I've always been fascinated by the owl. Of God’s creatures, few animals are as romanticized by human culture while remaining perhaps the most effective predator of its particular domain. The owl appears so regal, standing upright as it does, above the calumny and savagery of the natural world, much like the lion. We stare at it and imagine that it’s huge eyes belies some great intelligence, its stance some kind of dignity… What is it thinking about, we wonder? It does not lurch forward like the eagle, ready to terrorize its prey. It does not fly with its brethren, like the common pigeon. So what is it thinking about…?
Now, zoologists understands that like any other bird of prey, the owl is merely considering its next target. Its distinctive eyes are telescopic, and aided by the ability to swivel its head, can see in 360 degrees with perfect clarity, with the added bonus of being equally effective day or night. Its wings are blessed with feathers peculiar to its breed, allowing it to fly silently through the air. Its hearing is superior due to a complex system of specialized feathers and asymmetrical ears that allow it to estimate exactly how far any noise as traveled to reach it. And its coloration is designed to blend into its environment, combining with its stiff, unyielding posture to prevent itself from being noticed.
Still, like any animal, regardless of its place in the food chain, is ascribed characteristics so humans might better understand it. In the west, we often depict it as a wise animal, even a friendly one, despite everything on its body tailored towards the act of murder. Consider Winnie-the-Pooh’s companion, dispensing advice to his stuffed-toy friends. This characterization is said to come to us from Athens, where the bird symbolized the city and their patron goddess, and therefore wisdom itself. Not dissimilarly, the Hindus held the owl to be the mount of Lakshmi, goddess of love and good fortune.
The same animal is elsewhere considered not a totem of good will, but an omen of death. Virgil describes the city of Rome performing a ritual cleansing after a lone owl arrived in the city, while today in Africa, it is still said to see or hear an owl hoot is to be marked for an early death. In the Americas, indigenous cultures of both continents regularly attributed sorcery and ill tidings to the owl. Startlingly, even so far from Western influence, the same bird is still associated with one’s eminent demise. The Aztecs, a civilization already steeped in the imagery of death, treated owls as the messengers of Mictlantecuhtli, just as in far away Wisconsin, the bird is thought to mark the demise of the Hocagara tribe.
It is notable that in none of these cultures is the owl considered an omen of evil, merely knowledge, both desired and otherwise. With its vast eyes and its silent wings, it seems so easy to associate it with the unknown. Other animals are anthropomorphized in order to assign human qualities. Very few animals like the owl are instead associated with the absence of human nature, the absence of those traits we attribute to living beings. The owl is neither devious nor friendly nor harsh. It is simply more aware, and it is this idea of unknown knowledge that somehow follows it from one civilization to the next,whether for good or for ill.