The Language of Signs
When we are open to receiving them, signs can appear all the time.
Dr. Tara Swart, neuroscientist and author of The Source, has spoken about her own experiences of asking for signs alongside her husband. While she approaches life through the lens of science, she also acknowledges the profound impact that meaningful coincidences can have on our lives.
From a neuroscience perspective, when we ask for a sign, our brain becomes more attentive to certain patterns and symbols. The brain has a filtering system called the Reticular Activating System (RAS), which helps determine what information deserves our attention. When we consciously ask for a sign, that filter shifts. Suddenly we begin noticing things that may have always been there but previously passed us by.
From a spiritual perspective, many believe signs are one of the ways our loved ones continue communicating with us after they have died. A feather appearing in an unexpected place. A butterfly that lingers beside you. A favourite song playing at exactly the right moment. A familiar perfume with no obvious source. Repeating numbers. A vivid dream that feels more real than a dream. A bird appearing just when you need reassurance.
Whether you believe these moments come from spirit, synchronicity, intuition, or simply the remarkable pattern-recognition abilities of the human brain, the comfort they provide is undeniable.
But one of the biggest misconceptions about signs is that they are universal.
People often ask me,
“What does it mean when I see a butterfly?”
“Does a feather always mean someone is with me?”
The answer is… not necessarily.
Signs are deeply personal.
They become a language that develops between you and your intuition, your loved ones, your subconscious mind, or whatever higher power you believe in.
Just as every family has its own jokes, sayings and traditions that only make sense to the people within it, signs work in much the same way. Their meaning comes from the relationship… not from a universal dictionary.
For one person, a butterfly may represent their grandmother because she adored butterflies. For another, it may simply be a beautiful insect passing through the garden.
A particular song may mean nothing to one person but bring another to tears because it was played at their father’s funeral.
A white feather may feel profoundly significant because it appears at the precise moment someone asks for reassurance. Another feather seen a week later may simply be… a feather.
Context matters.
Timing matters.
But perhaps most importantly…
The feeling matters.
One of the fascinating things about signs is that they often interrupt your thoughts.
You might be silently questioning whether to take a new job, leave a relationship, write a book, move interstate or start a business when, seemingly out of nowhere, something catches your attention in a way that feels impossible to ignore.
Sometimes the sign is dramatic.
Often it isn’t.
It may be a licence plate displaying meaningful numbers.
A conversation you accidentally overhear that answers the exact question you’ve been asking yourself.
A book falling from a shelf.
Someone mentioning the same person’s name three times in one day.
A child saying something unexpectedly profound.
A song beginning with the exact lyric you needed to hear.
The more present you become, the more you begin noticing that life often seems to respond.
Personally, birds have become part of that language for me.
Over many years, I have noticed that crows appear whenever I need validation. If I am speaking about something important, or quietly contemplating a decision, and a crow flies directly through my line of sight or calls at exactly that moment, I instinctively know to pause and pay attention. For me, it has become a gentle confirmation that what I am thinking or feeling is aligned.
That doesn’t mean crows carry that message for everyone.
They have simply become part of my conversation with life.
Recently, while recording a podcast interview, eight magnificent black cockatoos flew across my eyeline.
Eight.
It wasn’t simply that they appeared. It was the timing. The beauty of the moment. And the unmistakable feeling that accompanied it.
Something inside me quietly whispered,
“Pay attention. This matters.”
At the end of the interview, the host invited me to speak at an upcoming event raising funds for a domestic violence charity.
Looking back, those eight black cockatoos felt less like a coincidence and more like a gentle tap on the shoulder reminding me that the conversation I had just shared was going to reach further than I realised.
Could there have been another explanation?
Absolutely.
And perhaps that isn’t the point.
Whether signs come from spirit, your subconscious, your intuition, or simply your brain recognising meaningful patterns, perhaps what matters most is the effect they have on us.
Signs encourage us to become present.
They ask us to lift our heads from our phones.
To notice the world around us.
To trust ourselves a little more.
To become curious instead of fearful.
To recognise that guidance often arrives quietly rather than dramatically.
Over time, you may begin to notice your own language emerging.
Perhaps it’s dragonflies.
Perhaps it’s rainbows.
Perhaps it’s songs, dreams, numbers, birds or certain words that seem to appear again and again just when you need them.
There is no right or wrong language.
Only the one that feels true to you.
The invitation is not to become superstitious or to search desperately for meaning in everything you see.
It is simply to become more awake.
Because once you begin paying attention, life has an extraordinary way of reminding you that you are never walking your path entirely alone.
And perhaps that is the greatest gift of all.
Not that signs prove anything.
But that they leave us with something even more valuable.
Hope.
Connection.
Comfort.
And the quiet reassurance that life may be supporting us in ways we do not yet fully understand.
xxx