3 Sacred Birds

Have you been noticing any swans lately in a lake or reservoir nearby? Perhaps doves have been visiting you lately at dawn or possibly dusk? Are sparrows all of a sudden showing up at your bird feeder? If so the Roman Goddess Venus could be knocking at your door.

All three of these birds are sacred to the Roman Goddess of Love, Venus. As I write this my bird feeder is loaded with sparrows and the doves are on the ground below picking up the fallen seeds. Each year on my birthday I pull a medicine card from my deck. This tells me which totem I am working with for the upcoming year. This year I pulled the swan. It ushers in a time of altered states of awareness and of development of your intuitive abilities. It is a time to honor your female intuitive side. In Shamanism, the swan is associated with love, inspiration, intuition, self transformation, gracefulness and beauty, and also with traveling to the otherworld. As a water bird, it is also connected with emotions. Swan can help you see the inner beauty of yourself and others, developing intuition, accepting transformations and balancing your emotions.

As for the dove, doves come from Cypress, the island sacred to Venus. Apuleis tells us that Venus’s chariot was pulled by snow–white doves called the "birds of Venus" because of their excessive lust. Aelianus says that doves were consecrated to Venus because on Mount Eryx in Sicily a feast was held when the Goddess passed over Libya; on that day, in all of Sicily, no doves were seen, because all had crossed the sea to go and make up the goddess’s train. But nine days later, from the Libyan shores there arrived in Trinacria a dove red as fire, as Anacreon says, it was Venus herself, who is also called Purpurea, and behind her came the throng of doves.

The sparrow was also known to pull the chariot of Venus. They are also known to multiply at a fantastic rate. During the Middle Ages it was a symbol for the peasants and lower classes throughout Europe. Peasants, at this time, were often helpless under the power of overlords. It’s ability to multiply and and assert itself in spite of predation reflects the idea that nobility of the common person is inherently strong.

So watch for Her, She comes in mysterious ways!

By the Old Ways...Dusio