For some, these birds have the reputation of being loud, aggressive, and mean. However, certain cultures see them as lucky or a symbol of good things to come. And according to animal spiritualist Jordana Van, seeing a blue jay a lot within a short period of time could indicate it’s coming to you as a force of spiritual guidance. The throat is one of the body’s main channels for creativity, and birds in general are representatives of the air element, which is all about communication, she notes. If someone new has come into your life and you’ve asked the universe for a sign regarding their loyalty or potential, a blue jay showing up is a sign that they’ll make a good partner, Van says. However, if you didn’t outright ask, but it’s been weighing on your mind, Van notes that blue jay may actually be encouraging you to examine your beliefs. “Here, the blue jay is telling you that you need to work on healing those wounds so that you can honor your heart, which will tell you what to do to be happy,” she explains. In the same way, she says, blue jays can indicate we’re receiving unfair judgment from others. Whether we’re holding strong boundaries or triggering someone else’s ego, a blue jay lets us know we can never be wrong when we’re simply living our truth, even if it bothers or threatens other people. If you think your blue jay sighting could be related to feeling judged by yourself or others, Van says to release your own inner critic—and disregard the judgments of others. “If your mind isn’t speaking to you with patience, affirmation, and love, this is absolutely at the top of the list of things that the blue jay wants you to work on,” she says. And as far as being judged by others, “If the critics are in the minority and you truly love what you’re doing,” she says, there’s no need to give their judgments any weight. “There are always going to be at least a few critics everywhere we go. The Universe designed you to be who you are, and the world needs you to be that person, not who you think you need to be to please others,” Van explains, adding, “If you can recognize that this is what’s going on for you right now, the blue jay is very likely here to tell you that no matter how scary it is, it’s time to start being real.” And lastly, blue jays encourage us to be confident and strong. If you don’t feel you’re being recognized in that way, Van suggests spending some time studying the people in your life who have the respect that you crave for yourself. “Consider adopting some of their behaviors that resonate with you, but don’t try to force yourself to be someone that you do not inherently want to be—that never works out in the end,” she adds. Cardinals (when seen with a blue jay) “often represent feeling oppressed by an authority, most especially a religious authority, institution, or folks who practice that particular religion,” Van says. And the blue jay here means you may feel afraid to be yourself because you’ve been chastised for it in the past by people who had power over your life. “When blue jay and cardinal appear in combination, it most often signifies that our self—in whatever ways we wish to express it—feels as though it is being stifled or silenced by either a religious institution or its representatives, or whomever else in our lives that we perceive as setting ’the rules,’” she explains. However, she notes, if you’re consistently finding blue jay feathers, or you find one in a really dramatic way, then it could be that you need to pay attention. “Sometimes these experiences really are intended to direct us, and sometimes they’re just the Universe letting us know that we’re tuned in,” she says, adding, “Blue jay’s most frequent message has to do with confident self-expression, so if someone has been feeling the desire or need to speak up and/or otherwise express themselves, they need to do so.” “Dreams are much more personal than we realize, in which case, the symbol is supposed to get us to look at what is going on in our life and ask ourselves if it mirrors what happened in our lives the last time we experienced that animal in the aforementioned fashion. If so, what issues from that time might still need to be resolved?” Van explains. “On the other hand,” she adds, “we could just be experiencing a reminder of a pleasant time in our lives if it was a good memory or a person we loved that was involved.”
