First Bird of 2025
symbols & omens and an update
Hello dear reader & friend,
A quick note to let you know that I am going to take a break from posting weekly astrological forecasts so I can meet our book’s deadline (end of March). I will instead be publishing monthly. Also, if you’re a paid subscriber I have something special planned for you at the Vernal Equinox (20 March).
If you or a loved one has a birthday coming up or you require guidance please know my books are open for astrological and tarot consultations.
First Bird of The Year
In some ways I came to birds relatively late, which surprises me because I have been around bird chasers and enthusiasts most of my life. I don’t know for sure when I started watching birds with an interest that borders on reverence but I am guessing it started soon after I spotted Lilac-breasted Roller in South Africa.
Birds have always fascinated humans and have long inspired us as divine messengers and intermediaries. Archaeologist, Marija Gimbutas, uncovered a culture in which the Bird Goddess and the Snake Goddess were supreme.
“The Goddess in all her manifestations was a symbol of the unity of all life in Nature. Her power was in water and stone, in tomb and cave, in animals and birds, snakes and fish, hill, trees and flowers.”
Marija Gimbutas
The gifts offered by our feathered kin extend beyond the plumage and song and include the literary and mythic allusions and the symbolic. For example, I see Swan and think of The Ugly Duckling and the Children of Lir. I see Eagle and I think of Zeus and Hera. I sit with Heron and I am in the presence of Hermes. Raven is Odin’s messenger and so on…
My husband and I have a New Year ritual. As I wrote last year, in birding circles it is said the first bird you see on New Year’s Day sets the tone for the year ahead.
Last year on January 1st, we both spotted an American Dipper swimming in a nearby creek.
Here is what I wrote about this beautiful aquatic bird:
2024 was a year ruled by the element of water for me. Confirmed not only by Dipper but also by weekly sightings of Great Blue Heron and by surprising encounters with Dolphin. The element of water is associated primarily with emotions and intuition but also the underworld and according to Jung the unconscious. Like a river, I absorbed, meandered, cut through new terrain and loosened boundaries in my ongoing effort to gain a greater sense of oneness with All That Is. My ancestors showed up vividly in my dreams and many of my dreams were and continue to be prophetic and revelatory. All this points to Dipper’s ability to swim underwater, to pierce the veil and see what lies beyond.
That said, 2024 was not a peace-full year. It was an emotionally draining year.
This year, we woke up late on January 1st, fuelled up on cinnamon rolls and coffee and headed out for a long walk that loops through forest and coastline. We asked the gods to send us a bird as the symbol for the year ahead. This is a necessary step. You have to ask for a symbol. If you’re not comfortable asking the gods, you can ask Jesus or a saint or your ancestors to send you a bird (or an animal) as a symbol.
As we turned into the parking lot Don announced that his first bird of the year was Seagull and as he said that I noticed a seagull gliding alongside the car. We decided that Seagull was not my first bird and headed for the trail. A short while later I spotted this female Belted Kingfisher on a telephone wire near the river.
I was delighted because this was only the second kingfisher I have seen here in the Pacific Northwest although I am told there are many.
Kingfisher is another water loving bird and my anchor tarot card for 2025 was The Popess/The High Priestess, a card associated with the element of water. So this is another year of (hopefully) psychic and spiritual development.
In myth
In Greek myth, Alcyone (one of the Pleiades), daughter of Aeolus the god of the winds, was a goddess married to a mortal king, Ceyx of Tachis. They were admired by humans and gods alike for their intense love and happy marriage. However their happiness was cut short when one day on his way to consult the oracle at Delphi, Ceyx and his crew were overwhelmed by a storm and he and his crew drowned. According to Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Morpheus, the god of sleep, took her drowned husband’s form in a dream and when Alcyone woke up she discovered her beloved husband’s body floating in the waves near the shore. The gods were deeply moved by her grief and transformed her into a kingfisher.
“When she reached the mute and bloodless corpse, she clasped the dear limbs with her new wings and kissed the cold lips in vain with her hard beak.
People doubted whether Ceyx felt this, or merely seemed to raise his face by a movement of the waves, but he did feel it: and at last through the gods’ pity, both were changed to birds, the halcyons. Though they suffered the same fate, their love remained as well: and their bonds were not weakened, by their feathered form. They mate and rear their young, and Alcyone broods on her nest, for seven calm days in the wintertime, floating on the water’s surface.” - Book 11 Metamorphoses, Ovid
The Greeks associate this bird with Halcyon days, a period of calm. Celtic symbolism connects Kingfisher with serenity and the beauty of nature.
I particularly like Ted Andrews take on Kingfisher (from his book Animal Speak)
“If the kingfisher has come to you, prepare to dive into something new. Have you been avoiding the new? Have you been afraid to take the plunge? Are you needing new warmth? Don’t worry if a kingfisher is around, you won’t drown. You will have more sunshine unfolding in your life.”
I can do with more sunshine :)
I hope you had a magical start to 2025. If you have this practice or a similar practice of looking for a symbol at the start of the new year I would love to hear from you in the comments.
xo
Yolanda
Wishing to see a roller.