I'm curious as to whether anyone on site else uses augury often? Augury is the art of looking for favourable omens - divining hints of the future from signs, usually animal or bird movements. I tend to stick with birds - I certainly see enough of them during every day life to make it worthwhile. There are a lot of different ways of interpreting the signs you see. I've heard of many different interpretations for the same 'sign' - birds flying to the left or right of you automatically bringing good or bad omens, birds flying in scattered groups as showing either disruption, turmoil or simply that your questions cannot be answered, birds of prey as noble or threatening, scavengers as wily or wicked...

The best and most reliable way to interpret the signs is, as in any divinatory method (imo) to use your own interpretations of what you see. For a basis on which to start however, there are some simple questions to ask in relation to what you are looking at to help you with interpretation.

- What kind of bird are you looking at? Is it a large bird, or small? Is it a bird of prey? A scavenger? A 'game' bird (something you would see as food)? Is it healthy, with glossy feathers?

- What is the bird doing as you look at it? Is it flying? If so, in what direction? Is it singing? Eating? If so, is it eating easily gained food, or is it hunting? Is it gathering nest materials or provisions for its young? Is it fighting?

- Where is the bird as you look at it? Is it ahead of you, or behind you? To your left or right? Is it flying fast, hovering, drifting...?

For myself, I tend to look at the bird itself first. Certain birds mean certain things to me - the blackbird is wisdom and 'otherworldliness'. It has long been dubbed the 'druid dubh', or black druid. Wrens are fearless defenders of their homes and families, as are geese, who are also travellers. Robins are tame and friendly to humans, but tough fighters when it comes to their territory and mates. Swallows, again, are travellers - migratory birds. Starlings may be seen in a flock, messy and noisy, bullying smaller birds away from food, or individually - quieter, shyer, less inclined to push and shove. Red kites are stately birds, massive and beautiful, but for their size, weak carrion feeders easily mobbed by crows and gulls...

The type of bird will tell me something of the message I can expect from it, or the questions I can reasonably ask it. Next it is a question of looking at the bird's behaviour. The bird may be happily making a nest, or having difficulties finding the right materials. It may be flying smoothly or being buffeted by the wind and set back from its goal. It may be part of a flock guarding a tree of cotoneaster berries or an individual pecking for insects, successfully or not...

As to the direction of the bird compared to yourself, I tend to look not so much as which way the bird is flying as at which way the bird is flying in relation to me . For instance, a bird sitting near me usually brings a hint of something close at hand, whereas a bird glimsed in the distance or heard on the wind tends to be bringing news of something a little more abstract, either in time or distance itself. The bird may fly alongside me, or cut across me, or hop along the hedge following but never overtaking me, forcing me to look back to it every so often. It might land on my windowledge and tap the glass with its beak to get my attention, or content itself with sitting outside the window and shouting its head off at 5 a.m. ...

In short, there is nothing carved in stone, but there are some very good general rules. A bird might simply be singing for the dawn or to demark its territory - as in so many other things, its a question of instinct as to whether you take it as an omen...

Anyone else have any views on this now that I've stopped blathering?

Augury
Crow augury in Tibet
A 19th century Hebrew augury

Yup, although it's not usually a conscious decision to do so (if you get what I mean?), I catch myself doing it LOL.

As you say, in divination of any kind your own interpretation is best. To me blackbirds are a sign that I need to be more creative, and they often come to visit me when I've been through a period of too much work and no play - oddly (or perhaps not), I only ever see female blackbirds. My trouble is that I'm cr*p at identifying birds, so to me they're only ever their personalities. I see them, and I know what they mean, but couldn't name the buggers (except the obvious ones). I wish I had more time to learn about different birds, or at least to tell the difference between them, especially as I work outdoors most of the time.

I tend to look at clouds and the shapes they make, which is something I've done since I was a child, and to me they're as good a sign as a burning bush

I have to admit that this is how I first came to paganism, through advice from a friend. There are certain animals which seem to be better messengers than others, but as I go on I notice more and more.

Blackbird. There are times when they are more conspicious than usual, either because of their numbers or their actions - and it's usually a sign that something is going to happen, family wise, for better or worse.

Wren. I only seen her occasionally, and it's usually when I'm feeling a little unsure of myself or my path. To me she is a reminder that there are many answers that I have yet to discover.

Butterfly, always a meadow brown. Over the past couple of years, this has appeared at all sorts of unusual times and has always been a messenger that something good is going to happen; new job, new grandchild, etc. In some ways it was the coincidences between her appearence and good news which led me to my path.

I don't use augury, but something freebird said made me realise that at the time I was first becoming aware of Paganism I began to see a lot of crows everywhere I looked, most of the time.

I looked up the meaning (rather quickly admittedly) and found this:

Crow/Rook: Crows and rooks symbolize resourcefulness, survival, death, a call to the magick and the mystery around us, the law, the supernatural, the mysteries of creation, shape-shifting, change, harmony, justice, integrity, bad omens, boldness, skill, cunning, prophecy, eloquence and divination. They are tricksters connected to Morrigan, Varuna, Rhea Kronia, Apollo, Macha and Babd.


Perhaps it was a sign?

I love crows. Actually I love the whole family - Jackdaws, Rooks, Hoodie Craws, Ravens, Magpies. Never used them for divining but they are around a lot when I need reassurance. Magpies show up a lot when I'm travelling but that's more to do with my best mate than anything, maggies being her 'thing' It's nice, shows she's thinking of me. Funnily enough, I can't view the lovely things negatively in the way most 'omen' deciphering references seem to. They're family orientated, resourceful and intelligent, they can at be warriors and protectors while still retaining enough practicality to know when to be predators or even scavengers. Look a crow in the eye and you see an older, deeper wisdom than you see in a lot of humans.

Woah, off topic! Lets pretend that was a way of interpreting the appearance of crows in your life rather than I loved up waffle about one of my favourite species.

I see augury as carrying many of the same principles as sympathetic magic.

Animal characteristics and actions can be interpreted in many ways, yes there may be a few hard and fast rules but whether through nature or nurture, they are often rules that seem to me to be simple and natural common sense.

A lot of interpretation is also down to our own completely individual characteristics and experiences too.

For example, there are times when we recognise augury in an occurrence and times when we don't..why? Is there a natural innate craft skill that some have to a greater degree than others, and that is triggered by different events between one individual and another? Will one individual see meaning in an occurrence that is completely without meaning to another individual? I believe very strongly that this is the case.

I often see "significance" in occurrences around me, sometimes relating to ongoing events and occasionally that raise questions as to future events but I have absolutely no idea why a significance is apparent to me on one occasion and not at another. Sometimes according to recognised or even personal rules and sometimes without apparent rules. Maybe it's just another of those innate charcteristics that we all heve but are more used by some and more dormant in others.

While I don't disagree with the body of that Dave, I don't really see the connection to sympathetic magic myself, can you elaborate? Although possibly in an other thread.

Very briefly in this thread...please....I often see a direct correlation of events between natural occurrences around me and ongoing or possibly future events in my life and the larger world. Direct "sympathetic" correlations of events. I see the same correlations in some of the generally accpted principles of augury too.

Ah, cross purposes then. My understanding of what the term 'sympathetic magic' means is quite different.


ETA - New thread begun

A sympathetic correlation of actions or events? either pro-active in the case of sympathetic magic or apparently coincidental in the case of augury as it works for me.

ETA - New thread joined

....and so back to Augury;

Maybe; A naturally and often apparently accidental or coincidental occurrence without specific intent on the part of the "seer". Maybe however the intent on the part of the seer is subconscious and the prediction a direct result of subconscious processes not entirely unlike dreams and dream interpretation.

Absolutely - which is why I said that its important to use your own instincts and draw your own inferences from what you see. I might know by some instinct or 'feeling' that the robin sitting on my back doorstep singing is a sign of something, whereas the bluetit who got stuck in the office the other day was simply unlucky enough to fly through a window it couldn't get back out through... A friend of mine gets messages from the crows, mine tend to come from blackbirds, but not every blackbird I see is a messenger...

so nothing to do with Aughra then?

(I loved the Dark Crystal )

yup. occasionally.

Are there any books or tracts written on augury? I'd be interested to know more about British divination omens in this respect.

Found some random stuff on Owls.

I am absolutely gutted as I went to check one one of my favourite sites - someone put all of Marie Trevelyan's stuff online regarding the folklore of Wales - and now the site's gone Very sad indeed.