Animal signs – all good?

A lot of has been said about spiritual signs in the form of animals. Birds, even insects such as butterflies and other animals are often signs from our family in spirit to provide comfort to the living. Grief is a difficult emotion that takes time to fade away but never goes away. All of us have different ways of coping and for some a visit from a robin for example can be very comforting and a beautiful sign from the loved ones.

But there is another element to this that doesn’t often get discussed often enough –  visits as a warning. As a child I was always fascinated by my mother’s way of seeing both positive and negative signs from animals. My mother saw butterflies as a sign for visitors. She would even know who or what sort of visitors based on the butterfly’s size and colour. If a white butterfly came fluttering by as she picked mangoes from our tree, she would say “oh I think your grandma is coming to visit” . The white butterfly would be accompanied by a brown one. True enough my grandmother would turn up either later that day or the next day accompanied by one of my aunts. 

Owls and crows in particular would appear when there was bad news to come. Crows who come bearing bad news have a different attitude. They often look at you differently and have a more gentle way about them. There is huge superstition about them throughout the ages. I am sure some of you have heard “A crow on the thatch, soon death lifts the latch.”  The crow has had plenty of myths and theories flung its way throughout the ages including “shapeshifter” and the carrier of lost souls. You can read the crows significance in Indian mythology here

As I grew older and more rebellious, I would often dismiss this as “nonsense” as you may remember from my other posts, I was struggling with my own spirituality in my teens so this was another strange or unproven theory which I wanted to shrug off. But of course the more you resist something, the more you get tested. I started to see the signs more and accepted the crow was an important part of spiritual signs.

I have come to understand they are indeed highly intuitive as well as intelligent and sense the energy around people. They come to warn us but also to give us strangely a sense of comfort as well. They are very empathetic and bring healing as well as news.

So this Wednesday I was standing near the patio doors by chance and a crow flew onto my garden table. It stood there looking at me, bowed its head and flew away, as mysteriously as it appeared.  I heard a message right there and then, that I would hear some sad news soon.

Today my mother called to let me know that my cousin passed away on Wednesday. One of the pitfalls of being an expat is not being able to be there for important events. I do hope that he finds peace where he is now. I am so grateful to the little ‪#‎crow‬ who came by to warn me. 

Not all crows are the same so don’t get too alarmed if you keep seeing crows around you. The ones who bear sad news have a different mannerism and will want to connect with you. Always pay attention to any messages that pop into your head, signs that you may see or conversations afterwards. We shouldn’t be afraid of them or what they bring with them, it is beautiful that someone is trying to reach out and bring us some awareness of what is to come.