BIRDS. As winged, celestial creatures, birds primarily symbolize the sky and everything connected with it rise, separation from the earth, takeoff, sun, wind, clouds, freedom, life, fertility, inspiration, prophetic gift. On the world tree, a bird usually sits at the very top, thereby, as it were, "participating" in the sky and opposing itself to the bottom - chthonic monsters, snakes, fish. For example, in the Scandinavian tradition, an eagle sits on top of the world ash tree Yggdrasil, and the dragon Nidhogg gnaws at the roots of this tree.
There are mythological and folklore stories about birds that lifted the earth from the bottom of the oceans, obtained light and fire for people. The bird also appears in the image of the first ancestor, the totem of a particular tribe.
The soul of the deceased in the form of a bird with a human head (from Egyptian papyri).
Being celestial, and therefore, creatures close to deities, birds often symbolize the human soul. In the Egyptian tradition, the avian form has Ba - one of the elements of human nature, the personification of the life force of man, which continues to exist even after the death of the body. Ba can separate from the body, leave the tomb, eat and drink. One of the guises of Osiris was the image of the Ba bird, which was often seen on the steps
temples near busy places. As the "embodiment" of the soul, the bird can also be represented as a messenger of death, its appearance promises the "flying away" of the soul. The Indians "distinguished" souls according to the breeds of birds; they believed that the soul of a drowned child is embodied in a sea duck, the soul of an infant strangled by its mother during sleep is incarnated in an owl, etc.
Deities often had the appearance of birds, primarily the gods of the sky, the sun, thunder - the Egyptian Thoth, the Greek Zeus, the Roman Peak, the Sumerian Ishtar and Adad, the Chinese Shandi, the Indian Garuda, etc. In addition, birds often act as sacred attributes of deities; for example, the rooster is the bird of Mars, the goose is the bird of Juno, etc. The Upanishads talk about the birds Jivatma and Atma sitting on the branches of the Tree of Life. “Two birds, inseparable companions, live on the same tree: the first feeds on its fruits, the second looks at them, but does not eat. The first bird is Jivatma, the second is Atma, or pure knowledge, free from conventions; and when they are near, one cannot be distinguished from the other.