Feathers

Your interpretation of feathers will be influenced by whether or not you are allergic to feathers but there are some common associations with features.

If you are allergic to feathers, they may have a negative interpretation, but in general, feathers represent the beauty of the bird from which they came.

If you know the bird from which the feather came, see the BIRDS A TO Z on page 84, and follow that interpretation.

If you don’t know the species, the general interpretation for BIRDS applies. The color, or colors, of the feather are also significant. (See COLORS.) Feathers can also represent flight to aspects of yourself, and because of their connection with wind and air can suggest a connection to the more spiritual side of yourself.

If a feather drops on you from above in a dream, this is a message from your unconscious but what is that message? Features are light and so do you need to lighten up and take a more relaxed and softer approach to life? A white feather suggests cowardice. A black feather relates to the unconscious and your ability to explore it.

Feathers on a ceremonial headdress suggest achievement (having a ‘feather in your cap’). Features may also suggest disagreements of some kind; has someone ruffled your feathers? Alternatively are you taking a featherbrained or frivolous approach to some aspect of your life? Or do you need to feel comforted in some way? Feathers are often stuffed in pillows and are therefore associated with warmth and comfort.

Like wings, feathers symbolize, since immemorial times, spirituality, imagination, and thought. They also express our desire to show warmth and tenderness to someone. In oneiric terms, feathers predict success, achieving goals, and overcoming difficulties. Therefore, such images should encourage the person to jump into action.

If the feather is floating in the air it denotes your desire to ascend in spiritual knowledge or increase your intellectual ambition. Its lightness also represents the good condition of your heart and pleasures that you enjoy in life. The message is clear: you should get carried away, like the feather, by the fortunate air stream that you currently enjoy. (See BIRD)

Many cultures such as the Incas or Native Americans wore feathered headdresses to represent spiritual authority and the wisdom they possessed.

(see by type, Birds, Flying, Wings)

Spiritual purity and truth: In ancient Egypt, the soul was weighed upon death against the Plume of Maat, whose name means truth. Similarly, the Hopi regard the gift of an owPs feather as a means of helping the recipients be true to themselves. Less directly this may pertain to honesty in communications.

Lifting of guilt or burdens, or someone who is a truly free spirit (e.g., being Tight as a feather”).

Changeability: Feathers equate to the air element that shifts directions without any forewarning.

A prognostication: In ancient Greece, people used found bird feathers as portents of their travels and the future. Consider the feathers color, where it lands, and the type of bird from which it comes for expanded interpretations.