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Thanks David and Dowrgi, I appreciate your feedback. Unfortunately I have already acted on that dream and have withdrawn from a Christian voluntary role because I had misgivings about the organisation and who is behind it. I won’t name the organisation.
Awens to All:
I am wondering what sort of Omen it could mean that Imbolc falls on that exact same day as the Chinese New Year of the Tiger.
3X3
Thanks David and Dowrgi, I appreciate your feedback. Unfortunately I have already acted on that dream and have withdrawn from a Christian voluntary role because I had misgivings about the organisation and who is behind it. I won’t name the organisation.
Well, as I wrote before, I think only you yourself can really know how to interpret your dreams and if you’ve set your course accordingly and feel that it’s for the better, then so be it; perhaps there’s no “unfortunately” in this is, if you see what I mean?
Anyway, I hope your decision, in your terms, proves to be for the best.
Bennathow
/|\The Holy Spirit blows where it wills. I think I have a connection to this particular individual on a deep spiritual basis but I don’t meet his terms and conditions.
John 3:8 The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?3×3,
I hope it’s good! I was born in the year of the tiger.As for omens, I think we need to define what an omen is. Ovates, this is your turf. I get headaches a day or so before it rains. Would that be considered an omen or a bloody nuisance.
I had always read where omens were read to forecast occurring or future events. These were reported to be watching the flight of birds, sacrifices (to see which direction the body fell or the entrails pointed) and consulting a pocket trilithon.
I have some other thoughts but, I need to consider their value.
Peace and Harmony
Dave the DruidI do Maintenance on a Commercial Mall for a few $$$ and that includes Sweeping & Cleaning the Parking Lots.
Inevitably, each Week, I always find at least 1 Dime.
Is that some sort of Omen of Job Security or something else?
3X3
3×3,
It seems more a spot of good luck. I’m sure you look at the ground you walk on regularly so you can see things that are different. I do that and usually find a coin or two. Keep your good luck going. It can be a bright spot for you.
As an omen? One way to read it would be that perhaps good things are beginning for you. I am sure there are other readings.Peace and Harmony
Dave the DruidI think the generally accepted definition of an omen is that of a sign or something that portends something in the future. As has been stated before, the modern idea is generally negative, although that needn’t always be the case.
In order for something to be a sign, I think it has to be unusual or strange. Just to give an example, where I live there are quite a lot of magpies, I’d spend all day counting them going to and fro, so it wouldn’t be much use to use the old magpie augury. On the other hand, if I were to see, say, a golden eagle, then that would be unusual, and that’s were (possibly) one could start talking of signs, in this instance augury. The ancients, in this case the Etruscans and Romans, had quite strict rules about when and how to read the signs, too – part of this being no doubt in order to avoid potential false cause fallacies or appeals to coincidence – seeing a frog in a pond full of frogs in spring is hardly much of a sign of anything.
As for the dimes, well, I’d say that finding dropped small change in a parking area is not really a sign of anything really, but lucky all the same.
Anyway, that’s my tuppence, or shall I say dime’s, worth! 😀
Bennathow
/|\Thanks Dowrgi,
That is as solid definition as can be hoped for.
Care to take a whack at events that can be considered portentous for omens?
Try this (old superstition), dropping a spoon portended that a visitor would be coming. I don’t know the value of the visitor, positive or negative. Omen? Not sure. Is it a sufficient enough event to be connected to a result?
I was considering the idea of internal(self) and external (outside the self) sources for omens. I don’t recall any internal sources. External sources must be the source. What can they be? Enquiring minds want to know. I want to know what to look for.
I saw a small falcon fly north this morning. A better sign in of spring than a robin.Peace and Harmony,
Dave the DruidMorning Dave,
I think a lot depends on the sign itself, obviously, but also the observer’s situation, frame of mind, and, of course, personal/cultural factors; for example, in Britain a black cat crossing one’s path is generally considered lucky, but in many other parts of the world, this is considered to be unlucky. I was also once told that dropping things, such as cutlery, in the house was a sign that someone in the family was pregnant! The list could go on and on.
To my mind, it’s a bit like dream interpretation, it depends a great deal on the individual and the circumstances in which the “sign” was beheld. In terms of bird augury, the Romans had a very fixed set of practices and interpretations when it came to this kind of thing and unless it was something very, very unusual, I don’t think they would have just randomly interpreted birds flying around as a sign of anything, certainly not without any kind of ritual, creating of a sacred space, and so on beforehand.
I suppose you could think of it this way, a sign is something that draws attention, a notice of some kind, something that stands out, so my example of frogs in a pond would not constitute much of a sign.
Bennathow
/|\Let’s try this again.
I like it.
Attach a potential outcome to an unusual event. The Romans and their birds were mad. Still good for a look up though.
Frogs in a pond say you have good enough ecology for frogs. A good portentous sign for a wider healthier environment.
“As a sign it’s as good as any” -Monty Python Life of BrianPeace and Harmony
Dave the DruidFrogs in a pond say you have good enough ecology for frogs. A good portentous sign for a wider healthier environment.
It’s not really an omen, “sign from beyond”, or message, though, is it? It’s just part of a natural process so to speak. I suppose it depends on how you look at the very nature of nature itself, but I think key in all of this is the element of unexpectedness or being unusual.
According to Cassius Dio, bees swarmed around the standards of Pompey the Great’s army before the battle of Pharsalus, this was viewed as a very bad omen by the Roman soldiers on Pompey’s side and, indeed, the battle was a crushing defeat for them. I’d say that bees swarming unexpectedly around something unusual, such as a military standard, could be viewed – and certainly would have been by the ancients – as an omen of sorts – if you believe in omens, that is.
Bennathow
/|\Dowrgi,
A sign? Only if you interpret it that way. I was trying to make lemonade from lemons or frogs if you get my meaning. A sign is a sign if we read it as such.
I recall the story about the swarming bees. My studies of the classics my be a little out of date however.
I don’t really believe in omens as such but I do feel that being able to interpret signs is a part of what a Druid is able to do. That’s part of that ovate thing. To me it’s like reading fortune cookies. Sometimes it works.
Peace and be Harmony
Dave the Druid
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