essay on signs and omen's
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I will always be grateful for the good fortune of growing up next to several square miles of woodland, with no fence between my back yard and the woods, as well as the further good fortune of having parents who let me to roam these woods by myself starting at the age of five. Many years of befriending the woods as a young child nurtured a spiritual connection with nature and allowed me to experience the kind of synchronicity called signs and omens.
One example of this synchronicity occurred when I was just eight years old and was visiting my grandparents’ farm, as my family did on a regular basis. As I played on the shore of a pond behind the farmhouse, I suddenly became transfixed by the sight of a dead bullfrog. My body tingled and shivered slightly, and I “knew” that my grandfather had just died. A few seconds later I heard anguished crying from the nearby farmhouse. My grandfather had in fact died at the precise moment of the dead-frog omen.
Signs and omens have probably been a natural part of the human experience for millennia. It’s likely that many indigenous cultures worked with signs and omens on a regular basis and passed this knowledge on to their children just as we pass on reading and writing. This is surely a lost art in contemporary Western society that tends to sanction only those encounters with reality that are explainable in rational, scientific terms. Many perceptive writers have described the disenchanted worldview that accompanied the Scientific Revolution and that still largely defines the acceptable parameters of our interaction with reality (for three exemplary works, see Morris Berman’s The Reenchantment of the World, Fritjof Capra’s The Turning Point, and Richard Tarnas’ The Passion of the Western Mind). However, pursuing wisdom includes exploring a more participatory relationship with reality such as that made possible by working with signs and omens. All that’s required is to suspend the societally conditioned doubts of our rational mind, become more childlike, spend time in nature, and try out the techniques described below.
Signs and omens are actually the same phenomenon, called a sign when we’ve asked a question and called an omen when we haven’t. Many years ago I was about to enter a relationship and was having mixed feelings. My prospective partner was coming over for dinner that evening, so I asked for a sign that would help me know if this relationship would be right. After dinner we walked out onto the deck to look at stars and talk. Just as we stepped outside, we both had our breath taken away by a stunning meteor that turned blue and lasted for several seconds. Again I felt the tingling sensation that told me this was a sign, and I “knew” the relationship was right. Had I not asked the question, it would have been an omen instead of a sign.
The technique for working with signs is quite simple: have a need, ask a specific question, be watchful, and receive the sign with its intuitive message. Having a need means that something important in your life is unclear to you. You’re not sure whether to enter or end a relationship, whether to change jobs, whether to do something new with your life. Your need should not be trivial; a sign is not required to help you decide what to have for dinner.
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An omen is viewed as a sign in the natural world in which delivers some sort of message. These messages differ depending on how they’re interpreted, for some they foretell the common of good while others of evil. Halley 's Comet for example, was a "bad omen" for King Harold II of England, but a "good omen" for William the Conqueror. The oldest source of an omen was found dating back to the Mesopotamia. Unlike in ancient times, in modern society we focus more on fact rather than on superstition (Amar, Signs in the Ancient World). Although we still have some superstitions that are very well known to everyone such as the number 13 signifying bad luck. Superstitions were an important part of life in many ancient cultures, especially the Romans. Even the word superstition itself originates with the ancient Romans. The Romans were well known for their high-level of superstition. This was mostly because they did not possess the knowledge to explain events. In fact, Omens were taken very seriously by Roman society, even by state officials and other politicians. For example, before any ceremony took place, conditions were checked carefully and thoroughly to avoid any unfortunate catastrophes.