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.
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