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Throughout history and across many cultures, people have regarded Owls with fascination and awe. Few other creatures have so many different and contradictory beliefs about them. Owls have been both feared and venerated, despised and admired, considered wise and foolish, and associated with witchcraft and medicine, the weather, birth and death. Speculation about Owls began in earliest folklore, too long ago to date, but passed down by word of mouth over generations.
In early Indian folklore, Owls represent wisdom and helpfulness, and have powers of prophecy. This theme recurs in Aesop's fables and in Greek myths and beliefs. By the Middle Ages in Europe, the Owl had become the associate of witches and the inhabitant of dark, lonely and profane places, a foolish but feared spectre. An Owl's appearance at night, when people are helpless and blind, linked them with the unknown, its eerie call filled people with foreboding and apprehension: a death was imminent or some evil was at hand.
Originally posted by Kantzveldt
Thanks, who do you see as your Goddess and Hand-maiden...?
If i was to guess i'd say Inanna and Lilitu as you mention the wind.
edit on 29-4-2013 by Kantzveldt because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by Spacespider
Or a symbol of your contact with the alien race the greys
The owl represent the greys
Mandean Legend Concerning the Mountain of the Maddai:
Now the head-priest had a daughter, and he had built a sanctuary, a secret place of worship, on the mountain. Thither he was wont to go and take the girl, for he had knowledge of Liwet (Dilbat, Venus), who is a female spirit, and inhabits the star Liwet. She is so lovely to look upon that if a man sees her he swoons away. She wears a diadem of great beauty on her brow, and a wonderful perfume issues from it, so exquisite that he who smells it loses his senses and becomes unconscious. The diadem is of lights, which play and dazzle. There are wise men who see her, and there are places where they make her a sanctuary, bringing a beautiful girl or a handsome boy to it and placing him or her therein. Then they read secret incantations, and she (= Venus) descends into the girl or boy and answers the questions which are put to her. Much knowledge is to be learnt from her.
The head-priest used to take his daughter into this secret sanctuary and Liwet used to descend into her. Her father used to put a glass bowl filled with water before the girl and say to her, ‘Gaze into it!’ Then he began to read incantations, read, read, read, until the glass became red, became white, became green, became blue, dī, dī, dī, dī! until the glass became like a globe of light. At that moment, a sweet and pleasant wind breathed upon the girl and she slept, and Liwet entered into her thoughts and spoke through her mouth. The head-priest arose and spoke to her (= Liwet) thus: ‘Of thy favour, help us! The soldiers of the Turks have come against us to do us an injury, and thou knowest we have done them no harm!’ Liwet replied, ‘I will cause them to perish! They cannot harm you while we are in the world.’ The head-priest said to her, ‘Of thy favour, what can we do against them?’ Answered Liwet, ‘I can do that which will prevent them from seeing. It will become black before them and they will be unable to see.’
Bound is ˁUlmaya who dwells in the desert of Kulaniya. Bound is ˁIlmaya Dew who dwells in the waste lands of Ubriya (and) Amiqta. Bound is the rebellious, dog-like Lilith who dwells on the river Pišra and calls herself Mamay. Bound are all Liliths and Istartes who dwell in the fortress of Škatin (= Bīt ˁIškatil) and Šarmat and Batunia of Bīt Ulaya. Shackled is the Lord of Bīt Zaman. Bound is Istarte Amašmiš of Šuš-Birta. Bound and shackled is Ispandarmid-Lilith, who calls herself Lady (-Ispandarmid). Bound is Anahid-Lilith of Arimin of Kaldayye. Bound (and shackled) is Nanay of Borṣip and shackled is Nanay of Bīt Guzayye which is in Gahzay. Bound is Ilaha Bruqa who sits on the bank of the Tigris. Bound is the Persian Gisur … Bound is Mohbaṭ-Sahir who sits on the hill of Mura. Bound is Mlaka of Radin, the reckless Šṭurga and bound is Istarte, the Lady of Bīt Zibna. Bound is Istarte of the new town (territory), the Istarte who sits on the bank of the Euphrates and calls herself Mulit. Bound are the sixty-six Ilahas. Bound is the phalanx of Nanay, she and her seven sisters who dwell on the river Harin (or: Hurin) in Bīt Hašim (Hašum). Bound and shackled is the Istarte of Akat, she and her three hundred and sixty tribes … Bound is Nerig of Zambur and Ilaha of Bīt Tuldana, they and their imprecations and their tribes.
Ištar of Akkade appears in a Mandaic magic bowl BM 91724 6-7: “be bound and tied up Ištar of Akat, she, and her 360 generations”.
In the name of Libat (Venus), mistress of gods and men! He shall be brought into subjection, this man, N., neath the feet of N., woman, by the four limbs of his body, by the eight corners of his stature; his male member and his sinews are subjected, subjected are his incoming and outgoing, subjected his slaves and his handmaidens, subdued are his šids (household spirits) and his demons, subdued his amulets and idols, subdued his knowledge and understanding, subdued are the evil thoughts that are in his heart and his body, that of N. by the name of Mimhisiq Qusum, the lady that illumines them, that casts water on dry land, and on the hands of (Libat) mistress of gods and men. He shall be bound and will come: he is brought into subjection
Originally posted by Kantzveldt
[color=cyan]
The invisible companion is in a sense an intermediary, between ones normal conciousness and the greater spiritual realm, it can take flight and glide effortlessly through the realm of dream in the nocturnal hours, reveal the hidden paths within the darkness and unknowing...when you sleep it is at its most active.
With regards to the specifics of the owl familiar, because of its all seeing nocturnal activities this is very much the bird of the seer and mystic, [color=gold] Athena originally had a crow but in her infinite wisdom upgraded to an owl, were wisdom is the balance between understanding the unseen as well as the seen.
The owl was generally feared however as an omen and harbinger of death in the ancient world, however that is simply owls doing a good job, in their functions regarding the transition of souls, and when one dies another is born, so it is just the way of things.
Throughout history and across many cultures, people have regarded Owls with fascination and awe. Few other creatures have so many different and contradictory beliefs about them. Owls have been both feared and venerated, despised and admired, considered wise and foolish, and associated with witchcraft and medicine, the weather, birth and death. Speculation about Owls began in earliest folklore, too long ago to date, but passed down by word of mouth over generations.
In early Indian folklore, Owls represent wisdom and helpfulness, and have powers of prophecy. This theme recurs in Aesop's fables and in Greek myths and beliefs. By the Middle Ages in Europe, the Owl had become the associate of witches and the inhabitant of dark, lonely and profane places, a foolish but feared spectre. An Owl's appearance at night, when people are helpless and blind, linked them with the unknown, its eerie call filled people with foreboding and apprehension: a death was imminent or some evil was at hand.