ALEX

THE SACRED BIRDS

compiled by Dee Finney

SACRED BIRDS

The bird is an apt symbol of deity in various aspects, both macrocosmic and microcosmic. It is threefold, having a body and two wings; it can walk on earth. Aquatic birds can float on water (Deity on space) and ascend into the air (spiritualise). So also, the human Ego's influence upon the consciousness of earthly man. The Ego directs, elevates  and absorbs into itself the consciousness of the personality. 

"All the powers of God are winged in man, being
always eager and striving for the higher path, which
leads to the Father."
(Philo Judeus' Works, vol. IV, p. 252)

The bird is oviparous as the Logos and Ego. Hiranyagharba, the golden egg, the Egg of Brahma, is metaphorically 'laid' by the Logos upon the waters of space. It represents the Divine Idea and germ of the universe-to-be. 

Our entire surya-system, our entire solar system, called the Egg of Brahma, may be looked at from one very true standpoint as an enormous ovoid aggregate body poised in space; and were some astronomer on some distant globe in the stellar deeps to see our Egg of Brahma, and were he to see it from the proper superior plane or world, our entire solar system would appear to him as an ovoid body of light -- as an egg-shaped irresolvable nebula. This would include all the "emptiness" that we see, or think we see, the emptiness so called, and therefore would include all our solar world of the Egg of Brahma, from the very heart of Father Sun to beyond the confines of what astronomers call the farthermost planets.

The Egg of Brahma is composed of concentric spheres centered in the Sun, and each one of these spheres is a cosmic world. Its heart -- the heart of each one of them -- is the Sun. The world or sphere of our Earth is one such, and surrounds the Sun as a sphere of dense substance, and the nucleus in this sphere or egg, for such it is, is what we commonly call our Earth. Such also is the sphere of Mercury, such is the sphere of Venus, such is the sphere of Mars, also of Jupiter, also of Saturn; yes, and of Uranus too -- but remember that Uranus belongs not to our own system of sacred worlds, although it belongs to our Egg of Brahma. 

In ancient times, birds were watched because they were thought to reveal, by their behaviour, the will and intent of the gods. In modern terminology, they gave warnings of electrical lightning storms and earthquakes. They are still watched today for this same reason in some parts of the world.

The specialist bird watcher, the augur or shaman, was an adviser to the rulers and kings.

The Roman augur did not stay in Rome when there were wars being waged. Sacred chickens were taken on the road with them to war. The augurs watched the chickens so they would know future events like winning battles or possible defeats. At one point, the chickens to eat their food, which was a sign that it was unfavorable for the planned attack on the enemy fleet. He said: "If they will not eat, let them drink," and ordered them to be thrown overboard to drown. This act itself was regarded as the cause of the disastrous defeat that followed.

THE PIGEON:/DOVE

Pigeons were kept and domesticated as far back as the fifth Egyptian dynasty, around 3,000 B.C. pigeon, common name for members of the large family Columbidae, land birds, cosmopolitan in temperate and tropical regions, characterized by stout bodies, short necks, small heads, and thick, heavy plumage. The names dove and pigeon are used interchangeably, though the former generally refers to smaller members of the family. pigeons are known for their soft cooing calls. The most common American wild pigeon is the small, gray-brown mourning dove Zenaidura macroura (sometimes called turtledove), similar to the once abundant passenger pigeon, which was slaughtered indiscriminately and became extinct in 1914. Other wild American species are the band-tailed, red-billed, and white-crowned pigeons, all of the genus Columba, and the reddish brown ground-doves (genus Columbina). The Australasian region has two thirds of the 289 species of pigeons, of which the fruit pigeons are the most colorful and the gouras, or crowned pigeons, the largest (to 33 in./84 cm). In Europe the turtledove, rock pigeon or dove, stock dove, and ringdove or wood pigeon are common. The rock dove, Columba livia, of temperate Europe and W Asia is the wild progenitor of the common street and domestic pigeons.

Dove - Peace. The peace symbolized by Dove is that of the deepest kind. It quiets our worried and troubled thoughts, and allows us to find renewal in the silence of mind. In such moments of stillness we are able to appreciate simple blessings.

Pigeons/Doves were used in the Hebrew religious ritual and were often used as a sacrifice to atone for sin. They were referred to in the Bible as a symbol for the Holy Spirit.

India:  Fascinating Chabutras of Gujarat

The gentle and peace loving people of Gujarat are well known for their concern about the welfare of all life forms. Perhaps putting bird feeding tables—commonly known as chabutras—in their homes and gardens is a reflection of their benign attitude. Some years ago when we came to live in Ahmedabad the chabutras was among the first things to arrest our attention. The type to be seen most commonly is the ek-dandia chabutras which is essentially a platform covered with a dome or hood and mounted on a 5-6 feet high pole. On the platform a dish of water and some food is put for the birds. Gujarati chabutras can be of various shapes and sizes, as we learnt later, while discussing the folk art forms of Gujarat with Esther David—an eminent art critic, columnist and author of a book on Ahmedabad. Some can be as large as a room. Built from stone and bricks these are elevated platforms which provide refuge to a variety of birds, ranging from the small sized sparrows, mynas and pigeons to large ones such as peacocks. Chabutra is a popular colloquial terms derived from the world ‘Kabutar’, for pigeon. Interestingly enough, in some illustrations on Gujarati arts and crafts done by artists during the British period chabutras have been referred to as ‘pigeon houses’, as Lalit Kumar, Curator of the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum of Indology in Ahmedabad informed us. The word chabutras itself may have been kabutra for some time before it finally became what it is today. Although chabutras are commonly seen all over Gujarat, similar bird feeding tables are also to be seen in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Indeed, the hood of the chabutras is believed to have been influenced by the ‘chatri’, so commonly seen in Rajasthani architectural design. According to Lalit Kumar, there has been a significant amount of fusion between the design forms of Rajasthan and Gujarat over the centuries and the chabutras is a manifestation of this rich ‘Maru Gujarat’ cultural tradition. According to Kirti Patel, a well known artist who has also documented local art forms in considerable detail, the chabutras has a deep sociological and religious significance in Gujarat. Although the form of the chabutras incorporates the influences of Hindu, Muslim and Jain architectural designs, the practice of putting up these bird feeding tables is undoubtedly linked to the Jain faith which preaches non-violence and humanity. Like the ancient Egyptians, many communities in Gujarat also believe that after death a persons soul assumes the form of birds and animals. So by caring for birds by putting food and water and providing shelter in chabutras they are also caring for the souls of their departed ancestors.

From; http://www.indiaprofile.com/religion-culture/gujarat-culture.htm

HINDU

VI, 27. Charm against pigeons regarded as ominous birds.

1. O ye gods, if the pigeon, dispatched as the messenger of Nirriti (the goddess of destruction), hath come here seeking (us out), we shall sing his praises, and prepare (our) ransom. May our two-footed and four-footed creatures be prosperous!

2. Auspicious to us shall be the pigeon that has been dispatched; harmless, ye gods, the bird shall be to our house! The sage Agni shall verily take pleasure in our oblation; the winged missile shall avoid us!

3. The winged missile shall not do us injury: upon our hearth, our fireplace he (the pigeon) takes his steps! Propitious he shall be to our cattle and our domestics; may not, ye gods, the pigeon here do harm to us!

Conversion of pigeons and a Tiger

Buddha''s all-seeing eyes with pigeons, Kathmandu, Nepal

Pigeons are depicted in paintings and sculptures in almost every culture and religion in the history of the earth, including such ancient places as Babylon, Palestine, Egypt, Assyria, Israel, Greece, and Rome. Pigeons, especially white ones, figure prominently in the Bible. Apparently it was a white pigeon and not a dove that Noah was said to have released from his ark and which later returned with an olive branch. Those so-called doves of peace you see in various publications and paintings are actually white pigeons. In some places pigeons have been used as symbols of love, fidelity, femininity, virtuous parentage, innocence, purity, speed, and the postal service. Their expressive eyes and their habit of tender billing (the equivalent of kissing) have symbolized erotic love to many artists. Picasso often featured pigeons in his paintings.

In Egypt in 1968 was the apparition of the Virgin Mary, witnessed by many people. "Apparitions of the Virgin are sometimes accompanied with, or preceded by, the appearance of white pigeons that used to circle the church. Sometimes a lightning-like light appeared. It shone for a while and then disappeared. At other times, a luminous mist spread everywhere and it gave off the strong pleasant scent of incense that pervaded the whole place."

The dove was the bird of Aphrodite, and represents the goddess in gentle form, in contrast to the eagle.

The wry neck was used in the making of spells. It can produce a hiss like a snake, and owes its name to the wide angle through which it can turn its head, as if it were the Janus of the bird world.

Pigeon behavior:  Medical science has not yet found a cure for fear. Actually, it is a malady of the soul and calls for a spiritual solution. First of all, it requires an attitudinal change. We need to drill into our minds that one only loses by giving in to fear. It paralyses the mind, rendering it incapable of doing what it can easily do otherwise. The behaviour of pigeons illustrates this well. Frozen with fear when they see a cat, pigeons just shut their eyes instead of flying away. The result? They get killed. By practising to take on any situation calmly and with courage, we will be able to change our tendency to get frightened by unexpected or adverse circumstances.

DOVE

It is believed that the Minoan Pantheons composed of the remnants of a former aniconic cult (the cult of the pillar), together with the central female divinity (the mother Goddess) whose attributes were snakes or beasts. The Minoan king may have been the presiding priest of the cult. The Minoans seem to have practised blood sacrifice as is depicted in a fresco on the sarcophagus found at Hagiatriada. The bull seems to have been the favoured victim and its horns were a common religious symbol. Bull leaping, possibly as part of a religious rite or festival, consisted of acrobatic exercises with the animal and ended, no doubt, in his sacrifice. Boxing, portrayed in numerous Minoan images, must also have taken place in the context of public feasts. The dove and a lion headed spirit were also featured in Minoan religious symbolism.

In Minoan culture the chief Pre-Hellenic Divinity was undoubtedly a Goddess whose fostering care embraced all living creatures and followed them into the underworld. A survey of the art which illustrates Minoan religious activities clearly indicates that those figures identified as divinities are overwhelmingly female. The representations of her vary all the way from the rude, rough figures of the Neolithic Period to the distinct Cretan style with a large bell skirt and prominent exposure of the breasts in later Minoan Shrines at Knossos and other places. With her are associated doves and snakes, signifying her connection with air and earth. Although her character was generally benign, as Lady of the Wild Creatures she developed a more fearful aspect, one that was depicted on carved gems where lions were her companions. Actual scenes of worship are often represented and they indicate a kinship with nature and outdoor life. There are frescos of pillared shrines surmounted by Sacred Horns with groups of men and women seated before it and a wild dance is often suggested on some rings. There is a famous seal impression showing a female figure holding a staff and standing on the top of a rocky hill, flanked by lions, beyond which is a shrine on one side and a saluting male on the other. On a well known signet, recovered from Mycenae, a Priestess presents flowers, lilies and irises to a seated Goddess who wears a stylised iris in her hair.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was born from the foam of the sea. She is married to Hephaestus, the god of fire and smith to the gods. Sacred to her are the myrtle, rose, apple, poppy, sparrow, dove, swan, swallow, tortoise, ram, the planet Venus, and the month of April. Eros was produced from a liaison with Zeus. Her favorite lover is the god of war, Ares. Other names and titles: Amathusia/Amathuntia Title of Aphrodite at Amathus/Cyprus Anadyomene: Name for Aphrodite as she rose from the ocean

Ashtart:  "Queen of Heaven": Great Goddess of the Canaanites, Phoenician and Assyrian. She was the goddess of love and fertility as well as War. Her representation was the Eveningstar. Astarte has much in common with Ishtar. Her image was shown with two horns and mostly naked. Astarte had a dove as her symbolic animal. If Ishtar and Astarte are not truly one and the same, they are at least two very similar expressions of one goddess-oriented religion which prevailed for several millennia in Western Asia. Other related names are Ashdar or Astar, names that were also used for Ishtar. Both she and Astarte had a brother and lover, by the name of Tammuz a.k.a. Dumuzi, a vegetation-god. Astarte's fame and the religious tolerance of Egypt led to her being officially admitted into the Egyptian pantheon in about c.1500 BCE, though here she was mainly regarded as a goddess of battlefields, soldiers and horses. Elsewhere, her religion embraced sacred prostitution and the Hieros Gamos ritual. Astarte Article from Britannica.com: also spelled ASHTART, great goddess of the ancient Middle East and chief deity of Tyre, Sidon, and Elath, important Mediterranean seaports. Hebrew scholars now feel that the goddess Ashtoreth mentioned so often in the Bible is a deliberate conflation of the Greek name Astarte and the Hebrew word boshet, "shame," indicating the Hebrew contempt for her cult. Ashtaroth, the plural form of the goddess's name in Hebrew, became a general term denoting goddesses and paganism. King Solomon, married to foreign wives, "went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians" (I Kings 11:5). Later the cult places to Ashtoreth were destroyed by Josiah. Astarte/Ashtoreth is the Queen of Heaven to whom the Canaanites had burned incense and poured libations (Jeremiah 44). Astarte, goddess of war and sexual love, shared so many qualities with her sister, Anath, that they may originally have been seen as a single deity. Their names together are the basis for the Aramaic goddess Atargatis. Astarte was worshiped in Egypt and Ugarit and among the Hittites, as well as in Canaan. Her Akkadian counterpart was Ishtar. Later she became assimilated with the Egyptian deities Isis and Hathor (a goddess of the sky and of women), and in the Greco-Roman world with Aphrodite, Artemis, and Juno, all aspects of the Great Mother.

Bible:

In their wild state doves generally build their nests in the clefts of rocks, but when domesticated "dove-cots" are prepared for them (Cant 2:14; Jeremiah 48:28; Isaiah 60:8). The dove was placed on the standards of the Assyrians and Babylonians in honour, it is supposed, of Semiramis (Jeremiah 25:38; Vulg., "fierceness of the dove;" Compare Jeremiah 46:16; 50:16). Doves and turtle-doves were the only birds that could be offered in sacrifice, as they were clean according to the Mosaic law (Genesis 15:9; Leviticus 5:7; 12:6; Luke 2:24). The dove was the harbinger of peace to Noah (Genesis 8:8,10). It is often mentioned as the emblem of purity (Psalms 68:13). It is a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2; Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32); also of tender and devoted affection (Cant 1:15; 2:14). David in his distress wished that he had the wings of a dove, that he might fly away and be at rest (Psalms 55:6-8). There is a species of dove found at Damascus "whose feathers, all except the wings, are literally as yellow as gold" (68:13).

Genesis 8:8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

Genesis 8:9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

Genesis 8:10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

Genesis 8:11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth [was] an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

Genesis 8:12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

Psalms 55:6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! [for then] would I fly away, and be at rest.

Psalms 68:13 Though ye have lien among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

Song Of Solomon 2:14 O my dove, [that art] in the clefts of the rock, in the secret [places] of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet [is] thy voice, and thy countenance [is] comely.

Song Of Solomon 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: [it is] the voice of my beloved that knocketh, [saying], Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, [and] my locks with the drops of the night.

Song Of Solomon 6:9 My dove, my undefiled is [but] one; she [is] the [only] one of her mother, she [is] the choice [one] of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; [yea], the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

Isaiah 38:14 Like a crane [or] a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail [with looking] upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

Jeremiah 48:28 O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove [that] maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth.

Hosea 7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

Hosea 11:11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.

Matthew 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Mark 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

Luke 3:22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

John 1:32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

  EAGLE

 The royal bird of prey, flies nearest to the sun and has keen vision. Abides in lofty, remote eyrie, descends to earth, catches quadrupeds and ascends to the greatest height of all birds. 

Macrocosmically - The highest spiritual principle in Creation, the threefold Deific Principle which observes all. The kingly aspect of the Divine. 

Microcosmically - The triple, kingly Ego able to contact the Monad (the sun), able also to descend into the personality (a quaternary or 'quadruped'), seize its consciousness and elevate it near to the Monad, the sun. The eagle is the most swift, strong, laborious, generous and noble of all birds.

(Heb. nesher , i.e. a tearer with the beak ). At least four distinct kinds of eagles have been observed in Palestine, viz., the golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos , the spotted eagle, Aquila naevia , the imperial eagle, Aquila heliaca , and the very common Circaetos gallicus . The Hebrew nesher may stand for any of these different species, though perhaps more particular reference to the golden and imperial eagles and the griffon vulture may be intended. The passage in Micah, (Micah 1:16) "enlarge thy baldness as the eagle," may refer to the griffon vulture, Vultur fulvus , in which case the simile is peculiarly appropriate, for the whole head and neck of this bird are destitute of true feathers. The "eagles" of (Matthew 24:28; Luke 17:37) may include the Vultur fulvus and Neophron percnopterus ; though, as eagles frequently prey upon dead bodies, there is no necessity to restrict the Greek word to the Vulturidae . The figure of an eagle is now and has long been a favorite military ensign. The Persians so employed it; a fact which illustrates the passage in (Isaiah 46:11) The same bird was similarly employed by the Assyrians and the Romans.

The eagle's swoop onto a snake was particularly significant because it symbolised what was thought to have happened in the sky in the past and might happen again in the future.

Eagle - SpiritEagle flies fearlessly, bridging heaven and earth, and teaches us to courageously face our fear of the unknown in order to fly as high as our heart's joy can take us.

The Latin name aquila for an eagle points to Ugro-Finnish origins. The Hungarian kvil is light; kivilagit is to illuminate. Greek aigle is a ray. Greek aetos, eagle, resembles Hebrew ayit, bird of prey. The Norse orn, eagle, lived on top of the world tree Yggdrasil. A squirrel, named Ratatosk, carried messages between the eagle and the snake at the foot of the tree.

Orn resembles Greek ornis, bird, and there is even a resemblance to the Hebrew or, light. The Slavonic orel is an eagle.

Sculptured eagles were used as lightning conductors on buildings, as at Delphi.

Hebrew azniya is a kind of eagle. Reversed, this becomes ayin za. Ayin is an eye. The falcon was the lightning symbol of the Egyptians, and was associated with Horus.

The object appearing in Egyptian art and hieroglyphics and called the utchat, or udjat, was the eye of Horus or of Ra.

The osprey, a bird of prey like the eagle, was in Latin sanqualis. As with the eagle, the Romans watched its flight. The name may incorporate sankh; the radiation of the god was thought to give life.

The eagle was the chief of the birds symbolizing the lightning god in the sky.

Native American  -

Bald Eagle (Wanblee)

The bald eagle is a symbol of leadership, and to the Native American it is the creature symbol of greatest power because it flies so high, close to the Great Spirit, and is regarded as the eyes of the all-seeing powers of Wakan Tanka, the one above who created all things. The Indian wore the feathers of the eagle, but this great bird is so highly regarded that each eagle feather had to be earned by the wearer. Deeds of bravery, generosity, self-sacrifice, or provident wisdom could result in the wearing of an eagle feather. An eagle has such good vision and great caution that seldom could a hunter get close enough to bring it down with a bow and arrow. It was regarded so highly that it was believed bad luck would befall any hunter who would shoot such a magnificent bird. The eagle is regarded as the connection to Wakan Tanka. Its feathers are regarded as having brushed the face of God and are used as powerful healing tools. Eagle feathers are also believed to help an individual to gather courage and to maintain courage for a fearless drive to perform a good task or worthwhile deed under difficult conditions.

ALICE BAILEY

The Crucifixion and the Cross of Christ are as old as humanity itself. Both are symbols of the eternal sacrifice of God as He immerses Himself in the form aspect of nature and thus becomes God immanent as well as God transcendent.

We have seen that Christ must be recognized, first of all, in the cosmic sense. The cosmic Christ has existed from all eternity. This cosmic Christ is divinity, or spirit, crucified in space. He personifies the immolation or sacrifice of spirit upon the cross of matter, of form or substance, in order that all divine forms, including the human, may live. This has ever been recognized by the so-called pagan faiths. If the symbolism of the cross is traced far back, it will be found that it antedates Christianity by thousands of years, and that finally, the four arms of the cross will be seen to drop away, leaving only the picture of the living Heavenly Man, with His arms outspread in space. North, south, east and west stands the cosmic Christ upon what is called "the fixed cross of the heavens." Upon this cross God is eternally crucified.

"The sky is mystically spoken of as the Temple and the eternal consciousness of God. Its altar is the sun, whose four arms or rays typify the four corners or the cardinal cross of the universe, which have become the four fixed signs of the Zodiac, and as the four powerful sacred animal signs, are both cosmical and spiritual... These four are known as the consecrated animals of the Zodiac, while the signs themselves represent the basic fundamental elements of life, Fire, Earth, Air and Water."

- The Celestial Ship of the North, by E. V. Straiton, Vol. 1, p. 104. [182]

These four signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, and they constitute pre-eminently the cross of the soul, the cross upon which the second Person of the divine Trinity is crucified. Christ personified in His mission these four aspects, and as the cosmic Christ He exemplified in His Person the qualities for which each sign stood. Even primitive man, unevolved and ignorant, was aware of the significance of the cosmic spirit, immolated in matter and crucified upon the four-armed cross. These four signs are to be found unequivocally in the Bible, and are regarded in our Christian belief as the four sacred animals. The Prophet Ezekiel refers to them in the words:

"As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle." (Ezekiel, I, 10.)

And again in the Book of Revelations, we find the same astrological symbology:

"And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes, before and behind.

"And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast was like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle."

(Rev. IV, 6.7.)

The "face of the man" is the ancient sign of Aquarius, the sign of the man carrying the water-pot, to which Christ referred when He sent His disciples into the city, saying: "Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in." (St. Luke, XXII, 10.) This is the zodiacal sign into which we are entering. It might be as well to point out that this is astronomically true and not simply a pronouncement [183] of the astrologers. The symbol which stands for the zodiacal sign Leo, is the Lion. This sign is the symbol of individuality, and under its influence the race arrives at self-consciousness and men can function as individuals. Christ, in His teaching, emphasized the significance of the individual and in His life demonstrated the supreme value of the individual, his perfecting, his service and his ultimate sacrifice in the interests of the whole. The constellation Aquila is always regarded as interchangeable with the sign Scorpio, the serpent, and it is therefore frequently used in this connection when considering the fixed cross of the cosmic Savior. Scorpio is the serpent of illusion from which the Christ nature finally frees us, and it is to the illusory wiles of this serpent Scorpio that Adam succumbed in the garden of Eden. The "face of the ox" is the biblical symbol for the sign Taurus, the Bull, which was the religion immediately antedating the Jewish revelation, and which found its exponents in Egypt and in the Mithraic Mysteries. Upon this fixed cross all the world Saviors, not excepting the Christ of the West, have been eternally crucified, as reminders to man of the divine intent based upon the divine sacrifice.

 QUAIL :

The behaviour, generally on the ground, of such birds as the quail and the hoopoe.

The quail, ortyx, gives its name to an island: Ortygia is an old name for Delos.

Book of Exodus  16:13 - So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

Book of Numbers 11:31 - Now there went forth a wind from the LORD and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp and about two cubits deep on the surface of the ground. 11:32 - The people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers) and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

Book of Psalms 105:40 - They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

HOOPOE : The hoopoe gave warning when it detected changes in the atmosphere that heralded an electrical storm. It detected earthquake light and piezoelectric charges on split rocks, in the ten or twelve hours before an earthquake.

The Hoopoes are a small Old World family of two or three species (see below) of similar birds. All have long, thin, and decurved bills; broad round wings; square tails crossed by a wide white band, and long erectile crests. This Madagascar Hoopoe (left) has its crest erected. All species also have dramatic black and white wing patterns (the patterns vary between the species) that show in flight or, as below (same bird as upper left), when the bird is preening. Behaviorally, they remind me (a New World resident) of American flickers. Both hoopoes and flickers appear superficial to be birds of the trees (and both nest in tree cavities), but each spend most of their foraging time on the ground, probing the leaf-litter. Hoopoes are exotic in appearance, but they are open-country birds -- birds of savanna and broken woodlands -- and do not occur in dense jungle (e.g., absent from rain forests of the Congo basin).

The hoopoe was the chief of the birds that detected the electrical god in the earth. Its name, epops, beholder, indicates that it could see the earthquake light. [Japanese and American scientists are now studying such phenomena.] In the Birds of Aristophanes, a character says Quiet! The hoopoe is going to sing! A few moments later, the hoopoe begins its song. Probably the hoopoe is on stage and it is the hoopoe's crest that attracts attention.

The Greek horan, to see, has a perfect tense opopa, sometimes used instead of the usual form heoraka. The hoopoe was the bird that saw, and there was a frieze of hoopoes at Knosos, the place of gnosis, getting to know. We have already seen that the name of the hoopoe in The Birds is Tereus, a word that comes from the Greek tereo, I observe.

The Hebrew for a hoopoe is dukhiphat. Duch is a Slavonic word meaning 'spirit'; phat is a Greek root meaning revelation, either by sound or by sight.

The word bird is mentioned in the Glorious Quran 5 times and the word birds occurs in the Noble Quran 13 times. Among the birds, the hoopoe (hud-hud in Arabic) has been specifically mentioned twice in Surah #27, An-Naml, in the following manner:

“And he sought among the birds and said: How is it that I see not the hoopoe, or is he among the absent?” Surah 27:20 (Verse)

“But the hoopoe tarried not far: he compassed (territory) which thou has not compassed and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true.” Surah 27:22 (Verse)

When threatened by a bird of prey, the hoopoe flattens itself against the ground and spreads its tail and wings. The head is thrown back and the bill points straight up. Whatever this indicates, it does seem to discourage potential enemies.

Messenger of Prophets

Prophet Solomon was a king and the ruler of Syria and Palestine whose armies consisted of troops made of men, Jinn and birds. It is possible that the birds were employed for communicating the messages, hunting and for other suitable services.

In the Quran (27:20) we read that Prophet Solomon reviewed his birds and found the hoopoe (hud-hud) missing. His most mobile arm was the birds, which were light on the wing and flew and saw everything like efficient scouts. Prophet Solomon expressed his anger and his desire to punish the hoopoe severely if it did not present itself before him with a reasonable excuse. Within a short while the hoopoe returned saying,

“I have obtained knowledge of things which you have no knowledge. I have brought sure information about Saba (Sheba, a well-known rich people of southern Arabia, now the present day Yemen. Their capitol city was Ma’rib which lay about 55 miles to the north­east of Sana, the present capitol of Yemen). There I have seen a woman ruling over her people: she has been given all sorts of provisions, and she has a splendid throne. I saw that she and her people prostrate themselves before the sun, instead of Allah!"

Prophet Solomon said, “We shall just now see whether what you say is true, or that you are a liar. Take this letter of mine and cast it before them; then get aside and see what reaction they show.” Qur’an, 27: 27-28.

Here ends the role of the hoopoe. Some people have interpreted that hoopoe (hud-bud) was the name of a man and not a bird, because a bird could not possibly be endowed with such powers of observation, discrimination and expression that it should pass over a country and should come to know that it is the land of Saba, it has such and such a system of government, it is ruled by a certain woman (Bilquis), its religion is sun-worship, that it should have worshipped One God instead of having gone astray, and then on its return to Prophet Solomon it should so clearly make a report of all its observations before him. The counter-argument is that inspite of great advances in science and technology, man cannot tell with absolute certainty what powers and abilities the different species of animals and their different individuals possess? Man has not so far been able to know through any certain means what different animals know and what they see and hear; what they feel, think and understand; or how the mind of each one of them works. Yet, whatever little observation has been made of the life of the different species of animals, it has revealed some of their wonderful abilities. Now, when Allah, Who is the Creator of these animals, tells us that He had taught the speech of the birds to one of His Prophets and blessed him with the ability to speak to them, and the Prophet’s taming and training had so enabled a hoopoe (hud-hud) that it could make certain observations about foreign lands and could report them to the Prophet, then the above said interpreters should be prepared to revise their little knowledge about the animals in the light of Allah’s statement. Books such as “When Elephants Weep” and other books on dogs, cats and ants throw light on animal intelligence, thinking and behavior.

See: http://www.islamonline.net/English/Science/2002/09/article11.shtml

FALCON

The buteo, falcon, was watched for its flight. The ibis, which had great skill in killing snakes, was associated with the god Thoth, who was equated with the Greek Hermes and was the Egyptian electrical god par excellence.

Falcon / Hawk byk - The sacred bird of the falcon-headed solar god Horus, it was also regarded as his Ba. The falcon was a bird that had protective powers, and was frequently linked with royalty, where it was depicted as hovering over the head of the pharaoh, with outstretched wings. The falcon was also sacred to Montu, god of war, and Sokar, god of the Memphite necropolis. The bird of prey was sometimes associated with Hathor, 'The House of Horus'. The son of Horus, Qebehsenuef who guarded the canopic jar of the intestines, was a falcon-headed god. The human headed ba-bird was sometimes given the body of a falcon.

Sacred to Horus, the falcon (or hawk) was thought to be the guardian of the ruler, and is frequently found as spreading its wings protectively behind the head of the pharaoh. At Saqqara during the Late Period, there was a catacomb build for mummified falcons. These birds, though, were shown to be of different types of birds of prey, not just the falcon. To the Egyptians, the Horus-falcon may have been regarded as interchangeable with a whole range of different birds of prey.

The ubiquitous Eye of Horus symbol of ancient Egyptian religion can be quite readily shown to have been inspired by the "Eye of God" aka "Eye in the Sky" that is manifested in the heavens above our planet Earth during most if not all total eclipses of the sun. Horus, the famous solar falcon god of ancient Egypt, was quite evidently inspired by the "winged disk" or the "Bird of the Sun" that is readily perceivable within the sun's corona during those total eclipses of the sun in which the streamers of the sun's corona are concentrated into the sun's equatorial regions and thus appear very much like a bird's wings spreading out on either side of the so-called "black sun" that is formed by the dark circle of the occulting disk of the moon. The ancient Egyptian myth of the cosmic battle between the solar falcon god Horus and the sun eating serpent god Set was quite evidently inspired by total solar eclipses as the British Museum's reputed Egyptologist EA Wallis Budge noted well over a century ago. In fact, the solar falcon god Horus is very clearly spoken of as assuming the form of a gigantic "winged disk" in some versions of this ancient Egyptian solar eclipse myth.

The Eye of Horus symbol does not usually show the wings of the solar falcon god however the Egyptians also had a closely related winged version of their total solar eclipse inspired udjat eye symbol. I expect that the wingless Eye of Horus symbol is essentially a winged udjat eye symbol from which the wings of the coronal SunBird have been deliberately removed in order to emphasize the religious attribute of this sky god's divine omniscience that is allegorized by the striking similarity in appearance of the totally eclipsed sun to an "Eye of God". The "solar eye" nature of the Eye of Horus symbol is clearly revealed by the fact that some versions of this ancient Egyptian religious symbol clearly depict the pupil and iris of the "Eye of Horus" as red sun disk with a central black dot

See: http://eyeofhorussymbol.homestead.com/

Anti:  Egyptian guardian deity. Depicted as a falcon or with a falcon's head, often standing on a crescent-shaped boat.

Behedti: Egyptian god in the form of a crouching falcon. Worshipped at Behdet (Edfu), he later was identified as a local form of the god Horus.

Chenti-cheti: Originally an Egyptian crocodile god, he later took on the form of a falcon.

Chenti-irti (Machenti-irti) Egyptian falcon-god of law and order, identified with Horus.

Hemen: Egyptian falcon-god.

Horus (Egyptian Har or Hor)  Egyptian sky god. Usually depicted as a falcon or in human form with the head of a falcon. The sun and the moon are said to be his eyes. Son of Isis and the dead Osiris. He was born at Khemmis in the Nile Delta, and Isis hid him in the papyrus marshes to protect him against Seth, his father's murderer.   Horus later avenged the death of his father against Seth. Horus lost his left eye (the moon) in the contest between the two. Horus was identified with Lower Egypt and Seth with Upper Egypt in this battle, which lasted eighty years. The gods judged Horus to be the winner, and Seth was either killed or castrated. The consequence of Horus's victory was the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Egyptian pharaoh was believed to be an incarnation of Horus, and the name of Horus formed part of his name. The pharaoh was said to become Horus after death. Seth restored the eye he had torn from Horus, but Horus gave it instead to Osiris. The image of the "eye of Horus", a human eye combined with the cheek markings of a falcon, became a powerful amulet among the Egyptians.

Among the various manifestations of Horus are:

Harpokrates (Heru-Pa-Khret, Harpakhrad) : "Horus the child". This refers to his birth and secret rearing by Isis. In this form he is often depicted as a naked child seated on Isis's lap.

Haroeris (Har Wer): "Horus the elder". In this form Horus battled against Seth.

Harakhte (Harakhti, Heraktes) : "Horus of the horizon". Horus at Heliopolis, linked with Ra in the sun cult. In this form he is associated with the rising sun.

Harendotes (Har-nedj-itef, Har-End-Yotef): "Horus the saviour of his father" A reference to the avenging of his father's murder.

Harmachis (Heru-Em-Akhet, Harmakis) : "Horus in the horizon". Horus as symbol of resurrection, linked with the setting sun.

Harsiesis (Harsiese, Har-si-Ese, Hor-Sa-Iset): "Horus, son of Isis".

Harsomtus (Har-mau): "Horus the uniter" This is a reference to his role in uniting Upper and Lower Egypt.

Hor Behdetite (Behedti): "Horus of Behdet". Originally a local form of Horus as Behdet in the Delta region. In this form he was symbolized by the winged solar disk.

Nenun:  Egyptian falcon-god.

Qebhsnuf: Egyptian son of Horus, Canopic guardian of the viscera after mummification. He was represented as a mummified man with the head of a falcon.

Egyptian goddess. Re (Ra)  Egyptian sun god and creator god. He is usually depicted in human form with a falcon head, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus (a stylized representation of the sacred asp). The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye. His principal cult centre was at Heliopolis. Re was also considered to be an underworld god, closely associated in this respect with Osiris. By the third millennium B.C. Re's prominence had already become such that the pharaohs took to styling themselves "sons of Re". According to one tradition, Re is said to have created himself out of the mound that grew from the primeval lotus blossom. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. Another tradition states that Re created mankind from his own tears.

William Butler Yeats’ wrote :

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction; while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Total solar eclipses most probably inspired the Nazca Lines biomorph geoglyphs in Peru, the Uffington White Horse in England (total solar eclipses of 1168 and 1184 BCE), Ohio's Great Serpent Mound and other such gigantic ground drawings that are best viewed from the sky. There is abundant evidence in the religious iconography of the Southern Cult that its "myths and monsters", like those of many other ancient cultures, were inspired by total solar eclipses. The "sophisticated astronomical system" of the Southern Cult may provide evidence that solar eclipses were important cosmic events that the Southern Cult tried to predict.

A bird-like pattern is clearly manifested within the sun's corona during some total solar eclipses. This "sunbird" evidently inspired the Egyptian winged sun symbol, the anthropomorphic solar falcon god Horus, and the bennu bird which we know as the proverbial phoenix. The very same coronal "sunbird" almost certainly inspired the Southern Cult's own "supernatural" Bird-man (who is most probably an anthropomorphic sun god avatar) and its own "solar falcon" analogous to Horus. The large bird effigy mounds contained within circles probably depict this "supernatural" coronal "sunbird." The "weeping-eye motif" is most likely the Southern Cult's equivalent of the Egyptian "Eye of Horus" symbol which was inspired by the "Eye of God" and "sunbird" that are manifested in the heavens during totality. Some drawings of coronal patterns made by19th century astronomers distinctly resemble the Southern Cult's "weeping-eye motif." Further south the regalia of Mayan and Aztec priests and rulers emulated this coronal "sunbird" as evidenced by the winged anthropomorphic sun god pectorals that they wore over their hearts.

This crop circle appeared in England in June 12, 2009
Yatesbury, nr Cherhill, Wiltshire
Image by John Montgomery - Copyright 2009

See: http://southernculticonography.homestead.com/archaeologymagazineletter.html

  HERON:  

Latin ardea is a heron. It was noted for the long crest on its head. Of the two elements of the word, ar is clearly the fire. Dea is rather less obvious, but Hebrew dea, knowledge, is an attractive possibility. Ardea was the name of an Etruscan city near Rome, capital of the Rutuli.

Heron bnw - The bnw-bird was represented as a heron, and was thought to be the original phoenix - it was a bird of the sun and rebirth, the sacred bird of Heliopolis, closely linked to the primeval mound. It was also thought to be the Ba of both Ra and Osiris.

(Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18), ranked among the unclean birds. The Hebrew name is 'Anaphah , and indicates that the bird so named is remarkable for its angry disposition. "The herons are wading-birds, peculiarly irritable, remarkable for their voracity, frequenting marshes and oozy rivers, and spread over the regions of the East." The Ardea russeta, or little golden egret, is the commonest species in Asia.

Deuteronomy 14:11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat.
14:12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey,
14:13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,
14:14 And every raven after his kind,
14:15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind,
14:16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,
14:17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
14:18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
14:19 And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.
14:20 But of all clean fowls ye may eat.
14:21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

PEACOCK

Macrocosmically - The hundred-eyed 'Deity', the all-observant Divine Intelligence and the all-seeing eye, represented by the peacock's 'many-eyed' tail. 

Microcosmically - The Ego in the Causal Body which participates in, or 'sees' through the mind, all the actions of the personality. When 'awake' or Causal consciousness gained, then the human becomes divine. 

Cf. Serpent to Eve: "For God doth know that in the 
day yet eat thereof [the fruit of the Tree of knowledge], 
then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God, 
knowing good and evil.'

The spiritual understanding and vision (eyes) are then opened. Ego and personality are one. 

Cf. Kaballah: "The eyes of the White Head"
are diverse from all other eyes. Above the eye is
no eyelid (never closed), neither is there any eyebrow
over it ... this eye is ever closed and there are two
converted into one. All is right; there is no left.
He slumbered not; he requireth not protection."

The peacock symbolises these same and other powers and attributes in God and man. 

The peacock was sacred to Juno. Its Latin name was pavo. Perhaps the pattern on its tail, resembling eyes, associated it with radiation. Its name resembles the Latin pavor, fear. The name of Juno's Greek counterpart, the goddess Hera, suggests fear. In Egyptian, her, hra, mean 'face; upon'. Herit means 'fear'. It is possible that Hera was originally thought of as the atmosphere surrounding the planet that the Romans called Jupiter.

It was known that the peacock sheds its feathers from time to time. This may explain the hoplitodromos at Athens, a race by hoplites, armed soldiers, wearing nothing but helmets.

Yezidism

The Yezidi religion is one of the most unusual religions one earth. It has survived despite its status as an unrecognized religion under Islamic rule, and through many onslaughts against it's Kurdish followers. The Kurds live in a largely autonomous region between northern Iraq and Turkey, where they are considered a threat to both the Turkish government and the Iraqi rule of Saddam Hussein. Yezidism (alternative spellings: Yazidism or Ezidism) is an ancient religion (probably more accurately, a syncretistic religious mixture) that has existed amongst the Kurds of Kurdistan – a region (not officially recognised) taking in areas of Northern Iraq, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Syria. The Yezidi religion was, in the past, regarded as the main religion of the Kurds scattered across these various countries and areas.

There is no specific Yezidi Holy text, but important information about Yezidi practices is contained in the Mes'haf i Resh, or "black book" attributed to Adi's son, and the Jelwa, or "book of revelation," a brief homily attributed to Adi. Neither book is considered sacred, however- Yezidi tradition is strictly oral, and consists of hymns and prayers. Literacy is not prized in the community, and was once taboo.

Yezidi feast days follow the Zoroastrian/Mithraic calendar. The most important Feast day is that of Jam, when the various Yezidi groups converge on Lalish, the burial place of Adi. During the Jam, the Peacock icon, representing Malek Taus, is presented to the worshippers during a seven day celebration. It coincides with an ancient Zoroastrian feast day, one of many coincidences that lead some scholars to make a connection between the two religions.

Yezidi beliefs are a complicated mixture of ancient Mesopotamian religion with elements of Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, and Mithraism. Worship centers around Angels (Yezidi is derived from the Arabic word for 'angel'), the most important of which is named Melek Taus, or the "Peacock Angel," also known as Lucifer. Lucifer plays a different role in Yezidism than in other faiths, where he is considered the chief Archangel, and the creator of the material world. In Yezidi belief, Lucifer is not a fallen angel, or the enemy of God. In Yezidi cosmology, the universal Spirit (the Supreme deity) created a pearl, which became broken after forty thousand years. Melek, or Lucifer, used the remains of the pearl to create the material world. After this creation, the Spirit created the remaining Angels. Yezidi theology claims that Lucifer was forgiven for his transgressions, and those who revere him are the spiritual elect of humanity. They are forbidden from referring to him as Satan.

NEWS:  Peacock sparks row over Kavady flag

Temples told rooster is correct symbol

Thabo Mkhize

Feathers have been ruffled in the Hindu community because some temples used a symbol of a peacock rather than a rooster on their flags for Kavady festivals.

The rooster symbol has been widely used for more than a century, but some temples have irked devotees by replacing it with the peacock.

Temple officials offer different interpretations of the symbolic significance of the rooster and the peacock. Some say that the rooster signifies humility while the peacock represents the ego, pride, deception, greed and vanity.

Three Hindu temples, including the Shri Vaithianatha Easvarar Alayam in Umgeni Road, the oldest and largest in the country, used the peacock.

The festival of Kavady is celebrated at scores of temples in South Africa and Asia during January and February to honour the Hindu god of healing, Lord Muruga.

Hundreds of devotees carry heavy wooden structures adorned with rows of mandarin-coloured marigolds to offer thanksgiving.

The Devasthanam Foundation of South African Indian Temples - an organisation representing most temples in the country - recently convened an urgent meeting after complaints over the use of the peacock flag.

Gonaseelan Moopanar, chairman of the foundation, said at the meeting it had been confirmed that the rooster was the correct symbol, not the peacock.

Moopanar said his organisation was working towards bringing about unification in the Hindu religion regarding religious practices.

It was trying to resolve the issue of the flags "to avoid further confusion".

"We have received complaints from devotees who were confused about what was happening with the different flags being raised, especially the replacing of the traditional image of a rooster with a peacock.

"According to religious scriptures and the teaching of our elders, the rooster is the correct symbol. It has been the symbol for many years.

"The peacock symbolises the transport for Lord Muruga, but the rooster is the victory flag.

"Many devotees are dissatisfied with the change in flags. The temples using the peacock are going against the scriptures, going against the religion and are confusing devotees," said Moopanar.

But the chairman of the Umgeni Road Temple, Selvan Thaver, said that they had changed the flag only after being instructed to do so by a priest from India, Raja Gurukkal.

"The fax sent to us said the correct symbol was a peacock and not a rooster, and we did as we were told. We later realised that we had made a mistake. We should not have changed it, because we broke an age-old tradition and devotees were very unhappy with the change."

Thaver said they "wanted to restore the rooster" but decided against it to avoid creating more confusion.

"Our priest said it would look comical if we changed it again. So we will continue using the peacock and devotees will have to get used to it," he said.

George Govender, secretary of the Devasthanam Foundation, said foreign priests, especially those from Sri Lanka, had been instrumental in changing the rooster symbol to the peacock.

Govender said the rooster represented humility, while the peacock represented ego, pride, deception, greed and vanity - which were not promoted by the Hindu religion.

Morgan Govender, a priest at the Shree Emperumal Temple in Mt Edgecombe, said the rooster signified the victory of Lord Muruga, while the peacock was just his chariot.

"These temples with the peacock have to rectify their mistake because this will cause serious confusion among devotees.

"We are not going to criticise or condemn temples displaying the peacock, but we would advise them to rectify their mistake," he said.

HINDU: MURUKAN:  Sri Jñana Pandita: Murugan as Expositor of Gñosis with His symbols the Vel or Spear of Wisdom and vehicle/totem the peacock = Phoenix. Behind Him dawns the rising sun symbolising the awakened mind (bodhi).

The peacock is the most important animal in Murukan symbolism. The colour and fertility of the bird equated with the vibrant hills and its beauty was like that of women and fresh vegetation. The peacock danced in the rain and so brought rain like Murukan did. Peacock feathers decorated the kuntu, small pillar, used in worship, and the lance of war and worship. Later the peacock became the mount of Murukan and flew around the world and to the heavens. When the peacock holds a serpent in claws or beak, this symbolizes its control of malevolent cosmic forces. By the medieval period the peacock is also a symbol of the ocean. As a cosmic symbol the peacock represents totality as does Murukan.

The cock and elephant are also important animals with Murukan. Of minor importance are the ram, goat, horse, and serpent.

Murukan's weapon is the lance, commonly the leaf-shaped Tamil vel, sometimes the Sanskrit sakti. The priest of Murukan is the velan, a bearer of the lance. When Murukan holds the lance as sakti, he and his lance symbolize Siva-Sakti, the cosmic pair, god and soul, heaven and earth, god and world. The two extremes of the cosmos, earth symbolized by the peacock and primordial sound symbolized by the cock, are held together by the lance.

Murukan is worshipped with water, coconut milk, sandal paste, red millet, honey, rice, blood, and red, yellow, or white flowers.

Goddess Saraswati

Saraswati is the consort of Lord Brahma and is the Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge. She is the personification of knowledge - arts, science, crafts. She represents Shakti, creativity and inspiration and presents herself when the weather is complacement and Nature is in its full grandeur.

Goddess Sarawasti is represented as a graceful woman with white skin, wearing a crescent moon on her brow, she rides a swan or a peacock or is seated on a lotus flower. The Padmapurana describes Goddess Saraswati being seated on a white Lotus clad in a spotless white apparel ( denotes that She is the embodiment of pure knowledge) with a necklace of white beads, decked with white flowers and holding the Vina.

As the spouse of Brahma and the goddess of wisdom and eloquence, Saraswati is known by various names such as Vinapani (due to holding the Vina), Sharada (giver of essence), Vagisvari (mistress of speech), Brahmi (wife of Brahma), Mahavidya (knowledge supreme), Satarupa, Sarbasukla, Mahasweta and so on.

Peacock - Wholeness.This bird, honored around the world for the beauty of its feathers, has also an association with resurrection. For us it can help in sheedding the old and drab feathers of the past and to claim our the true beauty of our individual natures. As such, it helps to enhance confidence and self-esteem.

Aesop's Fables

Translated by George Fyler Townsend

The Peacock and Juno

THE PEACOCK made complaint to Juno that, while the nightingale pleased every ear with his song, he himself no sooner opened his mouth than he became a laughingstock to all who heard him. The Goddess, to console him, said, "But you far excel in beauty and in size. The splendor of the emerald shines in your neck and you unfold a tail gorgeous with painted plumage." "But for what purpose have I," said the bird, "this dumb beauty so long as I am surpassed in song?' "The lot of each," replied Juno, "has been assigned by the will of the Fates--to thee, beauty; to the eagle, strength; to the nightingale, song; to the raven, favorable, and to the crow, unfavorable auguries. These are all contented with the endowments allotted to them."

GOOSE:

The great significance of the goose may be due to the appearance of a heavenly body such as a comet, with wing-like protuberances. Aphrodite is portrayed riding on a goose. The goose has a long neck, and hisses like a snake.

The goose was the sacred bird of Odin.

Goose gb - The goose was the sacred animal of Geb, who was also known as 'The Great Cackler' when he was in goose form, and had the sign of the goose as his headdress. Isis was sometimes described as 'the egg of the goose', being the daughter of Geb.

The Nile goose had often the run of the house and the garden in spite of its vile temper. There were sacred lakes around Egypt that were home to the sacred geese, where they were well looked after.

NATIVE AMERICANS  Canada Goose - Sacred Circle. The migration of Canada Geese marks the passages of the Great Circle of the Year, and reminds us of the sacredness of the cycles of our own life. We can also learn from the cooperative and communal behavior of these birds, which never abandon a sick or wounded member of the flock. They know when to lead or follow and when to seek guidance.

Sacred and Profane Geese

The goose, a stupid, quarrelsome and inelegant bird has a sacred history, being associated with Osiris in Egypt and Juno in Rome. Cupid was often sighted riding on a goose before he grew wings of his own and the Mother Goose of fairy tale also possessed the craft to get them airborne. Juno had a partiality for bonding with birds and in her Dublin reincarnation she would be saddled in her turn, though by a paycock. The domestic history of the goose is brief: its fate was to be clipped and fattened for the table, its feathers good enough stuffing for beds. Only the finest of its quills might have the honour to be chosen to furnish the flights of arrows.

Caesar said the goose was sacred to Celtic tribes and was not considered edible, because of her connection with the Sun-Egg. For similar reasons, medieval superstition forbade the killing of a goose in midwinter, when the sun was thought to be in need of maternal care to gain strength for the new seasons. Like other formerly sacred creatures, geese were said to contain souls of the unbaptized (pagans).

Finland: Our ancestors had a free imagination and we see often strange symbols or odd symbols. The old law of Island was called Gragàs, which surely means, "grey goose". Maybe it was to remind that law thing had always been in autumn, when we have the Morten Goose or the "blot" and guzzling the goose after the slaughter. As always most of our ancestors were practical and the mind and heart was in the stomach.

It is well known that the capitol of Rome was on one occasion saved when on the point of being surprised by the Gauls in the dead of night, by the cackling of the geese sacred to Juno, kept in the temple of Jupiter. * The accompanying woodcut * proves that the goose in Asia Minor was the symbol of Cupid, just as it was the symbol of Seb in Egypt. In India, the goose occupied a similar position; for in that land we read of the sacred "Brahmany goose," or goose sacred to Brahma. * Finally, the monuments of Babylon show * that the goose possessed a like mystic character in Chaldea, and that it was offered in sacrifice there, as well as in Rome or Egypt, for there the priest is seen with the goose in the one hand, and his sacrificing knife in the other. * There can be no doubt, then, that the Pagan festival at the winter solstice - in other words, Christmas - was held in honour of the birth of the Babylonian Messiah.

    IBIS: a form of Tehuti (ibis-headed) as wisdom. The ibis lives on cobras and so saves lives. the poisonous serpent means creative force misused. Eaten by ibis shows man protected and saved by Wisdom. Tehuti, who in this (only) portrays Buddhi in Manas, the master of the heart and reason in all men, the Savior. 

Swamp and Marsh mean both lower astral and the primitive, primeval state from and within which life is created and formed. Cf. Moses in the bulrushes and the Zulu tradition, ' that ancestor, called Unkulunkulu, branched off from a reed or came from a bed of reeds.' 

In ancient Egypt, Horus, the younger, had been immaculately born to Isis and brought up in the marshes of the Nile Delta, representing, Macrocosmically, the universe 'born' out of primeval slime as a result of active creative power. Misused by man, the macrocosm, the creative power becomes poisonous, evil, death-dealing. 

The ibis eats the snakes and so prevents the danger. Tehuti as wisdom illumines man and 'saves' him from this sin and its poisonous effects.

This is probably part of the reason for the ibis head of Tehuti.

Ibis hb - Regarded as the reincarnation of Thoth, the sacred ibis was sacred to the god of knowledge, who had the form of an ibis-headed man. The Akhu, part of the soul, was written with the sign of a crested ibis, known as the Akhu-bird.

The ibis, sacred birth of Thoth, was relatively common throughout Egypt until the 19th Century, but now has almost disappeared. Sacred ibises were mummified during the Late Period and Ptolemaic times, and buried in large numbers in different catacombs through Egypt. There were three types of ibis in Egypt - the sacred ibis, the hermit ibis and the glossy ibis. The hermit ibis is not a waterside bird, so it is depicted less frequently than the other two birds that were common along the banks of the Nile.

Ibises were sacred because they had secret knowledge: They showed up shortly before the annual floods. The ibis-headed god, Thoth, was a scribe, whose pen repeatedly dipped in ink in a manner that the long beaks of the ibises dipped into the mud. Egyptians also saw a mysterious connection between the sickle-bills of the ibises and the crescent moon.

The Australian White Ibis (Sacred Ibis) Threskiornis molucca (T. aethiopica) is often seen at Bushy Park Wetlands. It is a large 66-76 cm, stocky bird with a long dark down-curved bill. Head and neck are black and the iris of the eye is dark brown. The body is white although often stained light brown. Secondary plumes and wing tips are black. Legs and feet are reddish brown. The sexes are similar with little seasonal variation, but juveniles have a dusky head.

This bird belongs to an ancient group, with fossil records going back some 60 million years.

Records of the Sacred Ibis in human history go back some 5,000 years. Ancient Egyptians venerated it and made it an integral part of their religion. Carvings of the Sacred Ibis are found in many Egyptian monuments and they were also mummified and buried in the temples with the pharaohs.

Sacred Animal Cults

The importance of these cults began to rise in the late New Kingdom and was at its peak during the Late Period (747-332) and the Ptolemeian Period. Its origin goes back into the beginnings of Egyptian history as the worship of gods in animals form.

After c 700 bc. sometimes the whole species of certain animals were considered sacred, like the ibis (sacred to Thoth) or the falcon (a symbol of Horus and Osiris). Ptolemeian rulers patronized ancient cults like the Apis, Mnevis and Buchis bulls. In the case of the Apis bull, only one individual animal was sacred at a time, chosen depending of its´ individual markings, kept and later buried at Saqqara with elaborate rituals.

Bast, while an ancient female deity appearing in anthropoid form with a cat´s head, was now reemerging in cat form and enjoyed a great popularity among both Egyptians and Greeks, who likened her to their own Artemis. Her main center of worship was at Bubastis in the Delta, and cemeteries with mummified cats have been found there as well as at Saqqara near Memphis.

At Saqqara and at Tuna el-Gebel has also been found mummified and buried in subterranean galleries ibises and baboons sacred to Thoth. At Elephantine rams sacred to Khnum were mummified and buried with crowns on their head in large sarcophagi. Both at Kom Ombo and at Faiyum were found mummified crocodiles.

The Scarlet Ibis, most beautiful of all the Ibis family, derives its name from the Greek meaning “religious worship, sacred bird”. This is an ancient group whose fossil records go back 60 million years. Their record in human history has been traced back 5000 years. The Ancient Egyptians venerated the old world “Sacred Ibis” as part of their religion, and often mummified the birds and buried them in temples and with Pharaohs. There are 33 species of Ibises in the world. They are found in North America, Africa, Madagascar, Eurasia (except the northern areas), Australia and Central and South America.

Thoth. God of writing and knowledge, depicted in the form of two animals: the baboon and the sacred ibis. By the end of the Old Kingdom he was most frequently portrayed as an ibis-headed man, usually holding a scribal palette and a pen or a notched palm leaf. He was also often shown recording the results of the "weighing of the heart" of the deceased, and sometimes in addition, he is shown as a baboon perched on top of the scales.

The Egyptian gods were represented with human torsos and human or animal heads. Sometimes the animal or bird expressed the characteristics of the god. Ra, for example, had the head of a hawk, and the hawk was sacred to him because of its swift flight across the sky; Hathor, the goddess of love and laughter, was given the head of a cow, which was sacred to her; Anubis was given the head of a jackal because these animals ravaged the desert graves in ancient times; Mut was vulture headed and Thoth was ibis headed; and Ptah was given a human head, although he was occasionally represented as a bull, called Apis. Because of the gods to which they were attached, the sacred animals were venerated, but they were never worshiped until the decadent 26th Dynasty. The gods were also represented by symbols, such as the sun disk and hawk wings that were worn on the headdress of the pharaoh.

OSTRICH:

Ostrich nyw - Ma'at, the personification of order, was shown as a seated woman wearing an ostrich feather as her headdress or as the feather itself.

Maat Depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather headdress, was associated with order, truth, right rule and justice.

The Dogon myths tell the legend of the Nommos, who arrived in a vessel along with fire and thunder. After they arrived here - they put out a reservoir of water onto the Earth then dove into the water. There are references in the oral traditions, drawings and tablets of the Dogons, to human-looking beings who have feet but who are portrayed as having a large fish skin running down their bodies. The Nommos were more fishlike than human and had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings." The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the Earth, this time in human form. Similar creatures have been noted in other ancient civilizations -- Babylonia's Oannes, Acadia's Ea, Sumer's Enki, and Egypt's goddess Isis. The photographs show Binu shrines near Sangha and Arou-by-Ibi (the ostrich eggs atop the roof spires symbolize fertility and purity).

See:  http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/dogon.html

The greatest theologic system was that of the kingdom of Osiris. This was a counterpart of the earthly life, but was reserved for the worthy. All the dead belonged to Osiris and were brought before him for judgment. The protest of being innocent of the forty-two sins was made, and then the heart was weighed against truth, symbolised by the ostrich feather, the emblem of the goddess of truth. From this feather, the emblem of lightness, being placed against the heart in weighing, it seems that sins were considered to weigh down the heart, and its lightness required to be proved. Thoth, the god who recorded the weighing, then stated that the soul left the judgment hall true of voice with his heart and members restored to him, and that he should follow Osiris in his kingdom. This kingdom of Osiris was at first thought of as being in the marsh lands of the Delta; when these became familiar it was transferred to Syria, and finally to the northeast of the sky, where the milky way became the heavenly Nile. The main occupation in this kingdom was agriculture, as on earth; the souls ploughed the land, sowed the corn, and reaped the harvest of heavenly maize, taller and fatter than any of this world. In this land they rowed on the heavenly streams, they sat in shady arbors, and played the games which they had loved. But the cultivation was a toil, and therefore it was to be done by numerous serfs. In the beginning of the monarchy it seems that the servants of the king were all buried around him to serve him in the future; from the second to the twelfth dynasty we lose sight of this idea, and then we find slave figures buried in the tombs. These figures were provided with the hoe for tilling the soil, the pick for breaking the clods, a basket for carrying the earth, a pot for watering the crops, and they were inscribed with an order to respond for their master when he was called on to work in the fields. In the eighteenth dynasty the figures sometimes have actual tool models buried with them; but usually the tools are in relief or painted on the figure. This idea continued until the less material view of the future life arose in Greek times; then the deceased man was said to have "gone to Osiris" in such a year of his age, but no slave figures were laid with him. This view of the future is complete in itself, and is appropriately provided for in the tomb.

Shu was the god of space, who lifted up Nut from off the body of Seb. He was often represented, especially in late amulets; possibly it was believed that he would likewise raise up the body of the deceased from earth to heaven. His figure is entirely human, and he kneels on one knee with both hands lifted above his head. He was regarded as the father of Seb, the earth having been formed from space or chaos. His emblem was the ostrich feather, the lightest and most voluminous object.

The tall hats and horned crowns worn by African chiefs resemble the White Crown and horned crowns worn by Osiris. Examples are given among the Bayanzi, Imbangela, Lomani, Lulongo-Maringo, Bangala, N. Ngombe and Alunda. Two ostrich feathers decorate the White Crown of Osiris. These feathers are worn by various peoples in Africa also.

Babylonians/Gilgamesh  We've seen before that official religion was the state ideology of Mesopotamian civilization. Political and social order depended on the approval of the gods, on divine sanction. The most visible parts of Mesopotamian religion was devoted to shoring up that order. The god who patronized the city, gods and goddesses who had major temples, were the recipients of royal treatment -- it seems in fact that the chief statues of the gods, which were considered to hold the spirit of the divinities they depicted, were treated very much like the human kings.

Goods and services were devoted to satisfying the gods' human-like needs. On a daily basis they were fed -- real food in large amounts was trucked in and offered to the statues. A very late text, dating from around 300 B.C., when Macedonian monarchs still honored the gods of Uruk, shows that those gods ate 500 kg of bread, 40 sheep, 2 bulls, 1 bullock, 8 lambs, 70 birds and ducks, 4 wild boars, 3 ostrich egss, 54 containers of beer and wine, and dates, figs and raisins every day (Oates). Food was actually set before the god, who was set apart by a curtain during the meal. When he or she was done, the uneaten food was sent to the king's table; other excess food went to the temple staff. These kinds of offerings certainly kept the priests from being out of pocket. The whole process had its mythological justification: the whole purpose of humanity was to feed the gods in a ritual manner devised by the immortals themselves

The gods also had their festivals, which included processions and public rituals, including the parading of the gods through the streets. We have the record of the major spring and New Years' festival of Babylon in about 600 B.C. Though the Sumerian language and people had long been forgotten,the religious style they founded survived. The 6th century festival was eleven days long, and included many elements. There was a public recitation of the Epic of Creation, which may have been acted out like a medieval mystrery play; there was the arrival of the god Nabu from the nearby town of Borsippu, to honor Marduk, Babylon's civic god. There was a ritual humiliation of the king, who had his regalia removed by the high priest, and then was slapped and pinched and made to crouch down before Marduk and assure the god that he, the king, had not neglected the god or temple or committed any sins during the preceding year. The king was then restored to his state, and later the same day participated in the sacrifice of a white bull. Towards the end of the festival, the king led Marduk out to another temple in a great ceremony. There was also a Sacred Marriage, in which Marduk was provided with a wife, a real human woman who spent the night alone in a chamber at the top of the ziggurat. At least, that is how Herodotus, a much later Greek historian, says it worked {Oates, 175-176; Herodotus, 1.181, p. 114}. (Sacred sex between humans representing the gods and godesses was a common part of Mesopotamian and Middle Eastern religion from the earliest times. Many temples supported sacred prostitutes, whom male worshippers consorted with, to encourage fertility.)

See:  http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/2055/l06anc.htm

Madame Blavatsky traces the working of the septenates in nature through many forms not commonly thought of. Many normal and abnormal processes have one or more weeks (seven days) as their period, such as the gestation of animals, the duration of fevers, etc. "The eggs of the pigeon are hatched in two weeks; those of the fowl in three; those of the duck in four; those of the goose in five; and those of the ostrich in seven." We are familiar with the incidence of seven in many aspects of physics, in color, in sound, the spectrum; in chemistry, in the law of atomic weights; in physiology; in nature. Madame Blavatsky cites a long list of the occurrence of the mystic number in the ceremonials, cosmologies, architecture, and theologies of all nations.

Eliade records that Islamic mysticism received its shamanistic elements after the propagation of Islam among the Turks of Central Asia, although he does note that the ability of Amed Yesevi and some of his dervishes to change into birds and so have the power to fly and similar legends concerning the Bekteshite saints are common to Shamanism generally, not only the Turko-Mongol but also the Arctic, American, Indian and Oceanian. In the Ostrich legend of Barak Baba he appeared in public with a "two horned headdress" (which became the ritual sign of the order he founded) riding an ostrich which "flew a little way under his influence" (from Kopruluzade, Influence du Chamanisme Turco-Mongol sur les Ordres Mystiques Musulmans, pp. 16-17 as quoted by Eliade in Shamanism, pp. 402-403). Eliade says, One wonders if it does not rather indicate a Southern origin (ibid.). This is far more likely as the shamanistic influences were general throughout Arabia and the Levant from the sixth century BCE at least, with a highly developed Greek form.

Constantine retained the pagan high priest’s title of Pontifex Maximus. This is an interesting title because the Greek god, Hermes* also known as Thoth was the leader of the Egyptian priesthood and its first Pontifex Maximum. This title, survives today and applies to the Pope. Also, the pontiff is usually surrounded with ceremonial flabella - giant ostrich feather fans, which derived, via the court of Byzantium, from the Pharaohs [68].

Thoth / Hermes was reputed to be imbued with infinite wisdom; invented numbers and calculation; geometry and astronomy; science; the alphabet and hieroglyphic writing; and built the pyramids.

Islamically though, Allah (swt) had taught man to read and write.

For a decade Constantine’s coins continued to feature some of the pagan gods, notably his own favourite diety, the Unconquered Sun. Constantine continued to identify the sun with the Christian God in some way - a belief made easier by the tendency of Christian writers and artists to use sun imagery in portraying Christ. For them Christ is the source of light and salvation and a mosaic from a third-century tomb found under St. Peter’s, Rome, even shows him as the sun God in a chariot. In 321 A.C., Constantine made the first day of the week a holiday, he called it ‘the venerable day of the Sun’ (Sunday).

The Christian church took over many pagan ideas and images. In Rome, the Emperor Nero had an image of Zeus / Jupiter painted on the domed ceiling of the throne room of his palace. Later, in Constantinople, another portrait was similarly placed above the imperial throne but by this time, the face was called the face of Christ. In the time of Archbishop Gennadius, who was the patriarch of Constantinople from 458 to 471 A.C., a certain painter made an icon, at the instigation of a pagan, portraying Christ in the likeness of Zeus.

OWL:

The owl was sacred to Athene. Its staring eyes suggested a pair of heavenly bodies, and its cry could remind the hearer of the Egyptian and Hebrew sacred sound iaaooei.

Owl- Wisdom.Owl, the night hunter, has the ability to see what others may miss. The gift of this medicine is to be undeceived by external appearances and to discover the truth beneath them.

We speak of the owl as a wisdom keeper ('the wise old owl'), although its cry is also said to signify a death ('the owl called my name'). An owl hooting at a birth is said to signify that the child will have bad luck in its life.

In the pantheon of classical Greek and Roman mythology, the night owl was associated with several Goddesses, most notably Athena who carried an owl on her shoulder. The owl revealed unseen truths to Athena, so the Goddess was able to see the whole truth of a situation.

The owl is also sacred to the crone Goddess Hecate, and in Scotland, with Caillaech, the blue-faced crone who represents winter and death. It appears in many Celtic legends, including the famous mediaeval Welsh book of the Mabinogion.

There does not, however, seem to be any specific relationship between owls and dreams in British mythology, except for the owl as a witches' helper and mysterious bird of the night.

In many Native American traditions the owl is regarded as the bringer of the dream, but also the bringer and herald of death and as a symbol of black magic. As the bringer of death it is known to many tribal cultures - never give an owl feather gift to a Diné (Navajo): out of all the tribes, that perhaps hold the strongest views on this matter. Ojibwa and Lakota also view the owl as the 'death bringer'.

The Owl (Cailleach-oidhche) is a sacred symbol that enables you to connect to ancient wisdom and your own innate inner Knowing. It teaches us of the sacred mysteries, of lost knowledge, paradox, feminity and vision. Mainly active at night, it is deeply connected to the moon, moon magick, intuitive understanding and shadow work.

Owl is the messenger of secrets and omens. As a Shape-shifter, owl is the link between the dark, unseen world and the world of light. Those that carry this essence find themselves quite comfortable with their shadow self. This night hunter has the ability to see what others may miss. The gift of this medicine is to be undeceived by external appearances and to discover the truth beneath them. Owl has keen sharp eyes and does not miss a trick.

In Latin, the owl was referred to as strix, a word that came to mean "witch." This bird is identified with many Crone goddesses in Europe and the Mediterranean. During the Middle Ages the owl was seen as the Night Hag, or Crone. To the ancient Celts, the magickal aspects of this bird was a sacred, also symbolizing the Crone and Underworld deities. It was also an attribute of Gwynn, the Celtic god of the underworld. It was considered a bird of darkness, the "corpse bird".

According to the Vedic traditions, messengers of the Hindu death god Yama were usually two dogs, but occasionally he would send an owl. The Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, kept an owl at her side, believed to whisper great wisdoms in her ear. Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom -1. (Greek) The emblem of Athens, and therefore the symbol of Athena. The owl was sacred to Demeter, and was regarded as prophetic.

The Aboriginals in Australia believe the Owl represents the Soul of Women and are looked upon as sacred. They believe owl to be the messenger of the evil god Muurup, who eats children and kills people. In Hebrew traditions, owl represents blindness and desolation, and is considered unclean. In both China and Japan owl signifies crime, or ungrateful children, and in China it is associated with thunder and the summer solstice. Owl is considered the bird of death in Central/North America, China, Egypt, India, and Japan.

According to the traditions of the Ainu, Eagle Owl is revered as a messenger between gods and men; the Screech Owl warns against danger; Horned Owl and Barn Owl are demonic.

Owl also represents wisdom and virtue, and may be calling upon you to use wisdom in a current situation, or to look deeper into the surrounding circumstances, into the areas of darkness that may not be apparent on the surface. Like Owl, take a 360 degree look at this scenario, before jumping in!

Whatever the case, Owl appears in your dreams as an aid in these matters and will help guide you into what is currently unknown to you.

To dream of an owl, the Night Eagle, is a powerful omen, and most likely holds an important message for you, or may indicate some important changes to come, so pay close attention to the details of this dream.

Owl is symbolic of spiritual communications. Your unconscious, or the realm of spirit may be trying to get a message through to you!

See:  http://www.owlnestlings.com/owl/owl-totem.htm

The term "owls" is used in ancient literary sources and refers to the coinage of Athens. It derives from the image of an owl on the reverse of the Athenian tetradrachms. The owl, sacred bird of the goddess Athena, eventually became a distinctive symbol of Athens.

There were so many owl in ancient Athens that a saying of the time, "To send owls to Athens," was equivalent to the present-day, "To carry coals to New Castle," which implies taking something to where it is already plentiful. The Greeks made the owl sacred to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and the Hindus to Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth. The Greeks considered them birds of prophecy - portents of evil as well as triumph, depending upon the circumstances of their appearance.

The stigma of evil and supernatural power persisted through the centuries. Many people have feared the bird, some believing that the owl's cry foretold death and disaster. But since owls shared a fellowship with demons and witches, it was believed that they also had the power to ward off other bad spirits. For protection against lightning, the Chinese placed figures of owls on rooftops, and in Germany real owls were attached to doors.

Owl Excerpts From The Druid Animal Oracle

For 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 clairvoyancy. Working with the owl as your ally will help you to do this. ...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..[...]

Because the owl is sacred to the Goddess in her crone-aspect, one of its many Gaelic names is Cailleach-oidhche (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 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.

Knowing of an impending death or birth suggest that the owl is able to foretell the future, and the owl is indeed the totem bird 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 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 as a bird of ill-omen. Farmers would nail their bodies to barn doors or walls; the fern owl was names "Puck" or "Puck-bird" - and old word for 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.

HUMMINGBIRD

Hummingbird - Joy.Hummingbird darts lightly through the world, spreading its message of joy and beauty, and teaching us to appreciate the wonder and magic of everyday existence.

The Colibri (hummingbird) is a sacred symbol for the Taino Indians of the Tribe of Jatibonicu', and its image is displayed in the logo on the main tribal Home Page. It is sacred because the Colibri or hummingbird is recognized in Taino tribal lore as the sacred pollinator and therefore disseminator of all new life. It also symbolizes the rebirth of the Taino Indigenous people in the Caribbean diaspora. The only Caribbean Island that has it still as its national symbol, is the Caribbean island of Jamaica.

This crop circle appeared July 2, 2009
in Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire, England
Image by Jack Turner - Copyright 2009

The Guani hummingbird is a teacher in the animal spirit world. It is the main totem of the Jatibonicu' tribe. The tribe has as part of its Taino spirituality, four ancient stone Cemis within its tribal Caneycu (Sacred Longhouse). The main tribal Hummingbird Cemi sits in the center of the Caneycu and holds the cardinal point of the southern position or direction within the tribal Kecu' (Earth Alter). This sacred Cemi is the three pointed stone totem of the Guani (Bee hummingbird).

In many traditional cultures of the western world the hummingbird has powerful religious and spiritual significance. In the high Andes of South America, for example, the hummingbird is taken to be a symbol of resurrection. This is because each hummer becomes lifeless and seems to die on cold nights, but it comes back to life again when the miraculous sunrise brings warmth.

Among the flowers of the sacred headdress hovered the first bird, the Hummingbird

See: "The Beginning Life of the Hummingbird"  Mbaya Indian Lore

In the Cherokee language the Hummingbird is sometimes said as Waleli and sometimes said to be Walela. Both are the sacred names for there are many ways of how one pronounces the way of the powerful Bird that gathers clouds from the four directions. Mighty is Walela who brings blessings of light pure and destroys evil spirits.

Hummingbird: Sacred bird of the Navajo and other Southwestern tribes, Hummingbird is believed to be a medicine person, the first healer of birds. The sound of Hummingbird's wings reminds The People of little bells ringing in the wind

In ANIMAL SPEAK, Ted Andrews says hummingbirds teach us how to draw the life essence from flowers. "They can teach us how to use flowers to heal and win hearts in love."

Hummingbirds teach us fierce independence. They teach us to fight in a way where no one really gets hurt. They teach us simple courage. Andrews says the twittering, vibrating sounds of the hummingbirds bring us an internal masage that restores health and balance.

Hummingbirds also inspire us to protect the environment and to preserve old traditions that are in danger of being lost. When Native American ways were being destroyed by the expanding Euro-American culture, the Ghost-Shirt religion was established to try to bring back the animals and old ways through dancing. The leader of the dance was a hummingbird.

The Race Between the Crane and the Hummingbird

The Coyote and the Hummingbird

Mesoamerica:  Huitzilopochtli wears a blue hummingbird as an ear ornament. Huitzilopochtli means "hummingbird from the left" in Nahuatl, and this imagery is associated with warriors killed in battle whose spirits were believed to return from the South, reincarnated as hummingbirds. It was at Huitzilopochtli's command that the city of Tenochtitlán was founded on the island in Lake Texcoco.

See:  http://www.lib.uci.edu/libraries/exhibits/meso/aztec3.html

HAWK (see falcon)

The Hawk is the symbol of RA, Horus and other Gods, especially represents the 'uplifting', spiritualising, enlightening effect of divine power upon Nature and of the human Ego upon mortal man. 

Macrocosmically - The triple Deity 'preys on' and catches material universe and absorbs it, i.e unifies the lower with the higher and so spiritualise. 

Microcosmically - Theh Monad-Ego preys on, 'hunts', catches, elevates and absorbs the lower quaternary. 

Hence divine hunters, huntresses, bows, arrows and other weapons, many of them magical. 

Hawk - Messenger. Hawk teaches us to be observant and to pay attention to what we may overlook. This could mean a talent we don't use, a blessing for which we haven't expressed gratitude, or a message from Spirit.

Red Hawk (Cetan Lutah) Red Hawk was Crazy Horse's medicine: fearless, aggressive and swift moving.  The red hawk is a messenger. It is close to the eagle, and it's gifts are very similar to those of its larger flying relative. The hawk is keen-eyed and observant. Like the hawk, we must all become keen-eyed and observe the signs that the environment is sending us. We must keep ourselves aware of the notable happenings that we perceive from each new day. Red Hawk is linked with the rising dawn of the east. It is a communicating messenger for knowledge.

The Egyptians told many stories about the creation of the world. Most of them start by imagining a time when there was nothing but the Waters of Chaos. In some stories the first thing to emerge from the water is a blue lotus whose petals hide the infant sun god. Others start with the Primeval Mound, the first dry land, rising above the waters. To the mound comes a phoenix or hawk or goose called the Great Cackler who lays the world egg.

The Egyptian gods were represented with human torsos and human or animal heads. Sometimes the animal or bird expressed the characteristics of the god. Ra, for example, had the head of a hawk, and the hawk was sacred to him because of its swift flight across the sky; Hathor, the goddess of love and laughter, was given the head of a cow, which was sacred to her; Anubis was given the head of a jackal because these animals ravaged the desert graves in ancient times; Mut was vulture-headed and Thoth was ibis-headed; and Ptah was given a human head, although he was occasionally represented as a bull, called Apis. Because of the gods to which they were attached, the sacred animals were venerated, but they were never worshipped until the decadent 26th Dynasty. The gods were also represented by symbols, such as the sun disc and hawk wings that were worn on the headdress of the pharaoh.

Isis was the mother of Heru, the Hawk God. The name Heru is derived from ur ur ur, the whirring sound of hawk's wings. Assur was the deified ancestor of both Isis and Heru. The name Assur is a compound of the names Isis and Heru. The name Assur is derived from hiss + ur, the hiss of the asp, and the whirr of hawks wings. The Hawk God and Serpent Goddess were powerful symbols in Pagan religion and culture. The hiss of the asp and the whirr of hawk's wings are powerful and meaningful sounds in our languages even to this day.

The hiss of the asp and the whirr of hawk's wings, hiss + ur and ur + hiss, are natural sounds that have become structural parts of our language and culture. The name of Assur is composed of hiss + ur, the hiss of the asp and the whirr of hawk's wings. The names Osiris, Sirius, Caesar, Czar, Aesir, Cyrus, Syria, Assyria, and many others are, derivatives of the name Assur. The words sire, sir, sure, assure, seer, vi-zier, and ad-vi-sor are also derivatives of the name Assur. Hence all of those names and words (along with many others) are derived from the hiss of the asp and the whirr of hawk's wings.

In the Judgment Scene, a hawk and serpent motif soars above Assur seated on his Judgment Throne. The word soar is derived from hiss + ur, the hiss of the asp and the whirr of hawk's wings. The hawk and serpent motif from the Judgment Scene is the source of the winged Uraeus symbol of the Pagan religion. Assur and Isis are the Pagan Adam and Eve. They are the source, from which we all sprang. The word source is derived from hiss + ur, the hiss of the asp and the whirr of hawk's wings. The name Uraeus is derived from ur + hiss, the whirr of hawk's wings and the hiss of the asp

Leviticus 11:16 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,

Deuteronomy 14:15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,

Job 39:26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, [and] stretch her wings toward the south?

Hawk - (Heb. netz, a word expressive of strong and rapid flight, and hence appropriate to the hawk). It is an unclean bird (Lev. 11:16; Deut. 14:15). It is common in Syria and surrounding countries. The Hebrew word includes various species of Falconidae, with special reference perhaps to the kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), the hobby (Hypotriorchis subbuteo), and the lesser kestrel (Tin, Cenchris). The kestrel remains all the year in Palestine, but some ten or twelve other species are all migrants from the south. Of those summer visitors to Palestine special mention may be made of the Falco sacer and the Falco lanarius.

THUNDERBIRD  Thunder Being (Wakinyan) The thunderbird is symbolic of the power within the thunder and lightning of the great life-giving rains (wichoni minne) that roll out of the west.  "I have the power to make live and the power to destroy," Black Elk was told by the west power. Surely the lightning can destroy, but more life comes from the west wind thunder-storms. The golden eagle is a symbolic bird for the thunder being. Lightning streaking across a black background is another symbol of Wakinyan power upon a shield. Growth from the earth is a power of the thunder being. The thunder is the Great Spirit's earth voice. Before the rain, so much life in all forms is about to spring forth that earth and sky communicate. All creatures are being told that the lifeblood, the water is about to descend.

This thunderbird crop circle appeared on June 14, 2009
in Barbury Castle, England
Image by John Montgomery - Copyright 2009

In Plains tribes, the Thunderbird is sometimes known as Wakinyan, from the Dakota word kinyan meaning "winged." Others suggest the word links the Thunderbird to wakan, or sacred power. In many stories, the Thunderbird is thought of as a great Eagle, who produces thunder from the beating of his wings and flashes lightning from his eyes. (Descriptions are vague because it is thought Thunderbird is always surrounded by thick, rolling clouds which prevent him from being seen.) Further, there were a variety of beliefs about Thunderbird, which suggest a somewhat complicated picture. The Thunderbird was usually a friend to humans, a benevolent spirit being seen as the source of wisdom. The Chippewa stated that the eyes of the Thunderbird flashed with fire, his glance engendered lightning, and the flapping of his wings produced thunder. The Algonkian tribes, the Ojibwa among them, believed the Thunderbird to be a benign nature spirit. The Kwakiutl said the Thunderbird taught them how to build houses. The Assiniboin claimed the wise old Thunderbird never harmed or killed anyone. Usually, his role is to challenge some other great power and protect the Indians - such as White Owl Woman, the bringer of winter storms; the malevolent Unktehi, or water oxen who plague mankind; the horned serpents; Wochowsen, the enemy bird; or Waziya, the killing North Wind. But in some other legends (not so much in the Plains), Thunderbird is himself malevolent, carrying off people (or reindeer or whales) to their doom, or slaying people who seek to cross his sacred mountain. (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984)

Many Plains Indians claim there are in fact four colors (varieties) of Thunderbirds (the blue ones are said, strangely, to have no ears or eyes), sometimes associated with the four cardinal directions, but also sometimes only with the west and the western wind. (According to the medicine man Lame Deer, there were four, one at each compass point, but the western one was the Greatest and most senior.) (Fire and Erdoes 1972) The fact that they are sometimes known as "grandfathers" suggest they are held in considerable reverence and awe. It is supposed to be very dangerous to approach a Thunderbird nest, and many are supposed to have died in the attempt, swept away by ferocious storms. The symbol of Thunderbird is the red zig-zag, lightning-bolt design, which some people mistakenly think represents a stairway. Most tribes feel he and the other Thunder beings were the first to appear in the Creation, and that they have an especially close connection to wakan tanka, the Great Mysterious. (Gill and Sullivan 1992)

The fact that Thunderbird sometimes appears as something that terrorizes and plagues Indians, and sometimes as their protector and liberator (in some myths, he was once an Indian himself) is said to reflect the way thunderstorms and violent weather are seen by Plains people. On the one hand, they bring life-giving rain (Thunderbird is said to be the creator of 'wild rice' and other Plains Indians crops); on the other hand, they bring hail, flood, and lightning and fire. It is not clear where with them worship and awe end, and fear and terror begin. Some Indians claim that there are good and bad Thunderbirds, and that these beings are at war with each other. Others claim that the large predatory birds which are said to kidnap hunters and livestock are not Thunderbirds at all. Largely, I suspect that this dual nature of the Thunderbird ties it to the Trickster figure in Indian belief: like the Trickster, the harm the Thunderbird causes is mostly because it is so large and powerful and primeval.

See:  http://www.cabiz.net/heartlink/thunderbird.htm

Note from Editor:  I personally saw a Thunderbird fly overhead in Central California in the summer of 2002.

CROW:RAVEN:

The cornix, crow, is mentioned by Horace as the prophet which, by its cries, foretells rain, cornix augur aquae. Vergil also mentions it in the same context, Georgic I: 388. In Norse it is kraka. The Greek korax is a crow or raven, and the word can mean something strange and unexpected.

Odin had two ravens, Hugin and Muninn. Huga is to meditate, muninn is to remember.

Crow - Sacred Law Crow teaches us to know ourselves beyond the limitations of one-dimensional thinking and laws. This animal teaches to appreciate the many dimensions both of reality and ourselves, and to learn to trust our intuition and personal integrity.

Asklepios

Coronus, daughter of Phlegyas king of Lapiths, had yielded to Apollo and conceived a son. However, before she was due to give birth she married Ischys the Arcadian. A crow informed Apollo that Coronus was unfaithful to the God. Apollo in his rage cursed the crow whose plumage turned from white to black as a result and he put Coronus and Ischys to death. The two bodies were on the funeral pyre and Coronus had already been half consumed by fire when Apollo arrived just in time to rescue the infant she had been carrying, to bear him to Mount Pellion where he was passed to the care of the centaur Chiron. The child became Asklepios, God of Medicine. He was taught by Chiron all there was to know about the art of healing and he began to effect miraculous cures. He even succeeded in restoring the dead to life with the help of the gorgon's blood that Athene had given him and with the plants, the healing properties of which a serpent told him. Hades felt cheated of his prey and complained bitterly to Zeus. Asklepios was seen as guilty of thwarting the order of nature and Zeus struck him dead with a thunderbolt. Apollo avenged the death of his son by exterminating the Cyclops who had forged the thunderbolt and for this massacre he was banished from Olympus for quite a considerable period of time. He was later restored to life and to the Olympian company. He was often represented as a serpent or as a man of middle-age with a benign expression. His cult was both a religion and system of therapeutics and his priests were all well aware of the specific nature of earth energies. His schools were known as aesculapiums and the aesculapium of Kos was famous because it was here that the great physician Hypocrates founded his first school of rational medicine. In the aesculapea special rites were observed, these involved purification with baths, fasting and sacrifices, after which the patient spent the night in the temple where he slept on the skin of a sacrificed animal or a couch near the statue of the God. Most famous of the rites were those of incubation which was calculated to render the patient open to suggestion. The serpent has always been associated with healing. Homer's famous staff, the caduceus, consists of two serpents entwining around a central pole surmounted by a winged orb. The serpents are said to represent the forced of chaos and order that need to be kept in balance if a good state of health is to be maintained. The wings represent the mind's potential ability to control these two opposing factors, in other words self-healing is the ultimate goal of mankind.

To the Druids , the crow was very sacred because it carried the soul from one life to the next.

Hindus:  One tradition that is found across the length and breath of India is that of feeding patch where it is an organized affair with grain sellers offering different types of feeds. In the cities pigeons predominate but in the rural areas, a whole lot of other birds are also attracted to feed. In the Bishnoi village of Khejarli, I counted 13 species of birds including doves, mynahs, munias, parrots, partridges and of course, peacocks – a sacred bird protected not only by a religious sentiment but also by parliamentary statute since it is the national bird of India. Although the lowly crow has no such exalted status, it is nevertheless a very special bird in India that is fed all over the country for a variety of different reasons. But chiefly, the crow is identified with the remembrance of ancestors or shraadha – a period of time that comes each year when people recall their departed relatives and offer them food by feeding this winged scavenger. Evocative of ancestors, the crows are routinely fed in the Hindu burning grounds where the dead are taken to their fuineral pyres.

RAVEN

Shamans: The Koryak. The mental part of the training consists in coming into contact with the right spirits, i.e. with the spirits who are to be the shaman's protectors in his shamanistic practice. 'Every [Koryak] shaman', says Jochelson, 'has his own guardian spirits, who help him in his struggle with disease-inflicting kalau in his rivalry with other shamans, and also in attacks upon his enemies. The shaman spirits usually appear in the form of animals or birds. The most common guardian spirits are the wolf, the bear, the raven, the sea-gull, and the eagle.'[4] One of the two shamans whom Jochelson met among the Koryak related to him how the spirits of the wolf, raven, bear, sea-gull, and plover appeared to him (the shaman) in the desert-now in the form of men, now in that of animals-and commanded him to become a shaman, or to die. Thus we see that, while they are in solitude, 'the spirits appear to them in visible form, endow them with power, and instruct them.' But Bogoras describes the mental training of a new shaman differently. 'The process of gathering inspiration is so painful to young shamans, because of their mental struggle against the call, that they are sometimes said to sweat blood on the forehead and the temples. Afterwards every preparation of a shaman for a performance is considered a sort of repetition of the initiative process: hence it is said that the Chukchee shamans during that time are easily susceptible to haemorrhage, and even to bloody sweat.'[5]

Raven: Unclean and not to be eaten (Leviticus 11:15; Deuteronomy 14:14)

Called the raven of the valley (Proverbs 30:17)

DESCRIBED AS

Black  (The Song of Solomon 5:11)

Solitary in disposition  (Isaiah 34:11)

Improvident  (Luke 12:24)

Carnivorous  (Proverbs 30:17)

God provides food for  (Job 38:41; Psalms 147:9; Luke 12:24)

Sent by Noah from the ark  (Genesis 8:7)

Elijah fed by  (1 Kings 17:4-6)

Plumage of, illustrative of the glory of Christ  (The Song of Solomon 5:11)

Bible Concordance: 6158 `oreb  o-rabe'   or mowreb {o-rabe'}; from '`arab' (6150); a raven (from its dusky hue):--raven.

Raven - Heb. 'orebh, from a root meaning "to be black" (comp. Cant. 5:11); first mentioned as "sent forth" by Noah from the ark (Gen. 8:7). "Every raven after his kind" was forbidden as food (Lev. 11:15; Deut. 14:14). Ravens feed mostly on carrion, and hence their food is procured with difficulty (Job 38:41; Ps. 147:9). When they attack kids or lambs or weak animals, it is said that they first pick out the eyes of their victims (Prov. 30:17). When Elijah was concealed by the brook Cherith, God commanded the ravens to bring him "bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening" (1 Kings 17:3-6).

SWALLOWS

This was a crop circle in 2003

This crop circle appeared on 7-3-2008

 SWAN

Swan- Grace.Swan teaches us to trust the grace of our being as it operates in both the physical and spiritual planes, and urges us to rejoice in the gifts of our physical bodies and our intuitive minds.

Hamsa and Para-hamsa. In its nature and habits the swan portrays a complete system of cosmogony. The Logos is maternal, productive aspect lays Hiranyagharba on water. By the beating of wings it hatches it and the universe appears. The egg represents the universe-to-be, the golden embryo, the germ of the Solar Logos and universe. The shell is the Ring-Pass-Not and the contents represent the Life within, germinal at first, the abstract ideation of the universe in the Universal Mind. 

ALL begins in a germinal state. Evolution brings fructification and development into a parent bird of Godhead. Human evolution similarly consists of successive hatchings out of consciousness into wider awareness, as from physical to astral, mental, Causal, Buddhic and Atmic levels. In Yoga such ascent is called the flight of the Soul. 

Hinduism

The three principal gods are:

Brahma - the creator, usually represented by a god with four faces riding on a swan;

Vishnu - the preserver, who carries a conch shell and rides on the mythical bird Garuda; and

Siva - the destroyer, who carries a trident and a snake and rides on Nandi, the bull. In the center of his forehead is a powerful third eye. In practice, Vishnu and Siva are the most widely worshipped.

Brahma - Lord Brahma, the creator God of the Trinity appears seated on a lotus (a symbol of glorious existence), He has four heads and hands. Each hand is holding a sacrificial tool (sruva), the Vedas (knowledge), a water pot (kamandalu) and a rosary respectively. His vehicle is a swan (hans) which is known for its judgment between good and bad.   Lord Brahma's consort is goddess Saraswati, the goddess of Learning.

Goddess Saraswati (Sarasvati) is the wife (consort) of Lord Brahma and possesses the powers of speech, wisdom and learning. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning; mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has sacred scriptures in one hand and a lot us (a symbol of true knowledge) in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on the violin (veena). She is dressed in white (sign of purity) and rides on a white goose (swan).

Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was born from the foam of the sea. She is married to Hephaestus, the god of fire and smith to the gods. Sacred to her are the myrtle, rose, apple, poppy, sparrow, dove, swan, swallow, tortoise, ram, the planet Venus, and the month of April. Eros was produced from a liaison with Zeus. Her favorite lover is the god of war, Ares. Other names and titles: Amathusia/Amathuntia Title of Aphrodite at Amathus/Cyprus Anadyomene: Name for Aphrodite as she rose from the ocean.

  PELICAN - Rosicrucians use the female pelican to represent the maternal and preserving aspect of Deity. The mother bird feeds its seven young from its own opened breast whilst in the nest floating upon water. 

Macrocosomically, the pelican represents the divine power of procreative Nature. Water is pace, matter. That is why aquatic birds, floating on water, are so often chosen as symbols of Deity. 

The nest is differentiated substance of the universe organised and insulated by the Ring-Pass-Not. It represent Prakriti. 

The seven young - The Seven Procreative Rays, Powers, builders, Sephiroth, and Schemes, Chains, Rounds, Planes, Races, Sub-races, Rays, Kingdoms and human principles nourished and sustained by Divine Life. 

Microcosmically, the Pelican is the Monad. The nest is the Auric envelope. Water is the elemental Essence of the planes and bodies. 

The Seven young are the Seven Principles, all being perpetually nourished by the outpoured Spiritual Life of the Monad - the blood of the god within. 

PHOENIX - A fabulous Egyptian bird said to live 500 or 1,000 years, and to kill itself by sitting on a burning pile of aromatic woods, its ashes giving birth to a young phoenix. 

Macrocosmically - the Logos arising from the universe at the end of cycles and reappearing at the opening of the next.

Fire - Creative and regenerating force of the universe. 

The Rays of the Sun  develop the fire of life, the source not only of material atoms but the container of the spiritual and psychic forces energising them. Fire both creates and destroys. 

The Deity in one sense destroys itself by releasing the creative fire; i.e. ceases to exist as a purely spiritual, free Existence. 

H. P. Blavatsky writes: "The phoenix, although general connected with the Solar cycle of 600 years - the Western cycle of the Greeks and other nations - is a generic symbol for several kinds of cycles, ciphers being taken out or more added according to which cycle is meant. The Phoenix - called by the Hebrews Onech, from Phenoch, Enoch, the symbol of a secret cycle and initiation, and by the Terks, Kerkes - lives a thousand years, after which, kindling a flame, it is self-consumed; and then, reborn from itself, it lives another thousand years, up to seven times seven, when comes the Day of Judgment. The 'seven times seven', or forty-nine, are a transparent allegory, and an allusion to the forty-nine Manus, the seven Rounds, and the seven times seven human Cycles in each Round on each Globe, The Kerkes and the Onech stand for a Race Cycle, and the mystical tree Ababel, the 'Father Tree' in the Qu'ran, shoots out new branches and vegetation at every resurrection of the Kerkes or Phoenix; the 'Day of Judgment' meaning a minor Pralaya. 

The author of the Book of God and the Apocalypse believes that.  The Phoenix ... very plainly the same as the Simorgh of Persian romance; and the account which is given us of this last bird yet more decisively establishes the opinion that the death and revival of the phoenix exhibit the successive destruction and reproduction of the world, which many believed to be effected by the agency of a fiery deluge (and also a watery one in its turn). When the Simorgh was asked her age, she informed Caherman that this world is very ancient, for it has been already seven times replenished, with being different from men, and seven times depopulated (the tense is past, because the book is allegorical and has to veil the truths it contains); that the age of the human race in which we now are, is to endure seven thousand years, and that she herself had seen twelve of these revolutions, and knew not how many more she had to see. 

The above, however, is no new statement. From Bailly, in the last century, down to Dr. Kenealy, in the present, these facts have been noticed by a number of writers; but now a connection can be established between the Persian oracle and the Nazarene prophet. 

Says the author of the Book of God:  The Simorgh is in reality the same as the winged Singh of the Hindus, and the Sphinx of the Egyptians. It is said that the former will appear at the end of the world ... (as a) monstrous lion bird ... From these the Rabbins have borrowed their mythos of an enormous Bird, sometimes standing on the earth, sometimes walking in the ocean ... while its head props the sky; and with the symbol, they have also adopted the doctrine to which it relates. They teach that there are to be seven successive renewals  of the globe; that each reproduced system will last seven thousands years (?); and that the total duration of the Universe will be 49,000 years. This opinion, which involves the doctrine of the pre-existence of each renewed creature, they may either have learned during their Babylonian captivity, or it may have been part of the primeval religion which their priests had preserved from remote times.

It shows rather that the initiated Jews borrowed, and their non-initiated successors, the Talmudists, lost, the sense, and applied the seven Rounds, and the forty-nine Races, etc. wrongly. 

VULTURE - Much the same as all birds of prey with the addition of revealing truth by taking off excrescences or eating flesh from bones, as by the scavenging function and the use of  the bird by the Parsis and their Tower of Silence for consumption of corpses. Vultures are also purifcatory as scavengers symbolizing the transmuting power of Atma-Buddhi whereby whereby lower personal grossnesses and delusions (flesh) are consumed or transmuted. 

The headdress of Egyptian goddesses and Queens indicate that this is achieved. The golden amulet in the form of avulture, placed on the neck of the mummy represents the Ego as purifying emotions and freeing the soul. 

Vulture nrt - sacred to Nekhbet, goddess of Upper Egypt and Mut, mother goddess. The vulture often holds the shn symbol of eternity in its talons, offering eternal protection to the pharaoh. As such, the vulture is closely linked to rulership.

The vulture was the manifestation of Nekhbet and Mut, who were depicted as the bird with their wings outstretched on the ceilings of temples as protection, or sitting on the ground in a symbol associated with kingship. The two main types of vulture depicted were the griffon vulture and the so-called Egyptian vulture. It was the griffon vulture that was usually related to the goddesses and to royalty.

The vulture was a Mother-Nature goddess, called Mut or Nekhbet. Egyptian legends said vultures were all virgins, fertilized by the wind or Holy Spirit. The vulture goddess gave life and later took it back by eating carrion. She was sometimes depicted with breasts, suckling the kings.

While the vulture was the symbol of upper Egypt, the uraeus, a sacred snake, was the symbol of lower Egypt. She was known for carefully protecting her eggs. Both these beasts were used in the ornamental headdresses of kings. When the two Egypts united, the pharaoh wore images of both these animals side by side atop his head.

THE BULL AND THREE BIRDS OF MASONRY

There was a day when the Church and Masonry were one. These were centuries of intense moral reaction, a transitional period of thought as heavy as a nightmare, an age of strife. Thus, when the creation of new ideals led to the apparent pulling down of the old fanes and the destruction of old idols, it ended in reality with the rebuilding of those temples out of old materials, and the erection of the same idols under new names. It was a universal rearrangement and whitewashing -- but only skin deep. History will never be able to tell us -- but tradition and judicious research do -- how many semi-Hierophants and even high Initiates were forced to become renegades in order to ensure the survival of the secrets of Initiation. Prætextatus, pro-consul at Achaia, is credited with remarking in the fourth century of our era, that "to deprive the Greeks of the sacred mysteries which bind together the whole mankind was equivalent to depriving them of their life." The Initiates took perhaps the hint, and thus joining nolens volens the followers of the new faith, then becoming all domineering, acted accordingly. Some hellenized Jewish Gnostics did the same; and thus more than one "Clemens Alexandrinus" -- a convert to all appearance, an ardent Neo-Platonist and the same philosophical pagan at heart -- became the instructor of ignorant Christian Bishops. In short the convert malgré lui blended the two external mythologies, the old and the new, and while giving out the compound to the masses, kept the sacred truths for himself.

The kind of Christians they made may be inferred from the example of Synesius, the Neo-Platonist. What scholar is ignorant of the fact, or would presume to deny, that the favourite and devoted pupil of Hypatia -- the virgin-philosopher, the martyr and victim of the infamous Cyril of Alexandria -- had not even been baptised when first offered by the bishops of Egypt the Episcopalian See of the Ptolemaïd? Every student is aware that, when finally baptised, after having accepted the office proffered, it was so skin-deep that he actually signed his consent only after his conditions had been complied with and his future privileges guaranteed. What the chief clause was, is curious. It was a sine qua non condition that he was to be allowed to abstain from professing the (Christian) doctrines, that he, the new Bishop did not believe in! Thus, although baptised and ordained in the degrees of deaconship, priesthood, and episcopate, he never separated himself from his wife, never gave up his Platonic philosophy, nor even his sport so strictly forbidden to every other bishop. This occurred as late as the fifth century.

Such transactions between initiated philosophers and ignorant priests of reformed Judaism were numerous in those days. The former sought to save their "mystery-vows" and personal dignity, and to do so they had to resort to a much-to-be-regretted compromise with ambition, ignorance, and the rising wave of popular fanaticism. They believed in Divine Unity, the ONE or Solus, unconditioned and unknowable; and still they consented to render public homage and pay reverence to Sol, the Sun moving among his twelve apostles, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, alias the twelve Sons of Jacob. The hoi polloi remaining ignorant of the former, worshipped the latter, and in them, their old time-honoured gods. To transfer that worship from the solar-lunar and other cosmic deities to the Thrones, Archangels, Dominions, and Saints was no difficult matter; the more so since the said sidereal dignities were received into the new Christian Canon with their old names almost unchanged. Thus, while, during Mass, the "Grand Elect" reiterated, under his breath, his absolute adherence to the Supreme Universal Unity of the "incomprehensible Workman," and pronounced in solemn and loud tones the "Sacred Word" (now substituted by the Masonic "Word at low breath"), his assistant proceeded with the chanting of the Kyriel of names of those inferior sidereal beings whom the masses were made to worship. To the profane catechumen, indeed, who had offered prayers but a few months or weeks before to the Bull Apis and the holy Cynocephalus, to the sacred ibis and the hawk-headed Osiris, St. John's eagle(2) and the divine Dove (witness of the Baptism while hovering over the Lamb of God), must have appeared as the most natural development and sequence to his own national and sacred zoology, which he had been taught to worship since the day of his birth.

See:  http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/christianity/ChurchAndMasonry-1of2.html

Princes and army officers wore feathers on their headgear to suggest that they would strike their enemies as if with lightning. Minos is described as cristata casside pennis, with a crest of feathers on his helmet. It was also a practice of the Philistines to wear feathered headgear. An Etruscan link is likely.

In Umbria, a district of Italy, the word angla, plural anglar, was used of birds that were watched for omens. There may be a link with the Latin angulus, corner. The point where a flight of birds would suddenly turn, all together, would be of great significance to the augur. The Umbrian word verfale, temple, may be from the Latin verb verto, turn. The place where birds turned could be thought to be the right place for a temple. This may be the explanation of a passage in the Etruscan Tables of Iguvium. Vide Mayani, The Etruscans Begin to Speak, p. 371. This is not the only possibility. A bird was a messenger, Greek angelos, of the gods. We have already mentioned the Hebrew mopeth, omen, 'from the birds'. It is likely that there is a similar explanation of the important Greek word sophia.

Sophia, usually translated as wisdom, means cleverness and natural aptitude, contrasted with mathesis, which means learning by inquiry. The adjective sophos was applied not only to humans but also, as for example by Xenophon, to animals. It is used to mean shrewd and wise in politics. Sophocles applies it to oionothetae, augurs, in his King Oedipus, l. 484. The word can mean skilled in the sciences, cunning, and abstruse.

In Wagner's opera Siegfried, the hero of that name has a conversation with a bird on his journey along the Rhine.

Hebrew oph, a collective noun meaning 'birds', is found in mopeth, omen. Bearing in mind that the Hebrew preposition m or min is 'from', we may conclude that the Hebrew conception of an omen was closely linked with the observation of birds.

Teiresias, the Greek prophet who lived in Thebes, and who figures so prominently in the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles, had a hide, or bird observatory, oionoskopeion, outside the city. Thebes was a city with oriental links through its founder Kadmos. The fact that he and his wife turned into snakes may be a pointer to the meaning of his name, which suggests ka and the Greek demas, body.

The Stymphalian birds, whose elimination was one of the labours of Hercules, may have had electrical significance. Marshes, in which they lived, attracted lightning; Dionysus was Limnaios, 'of the marshes'.

EDITORS NOTE: 
 Some of the above information was taken from "Lecture Notes: The School of the Wisdom: Vol. II - (1955)  by Geoffrey Hodson
He liberally quotes from Helena P. Blavatsky who was quoted above.

Returning once more to the statement that Vara meant the MAN of the Fourth Round, as much as the Earth of those days, the moon, and even Noah's ark, if one will so have it -- this is again shown in the dialogue between Ahura Mazda and Zarathustra. Thus when the latter asks --

V. 42. "O Maker of the Material World, thou Holy One! Who is he who brought the law of Mazda into the Vara which Yima made?"

"Ahura Mazda answered: 'It was the bird Karshipta, O holy Zarathustra.' . . . ."

"The bird Karshipta dwells in the heavens: were he living on the earth he would be king of birds. He brought into the var of Yima, and recites the Avesta in the language of birds." (Bund. xix and xxiv.)

This again is an allegory and a symbol misunderstood by the Orientalists only, who see in this bird "an incarnation of lightning," and say its song was "often thought to be the utterance of a god and a revelation," and what not. Karshipta is the human mind-soul, and the deity thereof, symbolized in ancient Magianism by a bird, as the Greeks symbolized it by a butterfly. No sooner had Karshipta entered the Vara or man, than he understood the law of Mazda, or Divine Wisdom. In the "Book of Concealed Mystery" it is said of the tree, which is the tree of knowledge of good and evil: "In its branches (of the tree) the birds lodge and build their nests," or the Souls and the Angels have their place!.* Therefore, with the Kabalists it was a like symbol. "Bird" was a Chaldean, and has become a Hebrew synonym and symbol for Angel, a Soul, a Spirit, or Deva; and the "Bird's Nest" was with both Heaven, and is God's bosom in the Zohar. The perfect Messiah enters Eden "into that place which is called the Bird's Nest" (Zohar, ii., 8b).

Page]] 293 ANGELS CALLED BIRDS.

"Like a bird that is flying from its nest, and that is the Soul from which the Shekeenah (divine wisdom or grace) does not move away" (Zohar, iii., 278a; Myer's Qabbalah, 217). "The Nest of the eternal Bird, the flutter of whose wings produces life, is boundless space," says the Commentary, meaning Hansa, the bird of Wisdom.

It is Adam Kadmon who is the (Sephirothal) tree, and it is he who becomes the "Tree of knowledge of good and evil" esoterically. And that "tree hath around it seven columns (seven pillars) of the world, or Rectores"; the same "Progenitors" or "Sephiroth" again "operating through the respective orders of Angels in the spheres of the seven planets," etc., one of which orders begets giants (Nephilim) on Earth.

It was the belief of entire antiquity, Pagan and Christian, that the earliest mankind was a race of giants. Certain excavations in America in mounds and in caves, have already yielded in isolated cases groups of skeletons of nine and twelve feet high.* These belong to tribes of the early Fifth Race, now degenerated to an average size of between five and six feet. But we can easily believe that the Titans and Cyclopes of old really belonged to the Fourth (Atlantean) Race, and that all the subsequent legends and allegories found in the Hindu Puranas and the Greek Hesiod and Homer, were based on the hazy reminiscences of real Titans -- men of a superhuman tremendous physical power, which enabled them to defend themselves, and hold at bay the gigantic monsters of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times -- and of actual Cyclopes -- three-eyed mortals.

It has been often remarked by observant writers, that the "origin of nearly every popular myth and legend could be traced invariably to a fact in Nature."

In these fantastic creations of an exuberant subjectivism, there is always an element of the objective and real. The imagination of the masses, disorderly and ill-regulated as it may be, could never have conceived and fabricated ex nihilo so many monstrous figures, such a wealth of extraordinary tales, had it not had, to serve it as a central nucleus, those floating reminiscences, obscure and vague, which unite the broken links of the chain of time to form with them the mysterious, dream foundation of our collective consciousness.

MORE LINKS FROM ALEX

FREQUENCY SICKNESS - WHAT ARE THE CAUSES AND THE SYMPTOMS?

... by Dee Finney, Michelle Lavigne-Wedel and Alex. and others as named. ...
On 2-6-2001, I was reading a book titled 'Lessons' by Michelle Lavigne-Wedel and Alex. ...

THE TUNING AND OUR PART IN IT

THE TRUTH ABOUT NIBIRU - by Alex

8/12/2003. For Dee,. ... I hope this helps clarify some of your questions. Sincerely yours,. Alex.

LESSONS - by Alex

SPIRIT MESSAGES - MASTER PAGE

DREAMS OF THE GREAT EARTHCHANGES
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