Omenwalk 2023
12/31/23
For the second year I am participating in Hawk’s Omenwalk and I can already tell it’s going to be very impactful for me this time around. Essentially, the practice is to use the liminal space around this time of the year to ask for omens to guide you in the coming year. In Hawk’s guidebook they encourage experimentation for those who feel relatively confident with omen work, so that’s what I’m doing this year.
I recently started approaching my life from the point of view of the twelve-week year (more on this in another post) so it felt more aligned for me to request omens for each of these four seasons instead of the more typical twelve months. I also felt attracted to ditching the alarm clock (where whatever is happening at the pre-determined time *is* the omen) and instead picking omens that felt more OMENNY, whatever time of the day they arrived.
The encouragement to be more specific with my overall question was also super helpful. I put out a petition to a guide I want to work with more directly this year to send me omens that would help me to hear their voice and understand their language better.
Hawk’s other advice, which I think will stand me in good stead, is to really pay attention during the timeframe the omen is for and listen for the correspondences. The omen itself is only half the language – the other half is in how it plays out.
The omens I have received so far have been nothing short of a specific curriculum in all the different types of omen available to me – I assume I will be spending each season of the year in omen school for a particular omen genre.
Crowmens
Hawk actually mentioned this in their guide so it was cool that it showed up as an omen for me. I’ve had a strong relationship with crows for decades and have definitely taken their appearance and activities as omens in the past – often as affirmations of a decision or chosen path. I’ve never gotten as granular as to try and tap into their language before though and am looking forward to getting more intimate with how my guides might send me specific messages encoded in particular numbers of caws, or different vocalizations.
Inanimate objects doing things seemingly of their own volition
Two holiday ornaments fell on the floor in swift succession and seemed to tell me “it’s time to take down the decorations”. When this omen’s season comes around I’ll be looking out for this kind of unexpected happening and trying to learn its language.
Color
I walked into my room and saw two red books sitting on my desk that I hadn’t consciously paired and just felt like “OK, the omen is red”. This is a new type of omen for me so it’ll be interesting to explore how that unfolds.
Brain Jukebox
I don’t know about you but I almost always have a song going in my head. Sometimes it’s nothing to write home about – just something I listened to recently. Other times it’s like excuse me but where the fuck did *that* come from? I’ll play through the song in my head and get to the chorus, or a particular line and it will be super pertinent to something going on in my life. I love it when this happens!
Alexa as Oracle
As anyone with an Echo or other pseudo robot in their house will attest, they spontaneously do unrequested stuff about as often as they refuse to do the thing you want them to do. On multiple occasions Alexa has misheard one of us and started playing a song we’ve never heard of. I pretty much always pay attention when this happens because it feels very omenny. During this year’s omenwalk she randomly started playing Video Killed the Radio Star which, for the youngs, is a song from 1979 about the tension between progress and nostalgia. I was super excited when it came on because it is a JAM, but then was quickly disappointed when I realized it was a different song from the 2010s that heavily samples the original. When I realized it was an omen I cracked up at the meta nature of my reaction – guess the winter of 2024 is going to have some themes around being a cranky old Gen Xer complaining about how much better music was in my day.
Unexpected Beauty
Every morning I grumpily walk out into the back yard to hang up the suet for the birds and this morning my grump was lifted by the sight of these amazing leaf/feather shapes in ice in the bird bath.
The Omen Omen
Hawk referenced this in their guide and I honestly love this kind of omen, where you sort of say “omen?” and the universe responds back with “yes, omen!” According to Hawk, this practice of requesting omens for the coming year was originally done during the intercalary days between one year and the next. The same day I learned about this concept from Hawk, I was reading the chapter on the Twelfth House in Demetra George’s Ancient Astrology Volume Two and she referenced the intercalary days! It felt like a nice little “yes” from my guides – yes you are on the right track with this omenwalk, go you!
Anyway, I hope this was interesting and maybe has inspired you to do your own omenwalk. Either way, wishing you a very happy and magical 2024!