While I agree that messages from higher powers can come in the simplest forms, I am often somewhat surprised by the lengths people will go to in order to find meanings in everything.
These two pictures are the kinds of things that commonly pop up in witchcraft groups. They are vague, filled with unnecessary woo and feed the rampant stupidity that is taking over.
When you discover a feather, it means that a bird has lost it. In my own case, the wind has probably blown through my chicken coop as I have birds of many different colours in there. There are also a multitude of wild birds around. They moult, they are caught by cats, hawks and magpies - all things that will cause them to drop feathers. Discovering a feather usually means nothing more than it's no longer attached to a bird.
If you were to discover a feather in a place where it shouldn't be - in your handbag or underwear drawer (assuming you don't have any reason to have feathers there) - then and only then I would consider it to be a message or have another meaning. First however, I would rule out all mundane options. Then I would ask that if it's a message for it to be repeated and be made clearer.
If a feather is posted to you, depending on the type of feather, it can mean that someone wants you to know they're cursing you. Or wants you to think they're cursing you.
As for candle flames, there are many reasons for a candle to have a strong or weak flame, for the flame to dance or jump or make noises or even for there to be two flames. A poorly trimmed wick, the wrong wick for the size of the candle, a cheap candle that has been badly made, dirt or other materials on the wick or in the candle sometimes at the time of manufacture or even a faint draft.
When I was fairly new to all of this and believed that every little thing held a message, I used to frequently use essential oils in a vaporiser - one of those ones heated by a tea-light candle under the dish. My vaporiser was round like a vase and had a teardrop shaped hole in the front for the candle. The shape of the vaporiser meant that every time I burned a tea-light in there the flame danced and turned in circles. But I do recall that I felt awestruck and filled with woo the first few times.
One time I was certain a candle was behaving oddly and there was a message in it was at a ritual for a specific Goddess. The altar and the room were filled with candles. The two on either side of the Goddess statue had flames standing strong, 4 - 6 inches high, while all the other candles were normal flames. Those candles with the extra tall flames also burned considerably slower than the others, despite being the same candles from the same manufacturer out of presumably the same batch. We took that as a sign that the Goddess was aware of being honoured and was pleased with it.
Another one I have come across:
"I got a double yolker egg this morning. What does that mean?"
I have hens of my own and I work in an egg farm. Double yolkers are nothing particularly unusual or special. It means that either a pullet (young bird just starting to lay) didn't finish yesterdays egg and you ended up with two eggs fused together in one shell or an older bird was interrupted partway through the egg formation process and didn't finish it until the next day and you ended up with two eggs fused together in one shell. You can often tell a double yolker by looking at the shell. There will sometimes be a raised line about a centimetre wide or less where the two eggs meet. Less common, but it still happens is an egg inside an egg. This is usually when the hen was interrupted earlier in the process - sometimes this tiny egg (without a yolk) is laid as a tiny egg of it's own.
It isn't a sign of good luck (well, except that you were lucky to get two eggs when you were expecting one) or anything else.
Driving to my nearest city one day, I passed a field that had three horses standing in a row. They looked like some kind of sculpture. They were almost nose to tail, in a straight line, with the same stance, size and identical in their position. The front one was black, the middle one was brown and the last one was grey. I had never seen horses do that before. I thought it was odd but didn't think any more of it until I saw the same thing again in another field 50 kms away. Another three horses with the same colouring, same order and same positions. I asked then if that was supposed to be a message and if it was, could it be repeated and made clearer. I didn't see anything like that again, so I have to chalk that one up as strange coincidence. Perhaps that's a response to a weather pattern that I just hadn't seen before - I learned at a young age, when you see all the animals in all the paddocks facing in the same direction there's usually a storm coming from the direction they're facing away from.
I have never found these pictures and woo-filled memes to give an accurate representation of what the message might be, yet people persist in copying them down, repeating them to others as "ancient wisdom" and worst of all (to me) discouraging people from thinking for themselves.
When spirits or Gods or Higher Powers are sending you a message, it's in their own best interests to be sure that the message is clear to you and make sure you get it. It doesn't make sense for them to give you obscure messages and then you have to rely on going on the internet to ask a bunch of self-styled wise folk what your message means. Think about it. There's the popular saying, ask 12 witches and get 13 different answers.
When a message is for you, it is for you and will be symbolic only to you. If you're not sure whether something is a message, ask! Ask for it to be repeated to be certain it's a message, ask for it to be made clearer because you don't understand. If it's a message and not a random happenstance, then it will.
Just because there's magic afoot doesn't mean there's no place for common sense and logic. Think, rule out the mundane options and only then look for something supernatural. Darwinism still works in witchcraft - the stupid and gullible don't tend to last long.
Blessings
Debbie
