Witch Tip - Signs & Omens
thesaltysagittarious
Genuinely curious, what is an omen rubric?
An excellent question! I've talked about this topic before, but it's been a while. Always good to have an occasional refresher.
So, like many witches, I am an anxious person. At any given moment, I've got a dozen things on my mind, and I'm constantly worried that I've missed something or forgotten something, which is a very real possibility since my brain is kind of a sieve.
When I was first exploring divination and prognostication (predicting future event based on current data) as part of my practice, I got very overwhelmed with the idea of What Is And What Is Not A Sign. From what I see in the tags, this happens to a lot of us. Was that bird a sign? What about that weather change? And what does it MEAN? So many variables, so many interpretations. I don't like uncertainty. So I did what I usually do to combat it - I made rules.
A rubric, in the classic sense, is an established rule, tradition, or custom. We usually see it in the context of schoolwork, as in the outline that establishes the expectations and scoring criteria for a project or assignment. In this case, I used it to create a set of rules for communication.
I made a finite list of local wildlife, mostly birds, and assigned each species on the list a specific meaning, based on a mix of folklore and personal preference. For instance, hawks are sometimes credited as bringers of news or messages in certain lore. (It's more than one source, but it's also a family tradition.) For another, crows and magpies appearing in certain numbers have significance according to an old nursery rhyme ("One for sorrow, two for joy, etc").
So that takes care of What Does It Mean. But it still left the issue of What Is And What Is Not A Sign.
So I created a rule - in order for the appearance of an animal on my rubric to qualify as a sign, it needs to satisfy at least one of two conditions.
Did the creature appear in a way that deliberately caught my attention?
If the answer to either of these is Yes, then I proceed with interpreting the appearance. If no, then hey cool, I saw an animal and it was neat, but likely not any kind of omen.
This helped to weed out common sightings and kept me from worrying whether that random robin on my lawn was a sign when in all probability, it was just a songbird passing through to eat some bugs. A hawk that lands on my back fence and stares at me for a full minute, on the other hand....that's an omen. (I did create a secondary rule that any sizeable bird that lands on the back fence should garner some attention, since it's an unusual occurrence.)
The nice thing is that this system is pretty flexible and can be adapted for whatever signals or meanings the user requires or prefers. I definitely recommend it as something to try out for anyone who has an interest in signs and omens, alongside some reading on signs and omens in folklore just for a frame of reference. You can also look up practical information on weather forecasting based on animal behavior, cloud, changes in the wind, and so forth to try a different kind of prognostication.
Pattern recognition can be very useful, but it needs to have firm guidelines. Because if we're actively looking for signs, we tend to find them. Because we're looking for them.
If you're going to ask the universe to speak to you, it really helps to define some parameters and create a language that both parties can understand. That way, you can tell the difference between a human inclination toward pattern recognition and confirmation bias, and a possible opportunity for real-time divination.
Also - keep records! Write down your rubric so you don't have to keep the whole thing in your head. If you ask for a sign, make a note of what and when. Then, if one shows up, make a note of that, along with whether or not it panned out.
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