Owl
Because the owl sees in the dark it represents our intuitive sense that ‘sees’ what is happening in the subtle areas of our feeling and experience. This sense ‘feeds’ by watching or acting as an integrating function with the many dark or hidden aspects of our experience and behaviour. Because this part of our mental process is aware of the hidden activities in the depths of our body and mind, it can initiate our conscious self into the mysteries of life and death. If one can imagine having a council of all living things, we would all have in common the drive to reproduce, and there would be huge links of understanding regarding care and rearing of young and perhaps of love for mate. The unconscious seems to have a sense of this synthesis of all life, and the owl, representing it, speaks with this sort of collective wisdom; a wise advisor.
Because the owl as a dream symbol is an actual doorway to the usually hidden side of life, we may sometimes feel fear or danger in regard to it. In some mythologies the owl was connected with death, and might act as a messenger regarding the death of a family member. For instance in Jewish tradition it is unlucky to dream of an owl, but okay to dream of any other bird. See: Second example in wife.
Idioms: Wise old owl; wisdom of the owl; night owl; owlish – looking wise or solemn.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What do I know about Owls?
Does this show any use of my intuition and wisdom?
If the owl seems menacing in the dream, is this about my fear of the dark, or death, or possibly the contents of my unconscious?
See Core – Collective Unconscious – Being the Person or Thing – Using Your Intuition
Comments
When I was very young some of the first dreams/nightmares that I can remember consisted of owls. Most of the time when I had these dreams they seemed peaceful of sorts, mostly just flying around me not really acknowledging my presence. However some of these dreams turned into horrible nightmares, where they would be flying down and wrapping their wings around me and taking me away. I am not reall sure what all of this ment and haven’t spoken about it for a very long time, maybe someone could provide some insight.
two weeks ago.. I was dreaming in black and white the entire time.. I was with someone and I couldn’t remember who.. but I think it was a guy..
We were at a very dark urban place having a walk I guess and all I could see were old buildings around me with blacked out windows.. None of the windows had light.. It could be an indication of my school which is an architectural black building..
There was overhead lights on my right.. It was covered by a partition with no roof.. I could hear groups of men talking from behind but I could never see them.. and I wasn’t paying attention to what they were talking about.. But suddenly I them yelling and that’s when I saw an owl flying and to my surprise and came to me and mounted onto my left arm and it seemed comfortable..
The friend I was with took some pictures of me with the owl.. And i could not remember what happened.. After that..
This dream at first felt pleasant but now it feels ominous….
Hello, This is sticking with me and I can not figure it out. I get a lot of life answers in my dreams. But this one has got me. I had an owl, Brown and large ( tall) that flew on to my arm. She started pecking at my fingers. I excepted this as a “this is what owls do” kind of thing. I did not want her to fly away so I carefully reach down to grab a leather string that had wooden balls on it. Wrapped it around my hand so shecwoukd have something other then my hand to peck. This was outside and although I was thrilled by this Owl perched on my arm, I was nervous. But seemed like I knew this bird and was comfortable at the same time.
Dear Jean – Thank you for sharing an interesting dream with us! I feel that your dream shows that you could develop your intuition even further, if you train it, probably by means of intuitive writing or intuitive painting.
I feel that the message of the owl pecking your fingers was about making you aware of that possibility.
The leather string that had wooden balls on it is designed to capture animals on their legs and so that approach is not really helpful as I see it. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas
What is used in falconry is a leather string with a pair of bells which can be heard from a fair distance; to ring a bell means to “awaken a memory”.
Whether we seek to use our intuition to find a lost object, consider a business opportunity or look at the great processes of the cosmos, one of the first things we need to learn is to place our thoughts, emotions and body in a balanced or poised condition. Rigid control is as useless as uncontrolled reactions. We do not need to control our thinking process, but to be aware of looking beyond it for a while to our other sources of information, i.e. to allow feelings, spontaneous imagery, fantasy, body language, and sensations.
Please also read http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/
Anna 🙂
I just had a dream that A baby blue owl hatched and it smiled at me , could talk, and asked me to take it with me and feed it . When it hatched i cryed.
Dear Cory – Your blue owl is a symbol for your intuition. Intuition is information that rises to consciousness either from a summary of our complete memory or experience, possibly including past lives; or is an unconscious contact with the mind of another person, living or dead, or arises from a contact with the universal mind, or memory of nature, which summarises all experience and knowledge, all peoples’ and creatures’ aims, and the way we can best relate to them, and all future possibilities.
Your being touched by “It” – “When it hatched i cryed” – I feel is a sign of you “being touched” by the mystery/potential that you are. I also feel that your being open to “It” will help you to develop a loving relationship with “your blue owl”, which I trust will guide you in wonderful ways.
You can ask before you go to sleep what “food” your baby owl needs.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/incubating-dreams/
Good Luck!
Anna 🙂
Hello. I submitted a dream description15-04-2015 and whilst later ones have had responses, mine hasn’t. ….I am worried that my dream means something horrible. Can somebody please advise? With thanks.
Dear Karen – Your dream does not mean something horrible, it does express that your intuition can guide you and that you can develop it too.
I did not comment on it, because the dream is so clear and I just cannot comment on all dreams, for there are many.
There is a lot to learn in Life and using and developing your intuition can be a wonderful start.
So please read the articles about “Using your Intuition”:
http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/
Good Luck!
Anna 🙂
Good morning,
I had a dream that I was walking along with my sister in almost a zoo / animal sanctuary and we suddenly were under threat (by what, I am not sure). Feeling threatened my sister and I tried to help the animals around us get to safety and I ended up with 6 grey baby owls. They were all different sizes but small and needy. We took them to a house I presume I was staying in and set up a room for them but the moment I sat down and set them down… they came cuddling back up to me. So I carried them around until my dream changed to some social setting at a party. Not sure what it means and would love some interpretation as it was so vivid.
Dear AJ – Because you are not aware in your dream what the threat was about, I feel it may be helpful to you to read this article so you can get an idea of the different animal situations which can arise in dreams; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/animal-situations/
The Zoo in your dream is a symbol for your natural urges and instincts – such as sexuality, parental caring and social grouping – that are repressed, or caged. Your spontaneous urges which are often trapped by social conventions.
What is happening to the animals shows how one is relating to the natural side of oneself – and how it is responding to one’s conscious attitudes and activities. Life processes in us are not inert. They constantly respond to what we do and what we are.
The symbol of six is the double triangle, or circle divided in six. It represents symmetry, unity of spirit and body, the visible and invisible. It is the harmonious relationship between man and God, the eternal and the transitory.
In the context of your dream – natural/sexual urges – it could also mean that the number six is a way of getting you to explore the idea of sex, while using your sixth sense.
You wrote: “So I carried them around until my dream changed to some social setting at a party”.
This part of your dream shows that you are “supporting” your intuition, so you can develop it.
See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/party/ and http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/
It also shows that your owls are a symbol for a need for discernment in your waking life;
a need to listen to what is being communicated (with or without words), observe the people around you, sense the energy; ‘See’ what is happening in the subtle areas of their and your feelings and (inner) experience.
To explore “sexuality” in its broader sense, I feel it may also be helpful to you to read
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/energy-sex-and-dreams/ and http://dreamhawk.com/forums/index.php?topic=3864.0
Anna 🙂
In my dream, I was in the countryside…near a woodland.There were lots of trees but I was in quite an open space and not far from a wooden fence. The sun was glinting through the some of the branches, so that some of the leaves were glistening, then a movement caught my eye. A large owl turned its head; it had beautiful mottled feathers with a hint of russet over the back of its head, neck and down its back. As it looked at me, I held my breath and smiled, then it glided silently off the fence along the line of the trees. I wanted to follow (very normal in real life when I see owls or buzzards!) but it was then flying back to where it had been perched, only when it landed there were 3 smaller ones with it who all sat in a row and looked at me with those deep, wise eyes before they all glided off silently in the same tree-lined direction with the sun catching the russet colours on the back of their heads and neck. It was amazing. Apart from it being a breathtaking dream, does it mean anything?
last night I dreamed of a big magnificent looking white owl w/ some gold fur.. I was afraid of him because I recently had a brush with death & I’ve always heard owls symbolize death.. So tried to get away from him but every where I went he was there looking down at me squaking loudly trying to tell me something.. But I couldn’t understand his language.. The last place I went to was a fortune teller ( I used to read tarot cards & recently became a Christian) & she told me that he was following me trying to tell me something … But then I woke up … Can you possibly translate this for me please?
Amanda – What a beautiful encounter! I do feel that this meeting with the owl is about initiating your conscious self into the mysteries of life and death.
In many dreams what is high – like the owl – indicates you are experiencing the most refined side of yourself – those things that exist beyond body concerns and link you with universal awareness.
It does take time to learn to understand the Universal Language of the owl. Perhaps you are not aware yet that beyond every form we feel attracted to – Christianity is a form of Life as well – is Life “unclothed”.
I feel this part of an interview with Tony will give you a start to lift the veil:
http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/death-is-life-without-form/
Chris: What is it like when we die?
Tony: I had another similar experience, again in a seed group, while working in Spain. This time the experience led me to see that what we call death is in fact life unclothed. What I mean is that when we look at each other, or at the world of nature, we see life expressed in form. But usually we do not look to see what is behind that form. We do not see the universal principle that enters into the myriad forms of life.
So what I experienced in Spain was that as the forms drop away, what we are left with is life without its clothing. We meet the essence of what gives us life, what gives the people around us existence, what exists in animals and plants, what animates and informs the children and people we love. Then we know we have met death in every moment of life, because life and death are one and the same. We have seen death in every face we look upon.
I trust it will also give you a different perspective when you read this feature:
http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/my-life-in-death/
“I am looking at my life at the moment with a feeling of surrender to the Mystery of Life. It seems so simple. I have given myself to Life – to that life, love and power that live in us and flows through us. In that surrender I am not tied to anything or to any situation. In connection with the love people ask of me, why hold it back? It is not even mine. This surrender is a kind of death. In other words a lot of things that seemed so important are let go of. A lot of things one grasps are gone. So this death does not mean withdrawal from the world or non-involvement. It simply means involvement without grasping tightly”.
And last but not least, Life is a process, so be patient with yourself and trust that you WILL learn to understand and integrate what the owl is telling you.
Anna 🙂
last night I had a dream of a white owl with big yellow eyes staring at me, and I was just staring right back at it. It started talking, I cant remember what it said but I was basically having a conversation with it… I knew I was dreaming and I was confused as to why I was having a conversation with this owl. What could this mean?
Samantha – A wonderful dream!! The answer to your question: “I knew I was dreaming and I was confused as to why I was having a conversation with this owl”, I found in one of Tony’s books called LUCID DREAMING.
See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/lucid-dreaming/
QUOTE:
“In his book Love, Medicine and Miracles (Rider, 1999), Dr Siegel gives examples of such directly informative dreams. Although scientific research has not yet been able to establish the how and why of these dreams, the countless thousands of them experienced by ordinary women and men show that there is something in the depths of your being that responds to your needs and enquiries. Sometimes such dreams come spontaneously, but they can also happen because you have asked for help or insight”.
Anna 🙂
Hello. Two weeks ago I had a dream and can’t stop thinking about it. So my dream:
I see nothing but an owl. Everything around is in white light. The owl is staring at me and smiling.
It feels like forever. And nothing else happens.
Consider it like a bad dream, because in the morning I was really feeling bad and from then can’t stop thinking about it.
Reply
Christina – I think you were feeling bad in the morning, because – at least for that moment – you had to let go of what you were able to meet in your dream (first). On some level you ARE aware of the wonder and the value both the Light and the owl have for you, and this is also why you can’t stop thinking about it.
It feels like forever for you were able to get a glimpse of “What” you are beyond time and so beyond your little self, or your personality.
Please also remember this:
A dream is something that comes from a deep part of you; it is something that is working upwards toward being conscious. As such it often, like a seed, takes time to break through to the surface, and then it has to grow. So often dreams are not recognised for their full meaning until later – sometimes months or even longer. The dream images are attempts to communicate something that has probably never been thought about or even been consciously thought about, so has never been put into common conscious thinking before. It is a communication from the depths, from beyond thought, and so any interpretations that are given by thinking may completely miss the point.
But the source of the dream, which is a process of Life, is intelligent in its own way, and will take part in any attempt to communicate. So exploring your dreams by entering into their imagery and attempting to understand them will be a two way process.
I feel it may be helpful to you – as far as you are not doing that already – to start a dream journal.
Both the Light and the owl will help you with exploring your dreams.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/
Anna 🙂
Hello there I just had a dream last night it scared me a little just because it had owls & I’m not to sure what owls mean in dreams I would absolutely love for you to help me . . .in the dream I was walking along with my boyfriend and I believe some friends but I can’t seem to remember who was all there we where walking along and I gasped my boyfriend looked at me and I was straight looking at the owl it didn’t make a noise or anything he got a bit shaken up owls aren’t in his best memories we kept walking and bam there was another one that time I only saw it I started to get a bit paranoid because it was just on the floor standing looking at me no noise no nothing but I could tell they wanted to tell me something I just couldn’t figure it out in total I saw three and my boyfriend only saw one I woke up after the last one and woke up scared not wanting to go back to bed please help clarifying this dream
Thank you
Reply
Fabb – You are afraid of listening to your own intuition, which is symbolised by the owl in your dream trying to communicate something to you.
Often we are afraid of listening to this wiser part inside us, for if we would, we would have to take decisions which we might find difficult to take, or we would have to admit certain things to ourselves which we do not feel like admitting (yet).
It will be helpful to practice to pay more attention to subtle feelings which are “talking” to you when you are with your boyfriend and his friends.
The owl (your intuition or these subtle feelings) can help you for instance to sense when it is okay for you to join your boyfriend and/or his friends and when to decide “No, this I do not want to do”?
Anna 🙂
My friend passed away 3 weeks ago. He was elderly and musical – that’s how I knew him. I had a reiki session two days later and he sent me a message for his daughter. It made total sense, but I was a bit sad in a way that the message was not accompanied by one of comfort for me. But thrilled that he had confirmed that you can indeed reach someone after passing away. Last night I dreamed that the family let me go to his house to choose something from what was left of his possessions to remember him by. I was confused that he hadn’t left something for me that had any real meaning. I looked for musical instruments but there was only an old banjo (not relevant as we sang in a choir together) Eventually, they told me he had left me a real baby owl. It was a beautiful small tawny owl I think.
I’d love your interpretation of this dream.
Thank you
Jules
Jules – The best way to deal with this is to work on integrating the influence left in you from the relationship. You can do this by thinking about the dreams about your friend and drawing on all you got from him. So I would suggest you integrate all the good and bad things. Try doing this by taking the dream images of your friend and pulling them back into your body. Yes, literally making them one with you. Do this slowly and allow any feelings that arise. This may sound strange but all the images in our dreams are projections from your inner world onto the screen of our sleeping mind; so taking them back into you is like owning them and integrating them. It is called honouring what we learned, bad or good, from the relationship. Think of it like digesting something. In a relationship, whether a feeling relationship or one in which you are learning something, you often absorb things from the person. You might take in such things unconsciously, as you did many things from parents and from the culture you were raised in. So the process of absorption in a dream may refer to such influences you are taking in.
Both the banjo and the baby owl I see as wonderful things left in you from the relationship with your friend. The baby owl still has to grow, so do take good care of it.
See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/musical-instrument/
And so perhaps this dream can help you to find comfort in knowing that your friend continues to live inside you as merely another expression of Life?
Anna 🙂
I have also recently had a dream about a red owl with a white underbelly with native american symbols. He was in a cage and owned by an older couple that lived in an rv on the side of the road in the country. I would ride my bike down a long dirt road just to see him every day…but I was always coming from a topless bar where I worked (I’ve never actually worked in a topless bar)lol very strange
My 2 1/2 year old little girl has had multiple dreams about a big owl trying to get in our house. She says she’s scared of it. We moved in with my mom about three weeks ago and I’m going through a seperation from her dad. Do you think the dream has something to do with that change? Should I be concerned? What do you think the dream means?
Maggie
Maggie – I feel it is a good decision to buy your daughter a soft toy owl so she can make friends with her dream owl. It is difficult to help such young children process a divorce while using words, but I think that her dream owl can be of help with this too.
Anna 🙂
Hello!
I just had a dream last night of a snow white owl with blue eyes and silver tipped wings. He was located at a playground of some sort, and he didn’t seem like he belonged, so I went up to it, curious. I had picked him up and held him away from my body, and he looked at me, but said nothing. He seemed comfortable in my hands, though, and as I walked with him to my treehouse, he did nothing but just be there. I set him on my handrail, and he sat there looking at me, just content.
i have been in the process of writing a series of novels, and most of the other parts of the dream (as do most of them) was centered around a plot concerning my books. This part of the dream was the only real out of place aspect, and I was unsure as to what it meant. Some clarification might help, thank you so much!!
Gypsy – The main thing about such a lovely bird is that it can see and hunt in the dark, and also fly without any wing sounds. In dreams this translates into that you have in your hands and is quietly with you, a faculty that can pick up information from the dark part of your mind. Considering that the unknown parts of you are enormous. That the unconscious itself is a spontaneous source from which the ego as well as the organism unfolded, is all held in your unconscious unknown self.
So at the moment you have the ability to explore the dark unknown in you but you are not using it. The owl, your intuitive faculty is not being accessed. Accessing it is like opening the door to your genius and creativity. As Einstein said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift”. So use your imagination and follow it where it leads. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/
Tony