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I have heard of several folklore death omens, a few are listed here:

clocks stopping at the time of death
the appearance of a large black dog
mirrors breaking for no reason at the time of death
the moan of the banshee


Has anyone heard of or experienced odd events related by timing more than cause and effect to a person's death?

Dark shadows cross over the room.. Seeing of angels.. those are the only two i know of..

my grandmother used to have a plant that would only bloom when someone died in the family it died the day she did

What about doppelgangers? It's supposed to be that if you see your doppelganger, it means you'll die in the near future.

Black Cats with very long necks

The Good Day

I have lost both my mom and dad. They were both very ill and could not eat or drink or even talk. The day before they died they both had very good days. They were able to eat a little and talk to us (my sisters and me).

An owl seen during the daytime I have also heard about.

a picture falling off the wall is a sign of death. a crazy story actually. a picture fell off my wall and my mom started to freak out and talk about how somebody was going to die. 2 weeks later my sisters boyfriend shot his head off with a shot gun in front of my sister. my mother later noticed that there were 2 angels in the picture, one with light hair and one with dark hair. my sister was a blond and he was a brunette.

Mine was a quietness and wind blowing I knew that my grandmother had died as it felt like her telling me in a nice way.

I have seen spirits in my family when some is goin to pass on

the large black dogs are said to be hell hounds sent to take the soul back to hell.

how about when you draw the death card from a tarrot deck and it keeps comming up

the death card doent mean death it mean change. most people who do tarrot cards know that

Tarrot cards arent always right.... dont depend your life on them.

The feeling of knowing someone has died, like a sickness in the belly, faintness or just wanting to cry, are sometimes signs that I have found with me and others like me.

Or I see my sister. Quite frankly, shes warning enough, because shes aldreay one of the living dead in truth.

I've heard of the black dog omen before. It's said to be the grim reaper.


However, as for the black cat, that's just consider unlucky. Which, if bad luck so to speak were indeed true, could cause death.

I haven't experienced these personally. However I have heard that the appearance of a crow can be a death omen. I don't take it too literally, because there are a bunch of crows here in my neighborhood.

But once my co-worker told me that when he had gotten home from school, no one was home, all of the doors and windows were shut...and there was a crow in his bedroom. And there were NO windows in there.

Usually tall-tales like that don't spook me, but that one gave me goosebumps!

2 i have had a lot of personal experiance with, a bat flying in your house, there is a poem to be recited to prevent the death of a family member within a year, the second is birds tapping agaist a window

I'm not sure if this would be considered an omen, but my godmother dreamed about her grandmother before she died. For two weeks before her death she dreamed that her grandmother came to her and told her it would be anytime, and that she wouldn't feel a thing.

Before one passes over they do see their relatives that have passed before them.

A friend of mine who was taking care of her ailing Mother said she seen her baby. Her daughter repilied since all of the pictures of her children were on the mantel piece...my friends said yes there is your baby Jim over there. She replied not that baby the baby I lost.

Yes the death card in tarot means transformation change in one's life.

When my uncle passed away i heard a bell. No one else in the room with me heard the bell except me

a massacre of crows, black dogs, omens of death, yet never heard of mirrors breaking. my grandparents would cover mirrors at near death, i do not think this is an omen more superstition.

A big bird with a white chest, the headless horseman, the old laundrying hag by the river a black dog with paws turning the wrong way and the list goes on.

I do not think it is the omnes who kill, it is yourself and your own fear that will get you if you put to much into them.

I worked in a nursing home and like others here yes the day before the person died I would see a great improvement . But one thing i noticed that alot of them wanted Root Beer hours before they died. Strange huh?

As previously mentioned, Banshee’s are considered messengers from the other world and are considered an omen of death. Irish legend speaks of the wails from the banshee that can be heard in the house before a person passes over. As an Irish woman I have never encountered this, but then again I haven’t really encountered many family deaths as my family live well into their 90’s and most of them are still alive :)

My great aunt (who's 104 this September) is a great believer of the “Death Coach” or “Coach a Bower” which is also attributed to Irish folklore. The death coach is pulled by 6 black headless horses (this depends on who is telling the story as the horses vary from being headless to having heads, only in Ireland could this be possible lmao) The Dullahan (coach driver) is also headless but he takes his head with him for the journey, this is possibly so he can see where he is going ;P

Unlike the Banshee, the Dullahan’s calls are not warnings, he calls out the name of the soul that is about to be taken. So if you hear 3 knocks on the window never open it. Personally speaking I would never open the door to someone who knocks on the window O.O.

And if the coach slows down outside your house but he doesn't knock, then it's said that there will be long lasting sickness in the house.

well My family is mainly women and we are all sensitives, whenever we dream of a baby being born or of water in any form some one will pass away in the family it has happened every time to us, plus also the Owl in the daytime, Barn Owl or snow owl also are said to represent death... Myself I am sure there are many signs out there you just have to be open to them and see them...

I know the one were the clock stops is a real omen, I've seen it happen

If you see a raven land in front of you it's an omen of death.

Shadows crossing the room.

Flashing lights, also can be relayed to angels.

The air becomes heavy around you.

BlackHawk -



What do you think the bell was?

Bugs will leave the house. Like if you normally have an ant problem they will all suddenly disappear.

pictures falling off of the table/wall and breaking. A phone call from the person who has died. Seeing the person as you drive by in a car. These things have happened to meand still happen to this day

In my culture, seeing an Owl during the daytime is a sign of death, someone has or will die.

Actually M - The clock in our family home stopped on the night my father died.

When my grandma was dying in cancer it was thunders when we visited her. I don't believe in omens really but it did not seem like an coincidence at the time.

My Grandfather saw a green flame on a church (or beside, can't remember) once and the day after the priest had died.

The thing you described at the retirement home is not as much an omen as it is a fact. People are always more alive when they are about to die, and those cases you are mentioning is called the last blossoming (den sidste opblomstring) in danish. It is called this because plants and flowers do it.

it might not be a death omen but it pretty weird, the day my little sister was born my nanas sister died i few hours before and as my mum was giving birth her eyes went really blue. they say it when a soul mergers with another soul

i never really experienced any of the mentioned death omens.... the only on ive seen for my self and im not sure about anyone else ..... is the lights flickering

ive seen this on many occasions and watch the news about someone being killed .

ive also heard that when some people die the clock does stop at the time of death

I know for me in personal experience it was changes in weather when my gradfather passed a huge huge storm over took the town and then in an instant it was gone.

Having a white owl fly over you...you'll get a lil' more time on the planet, but it's borrowed time.
(Southwestern US Mexican folklore).

i have also heard that a clock stopping is a death omen..also ..my grandparents were both killed in a car crash some time ago and a short time before we got the call my dad said he thought he saw them driving up our lane when in fact they were miles away

I have never heard about the white owl, before that one is new.

I remember one me mum told me when I was young. When the wall cries someone beloved will die.


I remember this one from an experience too.

My mom had told us how when grandma was seriously ill she told of seeing an angel at her bed; but whether that angel was there to take her to heaven or just to watch over her while she was ill i could not say as grandma survived that illness.
Other things i have heard that were omens though from older relatives that they passed down to us kids was
a bird pecking at the window meant someone was going to die in the house as well as a cat will leave the house and not re-enter it if a person is going to pass away that lives in that house.
A friend had told me that right before they learned of their uncle's death there was a white mist that appeared in the house from nowhere i always thought that was kind of freaky a bit.

Im my culture (Maori), my people believe that when you hear the cry of the Morpork, (native owl of New Zealand) then that means someone close to you has passed.

The Owl is the messanger, and only certain people can hear it.
eg. If you're in a room full of people and you hear it, the other's won't as it was meant for you.

Yes the Dullahan is an interesting story. I wrote an article on that which was published last year in Haunted Times. Sometimes the Dullahan (headless horseman) comes on a horse and not with the coach with or without the banshee and sometimes she is headless too and if it is someone of note sometimes there is more than one banshee that will come and other variations. If you stick your head out the door and try to see the Coach A Bower you will get a pan of blood thrown on you and then you are marked as well. I didn't following was posted. They take the corpse out backwards because they say if they don't whoever follows will follow in death. (Victorian belief) There are a lot of them and the Irish have a very colorful history and legends. My father in law was born in Dublin and my sister in law in Belfast and my ggrandfather came over from there. A lovely place for folklore of any kind.

blacks cats and black horses..

i've heard that if an owl calls your name at night, it means you are next to die.

or maybe it was a raven, it's been years since i was told this lol

I read once that Sparrows would gather near a person dying. It was believed they would carry the soul of the person safely to the afterlife. Interestingly enough, sailors used to believe that sparrows were a sign of a safe journey. I imagine there is a connection there.

I am reminded of a very old scottish tale:

Edinburgh's oldest ghost story involves the Old market cross, the place where important news were shouted out to the public.....

One a warm August evening in 1513, Richard Lawson, a local merchant, witnessed a Ghostly herald appear at the cross....

This herald began to announce the names of men who were soon to meet a violent and bloody death, beginning with King James IV, followed by many of Scottish nobility.....

Eventually, Richard lawson'd name was called out, and upon that, lawson fell to his kness and prayed fervently or his life.....

the Ghostly herald disappeared... and some time later on September 9th, 1523... Lawson went off to fight in a huge battle against the English...

The Scots, despite having one the largest armies assembled, lost the battle.... and their King.

The Ghostly herald's predict came true.... except for Richard Lawson..... he was the only survivor.

Richard lawson'd story still stay with us after 500 years.... but the Ghostly Herald has never been seen again.

When my grandmother passed a extremly dark shadow went overhead.. Also in our family you dream about dead loved ones right before someone is going to pass.. The seeing an owl during the daylight is true.. I saw an owl perched on a telephone wire in the middle of the day and two days later a family friend passed..

Well not really that I can think of right now honestly.

My friend's fiancee just recently died in a crash.. She was with him and was critically injured.. When we told her that he had died instantly, she said that it wasn't possible because he was holding her hand in the helicopter telling her that she was going to be fine and that everything was going to be okay.....

a flock of crows flew over me right at the time my grandpa died.

every phone in my house began to ring for no reason or no one on the other line, the day my father died.

Death omens are all around us we need to know how to read them to understand them, dreams are mainly mine to see someone in a dream that has died.

crows i hav always thought crows to be a death omen of some sort

So are magpies, 1 for sorrow 2 for joy, black cats crossing you path. there are is load of them.

• A bird flying in through an open window.
• A bird flying down the chimney.
• A bird tapping on a window.
• A bird hovering above a house

Meeting a vulture.

like XTCraver said earlier in the post, a picture randomly falling off the wall is a death omen. Crows can mean something too, but i'm not sure exactly if it's death. XTC used to get them in the back of her house all the time, hundreds of them. it was crazy.

i heard that when my great grandfather died the clock stopped

also i have heard that all electrical devices lose power but i dont think my source was not very reliable

i heard that when my great grandfather died the clock stopped

also i have heard that all electrical devices lose power but i dont think my source was not very reliable

Actually when one off my friends died in the past i saw a blac k dog appear out of nowhere then when my grandfather died two omens happen a mirror just broke for no reason and i heard a screech of a banshee

mine use to happen in my dreams, but now i don't dream that much anymore..i don't know why

Like reoccurring dreams Chemical?

I was told a bird flying into a window as one. That happened one morning, a sparrow flew into my glass sliding door. I thought it died. A few moments later it flew away, however, two days after that happened a person I grew up with was hit by a car while walking and died...maybe it was just a coincidence but maybe not...

Phone rings or radio stations change to that persons station.
Personal experience with that whole phone ringing.And radio station changing.The day my father n law died to the exact moment of his passing my phone rang and wouldn't stop even after i picked it up.And no one was on the other line.Till my husband came home 10 min. after he was called from work.As soon as he came home to change to see his father removed for cremation the phone stopped ringing.
And the radio station stopped switching stations.I was going crazy getting scared he came home told me dad had passed the house went quiet.Latter on that week my grandmother had told me other relatives reported to her that their phones rang and radios went hay wire.

Death omens are very real like black ravens are the soul carriers and a dog will howl at the time of passing sometimes all things will cease to move or run ,I have never heard of mirrors breaking but the ghost will come to certain people to let them know and to say goodbye or leave a message for there love ones.

i recall last year some where about a cat at a retirement home would go and lay on the bed of the patient that was dying and every oe was then afraid of the cat, because that at first thought it was just by chance bt after it happened a few times... out went the cat

It is common in NZ that if a fantail flies into your house then there will soon be a death in your family.

I also agree with "the good day" omen.

I came upon this article, and it caught my attention because it was discussing fox's as being a sign of death.


http://www.grimstone-inc.com/Articles/omen.html

There's one that my mother has experianced. It's not so much an omen as something that happened after a friend passed and she didn't know yet.

The friend entered my mom's dreams and told her good bye and that she needed to be at the lawyers to hear the will being read. She said mom and I had gifts waiting for us. The next day she found out her friend had finally passed away after fighting cancer for many years. In her Will she left mom and I all of her medical books and most of her equiment. She was a chiropractor former nurse. I still have some of the stuff and others have been gotten rid of due to age. Her reason of leaving it to us and not her sister? Our friend new we would use it.

I remember the cat at the retirement home. That's just plain creepy. I thought it was because he could sense it coming though. Not causing it.

Also, the only "omens" I have ever experienced weren't physical. I felt them. One night I was driving home and I just couldnt get the image of my Grandmothers funeral. The next morning she was gone. She seemed fine when I left. Same happened with my Uncle. I wonder if you get close enough to someone you can almost sense when they pass? Without being near.

I heard a crazy omen today.. that if you see a crow and a Black cat in the same day then you will die two days later.. Dunno what to think really..

wow ok I have a black cat living with me and crows fly by my house all the time.So I am still here and been at the same location for 8 months.And my privies location my black cat lived with me.And every morning crows and ravens ate out of the large trash bin in our lot and a few black cats ran after them.I Think that omen is very interesting.

I have never seen signs of when someone dies but I don't think i have ever really looked for them. I feel when it happens so I don't really know if I need visual signs.

They say a gathering of crows where the death is going to place is a clear omen

Well I have heard that if a murder of crows is present then a death is near.And after a friend of mine moved from my apartments where the crows feasted on the trash.
He came back to visit on that day there were more crows on the trash cans the residents were chasing them away because there where so many approximately 30.
The next day I had asked his granddaughter how he was because he said he was not feeling well when he came over.
She said he could not of come over because he had been in the hospital that week and had passed away at the time he came by to see us.

I have hear people say that when a person is about to dead the can here death in there breathing the call it the rattle of death

Death Rattle is what you mean?

the day when my late brother passed
My sister and her family saw a large magpie,
she told me that it feathers where scraggly
and it only had one foot
it keep screaming at her some times pecking at her window glaring in marching up and down her window sill
then after 15 minuets of this it stopped stock still glaring at them one last time before flying away.
it was four hours later my family where told he had died.

ever heard dog crying? it brings death in the house .

I have heaerd of the gathering of crows and ravens is a sign of death. When my grandmother passed I heard an owl screech(sp). The black dog I have often associated with that of someone that is constantly on the road. A truck driver. I have heard several truck drivers talking about the black dog and to them it is a warning to rest or stop somewhere.

My husband used to be a local truck driver for Louisiana and had a first personal with a black dog one night.
It was late and he was on a schedule or on the books.
He had not slept for a day to make time.One night while driving he seen a black dog cross the road he swerved to avoid it nearly crashing his big rig.He pulled over and the dog was gone.He stayed there to rest because he nearly hit a tree and it was raining.He got out of his truck which had been near the embankment and looked for the dog he almost hit.He did not see it nor did he ever drive tired again.