So the article doesn’t cover Mesoamerican areas which is weird that they’ll use the term “Native American” and have the term stop applying past the Rio Grande.
I got a couple of tidbits of owl folklore in regards to Nahua people located in central Mexico (Aztecs).
You have two owls built into the holy calendar the Tonalpolhualli. In each 13 day week “trecena” you have the barred owl “chicuatli” represents the 6th day and you have the great horned owl “tecolotl” that represents the 10th day. I’ve heard the myth that when a person dies part of their soul is escorted by the corresponding bird from their birth date.
Tecolotl was one of the animal forms that Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) would shape shift into on the regular. Chicuahtli is associated with Mictlantecuhtli (lord of the dead lands) which makes sense given the skull-like appearance of the bird.
The last bit I’ll go into is the Tlacatecolotl “owl man” who was said to be (unlike Anon6789) a malevolent shapeshifter being possessed by the more sinister spirits and forces of the cosmos. I believe when you see an owl in a temple in some of the codices that is what is being depicted, but don’t quote me on that.
So the article doesn’t cover Mesoamerican areas which is weird that they’ll use the term “Native American” and have the term stop applying past the Rio Grande.
I didn’t read much into it at first, as that seems “normal” if they were a US based org, so I went to look up who they are (were), and it turns out they were a Koch funded climate change denial group!
I won’t go into it more than that to not derail the actual decent talk coming out of this. It is part of the reason I normally don’t talk about this topic though. There are many cultures who have negative associations with owls, different African and Indian (as in the country of India) people will kill owls due to beliefs of them being bad, and while I don’t believe killing them is right, I didn’t have enough cultural awareness to speak much about it in a way fair to the people so I just shut up usually.
From all I’ve seen of the Meso American owl content, that feels more reverent rather than negative, but that’s why I was hoping you were around, both to represent some of the other American beliefs, and because you have undoubtedly better cultural context than I do, so I didn’t want to mess anything up if you were available to comment instead.
Being able to call you in for this made me feel like I have some special insider to call in for the situation like when they call in some obscure expert on Pawn Stars or the like. “Let me call my Meso American owl expert to see what they say!” 😆
who was said to be (unlike Anon6789) a malevolent shapeshifter being possessed by the more sinister spirits and forces of the cosmos.
I have been summoned.
So the article doesn’t cover Mesoamerican areas which is weird that they’ll use the term “Native American” and have the term stop applying past the Rio Grande.
I got a couple of tidbits of owl folklore in regards to Nahua people located in central Mexico (Aztecs).
You have two owls built into the holy calendar the Tonalpolhualli. In each 13 day week “trecena” you have the barred owl “chicuatli” represents the 6th day and you have the great horned owl “tecolotl” that represents the 10th day. I’ve heard the myth that when a person dies part of their soul is escorted by the corresponding bird from their birth date.
Tecolotl was one of the animal forms that Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) would shape shift into on the regular. Chicuahtli is associated with Mictlantecuhtli (lord of the dead lands) which makes sense given the skull-like appearance of the bird.
The last bit I’ll go into is the Tlacatecolotl “owl man” who was said to be (unlike Anon6789) a malevolent shapeshifter being possessed by the more sinister spirits and forces of the cosmos. I believe when you see an owl in a temple in some of the codices that is what is being depicted, but don’t quote me on that.
I didn’t read much into it at first, as that seems “normal” if they were a US based org, so I went to look up who they are (were), and it turns out they were a Koch funded climate change denial group!
Who Is the Environmental Literacy Council?
I won’t go into it more than that to not derail the actual decent talk coming out of this. It is part of the reason I normally don’t talk about this topic though. There are many cultures who have negative associations with owls, different African and Indian (as in the country of India) people will kill owls due to beliefs of them being bad, and while I don’t believe killing them is right, I didn’t have enough cultural awareness to speak much about it in a way fair to the people so I just shut up usually.
From all I’ve seen of the Meso American owl content, that feels more reverent rather than negative, but that’s why I was hoping you were around, both to represent some of the other American beliefs, and because you have undoubtedly better cultural context than I do, so I didn’t want to mess anything up if you were available to comment instead.
Being able to call you in for this made me feel like I have some special insider to call in for the situation like when they call in some obscure expert on Pawn Stars or the like. “Let me call my Meso American owl expert to see what they say!” 😆
Yeah, I am much more chaotic neutral. 😉