In many cultures throughout history, birds have been seen as symbols of divine inspiration— a supernatural link between the gods and humankind—because of their connection to the sky and their freedom to travel between earth and heaven. Birds are so fascinating to humankind that their behavior has inspired countless forms of divination.
In general, augury is the term used for divination made by observing the flight of birds. Although it has since been used to cover just about any kind of soothsaying or fortune-telling, augury refers more specifically to observing the natural behavior of animals or birds. In bird-specific augury, the sky was divided into sections; how birds flew from one section to another indicated what was to come or signified something specific according to the culture. For example, if a bird wheeled left, it might mean one thing; if it flew from the southeast corner of the sky to the northwest it might mean another. Ornithoscopy or ornithomancy is the study of omens associated with birds, particularly birds in flight. Alectryomancy was divination made by observing a bird (usually a chicken) as it fed on grain scattered around a circle of letters, or by reciting the alphabet and noting at which letters the bird moved or called out. And haruspication, a well-known method of divination practiced by inspecting the entrails of a sacrificed animal, also employed birds. Eggs were used in divination as well, with oomancy or ovomancy being the interpretation of the shapes of egg whites as they drift through water.
These different types of divination have been used through history, with differing cultural emphasis and importance. Various countries and cultures perceived birds as carrying different messages. In Tibet, the calls of black birds, particularly ravens, were considered powerful omens examined in relation to the time of day when they were heard and the direction from which the sound came. Birdsong heard at various times can mean different things for other cultures as well.
Unfortunately, ancient cultures rarely recorded their systems of divination. Interpreting omens was often the province of the priesthood or tribal shaman, and if records were made, they either have not survived or were not thought important enough to preserve. Additionally, consider that the interpretation of omens wasn’t necessarily codified; it could be very subjective depending on the situation for which the divination was being done. This is an important lesson: Bird divination is a very fluid system that can differ greatly from person to person (or culture to culture, or situation to situation) and thus cannot necessarily have a concrete list of what a specific appearance, motion, or call means.
All this is, in fact, an encouraging thing. It’s a precedent that allows you the freedom to construct your own interpretation of bird sightings and encounters, as outlined in the following chapter.