Sight on Site

Ornithomancy & Bird Medicine, in practice

More and more I’ve been sort of awakening to the reality that the spiritual “world” and material “world” are not dimensionally layered (like a sandwich), but intrinsically and inextricably woven together. It’s a concept I’ve known with my head for some time, but more recently have been starting to feel — you know really feel— in my body.

It’s the force behind the blooming flower, the communication between the trees. All the things we can explain but don’t actually understand. The being-ness. The last why at the bottom of all the why’s and how’s where we finally run out of words.

I say this as a preamble to the article below: an article that I wrote months ago and sort of forgot about.

I say “sort of” because, really? I didn’t want to anyone to think I’m crazy. (Too late for that now, maybe).

However, this morning I came across it again and thought, “Well, why not?”

After all, this Substack is about messages from nature, specifically from birds, that humans have tuned into for millennia.

And as I’ve researched and written about it, I’ve also taken a turn at trying to put the knowledge I’ve gained into practice, through observing birds with intention.

Besides, AI is making everything from everyone sound exactly the same (yawn), so we might was well just let some cray-cray loose, right?

Be as different from the machine as possible.

So— here are “notes from the field,” from April, but still relevant. Let me know if you find the process interesting… maybe I’ll do a monthly “reading” or something.

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Ornithomancy and Bird Medicine - In Practice

“And what was the wisdom of the ancients? That they were knowledgeable in the constellations and utilized the magic of the birds and were proficient in tayyar.”
—Ecclesiastes Rabbah (1885–1887)

This article is a bit different.

As I’ve been reading and researching about spiritual practices around birds, I have become curious if one (“one” being… me) might synthesize it all into a practice. What did it look like, feel like, to engage in augury?

If using traditional bird medicine, what is the experience of the practice? What happens if I look at the flight of birds and read into it something revelatory?

What if I take all these techniques from across time and from opposite sides of the world and fuse them together?

Listen, I try to keep a level head, and I’m skeptical. That is, I am open but always questioning. I do believe that nature speaks to us — whether in example, as a warning, or as a temporary “mouthpiece” for God, spirit(s), ancestors, beings yet unknown, etc.

To be honest, I don’t think that it really matters. The more important part is that we are being called out of our chattering minds to pay attention to something bigger, or at least to something outside of us.

So, I took 20 minutes one morning to combine my knowledge so far of ornithomancy, traditional bird medicine, and animism in the practice of observing birds. Following is an accounting of what I saw, and what I understood about it.

Do I feel a little crazy? Oh, yes.

Was this fun, even if my interpretations are slightly ominous? Yes. (Look, I’m sorry, but there’s no getting around the “something big is coming.” I’ll never fear monger, but let’s get honest with ourselves).

Will I do this again and share it? Possibly. You tell me!

Notes from the Field

4/28/2025

Intention: A message for all of us during times of upheaval and uncertainty

Location: Our property, at the pond

Orientation: Facing East

When I arrived at the pond, two mallard ducks took off from the South side of the pond (on my right) and headed North (to my left).

• Right to left travel is considered favorable in ornithomancy.

• Ducks are linked to feminine energies (connection to the water), the astral plane, and the emotional state of all humans. As a totem, they help us handle our emotions with grace and comfort.

• North is associated with ancestry.

• North is governed by the Eagle, which is seated the top of the medicine wheel. It is considered very pure, capable of traveling to spiritual realms. The eagle takes our prayers to the sky — speaking through feathers. It is closely associated with the sun.

• South is governed by the Raven: the communicator, storyteller, and bringer of warning.

My read: There will be a return to old ways, ancient ways. Ancestral ways. In this moment of fear and division, we should turn to our ancestors and the old ways for wisdom and support, as they are just beyond the thinning veil. They will help with our emotional burden, and we should bring our stories to them to transmute, as well as weave the stories of those who came before us into ours — it’s a Never Ending Story, so to speak. Back and forth it goes, for all time. Especially look to the wisdom of matriarchs, and lean into qualities associated with the feminine. The feminine is connected to importance of water: its flow, liminality, its simultaneous nurturing and destructive nature, and connection to the moon.

After a few minutes, a pair of geese headed toward me and over me, traveling East to West.

• The flight of birds toward the augur is generally auspicious.

• Geese are associated with the spirit of the shamanic healer.

• They are communicators — especially through the use of stories.

• Their travels stir our imagination and desire to seek out new places and dimensions.

• We receive our mission in life and instructions from the East

• The East is governed by the hawk - messengers for spirit world beings (ancestors, deities, etc), which are birds of war but also protectors.

• West is the direction the dead travel on their journey to the spirit world.

My read: Again, I’m getting healing coming from ancestral lines, or perhaps the need to do ancestral healing. Either way, healing / the remedy will come from looking deeply into the past. The geese come from the direction of the East, governed by the hawk which is both a protector and a bird of war.

The hawk sends the geese to encourage movement as a form of protection, but for many the migration is less literal and is more about the movement to the spirit world— possibly through the last great journey of death. However, as flight toward the observer is auspicious, this carries a positive note. Imaginations will expand with the change of place and there is an open communication with those who came before us; i.e., more communication with the dead.

A single vulture circled lazily in the East (in front of me) and then departed to the East.

• Flights of birds away from the augur are generally inauspicious.

• Vultures are symbols of purification, death & rebirth, new vision.

• Purification —its medicine restores harmony.

• Ability to see energies (auric vision). Vulture moves us away from the mundane through its ability to “levitate” on columns of air.

• Confirmation of a new relationship between the turbulent aspects of life and fixed energies / cosmic forces.

• The suffering of the immediate is necessary for a higher purpose at work.

• We receive our mission in life and instructions from the East

• Governed by the hawk

My read: The vulture circles with keen sight fixed on the earth below. It is balancing the volatility of human existence with cosmic forces. Departing to the East, the vulture returns to the domain of the hawk to receive instructions: the hawk as the messenger for spirit world beings and a bird of both war and protection. The cosmic war is being reflected on the Earth, and the vulture circles in wait for a coming rebirth or purification. 

All together:

We are in a great holding, but weak foundations are cracking as the Earth trembles in grief. There is an energy like that before a great storm — we feel the pressure building, the electricity in the air. We sense the bigness of it.

• We are encouraged to seek wisdom and solace in the ancient ways, and to rewrite the stories we’ve been given.

• We are to return to our ancestors those stories which no longer serve us, and exchange them for a deeper, more primal wisdom.

• The vulture will help move us away from the mundane, helping us find a balance between our physical lives and the unseen.

• The rebalance will happen after a period of great upset.

• At the same time, geese underscore an importance to family (could be chosen family), fierce loyalty, and communication through story.

• The ducks reunite us with the water, cycles, and wisdom.

• There will be a great upset: movements, migrations, and death as the world rearranges herself. Through all of this, we are called to pay attention to the signs of the Earth, and to remember our own place within ecology.

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Let me know what you think! Should I make this a regular thing?

Remember: even if the significance of birds begins & ends with their crucial roll in Earth’s ecology, we are all tasked as caretakers of the Earth and all her life.

So, rather than take our “payment” for this sacred duty through extraction, it is far better to instead receive the wisdom guidance from the earth, elements, and creatures.

We just have to pay attention, and realize that the spiritual is right there, embedded in the so-called mundane.