Magic, Superstition and the Owls of Yucatan

My name is Sean and my wife and I moved from England to Yucatan about 2 months ago to start our new life teaching Reiki, Tai Chi and other spiritual techniques. We bought our Ranch (San Pedro in Izamal) about two years ago and have been working towards our dream since. My first blog was to be about our building work here at Rancho San Pedro but something quite incredible has happened concerning magic and an Owl which I felt I would share with you. If you are unfamiliar with the owls of Yucatan they are truly beautiful creatures although their call is really quite horrendous. The first time I heard one of the owls I thought someone was being attacked as there was an unearthly screech. I guess this is part of the reason they are regarded as bad omens within our particular area and probably most of Yucatan. We had three such owls on our Ranch and each night they would sit on our windmill and screech for a good couple of hours. Initially I felt that they were a good omen as I had previously read that they were the bird of the shaman and being spiritual in my ways felt this was a good sign for the future. On all previous visits over the past two years we had never encountered them but now they were there every night.

Vivi my wife is pregnant and we were telling our friends about the owls and as we did so their faces turned pale and they told us that these owls are said to steal babies' souls. We respect the local ideas, cultures and traditions but being a man of magic I felt that we were protected and as such had no need to worry. The more people we spoke to the more people became concerned when they heard about the owls on the Ranch, especially three owls and owls that only seemed to appear once we were pregnant. We hoped for a home birth and as such went to see the local midwife and our friends told her of the owls and she gave us several examples where the owls had visited her clients and been seen where the child was then delivered without life. Even I began to worry at this point because the energy here, although beautiful, is still very wild and I have experienced many unusual things in my life, I take nothing for granted. The midwife told us that you should take a feather from the owl and burn it to protect the child against its energy. Each morning I checked the windmill to see if a feather had been left that I could use and each morning nothing. Others had told me that I should simply kill the owls but I am a healer not a killer and it is just not in my nature to hurt anything.

The fact of the matter is that with so many people believing the worst and as such sending that energy out there I felt I had to do something. I spoke with my guides and helpers (spiritual) and sought guidance. They confirmed that magic was needed to ward off the spirits and protect our child and so I went about my work. Just before bed I thought of a binding spell I could use to not cause harm to the owls but to protect against them. I said the spell several times over and over in my head and then went to sleep. The next morning I was awakened early by our dog, Timmy, barking loudly outside. I went out to investigate and there in our small pond was a floundering owl. I quickly scooped up the owl in my hands and placed it upon the ground. The owl was shivering and exhausted and could not walk let alone fly. I was thinking “how incredible it was that only the night before I was preparing my magical protection and here in front of me was the very thing I was protecting against”. What should I do?

The owl was in bad shape and I had the realization of how fragile this wonderful creature is. As it was falling around on the ground unable to fly I picked it up and held it in my hands, face to face. Vivi grabbed an old open top box and I placed it inside. I quickly began performing Reiki on the owl and it sat quietly in my hands letting me work for a good couple of hours. I placed the owl in our Reiki room and left it there as I went about my daily work. Later that morning the builders arrived for their final day of work with us (hopefully I will get round to writing about the building work in later blogs). I showed them the owl and they were obviously uncomfortable being in its presence and quickly went about their work. They were very quiet for most of the day and I could sense they were not happy with the owl being around. Later that morning they came in and we could see deep upset in their eyes, even tears. They said we should kill the owl because they did not want it to kill our unborn child. I assured them that we would be ok and I would be doing plenty of magic for protection. They were puzzled slightly as I am not really your typical shaman and it is sometimes difficult to explain the work we do here on the ranch. Later that day I checked on the owl and it was looking much better and moving better etc. I took the owl out of the box to see if it could fly. It couldn't, its wing was broken. It simply flapped around the floor in obvious distress. I looked at the owl and the owl looked at me and I think we both knew that the only thing to be done was to dispatch the owl. A vet would have done the same thing and there was no way we could keep an animal like that alive for long and it would have been cruel to do so. It was no easy decision to take for me and my heart sank with the realization of what I had to now do. Again I checked for guidance and my worst thoughts were confirmed to me; I would have to put the owl out of its pain.

I took the owl to a small outside room and closed the gate behind me. I did some further reiki and spoke with the owl. The owl looked at me and then bowed its head which felt like it was offering itself to an instant blow. I did the right thing and dispatched it as quickly as I could.

I took the owl to our ranch chapel and placed it there for a few moments and spoke with my guides. I was advised to take the owl outside the ranch and bury it but first I should remove some feathers to protect against the other owls and even help people in the local community should they have a similar situation in the future. Removing some of the main feathers also prevents the owls’ spirit from returning to carry out its business. Again this was not a task I took lightly and did it with the utmost respect and care. I buried the owl and performed a small ceremony and sent it off with love and peace.

To many readers of this, my first blog, it may sound like a load of old tosh but I assure you it was a very real experience and things here in Yucatan are still very mysterious and magical. I feel privileged to have been offered the opportunity to help the owl and to have experienced such an incredible, magical thing in this life.
I will be burning some owl feathers soon!

In Lackeck

Sean O'Mahoney