Blogpost 7: Lilith and Athena

     Mythology is a field where my interests would go and fly on. It served as an ingredient to spice my life. Greeks, Romans, Japanese, Hindu, Mesopotamian and many more; these classifications are just a few of my list of interests. Most of the time, I usually know that owls are known to be Athena’s sacred animal; wherein the title of wisdom was derived from this goddess. This made me realize that wisdom was also the right symbolism for the owl; rather than viewing it alone as death. Looking back, when view things negatively this would result to the imbalance to their nature. Just as what these birds are experiencing right now; they are being slaughtered due to their negative images in a particular society. 

I clearly stated that my original and final claim about the owl was, “Wisdom towards death, considering the rationality that death is impossible to avoid.” True enough, when we consider these birds as wisdom, but that usually lacks the balance to the personification of death. Thus, it is good enough to develop a claim that considers balance and a good image towards the owl. However, there are several things that made me wonder when it comes to unlock their mysteries. At some point their symbolism as death was somehow based on the myth of the Mesopotamian goddess Lilith.

I found this article entitled “Lilith, Mesopotamian Bird Goddess of Fertility” by Tara L. Reynolds from ezinearticles. First of all who is Lilith? She is simply the Mesopotamian dark goddess and even the goddess of demons. The article said that she was portrayed as a woman with dark wings and clawed feet; which somehow looks like a bird woman. The myth itself did not just existed during the Sumerian era, but it already existed during the time of Adam in the Hebrew accounts.

Originally, her myth was based on the Epic of Gilgamesh. Wherein the Sumerian culture identified her as “Inanna’s right hand; at some point I never thought that her role in the early culture was to find men on the streets and lead them to the temple of sacred prostitutes. Seriously, since when did prostitutes become sacred? Going back, the goddess was said to live in a “huluppu tree” in the garden of Inanna.

The most intriguing part was about the Hebrew account with her role as Adam’s first wife. Here a new persona was developed in her image, well, that would be the goddess of sexuality. According to the article sexuality was not viewed as a great deal in the ancient times. Only during the time of Judaism and Christianity; where they look the impression literally as an evil deed. At some point, the main thought that she was regarded as the goddess of sexuality was about her sexual activity with Adam. Wherein she wanted that love giving should be equal, but this was rejected by Adam and ordered her to be submissive to him. Thus, after the even she left the Garden of Eden according to the Hebrew text. Later, the goddess was demonized in the wilderness; which from now on acquired the title as the “succubus” and that also gave her a new role in the myth. The role was described as to sneak into men’s bedrooms and give them wet dreams. I find it difficult to believe that she would do that; still this is just a myth and it would never happen.

Accordingly, the goddess was demonized though the belief of the church, but she was simply represented as women’s strength and confidence. Thus, it also entails to be dominant and disregard women’s submission to men. At some point, this was best described as the goddess of sexuality.

First of all how is this related to my main topic about owls? Simply, the Mesopotamian myth was stating that these birds were associated to Lilith. Thus, this made me think that the root of every personification of the owl as death was the goddess. Try to think of it, it was due to her demonization. From her metamorphosis as the bird lady seems demonic and deathly in such a way. The representation of death was depicted through her new title as the succubus. How would it be identified as death? From my previous discussion about the psychology of death; I mentioned that death will always follow where ever and whenever we go. Never the less, her actions gave me the impression to describe her as the deathly bird lady. 

The owl’s association with the goddess gave contributing information in each culture, when we say that the bird was describes as the “Doomsday Bird”. This would always root in the goddess Lilith. Somehow, the belief was strengthened by each culture, as it they cover it with thick layers of superstitious beliefs that would result to the slaughtering of the birds.

As what he title says; let us go to the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. I found this article entitled “Athena, Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War” by Tara L. Reynolds from ezinearticles. The article was simply all about Athena. The goddess was simply born from Zeus and Metis; after Zeus found out that his child was a female he was furious and swallowed Athena. At some point Zeus had terrible headaches and eventually ran after Hephaestus to open his head; then there you have it Athena comes out fully gown. 

I was curious about her title as the wisdom goddess, because I thought that she obtained that title due from going out inside Zeus' head. Going back, the article stated that she was imagined with a bronze spear and helmet, a talented goddess, a master weaver and metal works, and the inventor of the trumpet. Another is that her sacred animal was the owl and her mostly loved serpent named Ericthonius.

“… learn how to form our inner strength and make us wiser in the end.”

From that statement it is always true to the owls. Considering the fact that the owl was associated with the goddess Athena; it gives off the impression that it is a symbol for wisdom. Somehow it is true for it to symbolize the bird to what it was associated to, but it still lacks the main point of having it as an archetype for wisdom. To elaborate the statement above, I believe that the owl generates its own understanding in its surroundings. Thus, from its huge eyes many people believe that is wise since it is relatively similar to a scholar’s. Plus, behaviors of owls are cunning and at some point intimidating; which somehow these features are valid enough to generate the impression towards the owl as wise.

Combining the two main thoughts about Lilith and Athena with the association of the owl; it is imply depicted that the bird has two sides, death and wisdom. In reality these two identities have their relation to one another. From my claim about the owl; viewing them as deathly and a wise is a complete thought. At some point it would be balanced if we added the rationality of a human person’s mindset that death is unavoidable. Wherein it would be nice to describe the bird as one as much as possible; for it avoids the imbalance of its persona. 

To conclude, the owl itself was associated with two goddesses named Lilith and Athena. Originally, it was symbolized as wise in the context of its association with Athena and death in the context with Lilith. To sum up my thoughts, we ourselves should not look an object in two ways, but rather view them as much as possible. thus, this would also be contributed to the conservation of these birds and avoid extinction.

Blogpost 6: Seriously? Owls have Superstitions?

       In every culture superstitions are always present. As a citizen from a distorted community I never felt that I was enveloped with several superstitions. From my original hometown, superstitions were described as a blunt or shall we say normal stories that will never happen. In my current location right now almost everywhere superstitions are embedded in the person’s face. We may simply say that I am the kind of person who does not believe in certain foolishness. Thus, pseudoscience will never be realistic in my case.

As for these cultural superstitions there are things that I would never believe on; especially the Filipino adaptability of the Feng Shui, certain cultural beliefs about protection, healing and many more. These unusual things will never affect me; since most of them view certain things like bad luck or bad omen. Thus, certain views towards an object without conducting correct reasoning would rather be identified as nonsense. Owls were not able to escape this fate, well; it was depressing since it added to their negative profiles. I do believe that owls were associated with death itself, but it does not simply mean that every time when you see an owl there are ill things that would happen. Irrational to be exact; our reasoning should always be based on the major facts that are happening around us. Thus, we are required to be curious enough in our surroundings and find out what is the information that is reliable to be understood.

I found this article entitled “Owls and Superstitions” by Rose Smith from owls. From the article itself, it simply conveys that owls somehow are linked to superstitions. They may be nocturnal in behavior, but that does not simply man that they should also be associated with superstitious beliefs. It is too late to realize that these birds were also victims towards pseudoscience. The text said that these birds are commonly associated to witches. There is also a belief that the owl’s eyes can make a person’s vision to sharpen just by eating the eyeballs or simply cooking the bird’s eggs until it becomes into ashes then drink it with water. Well, it is superior to have improved eyesight. Greeks and Romans also have the same belief about the owl’s association of witches, but the weird thing is that these sorcerers will transform into an owl and fly around and search for babies for blood sucking.

The article mostly describes owls as death. One entry from it was about the death of a child’s happiness. It is ironic to say that after hearing the hoot of the bird while pregnant would result to an unhappy ending to a child. Others stated that these birds are indicators of ghosts around us. The oddest thing that I would believe is the entry about the owl’s observation when a person passes by its tree.  This is commonly seen in movies; where the owl will look at you and it follows you by turning its head around until it snaps. Most of these superstitions are simply inclined to the negative side of the owl, but there are also good thing about it like these birds are believed to bring good fortune.

I was never inclined to pseudoscience in the first place, but there are things that are meant to be learned by people. Well, relating superstitions to owls are somehow irrelevant, since they are not superstitions in the first place. They are rather described as cultural beliefs and practices. Well, in the first place; the association with the witch is simply a belief. 

I made further research about superstitions in terms of psychology, so I found one entitled “A Psychological Profile on Superstition: The Practice of Irrational Beliefs, Part 2” by R. R. Stark from ezinearticles. The article stated that superstitions already existed during the times of the medieval ages. Certain beliefs like the Earth as the center of the Universe; is somehow categorized as a heretic’s ideas, but somehow it turned out that it is true.

“…we seem to hang on to our old superstitions as if they were a set of religious dogmas all their own.”

I find the statement true, relatively; the superstitions that were encased to the owl were somehow ineffective today. Since science itself already existed in a vigorous manner. Thus, that simply entails that pseudoscience will now be exposed as a false claim by the different cultures. First of all why on earth a bird would have the rationality to associate with sorcerers; wherein sorcerers were simply defined as fictional. The fact of practicing the so called “black magic” is also a product of mental disorders of a person. Thus, the belief of having the owl as an associate of the witch is simply a blunt. Never the less, those cultural practices of believing should tolerate the truth by the terms of nature. At some point the author stated that superstitions are represented as an error to a person’s brain. TRUE! I do agree that having superstitions are errors to a rational life. Why errors? Well, having these kinds of beliefs relatively generated barriers to our freedom. Especially towards curiosity, if we are not curious enough it simply entails that we are suppressed by a certain belief. To be general, these beliefs are the superstitions of a particular culture.

At some point the article mentioned that superstitions are also stupid. Here we can insert the relevancy of my topic about owls. How irrelevant it is to identify them as witches, since they are just birds. See? Without researching a particular topic; that ends up with a major disappointment and results to depression or sometimes it drives a person to discover more things that he or she is ignorant of. The irrelevancy of cultural superstitions is far greater than, compared to the owl’s symbolic image as wisdom. 

How on earth people were able to generate their own superstitious belief? The answer is simple; it just came from their irrational thinking about the bird’s facial and behavioral features. Since it is nocturnal by nature and simply describes their eyes as small light bulbs. I did mention that I do not believe in superstitions since it is irrelevant to the modern world. It is clearly identified from the article that the past will always remain as the past; while the future will continue to change.

To conclude, people are fun of making beliefs that would make their lives more meaningful and creative. The thing is that when we create or claim something that is unusual. We should be conscious about the things that we usually see around us, since pseudoscience will always be there. One tip of advice: research first before claiming your ideas. 

Blogpost 5: Seeing Owls

       When you see an owl what would it mean to you? Rather than thinking and answering it as an ordinary bird with huge eyes emitting spooky hoots. In my point of view I would rather identify the owl as a doctor that kills when it sees a person crossing its field of vision. That was a little bit different when we say that the owl is simply identified as death. Even in my previous discussions I identified the owl as the death persona, but at some point I also represent the owl as an archetype to a person’s rationality. Thus, that made neglects me to believe in the symbolism for wisdom.

         I followed into deep research in terms of the owl’s association to death and even wisdom itself. I find it hard to believe that owls are clearly associated with wisdom itself, yet I found and generate a new idea which is that the owl is now associated with the wisdom of death knowing that the death is impossible to escape from. From my current claim this is true to everyone, even those people in myths and legends they all die; unless they are immortal. Sometimes, I have this kind of thinking about the owl’s representation towards gender; instead of identifying them as mere wandering souls; how about looking upon their personality itself.

     I found this article entitled “What does it mean when you see an owl– Facts and Symbolism” by Cyndi Calhoun from hubpages. Almost everyone knows that when identifying owls as a symbol for wisdom this simply denotes that they are automatically associated with Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom. Others view them as the moon, night, and even female souls.

        In the Native American realm they had a bad image for the owl; since they regard it as the bird that associate too much with sorcery. Another would be the association with their god of death named “Skeleton Man”; which somehow made an impression towards its symbolism for darkness and death. When we say that they are subjects to sorcery; the article mentioned that these birds help sorcerers gain clairvoyant powers for malicious deeds and selfish reasons. They also made a prediction towards death like when the owl hoots and it was heard; it depends on how close the bird hoots and it is relative to how close the person to you is going to die.

         At some point, owls were not entirely viewed as an aspect of death. Some of these people view these birds as signs of impeding danger or we simply say is as an obstacle. It may be hard to believe, because most of the time people see these birds in horror films and generate certain imageries that would defile the truth of the bird’s background. At the same time, they also view this bird as the one who balances the night; since the day was represented by the hawk. The weird thing is that when a person is born in between November 23 and December 21; most likely their symbol would be the owl. This is relatively similar to the movie entitled brother bear; wherein the main character in that movie who was a Native American was given a necklace carved with a bear. Others in that movie have different animal necklaces too like eagles, condors and many more.

     The article also mentioned about totem animals; the owl itself simply represented as someone who can see other person’s personality. Thus from that ability itself it is easy to identify the meaning of the actions of people whom you will encounter. Gaining this kind of ability is somehow related to clairvoyance.

         Owls are differently identified by the means of culture, sometimes they are indentified as death itself or wisdom. Well, in other countries like the American Natives, view owls in a different way; since these creatures are somehow considered as a deity that promotes balance. Still, I do not say that the owl is completely a deity itself. It is said in the article that the owl represents the moon, night and the female gender; while the opposite of the bird is the hawk because it represents the sun, day, and male gender. It may somehow make any sense that Native Americans consider animals with greater value.

         Relatively, I made further research and found this article entitled “Animals in Mythology– Explore the mythological Attribute of Animals” by Kum Martin from ezinearticles. The article stated that animals were somehow part of the growing civilizations; since they also contributed to the growth of the society by the means of myths and legends. There are common myths and legends that are presented to us nowadays. Never the less these stories and epics are passed down from generation to generation.

“Mythology has demonstrated animals in diverse roles such that of heroes, mediators between the heaven and earth, resources of knowledge, and at times dangerous as well.”

From that statement I find it appealing to say that animals have greatly influenced the human culture. Never the less they also generated certain personas that would also help us understand the meaning of life. Most of the time, people are ignorant to understand the depths of the truth itself. At some point it is also relative to say that with the use of animal background and symbolisms; we tend to understand each other. Like the classification of the night owl for example. These people tend to be active at night, but sleepy during the day; same goes with the owl some of them stay at night and feed themselves and roost during the day.

“Owl is an example of one such animal with discrepancy in character owing to the area concerned. While in the West, an owl stands for acumen and foresight; in the Eastern myths, it is regarded as an omen of death, disease and felony.”

From my discussion above, it is true that owls are regarded differently in culture, but this does not hinder us to make certain things that would distort the balances of the circle of life. It may be true to the point that it is already embedded to the people practices and beliefs. Still, certain things that are beautiful enough to see are not meant to be destroyed.

To conclude, owls do have different cultural profiles all throughout the world. They may be regarded as a symbol for death and at the same time wisdom. In the midst of my discussions, I self proclaimed that the owl is not simply symbolized as death and wisdom, but the rationality of having the wisdom towards death knowing that death itself is not avoidable. At some point people who view these birds only as death are blinded with the truth, wherein the owl is simply a sign of incoming harsh obstacles.

Blogpost 4: ... but Sometimes Twists also Happen

  From my previous discussion about owls; I mostly focused on claiming them as death. True enough, but something is still vague from my ideas; especially claiming all of these species as death. To be specific, the classification of death may turn out to be false. It is ironic to make an existing claim (but somehow original) and you will just falsify it. Majority of the information that is shared in the internet convey owl as a symbol for death or associated with death. From other account, they view them as “birds of worldly wisdom or prophecies”, since this is due to the association with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Pallas Athena.

  From my very first discussion about these birds, I mentioned that they are also human spirits or souls rather. Majority of the cultural beliefs, they consider owls as the human souls after their deaths. I find it hard to believe, since we human beings die and decay. Thus our soul may go to heaven or hell, maybe reincarnation to some cultures, or the paradise itself. Following the scientific belief, all living things follow the cycle; wherein we live, age, and eventually die from a particular death. The creativity of each culture makes human living more meaningful, but from my previous discussion about symbolisms and representation this only creates manipulations that will be passed to the succeeding generations. From that bit of information; it entails the restriction of human freedom towards animal understanding. It is sad to view owls being slaughtered nowadays due to their cultural profiles. Now we see how dangerous it is to create cultural profiles without researching.

  I found this entertaining article entitled “Birdlife: Spooky myths about owls” by Marcia Davis from knoxnews. The article itself mostly discussed about owls as the human souls. However, the author claimed that the most feared owl is the barn owl, since she described it’s face as pale which somehow resembled as a human skull or simply a ghost. Most of all barn owls earned the title as the “bird of doom” or the “ghost owl.” At some point, not only that the owl earned the title due to is face features, but also its screeches at night. Several beliefs say said that people turn into owls as a punishment itself and somehow nailed into doors to ward off lighting, hail, and evil entities.

  Inhabitants of America especially the Indians, believed that owls are the guardians of the spiritual world. To elaborate, the article stated that the “guardians” catch human souls and sends them to the underworld; others view them as wandering ghosts who are not satisfied to go to the next stage of life. Some Indians give their dead colleagues some owl feathers in order to have contact with their personal guardian towards the afterlife. Other cultures do crazy things to ward off these owls; like farmers walking naked in their fields to scare them off. Others throw salt to the birds of doom to scram. Lastly for Mexicans, they just cover their ears and pretend that they have not heard the voice of the owl.

“A hooting owl means witches are approaching or a death will occur.”

The statement from the article made me wonder that a simple sound from the bird can deliver such maliciousness. It is ironic to claim that most of our worldly cultures believe that owls are the deliverers of death or the stepping stones of witches. In the first place, witches do not exist because people are just normal and do not have the ability to practice black magic. Even though there are several practices of magic in our world; they are just psychological imaginations that human beings are capable to do. Thus that entails towards mental disorders; which somehow is the result of imagining bizarre things in their brains. Now, how on earth is this related to the discussion? Simply, the belief of owls as the witch’s associate is just a creative derivation from the human brain; which somehow creates a simple manipulation (machiavellianism) in order to have a meaningful enjoyment in their culture. I still believe that the foundation of chemistry is alchemy; since people from that era have the curiosity to develop things in terms of matter. As for black magic it is irrational enough to believe it because it is not related to science; instead it is just a disorder within the human brain.

The belief of the “Doomsday Bird” is somehow true or maybe false. Why? From the article itself, it described that owls were the guardians of the afterlife. The dread expression towards the bird creates a significant appearance; simply because of their cultural profile as human spirits. Again, it is simply a sign from the dark triad characteristics especially machiavelliansim; since the creator of the belief is also a night owl. How did I know that the creator is also a night owl? To be exact, it is just an assumption that they heard the spooky sound of the owl at night and realized that someone died after that event. Thus, that entails that they are conscious about the darkness of the bird when they saw one at night; thus that would drive them crazy if it hoots in front of them. From their unusual actions; mental disorders develop and results to imminent death like suicidal attempts. Well, this is just based about the truth as the doomsday bird.

On the other hand, falsifying the belief is all about the rationality of a person’s brain. True, that it is startling when something happens unusual in front of us. The thing is, it is not proper for a person to generate certain images towards an object without knowing its background first. If I were in the shoes of that person from my previous example, the first thing that I would do after the fright scene is to observe the bird and forget everything that had happened to me. The main point that I am referring to is about the person’s reasoning right after an event. I did claim that owls right now have a new archetype; which is rationality, but there are things that can be contradicted in certain bits of information.

I did further research about archetypes, so I found this article entitled "Animal Archetypes" by Thomas Goldman from ezinearticles. It was a short article about archetypes of animals, but there are things that made me drive to explain my claims. From the article itself, I do agree that children usually identify animal archetypes with their small brains. Especially when they read fable picture books; from those roles that animals portray in stories children easily identify their significance. However, most of the worldly cultures identify or symbolize animals in two ways; which are “food” or “danger.”

“Archetypes are one of the levels of the building blocks of this entire physical-universe. They are fundamental definitions that can be found anywhere on earth, in any culture, on any continent, even before that society has any contact with other cultures.”

TRUE! I do agree from the statement itself. To elaborate my decisive acceptance, animal archetypes are already present ever since the world has formed. Right after man has formed a society, they eventually made use of their brains to generate new archetypes to cover the existing archetype. Same goes for the profile of the owl, readers, we now all know that most cultures define owls as bad omen, death and others signify them as wisdom. At some point I did mention that they are personified as death himself, but the thing is that the twist is coming to a reality. That reality is something that defiles my previous claims.

My first claim says that owls are simply death, since that is mostly known across the globe. Second would be that owls are archetypes of a human person’s rationality. Lastly is that owls as the person’s rationality towards death. Most of my claims define only death itself, but from the ideas that I have gathered; people mostly view owls as wise. Considering the fact that they are wise is due to their natural behaviors as nocturnal birds of prey. The thing is that my claims are entirely connected towards one direction; which is “WISDOM”. My claim about wisdom is not simply the common association to the Greek goddess Athena, but rather it is the ‘wisdom towards death itself; while considering the rationality that death is impossible to avoid.’

My idea may be crazy though, but is makes sense that owls are not simply symbolized as death and wisdom, but rather it is complementary to death and wisdom. Thus, this would result to worldly balances in each culture, but at some point this would also devastate their ancestor’s cultural beliefs towards the owl.


To conclude, there are several claims that can be contradicted by certain information that would be raised or simply a penetrating rebuttal. From my previous ideas, I generally combined them into one. Thus, that also made me end up believing that owls are also symbolized as wisdom. Following equality, symbolisms are simply symbolisms; there are things that would make a symbol false towards the main object and the other one is true enough since it is seen. The thing is, we ourselves should look deeper to their cultural profiles and relate it towards the scientific realm. Thus, that would make a difference to the owls and that would also push through to their conservation and survivability in our ecosystems.

Blogpost 3: Seek The Truth...

     From time to time, owls are just mere birds that fly around during the night and give off the hooting sound. Now, who on earth would believe that the owl can also be a person's spiritual guide? Well, who knows? Most of the time owls are simply symbolized as death or wisdom. From my previous claims, I said that owls are not simply symbolized as death, but rather personalized as death. At some point, I never thought that the owl may also act as your guide towards a beginning. Even though it is just a mere bird, still it contains several mysteries to why is it associated with death and why is it given to more emphasis towards wisdom.

     I found this article entitled “TheOwl As Your Spiritual Guide” by Peter Boxall from ezinearticles. From the title itself I thought that it is somehow associated to religion, but NO it is not. Simply by looking to its content, the article says that owls may help us see through our darkness and guides us towards a new beginning. Well, from here more cultural profiles were mentioned towards the bird; simply describing it as “the messenger and companions of the gods.”

     Another would be that the bird is categorized as a “guide.” it means that the are the ones who will lead us to the right path of our life, or simply from the article's term “The True Path”. At some point, I have discussed something about the owls an archetype for a person's rationality. True! That the article has supported my claim that the bird itself is represented as the human person's rationality; well, the meaning of “guide” in the article means that “we ourselves should be choosing the right crossroad for our future. It may be good or bad still death is at the edge and at the same time behind us. Thus, that goes the same for opening our eyes towards the reality; like an owl who can simply see light in the midst of darkness. From that it is simply meant that the owl is interconnected towards human rationality.

     “Owls are one of the few birds that can move their heads 135 degrees and some can turn their heads even further, so that they can look back at the 'Deaths' in our journey to this 'New Dawn' guided by the owl.with each 'Death' and 'Rebirth' we should both remember and rejoice in the way each 'Cycle' has helped us become the person today.”

      From that paragraph in the article, it best supports that owls are truly identified as death and at the same time a person's rationality. Why death? Simply because that they are the ones who guided us in our journey towards crossroads;which is somehow applicable to a person's rationality. Thus, the new claim right now would be that “The owl is an archetype of a human being's rationality towards his or her death.” It does not simply mean that owls are guides towards our crossroads, but simply we are the ones who choose the right path for our future. Who on earth would accept that the bird will be the one who is going to choose your destiny? No one right? Well, that simply entails when we open our eyes towards the truth itself. I do not simply mean the spiritual truth, but the literal truth which is against stupidity. Thus, that would sum up a person's rational personality.

     I did further research about sybolisms or representations in terms of psychology I found this article entitled “The Concept ofRepresentation in Psychology” by Alberto Greco from cogprints. The article best supports that the representation of owls as guides in our crossroads is simply a manipulation and that goes the same to their cultural profiles around the world.

     Well, in my own perspective when a person represent an object it seems like he or she intends to make someone believe him or her. Thus, that is subjective to manipulation; wherein the meaning of a certain object is definitely different rather than the given meaning. Well, that goes the same with cultural beliefs towards the owl, since they are the ones who are claiming that the bird is associated to death. Thus that gives an impression that the belief itself is simply just a manipulation; simply because in the olden times people believe what they actually see. They do not simply do further research about their claims. Well, representations about the owl may come from their cultural fears towards plagues and death associated events. Simply, from the people's beliefs it conducts representations that is somehow vague in their perspective; since they only view it from their own interpretation of a certain object. Form the way a person believes it simply denotes that he or she is somehow stating what is true or just merely manipulating the mass.

     To conclude, owls are somehow right now inclined to death, but it is now an archetype of a person's rationality towards death. At some point viewing it as wisdom is still not applicable. Well, from time to time most of these cultures build their own cultural profiles towards the owl, but that ends up manipulating their succeeding generations and makes them closed towards rationality in death. Just by sealing away the truth, that simply denotes that a person is still irrational in such a way is also ignorant towards the knowledge to death.  

Blogpost 2: Well, Technically Speaking that an Owl is Also an Archetype to Some People.

        Fascinating, indeed owls are fascinating; well, some of us wonder why owls are interesting birds. One common reason would be their huge eyes and their nocturnal behavior. I only see these creatures in National Geographic Channel or when I imagine them while reading a book. I want to highlight about their nocturnal behavior. It is common for us to think that owls observe its surroundings and sometimes gives us the hooting sound; which is creepy. They may be identified as a symbol for death, because of these mythological beliefs done by each culture. I indicated that owls are personified as death, but it is still a mystery to proclaim them as “death’s other form.” Thus, this made me go further to read some articles in the realm of science; which somehow we may also watch this in National Geographic Channel. 

     Introducing owls in the scientific realm is mostly composed with their physiological features. Well, I found scientific article entitled “When books die. And owls. I don’t mean “When owls die”… I just mean: owls. As in: this article is mostly about owls.” Written by Darren Naish from Scienceblogs. It is a fun fact article about the bird, but that gave me full understanding in terms of their physical appearances. From the beginning I classified owls as a single entity, but that concluded here, due to the fact that there are two different kinds of owls; which are the barn owls and the strigid owls. In terms of their physiological aspects, these birds have no spherical eyes, but rather they have the tubular shape like a cylinder for their eyes; which somehow their cornea and lens are relative to their retina. Their field of vision would only allow them for about 50 to 70 degrees; which somehow straight forward when we describe it. At the same time the retina collects sunlight to have their eyes gleam in the dark; which concludes to their sight at night. All birds fly with the help of their wings and feathers, but most of the predatory birds fly with such noise through the flapping of their wings. Well, the owl is different from them; owls have light and thin feathers that makes them fly in near-silence, so when they hunt prey the victim will never know who killed him. The bird's facial feathers also helps them to collect sound; never the less they are advantageous in the night even though it is dark. 

  Aside from their huge eyes, they also have their huge ears. Well, what would be the reason why these ears are huge? Well, it does not literally mean that they are deaf, but rather it helps them to locate the faintest sound in their vicinity. Not only that they have huge ears, but also their ears are asymmetrical. What do we mean by asymmetrical, well, it simply means that the ears are not balanced to one another. In the owl's case, one ear is higher and the other is lower, which gives them the highest advantage to pinpoint sources of sounds from the highest to the lowest altitude. Another would be their rotating heads, well, their heads can rotate for about 270 degrees; which help them locate their targets for almost a full circle.

  We now know that owls have huge eyes and ears; somehow we must also consider that they also have huge feet. Well, most predatory birds rely on their hooked beaks and talons to kill prey, but only the owl uses their huge clawed feet to strangle their prey to death. They simply have a specialized bone as their secret towards full force strangling and resistance towards stress in their bones and muscles; well, the bone is scientifically called as “sesamoids” according to the article. Sometimes, we also wonder why some of the owls are not active at night, well, it simple to say that the answer is all about their tiresome activities at night. During the day most owls roost on a tree or inside their burrows in trees or underground; if they roost outside, well, they are simply vulnerable to their attackers, but that ends there because owls who roost in the outside world have their intimidating eye like pattern behind their heads. This simply represent as their protective ward against those ferocious attackers.

  From those physiological features I would like to focus on their behavioral aspects of being nocturnal. From my previous post, I simply indicated and proclaimed that owls are personified as death himself. It may be true or false; simply by looking to their behavior as nocturnal birds they practice their own psychological activities in terms of killing. Well, they can see during the night because of their collected sunlight from the sun or from the moon. Why moon? We all know that the moon does not produce its own light, since it is only just a chunk of rock; the light simply came from the sun; which makes the owl collect sunlight from the moon and enables them to see during the night.  In term of their flight schemes they act like murders who cunningly appears behind their prey and strangle them with their huge clawed feet. 

  Simply from just focusing to their scientific physical features, we may also connect this to the psychological aspect in the society. Well, I have done further thinking that the owl's behavior is somehow linked to a person's specialized behaviors. Thus, I have gone into deeper research in terms of psychology about the night owls (person). 

  Most of us actively do activities at night like: surfing the internet, reading fascinating books, doing requirements for work or in school, chatting with other people and many more. Well, at some point we tend to be sleepy during the day. I commonly stay late at night, due to some reasons like making my requirements, projects, reports, studying and so on. Well, other people stay at night because of parties, gaming and some other activities. It is true to some of us that we stay late at night due to these reasons. The most common result of staying at night would be stress and drowsiness when you are in school or at work. Well, these people who lately stay at night are called as “night owls”. Night owls are people who are active at night and sleepy during the day. Being a night owl is a little bit difficult to adjust when you are student, since it is also important to stay awake during classes in order to cope up with your lessons. It is also the same to work, wherein it is also important to stay awake to continue and complete our tasks diligently.

  In the psychological realm, I found this article entitled “Study says night owls more likely be psychopaths” by Anjana Sreedhar in policymic. The article simply stated that most night owls obtain the “Dark Triad Characteristics.” The dark triad characteristics are narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy. 

  When we say narcissism, it means “to seek affection”, machiavellianism means “the desire to manipulate”, and lastly psychopath means “the manifestation of having an antisocial behavior”. Well, these characteristics are applicable to most night owls. Simply by observing their behavior during the day. Night owls can be categorized into three aspects which are the students, workers, and criminals. When we say in the aspect of students it is normal to describe them as “hard-working”, but there are several instances that the Dark Triad Characteristics (DTC) would most likely occur. One example would be my experience in high school. Well, my narcissistic attitude towards perfection is inclined to myself; thus, when someone who overcomes my successes in school I do have the thinking to manipulate them. Well, the result is really bad since that made me a loner due to my manifestation of the DTC. A student is simply identical to a worker, but in some instances workers simply do things in a different way. Well, on the other hand, criminals do things differently. In my own perspective they do things like the owl's style of killing its prey. I may be referring to a murderer actually, but it is simply identical when we view it literally. When we see murderers in movies or in novels; they simply appear like shadows who would suddenly stab or strangle you to death. Seeing the narcissistic side it is simply expressed as the “affection towards the death of a person or complimenting himself that he is good at killing.” For machiavellianism, they manifest it through the manipulation of time. Lastly, for their psychopathy it is simple, since they mostly do not appear in such crowded places and at the same time they despise human life through their crimes. Well, It does not only limit to the murderers, but also applicable to drug addicts and many more.

  Like I said in the scientific side of the owl, they are nocturnal and at the same time their behavior in terms of hunting is practically similar to a murderer. Which somehow connects that the owl is not only personified as death himself, but also an archetype to a human being. What would be the claim right now? Well, I simply say that the owl is represented as the human person's rationality. Why rationality? All of us are born in this world as rational; but when we turn to the wrong pathway, that simply is an assumption that we are now irrational. Irrationality in my realm is simply denoted by the act of doing things that is not according to the order of this world. Technically speaking that when you do things that is bad in the eyes of a rational person, thus that makes you irrational. I do not simply say that an owl is irrational in terms of their behavior, since it is part of their life cycle to survive in the wild. Although, science claims that animals are practically irrational, since they lack the intelligence to do certain things right in their own way. 

  To conclude, owls does not only represent death to which all cultures identify the most, but it is also an archetype to a human person's rationality. Night owls constantly manifest the Dark Triad Characteristics, but there are also good sides when you are a night owl. Well, in majority night owls are the poets, artists, creative introverts, and actors. True that the persona of being a night owl is not good for a person, but it is said that when we grow older we tend to sleep earlier. 

Blogpost 1: To which side are you in? Owls as Death; Owls as Wisdom; Both; or None

     From my childhood days I appreciated owls in terms of their roles in a story, sometimes their images are wise, smart and birds with huge eyes. All of us share the same experience towards owls; whether it may be in the television or in books. Somehow, these birds were viewed differently in the world. Well, at some point most of these beliefs symbolize the owl as “The Harbinger of Death” and only few symbolize these creatures as wisdom and knowledge. That convinced me to write something about these fascinating nocturnal birds of prey; out of curiosity I was motivated to research.

    I found this article entitled “Owls in Lore and Culture”, by B.G. Marcot, D.H. Johnson and M. Cocker from owlpages. The article was interesting, because it opened my eyes that there are different symbolic images that are engraved to the owl. At some point there are several cultures that dislike the bird, but this gave the bird an advantage towards conservation. Nowadays, these birds were slaughtered due to a common cultural belief that the bird only delivers “ill omen” or bad signs. Why was the owl considered as ill? Well, from the article itself the name owl originally means “ugly”, but not the ugly term that we used to know these days; but it rather mean as “feared”. Another would be that they are identified as witches. Well, some cultures in Africa and India recognized these birds as “creatures of the witch”. Owls were also known as a symbol of wisdom. The title was carried through the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. The goddess’ name was used to some owl species as their scientific name. Most of the cultures of the world completely identified these birds as evil servants; which also connects to death. In the article, owls were also recognized as messengers of the gods and announcers of death. Next would be that these birds also represent as the human soul. As for shamans in other cultures, owls were recognized as spiritual helpers. Others use the bird’s body parts as talismans, charms and wards against phenomenal disasters.

“Throughout human history, owls have variously symbolized dread, knowledge, wisdom, death and religious beliefs in a spirit world.”

  From that statement, I believe that owls were distinctly identified by different cultures. Several of them view these birds as signs of incoming bad events like death and phenomenal disasters. Few of them consider the owls as symbol for knowledge, wisdom, and a guide during the night. Well, that made me wonder why these birds were considered as “ill signs” or even death. However I still doubt about the bird’s symbolism for knowledge and wisdom.

  First of all, why are owls considered as bad omen? Is it because of their horrible screeches? Would it be about their creepy appearances, or their nature itself? There are several beliefs that a culture may develop towards an object or an animal. As for owls as “bad signs”; it claims that these creature have obtained the tile through the visualizations of a culture. From my own perspective, when cultural people were able to see an uncommon object or animal in their vicinity and bad things happen. That simply denotes the birth of a cultural profile belief to an object or simply the birth of symbolic identities.

     Death is a common image towards an owl, because of its behavior. Why behavior? Well, we all know that owls are nocturnal. From the article’s appendix, one entry is all about the preparation of the owl’s body whenever you are able to meet one. If the listener will never obey it’s bidding; which is to slaughter the bird the listener dies on the 40th day. Why 40th? Well, from that entry it has a time frame of 39 days of discussion between the victim and the owl and when the victim will never listen he or she will die in the next morning. Since most of the cultural beliefs about the owl indicated that they only hear and see the bird during the night and it calls a person’s name repeatedly; that signals death. From that, I most likely claim the bird as death himself. To elaborate, most of these cultural beliefs characterized the owl as “ill omen”, “the harbinger of death”, “the announcer of death”, “bad luck”, “a ward against pestilence and famine”, “a talisman against evil”, “the devil’s associate”, and even “illness”. From these death related titles, you may wonder why it is a ward or protector against certain evil. Most of us believe that death only brings unpleasant tidings and even the reaper of our lives. So who brings pestilence? Who is associated to evil? Who can ward off death related activities? Simply, when there is pestilence and famine, death is everywhere. Plants and animals die from that phenomenon. Why do other cultures use the owl’s parts as talismans of protection? Is it simply explained that death is the one who gathers souls; which will also relate to a particular entry on the article’s appendix; wherein the owl catches a human soul when it is wandering. Well, that gives an explanation to why is the bird feared by most cultures.

  So much for the negative side of the owl; let us go to the positive side, which is the title of knowledge and wisdom. In Greek accounts, it is obviously titled as wisdom, because it is associated to the goddess of wisdom, Athena. Nowadays the owl’s title as wise and knowledgeable is known to the public. So why is it wise? The article indicated that owls are similar to a scholar who stays up all night and gather information. Well, owls observe (studying) its surroundings at night and hunt its prey. As for the scholar, he or she stays at night; studying and feeds himself or herself important information. From that basic understanding, owls may be knowledgeable in some particular areas, but that does not mean that they are wise. Well, they were also regarded as wise due to sorcery, that kind of idea does not really fall into the owl’s title. One example would be the owls in the movie “Harry Potter”; those birds were not considered as intelligent, but simply tamed. Animals are truly identified as irrational; they can only follow instructions when tamed.

    In my own tentative perspective, owls are personified as death, due to all of these similar symbols. Never the less, recognizing them as a symbol for wisdom is vague since there are no reliable records to prove that they are wise. However, recognizing them as death should not be directed that we should also slaughter them until they will be extinct, since it is against the law to commit violence. To understand my claim further I researched more about the psychology of death.

    When we say death, we all have the thinking about the grim reaper, lifeless bodies, coffins, burials and many more. Somehow death cannot only be experienced at the end of our lives, but rather it is experienced all the time. When we have problems that remained unanswered and leads us to despair that would count as death. Simply when we experience bad things, death will surely follow. 

    I found this psychological article about death entitled “The Psychology of Death” written by Sebri Roy from EzineArticles. Death itself is the final stage of a human life. The article also described death as two entities which are: death as a process and death as a perception. Death itself in this article is simply identified as a fear, a fear of becoming lonely.

  Death as a process is simply identified as the methodological state; where a person dies from a second party. At the same time the process is also our photographic understanding towards death. From our childhood days we understand death in an innocent matter, since it is only presented in stories and movies. As we grow up, we are now prone to horrible scenes that results to death. Well, the article stated that the process develops fear of loneliness. Another process of death may also be referred to acute shutdowns like, when a person will be experiencing his or her brain to malfunction for a short period of time. On the other hand, death as a perception refers to the usage of a human being’s senses. Well, it is explained that a person who died would be able to feel his or her lifeless body and the spirit enters the process of death. This simply denotes “to go beyond what is natural”.

     From time to time, there are reactions towards the perception of death and that would be shock, denial, anger, bargaining, grief and acceptance. Well, this part of the article focuses about some of the “reactions” effects to a human being with the subject of death. It all starts within childhood, where parent should feed children the appropriate information towards death. What if they are not fed in the right way? Well, simply this results to psychological problems especially suicide and murder. Lastly, the article proclaimed that the perception of death itself came from the death of others and realizing the death to one’s self.

“When we die we lose not just life but all social attachments and the fear of loneliness finally makes us afraid of it.”

  When we die that will be the end. Most of us are afraid to reach death or even prepared enough to die. From the article, death as a process does not yet affect a mere child’s understanding towards death, but when we grow up there are several things around this world that we should be aware of. Well, that means that during the stage of teenagers and adults we form this kind of fear of dying. Fear towards death or simply the fear of being lonely is only applicable to those who have strong beliefs.

  Next would be the perception of death. In this section, going beyond the unnatural or simply using our senses to meet your dead body. Well, it may be applicable to some who does not fear death; instead they are ready to die. In the article, it is said that understanding towards death varies in the stages of a human person. Perception of death can also be applied in societal means. How? Simply by seeing our love ones die; it gives our brain to go to the stage of depression. Well, it may be severe if a person is really affected to the one who died. From here the chances are high to do suicide or murder due to mental disorders. When we say suicide, it is a result from an individual’s mindset; which drives them to take their own life away. On the other hand, murder entails happiness towards death or simply the brain is not in the normal state; which also drives a human person to enjoy taking another person’s life or we may commonly call it as insanity.

     How does this relate to my main topic about owls? Well, this article has simply stated that, “We are all afraid of dying and at the same time even have an urge to die.” Well, from the previous article about the owl’s cultural profile in the world; people who fear the “owl” as the harbinger of death are afraid to die, but people who knew and expect that someone dies tomorrow or disaster will come; simply denotes that they have the urge to die. Their belief of death is rooted to the fear of loneliness. Well, I claim that their old beliefs keep them away from a certain truth. It is rational enough to say that a bird cannot kill a human person because human beings are more intelligent than animals. In my own perspective, the birth of the belief may come from sudden death from an illness; which directs to the owl’s sudden appearance. What I mean is that the illness is already present before the bird arrived.  From that simple tragedy a particular culture described the owl as “ill omen”.

     The belief simply evolved as time passes by, but is now done in a different matter. From the belief itself, it activates the stimuli of the brain to think that bad events will come. Here, we may apply the psychological state of suicidal and murder; due to some thinking and worrying it activates the fear of a person’s death. Thus, mental disorder develops and drives the individual to commit suicide. On the other hand, murder is also an effect of mental disorders from the belief. Extreme disorders that lead to insanity; which we may reason out that insane people are enjoying death of others.

     To conclude, the belief that an owl is a symbol for death is just a mere belief that manipulates the person’s mindset. Out of manipulation this affects the human brain to reach the point of depression and insanity; which leads to suicide and murder. In my own perspective, the belief of having the owl as a symbol for death is due to the older generation’s beliefs; which is now passed by today.