“Lechuza are either shape-shifting witches or spirits in Hispanic folklore. Tales of Lechuza are quite popular in Mexico and Texas. Appearance: A human-sized bird with a woman’s face.
On last nights show Jeff shared his grandfather diaries. In one section he talked about seeing owls. Here is the section from his writings “I looked to my right, and there stood two of the darndest critters I had ever laid eyes on.
I thought at the time that they were owls between four and five feet tall. They had owl like noses and owl like enormous eyes and sockets. I rode my horse toward them, but as they never moved from their position I become frightened and turned the horse away. I got off the horse and faced them. They looking south toward me. I was looking north toward them. I took a step toward them and they took a step in my direction and stopped. I took two steps toward them only to have them take two more steps towards me and my direction. I thought if they are birds then I can frighten them into flight by shouting and throwing my arms and hands about over my head and in the air. When I did this they looked at each other as if they were communicating some message to each other. I had the distinct feeling it was me who was the one being discussed. They had a look of wonderment in their eyes, but didn’t move or budge from the spot. I took one more little step, an attempt to ease my troubled mind, and in unison they both took another step toward me.”
I was stumped by his description of what he saw. A listener writes “I listened to the episode # 376. It is such a compelling episode. The one that really got me was the last story where the gentleman shared his grandfather’s journal entries. The Owls! So.
I am not sure where the gentleman’s grandfather was located (the farm/ranch) where he was when he saw the “owls” but…..
Being a Hispanic of Mexican descent, I literally grew up hearing “stories” I always heard about witches and what not. These witches, I was told, travelled in balls of light or even described as travelling in balls of fire. I was also told that these witches looked like…..you guessed it…..OWLS. In Spanish, these Owl witches were called, Lechuzas, or La Lechuza. The tories are quite fascinating. There was never a time in these stories that I heard as a child, where they were aggressive or even hurt people.
Apparently you can hear them whistle at night. I do remember a time when I was in high school, we were hanging out drinking beer around a bonfire, one of the guys asked, “you hear that?” of course we laughed and asked what are you talking about man. He said, “someone is whistling out there.” as he pointed towards the brush. we then entertained his claim and we heard the damned whistle. needless to say, once that happened we packed up and left. The following day, I spoke with my brother and told him about it the following day and of course he was sure he believed me. So…of course I took him out to the same place we were at the night before and sure enough….I whistled and something whistled back. My brothers eyes were wide opened!! LOL.
So if you watch this video, this lady tells a story of the Lechuza.. very similar to what I grew up hearing about. In this video, talks about her aunt seeing a light where a witch was perched on a tree and in this light she sees her mothers face. Well to me after hearing this lady in the video talk about this told me that her grandma is involved in some sort of witchcraft and sure enough…I watched her other video and sure enough, the lady in the video comes from a long line of witches and she herself is a witch.
Anyway….I said all of that to say that I believe that strange owls, very large owls are witches. I have a strong suspicion that the writing in the journal regarding those owls were witches. I hope this makes sense Wes.
I know this is a departure from the normal BF encounter stories but I wanted to share this with you. Below is the video. :
Take care and thanks”
Pete M
I too am of Hispanic descent and heard of the witches taking owl form, the only problem with that is that they were never described as being three to five feet tall. My dad and his side of the family really believed in them and said they whistle, laugh or even cuss at you, but they are normal sized. My mom accidentally locked my dad outside one night when he went to take out the trash, he was banging on the door, my brothers and I had never seen my dad that scared before or since. He said there was a lechusa on the electric pole wire in the alley and that it started laughing and cussing at him. We lived in west Texas at the time. One summer my brothers and I were watching SNL and there was a Salem witch trial skit on with James Belushi as the Puritan prosecutor, we had the window open for fresh air. When the judge asked him to present his case, he flipped through a large book, thought about it for a second and then pointed at the accused girl and yelled out “Wiiiitch!” We started laughing hysterically when an owl flew up to our window and screeched and flapped its wings against the aluminum bug screen, we didn’t believe in lechusas but looked at each other, we all three had an “oh shit” look on our face and I slammed the window shut and locked it and closed the curtain. Needless to say that put quite a damper on our entertainment for the rest of that evening. This had never happened before and it never happened again after that. But even that one was regular size.