Seeing an eagle
Eagles were honored as protectors and sources of courage from ancient Persia to the Tyrol. Bald eagles nearly vanished from the lower 48 states and came back, so a sighting is also a chance to notice what is slowly mending in you.
What it may mean
By the early 1960s only a few hundred nesting pairs of bald eagles were left in the lower 48 states, poisoned by DDT and shot as pests. After the pesticide was banned and the birds protected, they returned so well that they were moved from endangered to threatened in 1995 and taken off the federal list altogether in 2007; there are now tens of thousands of pairs. When you see one, you are looking at a comeback that took decades, not a quick rescue. That can make the sight a good time to notice what in your own life has been recovering so slowly that you forgot to count it: a friendship, a skill you lost and found again, your nerve after a setback.
Depending on how you saw it
A young eagle without a white head
Bald eagles do not get their white head and tail until they are about five years old. Until then they are mottled brown and often mistaken for another bird. What in you is fully real but not yet showing its final colors?
An eagle taking a fish from an osprey
Bald eagles often chase ospreys until they drop their catch, then grab the fish in midair. Benjamin Franklin complained about it in a letter, calling the eagle a bird of bad moral character. You might ask where you have been riding on someone else's effort, or letting someone ride on yours.
Many eagles by open water in winter
In winter, bald eagles gather where rivers stay open below dams and rapids, sometimes dozens in a few trees, and birds that defend their own patch in summer put up with each other there. Which old rivalry in your life could relax when times are lean for everyone?
A pair at a huge nest
Eagle pairs often come back to the same nest for years and add to it each season, until some nests weigh more than a ton. Both parents sit on the eggs and feed the young. Look at what you and someone close to you have built by adding a little every year.
Why it happens in nature
The bald eagle lives only in North America and stays near lakes, rivers and coasts, where fish make up much of its diet. Its recovery followed the 1972 ban on DDT, which had made eggshells so thin that they cracked in the nest. The golden eagle, the other eagle of North America, prefers open country and mountains, above all in the West.
What folk beliefs say
India
In India, a Hindu who saw an eagle took it as a fortunate sign and bowed to the bird in greeting.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 625. View the page
Tyrol (Austria and Italy)
Tyrolean hunters wore tufts of eagle feathers in their hats, hoping to gain the eagle's sight and courage.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 625. View the page
Ancient Persia
The ancient Persians believed that having an eagle nearby would keep you safe from lightning.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 625. View the page
To reflect on
What in your life has been recovering so slowly that you forgot to notice it?