Robes of Light

OWL

"Greek, Roman, and Celtic mythology all employ owls as representatives of spiritual influence. Hinduism also uses the owl as a symbol of cosmic spirituality.

Of all the various usages of owl symbolism, Native American religions and their shaman priests (witchdoctors) have placed upon the bird numerous spiritual associations. The Cree believed that the whistle-sounds of the Boreal Owl was a summoning call to the spirit world. If an Apache dreamed of an owl, it was held that death was on its way. Cherokee shamans viewed Eastern Screech-Owls as consultants on punishment and sickness. To this day, practitioners of Native American spiritual traditions hold that the owl represents vision and insight."
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2002/carl-teichrib/8owl.htm

PHARONIC VULTURES
(called the "Prehistoric Bird" suit)

Elvis chose the Egyptian vultures as evidenced on the tombs of pharaohs.

The vultures were..."sacred to Nekhbet, goddess of Upper Egypt and Mut, mother goddess. The vulture often holds the shn symbol of eternity in its talons, offering eternal protection to the pharaoh. As such, the vulture is closely linked to rulership."
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/animalgods.htm

NEKHBET

PHOENIX / THUNDERBIRD

"The phoenix bird symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after death. In ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology, it is associated with the sun god.

According to the Greeks, the bird lives in Arabia, near a cool well. Every morning at dawn, the sun god would stop his chariot to listen to the bird sing a beautiful song while it bathed in the well.

Only one phoenix exists at a time. When the bird felt its death was near, every 500 to 1,461 years, it would build a nest of aromatic wood and set it on fire. The bird then was consumed by the flames.

A new phoenix sprang forth from the pyre. It embalmed the ashes of its predecessor in an egg of myrrh and flew with it to Heliopolis, "city of the sun," where the egg was deposited on the altar of the sun god. In Egypt, it was usually depicted as a heron, but in the classic literature as a peacock or an eagle."
http://phoenix.gov/birdesig.html

"In the legends of native North Americans, the thunderbird is a powerful spirit in the form of a bird. Lightning flashes from its beak, and the beating of its wings is creates the thunder. It is often portrayed with an extra head on its abdomen. The majestic thunderbird is often accompanied by lesser bird spirits, frequently in the form of eagles or falcons.

Thunderbird was used as an allegory, that is he was used as an attempt to allegorize certain forces of nature in the natural order such as wind, thunder, lightning, etc.

Basically, Thunderbird was an attempt to represent the patterns of activity of a powerful, mysterious force in such a way that could be grasped and if not totally understood, at least accepted in a natural way as opposed to remaining solely in the grips of spiritual mysticism." – Snow Owl
http://www.snowwowl.com/rlthunderbird.html