Have you ever heard the phrase, "Feathers appear when Angels are near?" The feather may be a validation of your intuition. Feathers have always represented a connection to spiritual realms and to divinity in many cultures worldwide. Feathers are often seen as symbols of peace, freedom, and hope. They represent the freedom of your mind and heart and your ability to travel, change and move through life freely.
Finding a feather can be an uplifting, spiritual experience, especially when you find one in an unexpected place such as in your house or in your purse, where there isn't an easy way to explain its presence. In several traditions, the colors of the feathers are important and designate different types of powers that come from that feather. Feathers are kept on altars, or burned or ground into mixtures to use in spell casting.
FEATHER COLORS AND THEIR MEANING
- Green Feather: Indicates luck on your side, success, healing, health, and money.
- Grey Feather: Indicates peace and harmony.
- White Feather: It represents your angel is watching over you, enlightenment through understanding, innocence, hope, truth and judgment, spiritual protection, love and faithfulness, blessings, divine guidance and fresh starts.
- Pink Feather: Represents love and happiness on the horizon.
- Blue Feather: Indicates that you were born with gifted hands and you should used them to help people, it also means more spirituality than ever in life.
- Black Feather: They widely regarded as a positive omen and could symbolize good things coming to you. You will feel better very soon.
- Purple Feather: Prepare for a spiritual awakening.
- Brown feather: Good health and tranquility.
- Yellow Feather: It means everything will be alright in the end.
- Red feather: Love and seduction are coming your way.
- Black and White Feather: Represents hope, balance and protection.
- Brown and white mix: Happiness is fast approaching.
- Orange feathers: represent energy, your creativity will flow through.
- Greenish Red Feather: Indicates your finances are improving.
USE OF FEATHERS IN SPIRITUAL RITUALS: Feathers are used for everything related to the sacred. Feathers have been an important symbol for most communities around the world.
- Some people believe that it is a sign from their guardian angel or spirit animal.
- Feathers can also be seen as a sign of good luck or a message from a loved one.
- Feathers are used to disperse negative energies and return them to the Holy Spirit.
- The peacock is most sacred in India, where peacock feather is worn and ingested to combat various illnesses and gain strength.
Native Americans use staff decorated with feathers to transmit their prayers to heaven. They often use feathers in rituals, especially healing rituals or healing ceremonies like smudging and more, where they are thought to purify the mind, body, and spirit.
Eagle feathers are given to individuals to acknowledge or commemorate a significant accomplishment and must be earned. Eagle feather headdresses, also called war bonnets, are traditionally a symbol of power and authority reserved for highly respected Native American men.
In certain tribes, a warrior was awarded a feather when he was brave in battle. In other traditions, feathers that naturally fell to the Earth contained the bird’s energy and were seen as a gift from the natural world.
The Yuchi have a sacred relationship with the whooping crane, the Oceti Sakowin (or Great Sioux Nation) in South Dakota have a special relationship with red-tailed hawk feathers. The great Lakota war leader Tasunka Witko (Crazy Horse) wore these feathers each time he went into battle in the 1860s and 1870s .
In Christian angels pictures and statues they have shiny wings with feathers that make them quick celestial messengers.
In ancient Greece it was believed that specific birds held the power of the gods, and using the feather would help you call them. The peacock is one good example, an animal that was created out of Hera’s watchman, the hundred-eyed giant Argus. God Zeus was often depicted holding an eagle feather in his hand. The feather was symbolic of his power and authority over the heavens.
Many tribes in South America would use the feathers of birds in their traditional medications, as well as wearing them on their body after gaining them through spiritual rites of passage. Zulus once wore turaco feathers as headdresses.
The King of Swaziland and traditional Masai men still do.
In the United Kingdom, many clans would use feathers to signify authority within the clan. In Scotland for example, clan chiefs were allowed to wear three feathers, chieftains could wear two and armigers could wear one. Anyone who had not gained status in the community through legitimate means wasn’t allowed to wear feathers as part of their garb.
In Europe, the symbol of three feathers was popular in ancient Christianity, especially among the Medici, who used them as an emblem representing the three virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. Pagan traditions, the feather is also a source of power and connection with a magical realm. The Maori also use feathered staffs, but they use them to transport the soul of a deceased person to the kingdom of the gods.
In Africa, feathers have been used as self-adornment by many tribes to designate status and power. In Egypt, the ostrich feather is a hieroglyphic representing Maat, the goddess of peace, truth and justice. Ma’at was often depicted with a feather in her hair, and the weighing of the heart ceremony during the journey to the afterlife involved the use of a feather.
The ostrich feather in particular was used to designate luxury and vitality. When colonialists arrived in Africa and saw the use of this feather it was sought after and became synonymous with luxury in the West.
Feathers also hold significance in many other cultures, including Chinese, Japanese, and Hindu. Interestingly different cultures may attribute different meanings to the same feather, depending on their traditional beliefs .
Comments
Post a Comment