Daniel (I’ve done this many times) and he drove to one of the places he usually patrols, near a reservoir, along a rural road with a fence all down one side, for what seemed like miles. He said, “now watch…” We weren’t going very fast, but pretty soon there was movement out the window. An owl was flying along next to us. “I wasn’t sure if it would happen, it’s doesn’t always.” He had noticed this phenomenon on several occasions before, and was hoping we’d get to see it (them?) while I was in the car. Last week he was in another part of the county when he sent me a text, letting me know that he had an owl accompanying him in his travels. I find this fascinating, and very soothing. It’s like he has extra protection from anything potentially bad. I’d be interested to know if other folks who drive around at night ever get this kind of help as they work out there in the dark.
“Owl ~ Cailleach-oidhche (pronounced: Kal-yach Oiche) ~ Detachment, Wisdom, Change.
The card shows a tawny owl in an oak tree covered in ivy. A full moon shines between the winter-bare branches of the trees. Hung on the tree are votive offerings to the Cailleach (crone or hag goddess) of a Celtic head and the spiral of death and rebirth.
Cailleach-oidhche teaches us the wisdom of turning a disadvantage into an advantage. For most birds, the coming of darkness renders it impossible for them to feed, but the owl’s exceptional hearing enables it to pick out and swoop on unsuspecting prey during the night. Twilight has been described as owl-light, and going for a quiet walk in the woods at this shimmering time of twilight is an excellent way to develop a sensibility to the Otherworld and the inner soul of Nature. You may feel drawn to a study of esoteric lore or clairvoyance. Working with the owl as your ally will help you to do this.
Drawn reversed, this card may indicate that you need to be wary of withdrawing too much from the world. An ability to be detached and discerning is an asset, unless it becomes a defence against being fully alive with all the vulnerability this entails. Perhaps there is not such a need for secrecy or holding back. The owl can signal a time of change, of initiation, of new beginnings. It can portend the death of one thing, but also the birth of another. An old Sussex saying is ‘when owls whoop at night, expect a fair morrow.’ Expect a bright dawn and it will surely come.
The Bird of Wisdom: The owl is one of the five totem animals central to British tradition. As a fish, the salmon swims in the River or Life, the Ocean of Being, his wisdom comes from an immediate participation of life. The owl imparts a different wisdom, one of objectivity and detachment. Like the figure of the Hermit in the Tarot, the owl watches and waits, in ruined castles, in church towers, in barns, in ivy bushes. Adept at disappearing from view and favoring the night, the owl is the animal that symbolizes esoteric wisdom and mystery.
The Bird of Life and Death: Because the owl is sacred to the Goddess in her crone aspect one of its many Gaelic names is Cailleach-oidhche, or Crone of the Night. The barn owl is Cailleach-oidhche gheal, ’white old woman of the night’. The Cailleach is the goddess of death, and the owl’s call was often sensed as an omen that someone would die. It was seen as a bird that calls for the soul, or that catches or takes it away. From Berne in Switzerland there comes a belief that the screech of an owl foretells either the birth of a child or the death of a man, pointing to the owl as a bird of the Goddess who is both taker and giver of life.
The Secret Faith: Knowing of an impending death or birth suggests that the owl is able to foretell the future, and the owl is indeed the totem of clairvoyance and astral travel. The veils which surround the normal boundaries of space and time can be pierced, if you take the owl as an ally.
In later times, all that was sacred to the Goddess and the ‘Secret Faith’ was denigrated and labeled as evil by the Church in an attempt to convert people from their traditional ways. We see this process of denigration clearly in the folklore of the owl. Originally a sacred bird embodying wisdom and discernment, it gradually came to be seen only as a creature of ill-omen. Farmers would nail their bodies to barn doors or walls; the fern owl was being called ’Puck’ or ’Puck bird’ -giving reference to the devil; and owls in general were called ‘constables from the dark land.’ It became a common saying that the owl was a transformation of one of the servants of the ten kings of hell.
The owl is a bird set apart. She stands on the threshold of the Otherworld, reminding us of the ever-present reality of death. But death is the great initiator and as the owl hoots to us from the trees we may come to realize in the depths of our being that our death in reality marks a beginning and not an end.”
Now that we all have some proper perspective on (and returned respect of) owls, as well as a view into their magickal wonderfulness, let’s move on to something else. Like a commercial sized can of sausage gravy. I will go through most of yesterday’s comments when I get done here, but for now, I wanted to expand on the gift I mentioned yesterday. (Don’t feel left out if I don’t reply to you, it might get repetitious after you read this part.) Yes, my father gave me gravy as a present. It started as kind of a joke. I like gravy, very very very much! When he found out he could get it the way restaurants (okay, fine, truck stops) do, he bought me a can. Like this.
Once again, I am using my wee cellular device to give you perspective, on how very LARGE this can of gravy truly is. We ate the one he gave me for my birthday last night at Bryan’s. (This is the one from Solstice.) No, we did NOT finish it. I packed up some To Go containers for J.D. and Graham who were working and couldn’t join us. I left some for my brother, and we took some home. If you have ever eaten Biscuits & Gravy someplace a tad bit shady (and even possibly questionable) THIS is the kind of gravy you get.
The biscuits are another matter. No, I really can’t cook much of anything, but it is not because I don’t have the knowledge (fine, it’s kinda because of that, but mostly it’s about patience). One reason (and my husband disagrees with me here, but really, we all know I’m probably more than half right) I can’t make much here at The Hovel is because we have a seriously shitty oven. Seriously. The un-even-ness of its baking capacity is beyond bad. Sure, I know all about moving the trays around, shuffling them from top to bottom and front to back. Really, there is NO helping this crappy appliance. We could craft the world’s best biscuit (or pop open a can) and it wouldn’t matter one bit. They still won’t bake properly. They won’t bisc!
Instead we go out. Or we visit family members who can bake ingredients into edibleness for us. Yes, Dan does put food items in there every once in a while. You don’t need a less-than decent oven to heat up raw meat. Or, at least, a roast will not be as noticeably “off” as something as obvious as a badly baked biscuit. This is also the main reason I purchase cupcakes and cookies and baked desserts of all types from professional people who have proper ovens.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go heat up some more gravy.
