Vultures are much-maligned birds that most people associate with death and rotting carcasses. However, they also have some more positive spiritual connotations, and seeing vultures may bring important spiritual messages that you shouldn’t ignore.
If you see a vulture, either in real life or in your dreams, you should take the time to try to interpret the omens.
In this post, we discuss 11 spiritual meanings of vultures to help you understand what it signifies.
Spiritual Meanings of Vultures
1. Be Patient
One of the most important spiritual meanings of vultures is that they can teach us patience, and this manifests itself in many different ways.
For example, if you are faced with an important decision and a vulture appears to you, either in real life, symbolically or in your dreams, the message could be telling you to think things through carefully before making up your mind instead of acting rashly.
On the other hand, if you are currently engaged in a long-term project but are losing patience or thinking about giving up because success seems as far away as ever, the vulture may appear to you to urge you to keep the faith because success is closer than you think.
Sometimes, vultures may also simply appear to people with impatient natures to help them calm their spontaneous or hurried tendencies.
The modern world is increasingly geared towards instant gratification and taking shortcuts, but there is still much value to be had from things that take time to learn or achieve.
For things like learning a new language or learning to play a musical instrument, there are no shortcuts and no substitute for hard work and dedication – and this is a message the vulture can sometimes bring us.
Finally, the vulture may also appear to tell us to bide our time and wait on the sidelines for the best moment to act to gain the maximum profit or benefit from a situation that is unfolding.
2. Death, Rebirth and New Beginnings
As scavengers that are drawn to dying animals and rotting carrion from miles around, vultures are inextricably associated with death and decay.
However, in spiritual terms, death usually has more positive connotations since it is related to rebirth and renewal.
This means a vulture may appear to you when you are about to go through some kind of important change or transition in your life, and when this happens, the message should be one of encouragement.
Change is universal, and there’s nothing we can do to fight it. Instead, we should try to embrace change because with it come new experiences and opportunities.
If we fear change, these opportunities may pass us by, and we might not get another chance – but if we accept change and welcome it, we can grab new opportunities with both hands.
As a result, if you are feeling anxious about change or upheaval in your life, the vulture may appear to remind you to remain optimistic in the face of change rather than being negative or fearful.
Alternatively, the vulture may appear to presage change that you are as yet unaware of – so you should prepare yourself to meet the change willingly to take advantage of any benefits it brings.
3. You Want to Assert Your Freedom
According to SpiritualMeanings (a spiritual jewelry store), Vultures are the epitome of freedom, riding the thermals hundreds of feet up in the air and covering vast distances effortlessly.
For this reason, vultures may also bring a message to you about freedom – either helping you realize you want to assert your freedom and independence or telling you that this is what you should do.
Perhaps you are feeling trapped in a relationship but don’t fully realize how oppressed you are – and the vulture may appear to you to help you come to this realization.
Alternatively, you may know that you are feeling oppressed, but you don’t dare to break free – in which case, the vulture may appear to help you find the courage to escape from your cage.
4. Look at Things From a Different Perspective
From high in the sky, vultures can scan the landscape below with their powerful eyes, and this represents looking at things from a different perspective.
This is another message that vultures can bring because sometimes we can be so caught up in a problem that we can’t see a way out.
However, if we take a step back and look at things from a different angle or a different viewpoint, we may see a new way to resolve matters, something else a visitation from a vulture may help us to do.
5. Seek Spiritual Awakening and Higher Awareness
With their high vantage point and their keen eyes and sense of smell, vultures also represent being attuned to the world around them and higher levels of awareness of their surroundings.
This can also be taken metaphorically to signify being more spiritually aware and becoming more finely attuned to messages we are sent from the spirit world.
This means seeing a vulture can also be taken as an omen urging you to strive towards your own spiritual awakening and gaining a higher state of consciousness.
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Get Your Hands Dirty
Vultures are what’s known as obligate scavengers, which means they can only eat rotting meat from dead animals and are unable to hunt or even eat fresh meat.
Some might say that this is a lowly ecological niche to inhabit, but scavenging and eating putrid meat is not below vultures, even though many other animals would turn their noses up at such an existence.
Thus, vultures can teach us a valuable lesson that sometimes we just need to roll our sleeves up and be willing to get our hands dirty if we want to succeed – and sometimes vultures can appear when this is a lesson we need to be reminded of.
7. Be Ready to Grab Opportunities That Come Your Way
We’ve already seen that vultures are extremely patient birds, but when they see an opportunity to feed, they don’t let it pass them by.
For this reason, vultures may also appear to us to tell us to be aware of the opportunities that are being presented to us and to be ready to grab them rather than letting them slip by.
Often in life, we don’t find ourselves in the most perfect situations, but successful people are not the ones who wait for perfect opportunities but those who make the most of what they have, and this is another message the appearance of a vulture may bring.
8. You Are Ready to Become a Parent
A lesser-known but highly positive characteristic of vultures is that they are extremely caring and attentive parents, doing everything they can to ensure they raise healthy and strong broods of chicks.
This means that seeing a vulture may be a message telling you that you are ready to become a parent and that now is the time to start a family.
Another similar way to read this omen is that the vulture is telling you to hurry up and start a family because the time you have to do so is running out.
9. Don’t Be Concerned by the Opinions of Others
As scavengers and carrion eaters – and as birds that few would count among the most handsome – vultures don’t give a thought to what others think about their habits or appearance.
Sometimes in life, this is advice that we also need to take to heart. Too often, we spend time trying to fit in or doing things to gain the approval of others.
However, we should worry more about being true to ourselves and shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about the opinions of other people.
If you are not being true to yourself, the vulture may appear to you to tell you to stop living a lie and to show yourself for who you really are.
Those closest and most important to you will accept you and love you this way – and those who don’t aren’t the kind of people you want to have as your friends anyway.
10. Somebody is Scheming Against You
Vultures can sometimes appear to you to warn you that somebody is scheming against you – like a vulture circling above a dying animal.
When this happens, the message you should take is that you need to watch your step and be careful who you trust because somebody might just be circling you and waiting for you to make a wrong step before swooping in to take advantage.
11. You Are About to Make a Mistake
Finally, a similar interpretation could be that when the vulture appeared to you, it was a warning that you are about to make a mistake.
Think carefully about the decisions you have made recently or are about to make and consider again what the consequences might be – and then think about changing your mind if you think you are about to do something stupid.
An Important Message to Decipher
Seeing a vulture may mean nothing, but there’s a good chance the encounter carried an important spiritual message that you shouldn’t dismiss.
To work out the hidden meaning of what you saw, think about how it might apply to your life and the challenges you are currently facing. Then, by following your intuition, you will be guided to the correct interpretation of the omen.
