Bird Signs

Well...somehow here I'm gonna work this pic and clip in with that quote from the movie Troy...that went something like:



Achilles: "You use bird signs to plan statagey?"

I forget how to spell Odin's Ravens names...brb...from wiki...which has a cool pic....

quote

Hugin and Munin travel the world bearing news and information they have collected to Odin. Hugin is "thought" and Munin is "memory". They are sent out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. They perch on the god's shoulders and whisper the news into his ears. It is from these ravens that the kenning 'raven-god' for Odin is derived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugin_and_Munin

unquote



I was out by Swinging Bridge sitting on a picnic bench...feeling disonsolate as I do when no critters are around...and resorted to taking pics and clips of the Ravens...not to disparage the Ravens!...but they are around everday...probably the strongest critter hereabouts...but I'd seen one under the bench...and another in the tree..so I thought to pan from one to the other...and when I was on the one under the bench it pulled out the box...and the other Raven showed too...

Now...I'm...I'm a bit superstitious...and have no Ancient skills in bird signs...am unsure this even is one...though it puzzels...and is sharp edged in different ways!brb...

quote

The art of augury concerns the taking and interpreting signs from nature in order to determine the will of the gods. Chrysippus (2.130) defined divination as the power to see, to understand, to interpret the signs that are given to men by the gods. But augury is not a form of divination as we usually think of such, in that it does not attempt to foretell future events. Instead a course of action is proposed, such as the planning of a wedding or plans to erect a public building, and the gods are consulted as to whether they approve or not.
More specifically, augury concerns signs brought from the gods by birds.

http://www.religioromana.net/augury.htm

unquote

hmmm...that from a "bird augury" search...brb..and here's a wiki site on "auspice"...oh...this deepens the word "auspicous"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auspice

ah...here I found it...

quote

The Romans had an official college of augurs, the members of which were originally three patricians. About 300 B.C. the number of patrician augurs was increased by one, and five plebeian augurs were added. Later the number was again increased to fifteen. The object of augury was not so much to foretell the future as to indicate what line of action should be followed, in any given circumstances, by the nation.

from a site on Bygone Beliefs

http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/bb/bb05.htm

unquote

Last night I put the dvd of the movie The Good Sheperd in the player...just watched the beginning...but with this post in the background, I thought...What nowadays corresponds to the ancient augurers??...

The Ravens like to roll around in the snow.

DavidDavid
Tree in the Door