When is an animal contact significant enough to be an omen?

[Sanity Claws]

A redtail hawk sat on the railing of my apartment's balcony yesterday. Only 15 feet and a window glass separated me from the hawk. I stared out at it until it flew into a nearby tree a few minutes later.
The sight made me catch my breath but I don't know whether it is an omen. After all pigeons and sparrows often alight in the area. Why shouldn't a hawk who is looking for a pigeon or sparrow dinner?

How do you tell when an occurrence is just a coincident or meaningful?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. To me, if it gets your attention at all....

it's meaningful.

There is often a much more direct, profound message if the same animal (or type of animal) gets your attention three times. It could come in many forms...so be open to receiving the message.

The red-tail hawk is my life totem.

A lovely occurrence no matter how you slice it. Good for you! :hug:

[Sanity Claws]

2. How did you find out what your life totem is?

Also what exactly is a life totem?
I have gone through several changes in my life and can't imagine one animal describing me through all the changes.

I will certainly keep my eyes open for further hawk sightings.

Thanks, OGR, for your input.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. I'm not sure, to be honest....

It simply became apparent over the course of the last 10 years, in conjunction with several readings that seemed to confirm it, that the hawk is my life totem. The hawk is the one consistent animal in my awareness, so much so that HOW I encounter them guides me as to the message: visual (including what they're doing), auditory (I can discern the various cries), even the casting of shadows as they fly overhead when I don't actually see them. Our relationship is quite intimate. :)

Others come and go based on situational events; the hawk remains a steady companion. No doubt.

:hug:

[Sanity Claws]

9. What does it mean to you to have hawk as your totem?

I did some reading on hawk as a totem but would love to hear your take.

[OneGrassRoot]

16. Seeing the "big picture"

That's it, without a doubt, for me. :) Hawk medicine helps with a more "visionary" (for lack of a better word) approach to things...taking in the big picture.

:hi:

[Sanity Claws]

17. Thank you

I consider myself more of a big picture person too.
I had a couple of psychics tell me that I'm visionary. I'm still not able to think of myself in those terms.
After posting the opening message, I remembered that way back in high school, we had an exercise where we picked an animal we wanted to be. Many girls picked cuddly or beautiful animals, like dog, horse. I was the only one who picked an eagle or falcon, a big predator bird like a hawk.
Maybe it is a totem for me.

[winyanstaz]

4. There are NO accidents.

They will also do something unusual.
Pay attention to which direction they fly and to your own self-talk when you notice the bird...both before and during.
If it is your Totem trying to make itself known..you will see it in four ways. (any combination of sides, movements, close-ups...far away etc)

So watch for it..it could well be back soon.:)

[Sanity Claws]

10. I will watch for it.

The hawk flew eastward and up onto a tree branch when it left my balcony railing. I didn't notice where it flew after that.

I will keep an eye out for future hawk sightings.

[winyanstaz]

19. East is "sees far"....

So it would be wise to look ahead.
:) it is a good Totem to have..let us know if it returns :)

[Cleita]

5. This is meaningful. I live in redtail hawk heaven, but they never approach

you very close unless they are going to snap up some innocent very close to you and then they fly away very quickly with their booty. It's really fast. The closest I have had a hawk to me is the top of a telephone pole or the lines and they do hang around when I'm gardening so they don't consider me a threat. So if this bird is hanging around your balcony it's significant. They have extremely good eyesight from way up in the sky. They can spot prey from that high up and they dive bomb so fast to pick it off, that the poor victim doesn't have a chance. You are being given a message. :hug:

[Sanity Claws]

11. Message

It may be a message. Now if I could only figure it out .... LOL.

[omega minimo]

6. It's a blessing

[Sanity Claws]

12. I felt blessed to be so close to such a powerful, beautiful creature

[omega minimo]

18. That's it

:thumbsup:

[MorningGlow]

7. Short answer? It is if you feel it is

If your attention is captured by an animal, that animal is giving you a message of some sort and/or is calling you. That is a totem animal. (And I feel the same way as Win--there are no coincidences.)

Hawks are one of my totem animals too. I was called by one significantly when I had decided to change careers. I had been in advertising (ew) as a proofreader (double ew--they are treated like dirt in the ad business), and I was miserable. I decided to switch to a writer/editor job in the educational materials field (working on science kits for schools, mostly). I felt like it was the right thing to do, but of course I was apprehensive about making such a big change. During my final two weeks at the advertising job I had to nip over to my new job to complete some paperwork on my lunch hour. On my way back to the ad agency I took a route I usually wouldn't. I drove up a big hill and down the other side, and suddenly a red-tailed hawk landed in the middle of the road right in front of my car. Luckily no one else was on the road; I stopped dead and we looked at each other for a very long moment. Then it flew away. I sure got the message! And from then on I wasn't worried that I had made a bad decision.

Hawks are such magnificent creatures. I'm sure you'll be visited by one again! :hi:

[Sanity Claws]

13. What does it mean to you to have hawk as one of your totems?

[MorningGlow]

15. Well, it confirmed my particular type of magic

I've always been air magic, which of course is represented by all birds and flying insects (hence my dragonfly avatar), and to be contacted by a hawk repeatedly made me feel that I was confirmed and accepted into the realm of the sylphs. Eventually I became the "official" keeper of the East Door (the direction of air) in my coven.

As with all personal symbols, receiving a totem animal will mean different things to different people. No wonder they say the personal journey can only be traveled alone...

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. All unusual, proximate animal encounters are significant.

Predator birds, what could that mean in your life?

And usually, something truly meant to get your attention, will. You'll know without question.

[Sanity Claws]

14. I don't know what it means

I read up on hawks as totems but the interpretations seemed to focus on their sight, not that they are predators.

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. I attempt to look at both sides of a sigil in order to see any hidden relevance.

Sometimes it can be bad news, sometimes good. It's all neutral anyway in that you can choose to alter course if something bad is indicated.

These encounters can be quite wonderful. I have had a few that I still consider fondly. :)

[GliderGuider]

20. If your heart is open you will know when the animal has spoken to you.

I look for the meaning of the contact within myself in the moment when it occurs. I have had some contacts that were light and brief, that served to point me towards the truth of my feelings at the time. On the other hand some contacts have been repeated and so deep they have shaken my soul. For me such contacts reveal a totem that is an integral part of my being, more an expression of my essence than a sign.

My lasting totem is the vulture. I became a shaman/condor in a vision once, and since then every time a vulture appears in my life I feel an opening between worlds. I had many close encounters with vultures since then – they appear as protectors, guides and carriers of grace. It seems that the more we open to such contacts, the more they occur.

Congratulations on really noticing your hawk.

[OneGrassRoot]

21. So nice to see you.....

just popping in to give you a :hug:.

:hi:

[GliderGuider]

22. Thanks!

I love hugs, have one back. :hug:

I'm going through big shifts right now, paring down to the essentials, stepping out of old patterns and reconnecting with myself.

In return for the hug, here's a poem I wrote yesterday that talks about this experience. I know it's off topic, I hope that Sanity Claws will forgive the digression.

Stepping Off the Train

Alone upon the platform, a heap of bags beside me,
I feel the train as it pulls away.
Such an old-fashioned locomotive –
Full of sound and fury,
Steam and cinders,
Sturm und Drang.

How well I know its deep tectonic rumble.
I’ve lived within that train for my entire life,
Sleepwalking from car to car.

What am I doing here on this platform all alone,
Eyes watering,
Ears ringing,
Throat burning?
What sort of banishment is this?
Why have I been cast out?
I paid for my ticket, after all –
Over and over again.

I wonder,
How will I ever find my way home?
Is there indeed a home out here in the cold alone?
Fear swims through me like a school of silver fish.

The train converges out of sight,
The rumble fades,
The steam swirls away,
And in the settling stillness I gaze across the tracks.

On the far side a man stands facing me.
Like me he is
Alone beside his pile of baggage.
He looks back at me, and with warm familiar dawning smiles
We raise our hand as one and read the sign we hold:

“Welcome Home”

[OneGrassRoot]

23. My goodness....

that touched me to the core. I'm tearing up (btw, the hawk is crying out plaintively as I type this)...very, VERY lovely, Dear Sir!

Thanks for sharing. :hug:

[Sanity Claws]

25. The hawk is back

The hawk is tearing and eating some prey (rat? bird?) while perched on a ledge about three to four feet off the ground.
He is facing in my direction again but this time is lower to the ground and a little to the east.
OneGrassRoot told me that three sightings are important. This is now the second sighting of the hawk.
I feel blessed to see such a bird. However, he did look rather bedraggled, I guess from all the rain of the past few days.

BTW, I'm on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Seeing a hawk out the back window does not strike me as a common occurrence around these parts.


I hope you don't mind my resurrecting this thread.

[Celebration]

26. How close are you to Riverside Park? Or Central Park?

I bet there are some hawks there!!

Decades ago I lived at 108th and Broadway. Back then it was sorta the 'Hood, except for Riverside Drive, of course.

Have a camera ready for the third sighting!! I keep trying to get pictures of hawks, but I don't have any great ones. Is it a red tailed hawk?

[Sanity Claws]

27. I'm a block off Riverside Park

Why would a hawk choose to come into the backyard of brownstones? He could have the entire park and the Hudson River to find a take-out meal.

I'm pretty sure it was a redtailed hawk. I think it is the only big bird of prey in the immediate area.

108th and Broadway? Were you at Columbia? I lived near there back in the bad old days in the late 1970s-early 1980s. It's much nicer now.

[Celebration]

28. Yup, Columbia

Back in those days..........LOL, never mind.

Your totem is just showing off for you, I feel. But I actually think city streets have a lot of creatures, too. Maybe the hawk is attracted to others in the neighborhood as well. I'm not all that familiar with totems, but did get somewhat interested in the subject when the heron flew directly towards me, about twelve feet away. I am familiar with the Upper West Side of Manhattan, though, at least in the 70s!

[Sanity Claws]

29. I hope you don't mind a PM

We may have overlapped at Columbia. Wouldn't it be funny if we had met decades ago?

[Celebration]

30. I doubt it

But I'll send you a PM anyhow!

[OneGrassRoot]

31. Oooooh, how delightful! :)

Again, this is just my personal impression based on my own perspective, but the fact that you are indeed noticing it and feel it is not a common occurrence (it really doesn't matter whether or not it is; it's not common FOR YOU) is what is significant.

Seeing a creature you're not accustomed to seeing, in an area which surprises you, is part of the message, IMHO. Yet it's a message for you to discern for yourself.

Big picture. That's what always comes to mind for me when the hawk is persistent in some way. Look at the big picture.

I had an unusual (for me) hawk occurrence the other day as well; he/she was dragging literally flattened roadkill across the road. Not sure the activity itself held meaning but the hawk has been awfully persistent of late in making his presence known. :)

:hug:

[Sanity Claws]

32. I will think about the message

Thanks OGR