Owl Sighting, Interaction, and Readings

The Initial Sighting
About a month ago, the coyote pack that lives around here came through one night. They were howling and yipping up a storm, really late. I got out of bed to look and see if I could see them. I saw something strange on our fencepost. In the dark, I just couldn't figure out what it was. I was worried it was an injured or harassed animal that was trying to avoid the coyote pack. I got a flashlight and shined it through the window to that spot. It turned its head and I could see it was an owl. Of course the light startled it and it flew off. I was happy to see it flew off normally, so I wasn't worried about it being injured.

Full Moon Interaction
A little over a week ago, the night before the Full Moon, I had an INCREDIBLE experience. I let the dogs out into the backyard to go potty late. While they were pottying I heard an owl hooting loudly, so from very close nearby. I was looking around to try to find where the owl might be. I looked up and directly over my head, on the peak of our roof, was a very large Great Horned Owl. I quickly and as quietly as I could shooed the dogs back inside. I quietly called to my husband to come outside as fast as he could, but to be quiet. I pointed up above my head and he too saw the owl. The owl hooted several times and we could hear a response coming back from his mate off in the distance. It was INCREDIBLE!!! To be so close and have the owl actually on our house! My husband got his phone out and took a picture. Unfortunately he didn't realize his flash was on. The flash went off and the owl was startled and flew away. I was SO disappointed! We said apologies and said we'd appreciate if the owl would return if he felt comfortable in doing so, that we would do our best not to startle him again. We saw that the owl hadn't flown too far off. We could still hear him and his mate calling back and forth to each other. We went back inside to feed the dogs their dinner.

Great Horned Owl on our roof, directly overhead
(camera flash on, unfortunately, which startled the owl)

After the dogs ate their dinner, we let them out again for their final potty break of the night, before bed. We heard the owl hooting again from closer. We looked and he was perched at the top of our neighbor's house, almost directly below the Full Moon. It was incredible! Again, we put the dogs away. My husband took some pictures (NO flash this time!) and video. It was just so amazing! We thanked the owl for returning, said goodnight, and went inside in the hopes that we wouldn't deter him from staying or coming again.

Great Horned Owl on our neighbor's roof
(the light dot is a plane flying in the distance)

Great Horned Owl on our neighbor's roof
(the light dot is a plane flying off in the distance)

I was absolutely so completely dorked out excited! To have such an amazing visit from an incredible animal in such an urban area was just so awe inspiring. I felt like it was a living manifestation of my spirituality, my spiritual path... I was excited and happy and awed and honored, a whole bunch of feelings all at once. Just an incredible experience...

Owl Card Reading
The next day I decided to do a reading about what message the Owl may have been bringing me. I don't do a reading on every animal sighting I have. Some sightings are just natural occurrences, because the animals live where I can see them. This visit from the Owl felt significant.

I did a reading with The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle and The Wild Unknown Tarot. I pulled the Owl card from TWU Animal Spirit Oracle as the topic card, rather than choosing a card at random. I read the book entry for that card and considered that as I drew 3 cards from TWU Tarot asking what message the Owl I encountered might be bringing me.

Owl Combination Reading
The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle (c) 2016 Kim Krans of The Wild Unknown
The Wild Unknown Tarot 1st edition (c) 2012 Kim Krans of The Wild Unknown 

The keywords for the Owl card are abundance, clairvoyance, treasures. Owls are about wisdom and knowing. This knowledge will help bring about abundance in your life.

My interpretation for the 10 Cups, 5 Swords, Judgement cards is that to achieve happiness you must break through challenging thought patterns. Leave the past behind. Let go of the past and embrace the present so you can move forward into the future. (The last sentence is a meaning for the Judgement card that I read somewhere and unfortunately can't remember where...)

Drawing Multiple Owl Cards
I also decided it would be interesting to pull Owl cards from various decks I have and read the meanings of those cards from their accompanying books, to add to this reading for myself.

Owl cards pulled from several decks
The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle (c) 2016 Kim Krans of The Wild Unknown
The Animal Wisdom Tarot (c) 2013 CICO Books
The Animal Wise Tarot (c) 1999 Dragonhawk Publishing
Oracle of the Shapeshifters (c) 2011 Blue Angel Publishing
Oracle of the Shapeshifters (c) 2013 Beyond Words/Simon Pulse
The Wild Unknown Tarot 1st edition (c) 2012 Kim Krans of The Wild Unknown

The meanings and interpretation are fairly detailed and personal, but here's a few keywords for each:

TWU Animal Spirit Oracle Owl-abundance, clairvoyance, treasures

The Animal Wisdom Tarot-Keeper of the Light (Hermit); Solitude, Introspection, Enlightenment, Wisdom; Illumination through direct experience

The Animal-Wise Tarot-wisdom, vision, guidance, silence

Oracle of the Shapeshifters-Wisdom as light as a feather; Gift of justice, wisdom, transformation, and the pure power of directed intention

The Wild Unknown Tarot-Father of Swords (Great Horned Owl)-corresponds to the King of Swords, taking charge of my thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions
     (I only included the Father of Swords in my reading, but am showing the others because they're all owls)

This all felt very meaningful and applicable to me. I will continue to explore Owl energy and correspondences until the next Full Moon.

Have you experienced sighting a wild animal and it felt significant? What animal did you see? What message do you think it was bringing to you? Please feel free to share in the comments.


https://www.thewildunknown.com/
http://lucycavendish.com.au/
http://www.strangeling.com/