Great Horned Owl
I am blessed with good health. I have a husband who I love and who loves me. I live in a beautiful house filled with art (our home has doubled as Haitian and contemporary ethnic art gallery for 32 years*). And I have owls for neighbors. In Hollywood, California. Yup, you read that right. The Hollywood of obnoxious helicopter attacks from the sky at the drop of a film premiere, not to be outdone by blaring sirens and hot-rodders doing doughnuts. Still, nature is alive and well in our neck of the woods. That’s the beauty of Hollywood.
Last Saturday night, after a fulfilling, always-exceptional Friday night of live, free jazz, courtesy of LACMA, which has somehow managed, with this event, to bring together just about every known element of this diverse city — both in ethnicity and age range — I was lying in bed thinking about how lucky I was to be surrounded by my dear friends who were also there at the concert — Cathy, visiting from Oakland, Liz, Simon, Gregory, Marilyn, Patrick, Manny (who himself is co-owner of a The New Townhouse, a cool bar and restaurant featuring live Latin and jazz bands), and my husband Pascal. We’d been lying on the grass, drinking wine, sharing food, ranting about politics, all while listening to fantastic music. Couldn’t get much better. And then the owls started in.
I have often heard our neighbor the owl before and always adored hearing him/her hooting away into the warm, dark L.A. sky. The book, Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sams of Iroquois and Cherokee descent and David Carson of Choctaw descent is always on hand to guide me through the potential meanings of significant episodes or interactions with animals. I often go to the owl page in the book to refresh my memory about what owl signifies to many native peoples. A few takeaways from the book:
— Owl medicine is symbolically associated with clairvoyance and magic
— Owl is able to see in the dark; night is owl’s friend
— Owl is a symbol for wisdom because it can see that which others cannot
— Owl medicine people know more about an individual’s inner life than that person knows about themselves (this may make some people uncomfortable being around owl people)
According to the book, if you have owl medicine, if owls like to gather around you, or if you have pulled the owl card (the book comes with a deck of cards), you are being asked to use your powers of keen, silent observation to intuit some life situation. Owl is befriending you and aiding you in seeing the total truth. Cool stuff, no? (If this sounds kind of woo woo to you, take it up with the Indians.)
So Saturday night felt especially significant because I realized that what we were hearing was not one owl but two! Instead of the usual two hoots, the first owl was hooting three times, and after a slight pause, the other would respond with two hoots.** This went on and on until I fell asleep. I cannot express how happy it made me to hear those sounds, knowing that these mysterious creatures have somehow chosen our doorstep on which to land. An inner smile wrapped itself around my entire being, inciting an immense feeling of gratitude for the total truth of my beautiful life, which can often escape me. Just had to share.
*Galerie Lakaye is open by appointment. Come see us sometime!
* Further investigation into the three hoots suggests that, rather than two owls, we were probably being serenaded by a Great Horned Owl, known for its three hoots, followed by two shorter ones. Love that too!
Photo courtesy of Nicky PE at Pexels
We live in a canyon and have an owl that lives in our Sycamore tree. I usually stop everything just to listen. Grateful for this extra awareness about hoots, two owls vs a Great Horned Owl and all the magical powers thereof.
So cool now I’m going to listening closer to Owl talk, I want to see a Great Horned Owl.Great insight in this book on the legend of Owl wisdom makes sense now. Also cool to be mentioned in your daydream and feeling much gratitude for our friendship of many years. Feeling blessed for this Owl wisdom.
Such a lovely appreciation- we too have owls in our neighborhood in Altadena- to see them fly overhead in the night is a very special experience…