Special:Badtitle/NS106:Urban Bestiary

A summary of some of the strange sights in the modern city, and suggestions to the possible import of the same.

See also urban paganism.

(What's an urban gnome or undine when it's at home?, suggestions...)

I'm just brainstorming ideas in the hope of inspiring people's imaginations here.... add add add! improve improve!

Some should almost certainly get their own node or at least a cross reference.

More than one definition is fine, even (especially) if they are contradictory or conflicting.

Building Sites
Building Sites are the manifestation of the spiritual processes of Creation.

Buses
Buses are your friends. When you enter a bus, you become part of its body. The driver is the mind. Whenever you see a bus passing near you, you should welcome it like a good old friend.

Cars
Cars are like the electrons in the electrical wires. They like to travel together in lines.

Humans in a exoskeletal technoshell, like crustaceans, encased in metal.

Cats
Cats are small magicians, but they care mostly about themselves and not the environment.

But just how magical can things get if one of them choses to interact with you anyway? What does it take to have a wild stray come to you, and what can you learn from him/her? But by all means learn to interpret their body language in interaction with tame ones before attempting to tough a real stray.

There's one thing that's really amazing about cats, aside from magic: They are able to learn, understand and even use the body language of other species. Among cats, looking straight into the eyes of another cat means a severe threat, something along the lines of "you get out of my way, or you'll do my best to kill you" ever watched a staring duell among two tomcats? But tame cats know that we humans express interest and even love this way, and "speak" to us like this if they really like us.

Cigarettes

 * Cigarettes are a form of spiritual city cancer.
 * Cigarettes are minor manifestations of Wands.
 * Cigarettes make good quickie incense (whether or not you smoke).

Coins, Found
See a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck.

Something of small, but real and measurable value, discarded. Flip a coin to determine to which (geographical or philosophical) direction to go. A small version of pentacles.

Cracks in Concrete
A very strong symbol. But a symbol for what? The old wisdom that all that is will end? Nothing is indestructible? Also see mushrooms and weeds further down that page.

Check sidewalk cracks for omens, like divining from the clouds or the movements of birds. Trash on the sidewalks also provides material for reading. Use your intuition to provide meanings.

Dog Shit
Dog shit is good food for the trees. EDITED TO CORRECT - No. Dog shit, cat shit, or any other carnivore shit is BAD compost. The shit of herbivorous or omnivorous creatures makes good compost/fertilizer.

Dog shit, represents the increasing sickness of our own choices - we (or our domesticated wild aspects) are shitting where we live and eat. And that's never a good sign.

Electricity Transformers
Electricity transformers transform the God's energy into city electricity.

Fag Butts (cigarette ends)
They are just plain annoying. Being annoyed by some dirt is big part of living in a big city. That is, if you get something out of being annoyed. Too many folks do. Methinks that's contagious. As is throwing such stuff on the floor.

Flyers
A communication from some god? Look for hidden messages! Also an indicator of the concerns or preoccupations of the inhabitants of that particular area.

Graffiti
Graffitti may reveal hidden spiritual messages to you, if you look carefully. Try and understand the interplay of the local tribes.

Light Pollution
Represents the eternal glare of mankind's misuse of their technical resources to solve social problems!

Lizard
Of course, few people associate lizards with towns. But i think i have seen most of them exactly in big cities, along city railway lines, on small patches of wasteland or near derelict buildings, They enjoy the dry hot climate there just as much as they enjoy it at lonely beaches or ancient ruins. Lizards are associated with renewal and life because they shed their skin regularly, and because they can shed their tail and grow a new one. Also they are surprisingly long-lived for such small animals. It is a great irony that those creatures live mostly on ruis and wasteland. Go watch them and contemplate this when you've had a bad day. They are also considered as the ptty, tame equivalent of a dragon. Watch their speed and determination when they go hunting. So just how petty are they?

One of the most magical moments in my life involved a wild lizard interacting with me as if it was tame, although it was a hot day and he seemed to be in perfect health.

Money, Lost
If you find lost money this means you were very selfish lately and you should give more to the other people, the animals, the plants and the environment. It may also mean that you received some good fortune by God, but you failed to give back the energy/fortune you got, so an energy imbalance was formed. If you fail to fix the energy imbalance after you see the lost money, you will pay it as karma in the next lifetime. You can give the lost money to beggars.

See

Mushrooms
Ever seen mushrooms break through asphalt or even concrete? Go figure!

Neon Lights
The eternal spirit of showing off. A big show turned ugly. The shabbiness behind megalomania.

Pigeons
The rats of the air. In fact more disease-ridden and dangerous than real rats. The peace symbols that are in fact one of the most battlesome birds amongst themselves. But still, they are the amusement of the kids and the elderly. They clean away the leftovers of our take-away meals, together with other such beings. Most of those city dwellers are, or are descended from renegade carrier pigeons (at least in europe), studies say, Ugly, filthy, short-lived, but free at last. I always loved them, no idea why. Outlaws, spirits of filth. They make parents scream in horror if the little ones touch them. No wonder kids love them.

Public Art
Beauty. And a tribute to some form of Deity (depending on the subject of the art).

Public Toilets
They and the folks you may meet there are a threat or a shelter, that depends on the toilet, and on who you are and what you're used to. I have been studying in a big city but living a long train ride away, in the country. That meant i had to face that new and seemingly hostile environment without the possibility to retreat to my flat during breaks or when i needed something. One of the first things i learned was where to find clean and save toilets near main station, lol. The official ones were crap, of course, and those in the trains even worse.

Toilets in discos, bars and similar public places are another beast, especially for girls. They are kind of a magickal place. They are often the best place to get to know people in a strange environment for us. And of course we always feel better after powdering our noses, redoing our hair and having some chat with another one who is there for the same purposes. But maybe it's the same shelter thing..

Telephone Boxes
Well, what to say about them... They were indispensable in the time before the cheap cell phones for everybody. When you found one in a strange emergency you were near safety, provided you had coins. Call a taxi, some friends, your Mom (Arghhh...) or whomever, tell yourself "all is fine now, someone's coming for me" or "I can handle this if only I reach whomever and explain it all" and the situation seemed under control. And in teen days, they were perfect for endless chats with friends mommy was not supposed to hear. Some of those were kind of life-saving too.

I don't really know what they should mean in the days of the cell phone. A tool for the super-emergency, that is: the cell phone doesn't work?

Traffic Cameras
Big brother's watching you.....

The ever- present eyes of the system. Which system? The state? The almighty forces of order? ORDER itself? Arghhh!!

Traffic Lights
Home of urban dryads. Whole families who work together to keep the streets flowing. Show them respect as you pass, they are guardians of your safety.

Don't cross before the green man, if he appears on the light and the button presser cannot be seen, then his spirit follows you and causes "not-good".

Weeds
The unwanted green stuff that grows wherever it finds an ounce of soil. For me, the expatriated country dweller, a sign of hope, and a symbol that it is all one to nature. I've found rare endangered mountain ferns grow in the cracks of concrete walls. I cherished that as a victory of nature, until it dawned on me that there would be no fern in that part of the country without such walls, I saw simple grass crack the asphalt open. I loved that grass until it did it right outside my front door, and the authorities threatened to make me pay for street repair. Long live round up! Weeds are battle. Slower, more persistent, more nasty battle than anyone else can put up.

Weeds are Gaia. Weeds are green, life, earth, and whatever else you associate with that. Depending on the type, you can use it in rituals in place of more expensive dried herbs ... weeds often have a stronger energy than country herbs, since they have to work harder to survive.

Misc

 * Big issue sellers
 * Billboards
 * Buskers and Other Street Performers
 * Car Parks
 * Cul-de-Sacs (dead end roads)
 * Flying ants
 * Foxes
 * Grass Verges
 * Homeless
 * Level Crossings (where rail crosses roads)
 * Litter
 * Lollipop Ladies
 * Manhole Covers (and all other metal covers in streets)
 * Motorbikes
 * Paving (cobbles, brick, slab etc)
 * Playgrounds
 * Police
 * Pubs (Bars)
 * Pushchairs
 * Pylons
 * Rats
 * Really Big Cranes
 * Red Light Areas and their Denizens
 * Ring-Pulls - Urban crystals. See ring-pull.
 * Road markings
 * Road signs
 * Sad Parts of Otherwise Stolen Bikes Still Chained to Things
 * Shopping Centres (Malls)
 * Skateboards
 * Stray dogs
 * Street lamps
 * Street sweepers
 * Suburbs
 * Supermarkets
 * Take-aways
 * Taxis
 * Tramps (hobos)
 * Walls
 * Telephone Poles