Great Horned Owl – Spiritual Meanings:
It is about protection
“The night is the mother of counsels.” – George Herbert
The watchful guardian standing in the near silence of night: the great horned owl.
It stands as my sentinel in unseen spiritual terrains.
For they also have a sixth sense and the intuition of teleporting through spaces serve as an alert to protect my own spiritual boundaries.
I have to keep my eyes open like an owl, and also be very protective of what I allow into my space.
Not fear but indeed discernment.
The great horned owl stands alongside me when I am at odds with my soul and energies that seeks to rock me off balance.
Sometimes the greatest weapon is not defending myself with the sword, but by learning how to know my soul’s topography in silence.
The owl as well teaches me that in a spiritual path, darkness and the unknown are what strengthen us.
Like the great horned owl living and hunting through night, I must do the same on this part of my own path.
It is about silence
“In silence there is eloquence.” – Rumi
Great horned owls have many unique and impressive features, one of which is their ability to fly silently.
For me, silence is power.
Spiritual power.
It enables me to get in touch with my true self, God.
The owl tells me that though this world is full of noise, that real wisdom can only be heard when everything falls suddenly silent.
The gift of silent movement from the owl also helps me to take a break and hush down.
All of these images have disappeared and now I can hear that inner voice of truth in the silence.
The times I can hear those signs of the universe and get a glimpse of where my heart is being lead.
The great horned owl tells me — SHHH… listen … just stop speaking. Be there without words, see it without a response. Divine wisdom comes in this gap.
The owl teaches me to wait clarity that dwells in stillness.
It is about perception
“The eye is the lamp of the body.” – Matthew 6:22
The great horned owl embodies a type of inner perception.
The owl tells me that real vision is internal, where my intuition and little voice live.
Through the owl’s eyes, I see through the world of shape and form to essence or reality of any person or situation.
It is a gift, although also a duty.
It means stepping out and acting on my gut, even when it looks like non-sense to do or causes others to disagree.
The owl’s ability to see in the dark reflects my own sight as a serpentine; I can see through spiritual darkness; blinded lies are truth lifted to higher places.
It is not so much about just looking what I see but understanding what I feel and play at.
I take the sign of the great horned owl as a message to focus on my spiritual sight, blind myself of all worldly lies and trust what I see with the spiritual eyes only.
It is about the inner voice
“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord.” – Proverbs 20:27
The great horned owl is an example for me about heightened intuition/psychic abilities.
The owl is a bird with sharp senses and perfect vision in complete darkness.
This has been repeatedly realized as the opening of my intuitive/psychic faculties.
Wisdom
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner
The great horned owl is the custodian of ancestral knowledge.
The sign of its arrival might be that I am due to receive a transmission direct from my lineage or an ancestor who has passed.
But being connected to the past does not mean you live in it.
Thus it is not as much about recovering the wisdom but rather incorporating this wisdom into my living path.
I am never so disconnected, the great horned owl whispers, that I have nothing to learn from those ancestors who went before.
Harmony
“The lion shall lie down with the lamb.” – Isaiah 11:6
I find the great horned owl to be quite a duality of fierce and grace.
The owl also reveals to me that real power is in balance. Grace does not weaken its force; they coexist.
So, on this spiritual path for which I am forever a student supposedly balancing fierceness with gentleness, action with stillness.
So, the owl helps me understand that the best answer is not always resistance.
Instead, I have my silent battle to be my strength.
Struggle
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass
The great horned owl is one of the species that I admire most due to its ability survive in such harsh conditions which many other animals would not.
It actually spiritually speaks to my life on strife what course I must take.stopPropagation
In my tougher moments, in which I am admittedly human, it is easy to feel beaten. But the owl itself reminds me that challenges aren’t gates, they’re keyholes.
Every challenge is the stepping stone to courage, the river of hope and insight into my own soul in this beautiful journey.
It is about inner peace
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” – John 14:27
Like the owl, I am strongest in silence and observation.
Today, the capacity to sit in quiet observation is a spiritual miracle.
The owl teaches me — some times I need to step back and simply observe it without judgment, then I find peace with stillness.
This isn’t to say that you withdraw from life but rather you live with it more consciously and calmly.
It is about the mystery
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5
The great horned owl symbolizes, to me, the mystery of the night.
I personally like to have everything under control, and on my spiritual path – the unknown can be a bit un-setting even scary sometimes. But perhaps the owl signals me to accept it, to see its elegance in night.
There are things in life that do not show themselves today.
The owl,demonstrates that the notion of fear is born entirely from the unknowable.
These are the things which are outside of our reality.
It is about the resurrection
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.” – Psalm 30:11
The great horned owl, though it dwells in the shades of night and slumber, also holds an ancient symbol of death and rebirth.
My rebirth may not be as profound in a sense of an entire overhaul, but I am always reborn with more purpose or more shifted in my spiritual consciousness.
The great horned owl helps to realize that me that after periods of spiritual dormancy or strife we are always given a chance to start anew.
Owls are tied to the natural cycle of life—birth, death, and rebirth.
Seeing the owl when things get really hard somehow helps me that I am in a spiritual rebirth.
Independence
“In quietness and trust is your strength.” – Isaiah 30:15
The great horned owl usually sits alone and silent in high places.
Solitude, not isolation or loneliness — symbolizing strength and independence.
Spiritually, owls are giving the message that solitude is a great place to find beauty in who you are, especially if you learn to embrace it as a tool much as I did.
I’m Bulgarea Candin Stefan and I have started Spiritual Whirlwinds to pass my learnings from my spiritual journey. Spiritualwhirlwinds.com provides a space of spiritual awakening with guided meditations, e-books, mantras, and pendulum readings.