I was about five the first time I met Vulture.
My neighbor had already been raping me in the backyard by then.
I think Vulture knew, enough was enough.
As he swooped down I seemed to know instinctively how to grab on.
I had no fear of him.
It was like I’d always known him.
He didn’t just swoop down and take all of me.
He just took that inner part of me, the part that could feel the pain.
Perhaps it was my soul.
I remember looking down on myself as we rose, Vulture holding me up.
I could see the pain in my trembling body, but no longer felt it.
Instead I felt the strength in Vulture’s wings as he thrust us higher.
I sensed that he didn’t want me to see myself down there as he reached for the thermal that would take us away.
Once we were high enough we took off in some other direction, speeding along.
The feeling of flying with Vulture was the most free and wonderful feeling.
I wanted it to last forever.
But after a while we had to fly back.
Vulture could not keep me forever.
He had come to teach me, not to keep me.
It was then, when he dropped me back in my body that I knew.
I knew that I could make that part of me fly away whenever I needed to.
After that day I was nearly always able to fly up in the sky when needed.
Years later my neighbor had moved and I no longer needed to fly.
In fact I could no longer make myself fly.
I would lie in the field as still as possible waiting and hoping that Vulture would come back for me so we could fly together once more.
Although he would circle high above, he would not come for me again, not like that first time.
But, Vulture has always been nearby.
He comes to me often but not to fly.
He comes to give me strength.
We will only fly together one more time.
And it will be the last flight for me in this lifetime.

Submitted by Anon

Dear Vulture Man :

I have some very cool news to share with you.

I’ve been in Peru for the last two weeks with a Peruvian shaman. We traveled into the mountains and jungles. It was life-changing.

I took the vulture feather with me. What I found out while there is that the Condor is the most sacred of all animals to the Peruvians, dating back to the Incans. I just happened to have my feather in my back-pack on a certain day, and we ended up at the Temple of the Condor. I climbed to the top, and had a very powerful experience there. I gifted your feather to the Temple.

So, a part of you is now at the Temple of the Condor, the most powerful place for our totem animal! I thought you’d like that. Life is so circular. You give to me, I give to the temple. I said a prayer and did a meditation for you there, asking our guides to help you be the person you want to be.

Best;

Chase

Dear Vulture Man,

I had been dreaming about birds a lot in the last few years. I had also been seeing birds in strange places. Especially Eagles or what I thought were Eagles. It always had a white patch on one of it's wings. Later I discovered to my surprise that I had nothing to do with eagles. I had a very realistic dream where a large dark bird approached my window as I looked out. It was all rough looking and it perched on my window. It was a vulture. And what shocked me was that it had my face. It looked right through me. It was a let down to me. So months later I thought I had better figure out what it meant to dream about being a vulture all the time and that is how I found your wonderful website. Just thought I'd let you know why I visited your web site.

Woodrow

I have always been fascinated by vultures, and being fortunate enough to live in an area where one can spot vultures almost every day of the year, I recently had a question come to mind, concerning a possible close encounter with a small group of them.

I was sitting at my desk at work by a large window. Across the road was a group of very low flying, circling vultures. I asked my office mates (to their horror) what they thought would happen if I walked over and laid down on the ground under the circling birds and stayed very still? Would they land near me and check me out? Would they land on me and try a taste?

One person suggested I would have to smell dead to create interest, so I thought, well hypothetically, what if I laid some raw hamburger next to me? No one else thought this line of thought merited any more brain power, but I wish I'd have tried it to see.

What do you think?

Curious and just loving the vultures,
Beth

Just wondering if you could answer a question.
A friend of mine believes that vultures for some reason will
not eat the dead carcass of a dog.

Thanks for your help.
Trey

In Southern Africa, the name for an Egyptian vulture is synonymous with the term applied to lovers, for vultures like pigeons are always seen in pairs. Thus mother and child remain closely bonded together. Pairing, bonding, protecting, loving are essential attributes associated with a vulture. Because of its immense size and power and its ability to sore high up in the sky, the vulture is considered to be nearer to God who is believed to reside above the sky. Thus the qualities of a vulture are associated with Godliness. On the other hand the wide wingspan of a vulture may be seen as all encompassing and providing a protective cover to its infants. The vulture when carrying out its role as a mother and giving protection to its infants may exhibit a forceful nature while defending her young. All these qualities inspired the imagination of the Ancient Egyptians. They adopted what seemed to them at the time to be motherly qualities, the qualities of protecting and nurturing their young. -

Nekhbet was thought to be the wife of Hapi, in his Upper Egyptian aspect. She was also linked to Horus in his role of god of Upper Egypt. Due to her vulture form, she was linked to the goddess Mut, the mother goddess and wife of Amen. Both Mut and Nekhbet were a particular type of vulture - the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus). It was the griffon vulture that was usually related to the goddesses and to royalty.