Today, when we came back from lunch, there was a blue jay perched at the top of my brother’s stairs up to his house. It looked as though it were waiting for us. Or me. It felt very ominous, so I decided to look up some things about that bird as a totem animal and what it means. Most of the resources online say that it has to do with “proper use of power.”

Some other interesting lines about these guys:

The blue jay is fearless, it has no fear. It will prey on hawks and owls and is known as a nest robber. Most who have blue jays as totems are strongly gifted naturally. If the blue jay has flown into your life, observe if you need to balance fear or your power. Is there something you fear, or are you becoming too reckless? Are you misusing your power or are you giving your power away?

Another one:

Helps you break out of doing things always the same way. He helps you explore the diversity of things. Use Blue Jay to help you announce your intentions and be able to use your voice.

And another:

Knowledge survival, proper use of power, helps balance earthy realm with spiritual.

Here’s a bit longer one. So far none of these resonate especially strongly for me, but oh well. I’ll keep looking. Hm, here’s an even longer one, which incorporates some of the above.

Hm, apparently Blue Jay is a trickster figure in some Native American traditions, like the Chinook.

This trickster figure is very similar in type to Raven of the other Pacific Northwest tribes. Significant tales include Blue-Jay attempting to outwit or out-do the other animals.

He also figures as an Underworld figure for them. But also in Europe, he was supposed to be the Devil’s messenger, and was not seen on Fridays because he was in Hell, bringing sticks to the Devil and telling on us.