The God of Death..

The Aztecs and Mayans considered the owl a symbol of death and destruction, and the Aztec god of death was often pictured as an owl.. I can understand why the superstitious indians believed that the owl had these powers, as it's a creature thats mainly hunting at night. With it's yellow, piercing eyes and the spooky hoot, it must have sent a chill down their spine out there in the rain forest. Though there's other creatures in the rain forest I would have found more frightening myself.. In Mexico they have an old saying that they still use "When the owl cries, the Indian dies"...

It's interesting how the same beliefs is found among the Ho-Chunk, a Native American tribe from Wisconsin, USA. It seems that indian cultures all over the world has much of the same beliefs and traditions, so maybe not so veird after all.. They have always had a very different outlook and closer connection to mother nature than what the westernes had..



While the indians considered the owl as something that brings or stand for evil, in the western culture people has for a long time associated owls with wisdom. This goes as far back as to the ancient greeks, where the godess of wisdom, Athena had the owl as a symbol.

I have to say that for me the owl is a magnificant creature and one of my favourite animals, or birds I guess I should say.. If they beholds great wisdom or not, I don't know. But they sure look smarter than an average sparrow and way cooler the way they can turn their heads around;) I lean towards favouring the ancient greek belief, though I find the whole god of death thing very fascinating.. But me picturing the owl as a wise old man, is probably just a sign of Disneys brainwash since my early years lol..

This is one of my favourite videos on youtube.. I never get tiered of looking at the beautiful motions of the feathers, as it's coming in for landing and the powerful look of the eyes. Such an amazing creature!!

How do you picture the owl? As a god of death, or a wise old man like I do?;) What is your favourite creature?

(History source: Wikipedia)