Becoming Owl Girl

So almost anyone who knows me understands that I like owls. I've always had a thing for animals of all kinds, but the fascination with owls runs deep: I've always been a bit of a bookworm, and owls are associated with Knowledge. Owls are also linked with wisdom, loyalty, and cunning... for some reason, other animals that I adore also seem cunning and predatorial like foxes, wolves, lynx, and many birds of prey.

Of course, owls have become very popular the last few years, from Harry Potter to Hello Kitty. It's far cry from the days of Stanford Achievement Tests with the little owl emblem on the bottom of each page. Everyone always thought they were so cheesy.

With an affluence of owl paraphernalia to choose from, gift occasions have become owl showerings. This Christmas I received no less than 11 owl gifts from jewelry to stuffed animals to bags to candle holders and clothes! Whenever someone sees an owl gift, "Oh I didn't know you love owls!" and next gift is another owl, which I love. :)

But owls have a symbology all to themselves, and unlike butterflies and roses, (even with the War of the Roses), the symbolism and meanings are not always cheerful. It's not a bright and maybe even lady-like thing to be the girl who loves owls.

Owls are clever in many cultures, especially the Greeks, linking them with Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. We often associate Archimedes with having a pet owl, although this may have been popularized by the cartoon The Sword in the Stone, with Merlin's pet owl, Archimedes. (<-- yes, I totally went there).

But in many other cultures, like Eqyptian and many Asian cultures as well as Native American cultures, Owls, being nocturnal, were guardians of the underworld, harbingers of death, the companions of witches and demons, and even sometimes, witches themselves.

Other Native American cultures also associate owls with being the keepers of secret knowledge, wisdom, and some are thought of as oracles.

Even in the Bible, owls represent birds of destruction, linked with Ravens most places, inhabitants of places destroyed by God. They may also represent survivors in desolation...

Isaiah 34:11
But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

Psalm 102:6
I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;

All of these centuries of meaning seem quite a lot for one person to take on to herself. With the recent popularity of owls in positive and negative ways, I think dark symbolism is being replaced in our minds with visions of Hedwig nibbling playfully at Harry Potter, and Pig whizzing around the room annoying Ron. The Legend of the Guardians shows us gorgeous owl worlds, protecting the Kingdom of the Owls :)

With these large-eyed guardians as votive holders, book ends, and hand bags, are we covering ourselves with harbingers of death? Probably not. We're tapping into the quiet and sometimes hidden wisdom which we associate with these majestic creatures.

Should we stay ignorant of the global associations linked to the things we love, I think not. But nor should we turn away from beautiful things we love merely because of some ancient opinions.

We must ever hold the two in tension as we live in the world we've been plopped into.

Still, while I love owls, I love other animals as well... nearly all animals, but especially: dragonflies, lynx, foxes, stags, bats and spiders (yes I'm a weird one). Any animals really will do... And Thank you so much to everyone for helping me establish my owl parliament and my animal menagerie of glass, clay, wood and cloth.