gattino
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2003
- Messages
- 2,523
I am increasingly aware of what appears to me to be a "new" folklore in the making. A phenomena that is coming into being, but not yet commented on.
My own account has been told by me several times and I won't take up space in my first posting by giving the full story. But the bones of it were this: several months after my father died, 2 years ago, a robin which started appearing in our garden was whimsically associated by us - though not seriously - with my father. The first hint of something extraordinary came a few weeks later when I was going to fulfill a long time ambition to be regressed (I have no believe in reincarnation - this was purely curiosity about the sensations involved). I was daydreaming abut what images I would come back to tell people about and started imagining I'd see my father in my imagined past life...which made no sense..so Ichanged it to the fantasy that I would see a robin flying around my head and over my shoulder and that I would tell people it was my dad showing us he was with me. A daydream.
24 hours later I was attending mass,it was Sunday, and became aware of something tiny dead centre above the altar, from nowhere...like a large insect. It flew the length of the church - and became visibly a bird. As I watched it fly over my shoulder I saw the bright red breast of a robin....
My father,incidentally died on Christmas day.
You can imagine that ever since this symbolism of the robin as my father became important and robins kept turning up everywhere in sequences of extraordinary coincidence. I won't detail thm all here. So far it's my own little tale of wonder...but inthe last month something extraordinary has come to my attention.....
Chat magazine's xmas double issue was brought by a visitor to our house in December. It has short "true life spooky story" articles from readers. One was from a woman whose grandfather had died just before Christmas the year before and mourningfor him, and wishing he was there,a Robin suddenly flew in landed on the carpet and stared at her. She associated this-his favourite bird-with her grand-dad's spirit..or a sign from him.
I bought the magazine for two more issues..and in the second of these another of the true life stories - making no reference whatsoever to the previous one- a man told a near identical account of a robin appearing after the death of a loved one and the association he henceforth made between the two!!
The intriguing thing already was that none of these accounts-including my own - are related to or draw upon or display any awareness of each other. They stand entirely in isolation. There is no popular folklore, no mythology ancient or modern which associates robins specifically with the spirits or messengers of the dead. Yet already there were 3 stories.
Yesterday a different magazine - YOURS, beloved of the elderly and fans of Roy Hudd - came out. An article called reflections had entertainer Anita Harris discussingher faith. Her last paragraph begins: "A few days after my darling Daddy died, a robin came out of nowhere, and now the robin comesto me many,many times;in my garden, on a journey, when I'm on tour or if I'mdistressed in any way - suddenly a robin will be around me. It doesn't matter whether people laugh at me, I believe its my father trying to reach me to tell me all will be well."
You can imagine my reaction to readin this. And the third such account..in two different publications...in the space of a month. Again, there is no popular or old wives tale to draw on in all of these people making very personal spiritual conclusions about what they were experiencing. It's not something influenced by reading or television. I've searched the net for such associations and they don't appear to exist.
Except I found this passage on the symbolism of birds generally: "The bird is an animal almost universally exalted and accepted as symbolically being associated with the soul, as a messenger of the gods, a carriers of souls, an oracle or seen to possess the spirit of loved ones whilst also being a symbol of good or evil. ..... Carl G. Jung, the psychiatrist, said that birds represented the inner spirit of a person and that birds were seen to be associated with angels, flights of fancy and the supernatural. The Egyptians associated birds with the soul or 'ba', and the hawk specifically with the soul of 'Horus' and the pharaoh. ......"
So...does anyone else have personal accounts or know of any regarding an association between a robin redbreast and the spirit of a lost loved one? Is there a new folklore waiting to be born? Please let me know any other such accounts..
My own account has been told by me several times and I won't take up space in my first posting by giving the full story. But the bones of it were this: several months after my father died, 2 years ago, a robin which started appearing in our garden was whimsically associated by us - though not seriously - with my father. The first hint of something extraordinary came a few weeks later when I was going to fulfill a long time ambition to be regressed (I have no believe in reincarnation - this was purely curiosity about the sensations involved). I was daydreaming abut what images I would come back to tell people about and started imagining I'd see my father in my imagined past life...which made no sense..so Ichanged it to the fantasy that I would see a robin flying around my head and over my shoulder and that I would tell people it was my dad showing us he was with me. A daydream.
24 hours later I was attending mass,it was Sunday, and became aware of something tiny dead centre above the altar, from nowhere...like a large insect. It flew the length of the church - and became visibly a bird. As I watched it fly over my shoulder I saw the bright red breast of a robin....
My father,incidentally died on Christmas day.
You can imagine that ever since this symbolism of the robin as my father became important and robins kept turning up everywhere in sequences of extraordinary coincidence. I won't detail thm all here. So far it's my own little tale of wonder...but inthe last month something extraordinary has come to my attention.....
Chat magazine's xmas double issue was brought by a visitor to our house in December. It has short "true life spooky story" articles from readers. One was from a woman whose grandfather had died just before Christmas the year before and mourningfor him, and wishing he was there,a Robin suddenly flew in landed on the carpet and stared at her. She associated this-his favourite bird-with her grand-dad's spirit..or a sign from him.
I bought the magazine for two more issues..and in the second of these another of the true life stories - making no reference whatsoever to the previous one- a man told a near identical account of a robin appearing after the death of a loved one and the association he henceforth made between the two!!
The intriguing thing already was that none of these accounts-including my own - are related to or draw upon or display any awareness of each other. They stand entirely in isolation. There is no popular folklore, no mythology ancient or modern which associates robins specifically with the spirits or messengers of the dead. Yet already there were 3 stories.
Yesterday a different magazine - YOURS, beloved of the elderly and fans of Roy Hudd - came out. An article called reflections had entertainer Anita Harris discussingher faith. Her last paragraph begins: "A few days after my darling Daddy died, a robin came out of nowhere, and now the robin comesto me many,many times;in my garden, on a journey, when I'm on tour or if I'mdistressed in any way - suddenly a robin will be around me. It doesn't matter whether people laugh at me, I believe its my father trying to reach me to tell me all will be well."
You can imagine my reaction to readin this. And the third such account..in two different publications...in the space of a month. Again, there is no popular or old wives tale to draw on in all of these people making very personal spiritual conclusions about what they were experiencing. It's not something influenced by reading or television. I've searched the net for such associations and they don't appear to exist.
Except I found this passage on the symbolism of birds generally: "The bird is an animal almost universally exalted and accepted as symbolically being associated with the soul, as a messenger of the gods, a carriers of souls, an oracle or seen to possess the spirit of loved ones whilst also being a symbol of good or evil. ..... Carl G. Jung, the psychiatrist, said that birds represented the inner spirit of a person and that birds were seen to be associated with angels, flights of fancy and the supernatural. The Egyptians associated birds with the soul or 'ba', and the hawk specifically with the soul of 'Horus' and the pharaoh. ......"
So...does anyone else have personal accounts or know of any regarding an association between a robin redbreast and the spirit of a lost loved one? Is there a new folklore waiting to be born? Please let me know any other such accounts..