"In essence, white deer symbolize messages from the divine. Native Americans believed that seeing two white deer together was a sign that Indigenous Peoples would unite to lead the world with higher spiritual wisdom.
The Celts believed that a white deer brought messages from the spirit world. In addition, they believed that seeing a white deer was a reminder to live up to the standards of the gods and to follow a path of righteousness.
In Kamakura, Japan, there is a story of when the Zen Engakuji Temple was built in the 13th century. When the founder of the temple gave the first sermon, a herd of white deer emerged from a cave to listen. "
The deer, in general, eat my mom’s plants (hostas, sedum) & flowers (day lilies, roses, petunias, pansies) & upset her greatly. I have told her countless times that if she insists on planting a gourmet salad bar deer buffet, she can be assured the deer will enjoy it! At 90 years old, she’s not making any changes. I have fencing around my garden to keep the deer away from my plants/produce.
We eat a lot of venison ... it’s probably at least 50% of the meat I eat annually. My SIL keeps the backstraps & I get a most of the rest of what my brother harvests.
The white deer likely won’t make it through hunting season this fall, which is sad. My brother won’t shoot it, but some guys at the end of the road will have no qualms about doing just that. So I am enjoying the times I see it, like this morning. My dad would have loved seeing it too, but he passed away in January ... maybe the white deer appearing this spring was a message from a very old, dearly departed, country boy/hunter ... before he passed he was telling us he had been hunting with men all in white & the hunting dogs were all white .... he didn’t mention deer (I think they were bird hunting), but I suspect any deer would have been white, too.